Nursery Crime is a series of humorous fantasy /detective novels written by meta-fiction maverick Jasper Fforde.  They are a loose spin-off of the same author's Thursday Next series:  the world it's set in existed within an unpublishable Police Procedural novel that Thursday occupied in The Well of Lost Plots, wherein the characters worried they would be deleted.  It was turned into a refuge for characters from Oral Tradition lacking a proper ink-and-paper home to call their own, and thus Nursery Crime was born.  The books themselves deal with the strange adventures of Police Detective Jack Spratt and his partner Sergeant Mary Mary, who live in an otherworldly version of Reading, England where characters from nursery rhymes are not only real and alive, but also enjoy celebrity status.  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/NurseryCrime    

Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) is a British science-fiction, fantasy, and detective mystery novelist, oftentimes all three at once.  He's the mind behind such offbeat series as Thursday Next, Nursery Crime, and Shades of Grey, and famous for his humorous style, both silly and highly intellectual, playing quite liberally with meta-fictional concepts  (And for the puns. Tons and tons of puns).  Fforde is an aviation buff and enjoys flying, and before publishing his first book, The Eyre Affair, in 2001, he worked as a cameraman on such Hollywood productions as GoldenEye, Quills, and Entrapment.  https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/JasperFforde   

The species belonging to the genus Amaranthus have been cultivated for their grains for 8,000 years.  Amaranth plants are classified as pseudocereals that are grown for their edible starchy seeds, but they are not in the same botanical family as true cereals, such as wheat and rice. Amaranth species that are still used as a grain are Amaranthus caudatus L., Amaranthus cruentus L., and Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.  The yield of grain amaranth is comparable to that of rice or maize.  The grain was a staple food of the Aztecs and an integral part of Aztec religious ceremonies.  The cultivation of amaranth was banned by the conquistadores upon their conquest of the Aztec nation.  However, the plant has grown as a weed since then, so its genetic base has been largely maintained.  Research on grain amaranth began in the United States in the 1970s.  By the end of the 1970s, a few thousand acres were being cultivated there, and continue to be cultivated.   Grain amaranth is also grown as a food crop in limited areas of Mexico, where it is used to make a candy called alegría (Spanish for joy) at festival times.  In other preparations, the grain can be popped like popcorn and then either mixed with honey, or served with milk, dried fruit and nuts like a cold breakfast cereal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth_grain     

Amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus), a plant grown for both grain and greens, originates in South and Central America, but a clear domestication point is unclear. However, the seeds traveled throughout the continents, becoming a staple for consumption and religious ceremonies, most notably by the Aztecs.   As amaranth expanded outwards, it made its way to Eastern Asia.  Researchers initially thought amaranth might have had a secondary domestication event in Asia.  However, given genetic markers, it appears more likely that amaranth was part of early trading between continents.   Amaranth has also become a staple in the Caribbean and African cuisine, most likely through the Atlantic trade of enslaved people.  Amaranth is from the same family as quinoa, Amaranthacea, and includes a variety of flowering herbs, shrubs, and greens (such as spinach).  https://naturallyella.com/pantry/grains/amaranth/    

An apartment where puppeteer Bil Baird established a marionette theater and studio in New York is now selling for $4.2 million.  Baird and his wife, Cora, founded a theater in the mid-1960s at the five-story building in Manhattan’s West Village, on Barrow Street.  The Bairds also lived in the building and created a film studio space there.  Some of the theater’s off-Broadway productions included “The Wizard of Oz,” “Winnie the Pooh” and “Alice in Wonderland.”  The most recognizable work by Baird, who died in 1987 at 82, can be seen in the 1965 film version of “The Sound of Music,” in which he and Cora, who was also a puppeteer, produced and performed the marionette puppetry sequence for the song “The Lonely Goatherd.”  “There are little holes in the brick wall in the master bedroom that were used to hold the marionettes,” said owner Debra Sanders.  https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/marionette-holes-in-the-walls-a-4-2-million-new-york-apartment-with-a-puppetry-past-hits-the-market-a5f74b07?mod=hp_minor_pos30

September 24, 2025