U.S. States 41-50, Montana through Hawaii

Montana  The name Montana is the from the Spanish word for mountainous.	November 8, 1889
Washington  This state is named for George Washington, the first president of the USA.	November 11, 1889
Idaho  Origin of the Name Idaho - Unknown	July 3, 1890
Wyoming  The name Wyoming may be derived from the Delaware Indian word "Maughwauwama," which means "large plains."	July 10, 1890
Utah  The name Utah is from the Ute Indians.	January 4, 1896
Oklahoma    The name Oklahoma is from the Choctaw Indian words "okla" meaning people and "humma" meaning red.	November 16, 1907
New Mexico  Named by the Spanish, in reference to Mexico	January 6, 1912
Arizona  The word Arizona comes from one of the following (its origin is not certain):  the Aztec Indian word "arizuma," that means "silver-bearing," from the Tohono O'odham Indian word "Aleh-zone" which means "small spring," or the Pima Indian word "Ali shonak" which also means "small spring."	February 14, 1912
Alaska  The word Alaska is from the Aleut Indian word "alaxsxaq" or "agunalaksh" that mean the mainland or shore.	January 3, 1959
Hawaii  Hawaii may been named for the traditional home of the Polynesians, Hawaii or Hawaiki, called "Owhyhee".	August 21, 1959

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/statehood.shtml

Interview with Scott B. Smith, graduate of Northview High School in Sylvania, Ohio  (extract) by  Christopher Borrelli 2007 

Q:  A Simple Plan was set around Toledo, and The Ruins was set around Mexico.  It's early in your career, but will you write another Ohio novel someday?

A:  I assume so.  It's embedded in my consciousness so deeply.  I haven't been back in years but the percentage of dreams I have at night that are set in Ohio or about people I knew in Ohio it's amazing how firmly your childhood has a grip on you.

Q:  Since we re talking summer reading today, let me ask:  Did you develop reading habits at Northview High School?

A:  I definitely remember books I read at Northview and authors I was exposed to that I would continue to read outside class time.  John Steinbeck, the perennial high school author.  I just tore through Steinbeck and I definitely feel shaped by that.

Q:  Do you have any big summer reading plans this year?
A:  Possession [by A.S. Byatt].  That's been sitting on my shelf a long time.  And there's a new book, more a thriller really, from Barry Eisler, Requiem for an Assassin.  He has this hit-man character, John Rain.  I like his series.  http://www.toledoblade.com/Books/2007/06/17/Toledo-born-bestselling-writer-Scott-Smith-talks-about-his-craft.html 

Article from Scott W. Smith (extract)  Screenwriting from Iowa, 2009 blog  There’s always another Scott Smith.  In fact. if you look on IMDB there are 55 Scott Smiths listed working on various productions.  (At least at this point I’m the only Scott W. Smith.)  If the stars lined up someday I could make a film with an entire crew members named Scott Smith.  Really I could—and it would be a nice marketing angle.  And it really would be “A Scott Smith film.”  There are Scott Smiths as producer, director, cinematographer, sound recordist, boom operator, actor, visual effects, editor, production assistant, composer, grip, set dresser, and make-up.  There is even a character named Scott Smith in Milk. (And another Scott Smith has written a book on film called The Film 100.)  http://screenwritingfromiowa.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/the-other-scott-smith/

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager who was shot in the head last year for advocating education for girls like herself, honored her own weapon of choice Sept. 3, 2013:  the book.  The 16-year-old, who was hospitalized in Britain after being shot by the Taliban, was chosen to deliver the opening speech for a new public library in Birmingham, England, that is being touted as the largest in Europe.  In a warmly received address outside the new 10-story building, whose more than 1 million books include a collection of the first folios of Shakespeare’s works, Malala declared that “books are the only weapon that can defeat terrorism.”  The girl, who was shot on Oct. 9, 2012, in the Swat valley of Pakistan, said she also felt proud "that a woman is the architect of this library.  Thank you, Miss Francine Houben."  The 100,000-square-foot library, designed by Houben’s Dutch firm, Mecanoo, is a far cry from most of Britain’s stolid traditional libraries and public buildings.  The focus is on light and space indoors and out, including a wildflower garden on the top roof terrace.  Speaking of Birmingham on Tuesday, she said: “It was here that I found myself alive after my shooting…and when I was discharged I was introduced to a new society which is different from Pakistan.  People tell me they have read hundreds of books, even children of 6 and 7 have read more books than me.”  She vowed to read thousands of books, saying, "I will empower myself with knowledge.”  Her address closed with a heartfelt appeal to “not forget that 57 million children are out of school” and called on her audience to “speak up for the children of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan who are suffering from terrorism, poverty, child labor and child trafficking.  Let us help them to read books and go to school.  And let us not forget that even one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.”  Janet Stobart  http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-pakistani-girl-taliban-uk-library-20130903,0,78003.story 

