June 4, 2020  Plans have been approved for the UK's first Frankenstein museum, celebrating author Mary Shelley's most famous story.  Shelley wrote much of the novel while living in Bath over 200 years ago.  The go-ahead has now been given for a Grade II-listed building in the city's Gay Street to be converted to house the new attraction.  Bath and North East Somerset Council said it would bring a welcome boost to its tourism industry.  Many museums are said to fear for their future due to the effects of the coronavirus lockdown.  Jonathan Willis, one of a trio leading the project, said:  "Frankenstein was effectively the first sci-fi novel.  It's in the top 100 most influential books of all time--but no one in Bath mentions it."  Shelley, then named Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, lived in Bath's Abbey Churchyard from 1816.  It was there it is believed she wrote much of Frankenstein, having been inspired by a ghost-story competition with friends.  The story—much adapted by various films--explored the ethics of science over creation.  Frankenstein was published anonymously in 1818 to avoid the additional controversy of it being written by a woman.  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-52923492

Home Wine Making Kit cartoon featuring two sticks with fake feet attached:  https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/h/home_wine_making_kit.asp  Artist:  Naf   Search ID:  amc0419 

“The nectarine and curious peach Into my hands themselves do reach” comes from Andrew Marvell's poem, The Garden, written in 1681.  Curious is used to mean exquisite.  Nectarines (name comes from nectar) are smaller and sweeter than peaches. 

A Raisin in the Sun is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959.  The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes.  The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chicago, as they attempt to improve their financial circumstances with an insurance payout following the death of the father  The New York Drama Critics' Circle named it the best play of 1959, and in recent years publications such as The Independent and Time Out have listed it among the best plays ever written.  See descriptions of spinoffs including film and musical at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Raisin_in_the_Sun

The Nature Conservancy estimates that New York City has 40,000 acres of rooftops, some of which are viable for green roof installments that can absorb rainwater and reduce air pollution and urban heat island effects.  *  In the 2019 film Honeyland, beekeeper Hatidze Muratova takes half the honey raised by her bees, and leaves half for the bees themselves.  Honeyland was nominated for both best documentary and best international film at the 2020 Academy Awards.  *  The Nature Conservancy’s 40,000-acre Virginia Coast Reserve, a string of 14 barrier islands, is celebrating its 50^th anniversary in 2020.  It’s the site of efforts to restore marine habitats, including oyster reefs and scallop beds--and part of an effort to bring back eelgrass, wiped out by disease and a hurricane in the 1930s. 

https://www.nature.org/en-us/magazine/?vu=r.v_magazine

Dutch angle (shot)/ Dutch tilt/ canted angle  A shot introduced by German Expressionist directors made with a tilted camera that causes the horizon in the shot to be diagonal to the bottom of the frame.  “Dutch” does not refer to Holland; it is a distortion of “Deutch,” which is German in German.  Unlike Hollywood, which was serving happy-ending storytelling to a salad days America, the German film industry was part of an Expressionist movement in art and literature trying to digest the insanity of world war.  Film is motion.  The Dutch angle—presenting moving pictures diagonally—is filmmaking’s way of visually evoking responses comparable to those evoked by dynamic art.  In the late 1930s, the techniques of German Expressionism went Hollywood.  The Dutch angle was employed by innovative directors such as James Whales in “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935), Orson Wells in “Citizen Kane” (1939), John Huston in the “Maltese Falcon” (1941), Alfred Hitchcock in “Shadow of a Doubt” (1943), and Carol Reed in “The Third Man” (1949).  Reed employed the Dutch angle so often in the “The Third Man” that his crew gifted him a level at the wrap party.  More recent movies using Dutch angles include “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas” (1998), “Batman Begins” (2005), “Slum Dog Millionaire” (2008), “Doubt” (2008), and "Star Trek:  Final Stand" (2010).  http://www.hollywoodlexicon.com/dutchangle.html

"Salad days" is a Shakespearean idiomatic expression meaning a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person.  A more modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a heyday, a period when somebody was at the peak of their abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth.  The quote "salad days" is from the Shakespearean play Antony and Cleopatra and is spoken in Act 1, Scene 5, by Cleopatra.  The phrase has been used as the title of several books, including the novels Salad Days by Francoise Sagan and by Charles Romalotti, the autobiography The Salad Days by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and numerous cookbooks.  Salad Days is a British musical with music by Julian Slade and lyrics by Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade.  It premiered in the UK at the Theatre Royal, Bristol, in June 1954, and transferred to the Vaudeville Theatre in London on 5 August 1954.  One of its songs, "The Time of My Life", includes the lyrics We're young and we're green as the leaf on the tree / For these are our salad days.  Episode 33 of the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus is called "Salad Days", and features a grotesque parody of Slade's musical as interpreted by Sam Peckinpah.  Procol Harum has a song on their eponymous debut album entitled "Salad Days (Are Here Again)".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salad_days