Why is zero an even number?  Because any number that can be divided by two to create another whole number is even.  Zero passes this test because if you halve zero you get zero.  Zero also has odd numbers either side of it - minus one and one - and so this is another test it passes to be classified as an even number.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20559052 

Identical twins Mark and Michael Kersey, being raised on comic books, Saturday cartoons, and sci-fi movies, developed a love of art and sense of humor at an early age.  Pursuing their interest, Mark and Mike attended various art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art and private instruction from the likes of Walter Chapman and Diane Attie between 1962 and 1967.  In 1970, the Kersey's moved to the 'big apple' in pursuit of careers, working with the Beatles 'Apple Records' (yea, we'd see the fab four from time to time) and various book publishers etc.  Bouncing back to Toledo in the mid seventies, they worked with area businesses such as Thomas Hart Assosiates and Libbey Glass, before venturing out to become their own bosses (both here and Dallas TX)  Since 1992, they have worked in fine art, painting a reputation under the pseudonym Mr. Atomic.   Like an atomic blast, their art is felt both near and far, in collections that glow with their creativity, whimsy, and clever compositions.  Find two versions of Mr. Atomic's origin at:  http://www.mratomicart.com/Bio.html 

A sculpture isn't flat but some forms protruding slightly from a flat plane are called this.  I first learned the term when discussing a wooden design with two intertwined tulips.  It hangs on my wall, and I asked the artist (Mr. Atomic) what I should call it.   

Examples of flat sculpture  http://2createart.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post.html  http://www.cowanauctions.com/auctions/item.aspx?ItemId=80999  http://thinkoutsidetheboxtoday.com/wood-flat-sculpture-art/

nick of time phrase origin

Prior to the 16th century there was another expression used to convey that meaning - 'pudding time'. This relates to the fact that pudding was the dish served first at mediaeval mealtimes.  To arrive at pudding time was to arrive at the start of the meal, just in time to eat.  Pudding was then a savoury dish - a form of sausage or haggis (see also the proof is in the pudding).  Pudding time is first referred to in print in John Heywood's invaluable glossary A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, 1546:  This geare comth euen in puddyng time ryghtly.  That seems a perfectly serviceable idiom, so why did the Tudors change it to 'the nick of time'?  The motivation appears to be the desire to express a finer degree of timing than the vague 'around the beginning of the meal'.  The nick that was being referred to was a notch or small cut and was synonymous with precision.  Such notches were used on 'tally' sticks to measure or keep score.  Also, during the 16th century, pudding began being used as the name of sweet dishes and they were usually served at the end of the meal.  As this trend continued 'pudding time' being used to mean 'in good time' made less and less sense.  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-the-nick-of-time.html 

April 26, 2012  from the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

While John Grisham is best known for his legal thrillers, for the past 10 years he has branched out and written in several additional genres.  He has written a Christmas book (Skipping Christmas), a book about football (Playing for Pizza), and even a children’s series (Theodore Boone).   In his latest book, Calico Joe, Grisham takes his first crack at a novel about baseball.  Grisham got the inspiration for the novel from the story of Ray Chapman; a player for the Cleveland Indians who was killed after being hit by a pitch in a major league baseball game in 1920.  While I recommend Calico Joe as a fun read, there is a book written about the Chapman incident that I consider one of best narrative nonfiction books about baseball that I’ve read.  It is called The Pitch that Killed by Mike Sowell.  Thad Hartman  http://tscpl.org/sports/calico-joe-john-grisham-and-ray-chapman/ 

Walt Dropo (1923-2010), nicknamed "Moose", was an American college basketball standout and a professional baseball first baseman.  During a 13-year career in Major League Baseball, he played for the Boston Red Sox (1949–1952), Detroit Tigers (1952–1954), Chicago White Sox (1955–1958), Cincinnati Redlegs (1958–1959) and Baltimore Orioles (1959–1961).  Read more of his story at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Dropo  Walt Dropo is mentioned in the novel Calico Joe. 

Largest volcano on Earth found, scientists say by Lateef Mungin, CNN  updated 6:09 AM EDT, Fri September 6, 2013    An underwater volcano dubbed Tamu Massif was found some 1,000 miles east of Japan, says William Sager, a professor at the University of Houston, who led a team of scientists in the discovery.  The volcano is about the size of the state of New Mexico and is among the largest in the solar system, Sager says.  Tamu Massif covers an area of about 120,000 square miles. In comparison, the largest active volcano on Earth, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, is about 2,000 square miles, Sager says.  Tamu Massif is believed to be about 145 million years old, and became inactive within a few million years after it was formed.  The volcano was partly named in honor of Texas A&M University, where Sager worked for 29 years before moving to the University of Houston. Tamu is the university's abbreviation while massif is the French word for "massive" and a scientific term for a large mountain mass, according to Sager. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/06/world/biggest-volcano/ 

A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO  Southeast Ohio  August 30 and 31, 2013

Inn at Honey Run, Millersburg  http://www.innathoneyrun.com/  "Nestled in the rolling hills of the Ohio Amish Country, The Inn at Honey Run is a serene oasis of nature and wildlife, comfort and privacy, casual upscale dining and warm hospitality."

German Culture Center, Walnut Creek  http://www.germanculturemuseum.com/  bikes:  wood, carriage cycle (three-wheel) and "eccentric" or "clown" with an off-center wheel;  restored surrey originally belonging to John D. Rockefeller about 1860;  exhibits of old clothes and household items; informational posters and signs

Warther Museum, Dover  http://www.warthers.com/  models of trains carved from ebony (second hardest wood) and ivory, button and arrowhead collections mounted in amazing designs; the home, museum, and a knife factory family-owned since 1902 may be viewed during tours

drives through rolling countryside visiting Winesburg, Sugarcreek and Berlin 

Read Winesburg, Ohio, A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson at:  http://www.bartleby.com/156/

For more Ohioana, read works of Helen Hooven Santmyer, who was born in Cincinnati and raised in its neighboring town of Xenia, Ohio.  Santmyer’s beloved Xenia is ubiquitous in her prose, much of it praising the subtle charms of the southwestern Ohio town.  In fact, the novel that made her famous, …And Ladies of the Club, is named after a formidable organization founded more than a hundred years ago:  The Xenia Woman’s Club.  Although it depicts the fictional Ohio town of Waynesboro (based on Xenia), …And Ladies of the Club weaves the lives of its characters into the real history of Ohio and the nation.  Santmyer’s personal memoir, Ohio Town, was published in 1962.  Her early experiences in Xenia form the basis for this collection of essays.  http://www.ohioana-authors.org/santmyer/ohio_connection.php   The Budget, a 123-year-old weekly newspaper, which carries the news of Amish and Mennonite communities, from Diagonal, Iowa to the three Minnesota outposts of Bertha, Clarissa and Lenora. They write about who got married, who went to church, who received dentures—and how 11 chickens went missing when Toby Schrocks of Cisne, Ill., forgot to close the chicken-house door.  While many newspapers are struggling and competing with the Internet, the Budget isn't.  Its 18,000 subscribers for the most part don't text, email, have computers or smartphones.  They use the Budget, which is mailed to their homes, to keep them informed, post notices or exchange helpful hints.  One woman had 400 pounds of beets, which she washed in her wringer washer.  "It worked very well," she reported.  Others ask fellow readers to send get well cards to someone in the hospital or birthday wishes to an aging and lonely widow.  "It's like someone talking over the back fence to a neighbor," says Budget publisher Keith Rathbun.  Mr. Rathbun, who isn't Amish, covered sports and put out an alternative entertainment weekly before coming in 2000 to the Budget.  The paper also includes a small section about goings-on in the village of Sugarcreek, Ohio such as high school sports and council news.  The Budget runs about 500 letters a week on 44 to 46 pages that contain no photos.  It costs $45 a year; newlyweds pay $42.  It does have competition.  Die Botschaft—German for the Message—costs $44 a year, has a circulation of about 12,000 and also consists of letters and reports from contributors.  It's a more conservative alternative to the Budget, which some Amish readers thought was too liberal, say Amish scholars.  Clare Ansberry  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323608504579025273046278380.html?mod=djemITP_h

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

apheresis  (for 1: uh-FER-i-sis, for 2: af-uh-REE-sis)  noun

1.  The loss of one or more sounds or letters from the beginning of a word.  For example, the change in pronunciation of knife from (k-nyf) to (nyf) or the formation of till from until.
2.  A method in which blood is drawn from a donor, one or more blood components (such as plasma, platelets, or white blood cells) are removed, and the rest is returned to the donor by transfusion.  From Latin aphaeresis, from Greek aphairesis (taking away), from aphairein (to take away), from apo- (away) + hairein (to take).  Earliest documented use:  1550.

syncope  (SING-kuh-pee)  noun

1.  The shortening of a word by omission of sounds or letters from its middle.  For example, did not to didn't or Worcester to Wooster.
2.  Fainting caused by insufficient blood flow to the brain.  

From Latin syncope, from Greek synkope (contraction, cutting off), from syn- (together) + koptein (to cut).  Earliest documented use:  c. 1400.

agglutinate    (verb: uh-GLOOT-n-ayt, adjective: uh-GLOOT-n-it, -ayt)

verb  1.  To form words by combining words or word elements.  2.  To join or become joined as if by glue.  3. To clump or cause to clump, as red blood cells.  adjective  1.  Joined or tending to join.  2. Relating to a language that makes complex words by joining words or word elements extensively. For example as in Turkish.   From Latin gluten (glue).  Earliest documented use:  1541.

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day

From:  Lew Bryson  Subject: apheresis

I found today's definitions of "apheresis" intriguing.  I'm a regular platelet donor at the Red Cross, so it was interesting to learn the origin of the word.  But it was particularly interesting to learn the first definition of the word... because everyone at the donor center, including the donors ourselves, refers to the process as "pheresis", meaning of course that the term "apheresis" had been subjected to...apheresis.  Never would have known this but for A.Word.A.Day!
From:  Jo Anne Powell  Subject:  apheresis
My understanding is that "till" preceded "until" - no?
Yes, "till" is attested 400 years before the word "until" which was formed by the addition of "un" to "till".  The use of "'til" (not "till") in place of "until" is an example of apheresis. Thanks for catching this!  -Anu Garg
From:  Carlos Cueto-Rejas  subject:  syncope
A Spanish example of syncope is Navidad which comes from Natividad or Nativity.  Always enjoy the Word A Day I get in my mail.  Seems the day doesn't begin with me if I do not get your "word". Thank you for your constancy (constancia)!
From:  Katherine Harper  Subject:  syncope
Your example for syncope makes me smile.  I earned my bachelor's degree from an Ohio school called The College of Wooster.  People who have only seen the name of this liberal-arts institution in writing invariably pronounce it to rhyme with "rooster".  My response has always been, "It's really 'Wooster' --as in '-shire sauce'."  I have yet to hear anyone make the same error twice.
From:  Ingrid Trausch  Subject:  agglutinate
Hungarian is also heavily agglutinative, and very long single-word sentences are common.  Add a different logic for word order in a sentence, one completely different from English, and and you get one of earth's most difficult languages for an outsider to learn.  Although I grew up in a Hungarian-English household and consider myself fluent in both, I find that after hanging out with my relatives, my English gets twisted and for a while, like Yoda, backwards speaking am I.
From:  Peirce Hammond  Subject:  agglutinate
The newest form of agglutinating language is still in flux -- computerese.  Words are run together without spaces, particularly as names of sites or domains.  There is also a natural phase-in of the agglutinated words as e-mail becomes email or Web-site becomes Website (and then website). Sometimes the "glue" seems to be somewhat caustic, eating up letters in the process. For example, A.Word.A.Day has morphed into AWAD.

Antony Beevor was educated at Winchester and Sandhurst, where he studied under John Keegan.  A regular officer with the 11th Hussars, he left the Army to write.  He has published four novels, and ten books of non-fiction.  His work has appeared in more than thirty foreign editions and sold nearly six million copies.  His books include The Spanish Civil War; Inside the British Army;  Crete — The Battle and the Resistance, which was awarded a Runciman Prize, and Paris After the Liberation, 1944-1949 (written with his wife Artemis Cooper).  He has also contributed to several books including The British Army, Manpower and Society into the Twenty-First Century, edited by Hew Strachan and to Russia – War, Peace & Diplomacy  in honour of the late John Erickson.  Stalingrad, first published in 1998, won the first Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson Prize for History and the Hawthornden Prize for Literature in 1999.  The British edition, a number one bestseller in both hardback and paperback. Berlin – The Downfall 1945, published in 2002, was accompanied by a BBC Timewatch programme on his research into the subject.  It has been a No. 1 Bestseller in seven countries apart from Britain, and in the top five in another nine countries.  The book received the first Longman-History Today Trustees’ Award.  In May 2004, he published The Mystery of Olga Chekhova, which describes the experiences of the Chekhov and Knipper families from before the Russian revolution until after the Second World War.  His Russian research assistant Dr Lyubov Vinogradova and he have edited and translated the war time papers of the novelist Vasily Grossman, published in September 2005 as A Writer at War – Vasily Grossman with the Red Army 1941-1945. He has also published a completely revised edition of his 1982 history of the Spanish Civil War, with a great deal of new material from Spanish sources and foreign archives.  This came out in Spain in September 2005 as La guerra civil española where it became the No.1 Bestseller and received the La Vanguardia prize for non-fiction.  It appeared in English in spring, 2006, as The Battle for Spain – The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939.  It has been a top ten bestseller in eight countries.  D-Day – The Battle for Normandy, published in June 2009, has been a No 1 Bestseller in seven countries, including the UK and France, and in the top ten in another eight countries.  It has received the Prix Henry Malherbe in France and the Duke of Westminster Medal from the Royal United Services Institute.  His most recent book, The Second World War, published in June 2012, is being translated into twenty-one languages.  It has already been a No 1 bestseller in Britain and four other countries, and a bestseller in another four.  http://www.antonybeevor.com/index.php/biography/ 

The island of Crete is located in the center of the eastern Mediterranean at the crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe.  It measures about 200 Km from east to west, and between 12 to 58 Km from north to south at its narrowest and widest distances, making it one of the largest islands in the Mediterranean sea.  Crete's largest modern town is Heraklion (35° 20' latitude, 25° 08' longitude) and its landscape oscillates between tall, rugged mountains, gentle slopes, and plateaus, which are framed by the Aegean coast line to the North, and the Lybian Sea to the south.  The temperate climate of Crete with its short, mild winters and its dry, warm summers, along with the fertility of the Cretan plains produces sufficient food supplies to support an affluent local population, and for exports.  The inhabitants of ancient Crete --whom we call Minoans-- produced a decentralized culture based on the abundance of the land's natural resources, and on intense commercial activity.  While the island appears today completely deforested, in ancient times timber was one of the natural resources that was commercially exploited and exported to nearby Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, the Aegean Islands and the Greek mainland.  http://www.ancient-greece.org/history/minoan.html 

Ian Fleming (1908-1964) the creator of the famous James Bond spy novels, was one of four sons, and he grew up in an affluent and influential family.  His father, Valentine, served in Parliament before fighting in World War I.  Fleming was only 9 years old when his father died in combat.  Fleming attended Eton College, one of the England's top schools.  He later studied at Sandhurst, the elite military academy.  After a stint at the Reuters news agency, Fleming tried his hand at high finance.  World events, however, would soon change the course of his career.   During the war, Fleming learned the ins and outs of espionage.  He received a commission in the Royal Navy and worked for British Naval Intelligence.  Eventually serving as the assistant to Admiral John Godfrey, the director of Naval Intelligence, Fleming was privy to much of Britain's efforts to win the war.  He traveled overseas several times, including visits to the United States to coordinate intelligence operations.  He also went to Jamaica for a conference, and the island left a lasting impression on Fleming.  It has been said that much of Fleming's work in intelligence shaped and informed his James Bond novels.  The character of "M," Bond's boss, is believed to have been modeled after Admiral Godfrey.  The full impact of Fleming's real-life spy work on his most famous fictional figure will never likely be to known, however.  He had been sworn to secrecy by the British government.  Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953.  The book had been written the previous year while he was on vacation at his home, which he named Goldeneye after a military mission, in Jamaica.  http://www.biography.com/people/ian-fleming-9296920?page=2

See also:  http://www.klast.net/bond/flem_bio.html  Read about Peter Fleming, adventurer. Ian's older brother: explorer, travel writer, and creator of a blueprint Bond at:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/5297115/Bonds-unsung-heroes-Peter-Fleming-adventurer.html 

Hoosegow, which means 'a jail', is chiefly used in Westerns.  The word is an Anglicization of Mexican Spanish juzgao, a variant of juzgado, which also means 'jail'.  This word is a borrowing from Standard Spanish juzgado 'a courtroom; panel of judges', the past participle of juzgar 'to judge', from Latin judicare.  Hoosegow doesn't have that many related forms; some rare ones are gow 'a jail', and hoose and hoosegow as verbs meaning 'to jail'.  Despite the superficial similarity in spelling, the word jug 'a jail'; 'to jail' is not related; it's a figurative use of jug 'large container with cap and narrow neck'.  The word hoosegow is first found in English in 1908.  http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19971028 

Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands, has been called the "Venice of the North" for its more than one hundred kilometres of canals, about 90 islands and 1,500 bridges.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canals_of_Amsterdam  Venice has about 400 bridges, Pittsburgh close to 450, and Berlin more than 900.   

Frederik Pohl, one of the great science fiction authors and editors of the late 20th century, died Sept. 2, 2013, his family announced.  He was 93.  Pohl was known as a dark humorist and satirist in novels such as "The Space Merchants" (1953) and "Gladiator-at-Law" (1955), both written with frequent collaborator C.M. Kornbluth, and the short story "The Gold at Starbow’s End" (1972).  His long career included writing novels and short stories, editing, and being a literary agent for science fiction writers.  He won three Hugo awards, was named a grand master of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1992 and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 1998.  Born Nov. 26, 1919, in New York City, Pohl was an early science fiction fan who served as editor of "Astonishing Stories" and "Super Science Stories" in 1939-43; in the 1970s, he edited the magazines "Galaxy" and "If."  Carolyn Kellogg  http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-rip-frederik-pohl-20130903,0,1023361.story

Swintec is one of the last surviving typewriter companies in the U.S., although these days its machines are made in Japan and Indonesia.  Brother International Corp., a Japan-based company with U.S. headquarters in Bridgewater, N.J., still sells typewriters, although unlike Swintec its business is diverse, including everything from printers to sewing machines.  A spokeswoman says typewriter sales have been slightly declining every year for the past 10 years and are one of its smallest categories, but she declined to give specific numbers.  Swinstec flirted with trendy new products such as photocopiers and fax machines but decided to stick with its strength.  "We're typewriters," Mr. Michael says.  "This is our specialty.  This is what we know."  Mr. Michael, 70 years old, started at the company in 1985 as a traveling salesman.  "It was growing and growing and growing.  I thought:  'This will never end,' " he says, on a recent tour of the company's headquarters in Moonachie, N.J., just outside of New York City.  The boom years didn't last.  Though Swintec is profitable, it has slimmed down to about 10 employees from about 85 employees, Mr. Michael says.  He says the company sold "thousands and thousands" of typewriters at the peak but declined to be specific.  Swintec still sells about 3,000 to 5,000 typewriters a year, to customers including universities, senior centers and state and federal prisons.  Typewriters persist, experts say, because personal computers fail to perform some functions with equal efficiency:  Filling out a form in a PDF file can require on-screen acrobatics that frustrate many workers.  Printing an address on an envelope that isn't upside down or sideways requires a certain amount of expertise.  "Things stick around long after you think they would have disappeared," says Darren Wershler, a professor at Concordia University in Montreal who has written about typewriters.  "The future is already here.  It's just unevenly distributed."  In Jersey City, two 1980s-era typewriters are kept at City Hall to fill out marriage certificates and personnel forms.  Mayor Steve Fulop, a 36-year-old former Wall Street analyst, was elected in May promising to modernize the city's politics, but he says typewriters won't fall victim. "Those things are staying, as long as I'm in office, I can assure you that," Mr. Fulop says.  "It's a nice touch."  On "The Wire," a police drama that aired in the 2000s, Baltimore detectives pounded out warrants on electric typewriters.  In reality, some law-enforcement agencies still use them.  The Philadelphia Police Department has about 200 typewriters to write property receipts and search warrants, a spokesman said.  Swintec thrived on this type of government business, but sales were declining by the late 1990s.  Then the company stumbled on an idea:  a clear typewriter for prisons.  The company's owner, Dominic Vespia, says they were inspired by other transparent products designed to prevent smuggling of contraband, from televisions to toothpaste tubes.  Laura Kusisto  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323639704579013240996151948.html?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks 

Journalist and author John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London, was born on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco, California.  Jack, as he came to call himself as a boy, was the son of Flora Wellman, an unwed mother, and William Chaney, an attorney, journalist and pioneering leader in the new field of American astrology.  His father was never part of his life, and his mother ended up marrying John London, a Civil War veteran, who moved his new family around the Bay Area before settling in Oakland.  Jack London grew up working-class.  He carved out his own hardscrabble life as a teen.  He rode trains, pirated oysters, shoveled coal, worked on a sealing ship on the Pacific and found employment in a cannery.  In his free time he hunkered down at libraries, soaking up novels and travel books.  His life as a writer essentially began in 1893.  That year he had weathered a harrowing sealing voyage, one in which a typhoon had nearly taken out London and his crew.  The 17-year-old adventurer had made it home and regaled his mother with his tales of what had happened to him.  When she saw an announcement in one of the local papers for a writing contest, she pushed her son to write down and submit his story.  Armed with just an eighth-grade education, London captured the $25 first prize, beating out college students from Berkeley and Stanford.  For London, the contest was an eye-opening experience, and he decided to dedicate his life to writing short stories.  But he had trouble finding willing publishers.  After trying to make a go of it on the East Coast, he returned to California and briefly enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, before heading north to Canada to seek at least a small fortune in the gold rush happening in the Yukon.  By the age of 22, however, London still hadn't put together much of a living.  He had once again returned to California and was still determined to carve out a living as a writer.  In 1899 he began publishing stories in the Overland Monthly.  The experience of writing and getting published greatly disciplined London as a writer.  From that time forward, London made it a practice to write at least a thousand words a day.  London found fame and some fortune at the age of 27 with his novel The Call of the Wild (1903), which told the story of a dog that finds its place in the world as a sled dog in the Yukon.  http://www.biography.com/people/jack-london-9385499  See also:  http://jacklondonpark.com/jack-london-biography.html 

Quote from Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler   See, I've always pictured life as one of those ladders you find on playground sliding boards--a sort of ladder of years where you climb higher and higher, and then, oops!, you fall over the edge and others move up behind you.nkis

Pinkie used as a term for the little finger is actually quite old.  Though it is now often thought of as an American term, it began its life in Scotland — the first recorded example, from 1808, is in John Jamieson’s An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language.  You might think that it is called pinkie because European little fingers are usually coloured pink, but this isn’t so (though its modern survival might owe something to this idea).  It derives from a much older sense of pinkie for something tiny, which in turn comes from one meaning of the adjective pink.  This adjective came into Scots from Dutch.  It appeared first as part of the phrase pink eye for a half-shut or peering eye (from old Dutch pinck ooghen, which may well be the source of the modern Dutch verb pinkogen, to half close the eyes or squint).  In modern Dutch pink means the little finger, so it might look as though the American pinkie comes directly from it.  The evidence, though, is that Scots played a key intermediate role.  The sense of the colour, by the way, came from the flower called the pink, whose name probably derives from pink eye, perhaps because of the folded petals that made the flower look a bit like a half-closed eye, or possibly from a completely separate sense of pink that referred to making holes or scalloped edges in cloth (as in pinking shears), because of the crinkled edges of the petals.  http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pin1.htm 

EIGHT STEPS TO PERFECT PASTA

1.  For every one pound of pasta, bring 5 quarts of water to a rolling boil.  Once water is boiling, then add about 2 tbsp. of coarse salt, or 1/4 cup table salt.

2.  Stir to keep the pasta from sticking.  Stir within the first 2 minutes of cooking pasta.  The pasta is more likely to stick together, in the beginning, before the starches are released into the water.

3.  Place the lid back on the pot to help bring the water back to a boil.  This is an essential moment, because if you don't, the pasta will be sitting in hot water, resulting in mushy pasta.

4.  Once the pot is boiling again, remove the lid for the remaining cook time to prevent the pasta from boiling over.  This is where you need to actually stand there and watch the pot.

5.  Follow the package directions for cook times.  As a general guideline: perfectly cooked pasta that is "al dente," or firm to the bite, yet cooked through, requires you to test it yourself when the time is close.  You may need to test the pasta 2 or 3 times before it’s just right.

6.  Once your pasta is ready, turn off the heat and scoop out 1 cup of pasta cooking water.  Reserved pasta water contains essential starch that can be used later to adjust the consistency of your sauce, from thickening it to thinning it.

7.  Quickly drain the pasta into a colander in the sink.  Do not rinse the pasta.  Not only is the starch in the water is what helps the sauce adhere to your pasta, but rinsing will cool the pasta and prevent absorption of your sauce.  The only time you should ever rinse your pasta is when you are going to use it in a cold dish like a pasta salad.  In cases such as those, rinsing the pasta helps to stop the cooking process.

8.  Toss pasta in a warmed saucepan with your prepared sauce.  You don’t want to drain the pasta all that well, you want your pasta to be loosely drained, still retaining some pasta water. Cook together for about 2 minutes.

http://www.delallo.com/articles/pasta-101-cooking-perfect-pasta-every-time 

More on Seamus Heaney, word animator by Robert Faggen

Thirty years ago, I became a graduate teaching fellow in a popular undergraduate course at Harvard University called Modern Anglo-Irish Poetry.  What made it popular?  The subject matter was certainly rich.  But the professor, Seamus Heaney, was the special attraction.  He was already a major figure in the poetic landscape; we watched him artfully mapping its peculiar geography.  With stunningly fresh language, his poetry dug deep into the roots of human attachments but also of human violence.  The author of the stunning pastorals "The Glanmore Sonnets" also created the haunting Dantean poems of "Station Island."  His versions of Sophocles, "The Cure at Troy" and "The Burial at Thebes," reached to the heart of human suffering and alienation.  His work embraced a vision of hope and the possibility of seeing, as he titled one poem, "From the Republic of Conscience."  And he made a fool of Woody Allen ("Never take a course where they make you read 'Beowulf'") by making his version of the Old English epic a bestseller.  But Heaney was that rare thing, an unofficial international poet laureate who had become an ambassador for the entire institution of poetry.  In addition to publishing more than a dozen volumes of poetry, along with translations and several volumes of essays, Heaney spent much of the second half of his life teaching and lecturing around the world.  While teaching at Harvard, he would arrange social gatherings for the teaching fellows, providing generous rounds of food and drink.  He channeled our overheated graduate student intellectual energies into fun, encouraging us to sing songs or recite favorite poems.  These sessions would go on for many fine hours flowing with all varieties of song and whiskey.   http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-seamus-heaney-appreciation-20130902,0,2053480.story