ABC initially ordered the Batman series with Adam West for the 1966-67 TV season, but before going on the air Batman was shown to test audiences, a common practice both then and now.  The opening episode received the worst audience test scores in the history of ABC.  According to Adam West, a nervous ABC required the producers to hold two additional test screenings of the show, one with a laugh track added, the other with additional narration.  Neither alteration made any difference to the results.  In the two factors resulted in Batman actually making it to broadcast.  Firstly, ABC had already invested so much money into it, and secondly thanks to a number of cancelled series in the 1965-66 TV season they found themselves in desperate need of programming, so the network decided to add the show as a mid-season replacement in January 1966.  In all the scenes of the villains' hideouts, the camera filmed at an angle or "crooked".  This was employed to give a sense of something being wrong because all the villains were also crooked.   See pictures of villains at http://www.warpedfactor.com/2015/03/25-things-you-might-not-know-about.html  The 120 episodes aired on the ABC network for three seasons from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968, twice weekly for the first two and weekly for the third.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_(TV_series)

Language is fluid, turning into a flood in the 21^st century as people assign new meanings and change parts of speech with abandon. 

Edwin Parker Twombly was born in Lexington, Virginia, on April 25, 1928.  His father, Edwin Parker Twombly Sr., was born in Groveland, Massachusetts, and his mother, Mary Velma Richardson, came from Bar Harbor, Maine.  Edwin Twombly Sr. was a professional baseball player who once pitched for the Chicago White Sox in the American League.  He was Athletic Director of the Washington and Lee University in Lexington and he was so admired by the college that a new swimming pool was named the "Twombly Natatorium" in his honor.  The artist inherited his father’s baseball nickname “Cy”, after the baseball player Cyclone Young.  Cy Twombly died July 5, 2011 in Rome.  Read much more and see illustrations at http://www.cytwombly.org/biography

The White House is almost completely surrounded by fencing.  In total, Google Maps analysis suggests, roughly 1.7 miles of fencing now surrounds the executive complex, forming a gigantic metal cocoon.  The Washington Post  June 7, 2020

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2281  June 8, 2020 

Born on February 28, 1970, Daniel Handler is a renowned American novelist, screenwriter and musician.  His main contribution is to children’s literature which he writes under pen name Lemony Snicket.  Handler was born to Lou Handler, an accountant and Sandra Handler Day, an opera singer and retired dean in San Francisco, California.  Handler started writing poetry for which the Academy of American Poets awarded him the 1990 Poets Prize.  However, he directed his attention toward fiction after brief poetry writing.  For a national radio show he produced comedy sketches alongside writing novels.  Later, he took a freelance movie/book critique job in New York City.  Eventually, he published his debut novel in 1999, The Basic Eight.  The novel was rejected repeatedly before its publication for its sarcastic tone and treatment of a dark subject matter.  It features the character of Flannery Culp, imprisoned for murdering school fellow and a teacher.  Daniel Handler also earned great praise for writing screenplays.  The first screenplay he wrote was based on Verdi opera Rigoletto.  Then he effectively adapted Joel Rose’s Kill the Poor in the screenplay.  Handler was requested to work on the screenplay of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.  However, he finally abandoned the task after producing eight different drafts, in favor of Robert Gordon’s screenplay for the adaptation.  A story collection entitled, Adverbs is also Handler’s contribution to fiction writing.  https://www.famousauthors.org/daniel-handler  See also https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/lemony-snicket/ listing the titles from A Series of Unfortunate Events beginning with #1, The Bad Beginning (1999) through #13, The End (2006).   

Quotes by Daniel Handler  “A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.”   “This is love, to sit with someone you've known forever in a place you've been meaning to go, and watching as their life happens to them until you stand up and it's time to go.”  “Stop saying no offense,” I said, “when you say offensive things.  It’s not a free pass.” https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7176.Daniel_Handler

Albion is an alternative name for the island of Great Britain.  It is sometimes used poetically to refer to the island, but has fallen out of common use in English.  The name for Scotland in most of the Celtic languages is related to Albion: Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain (genitive Alban) in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh and Cornish.  These names were later Latinised as Albania and Anglicised as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.  New Albion and Albionoria ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation.  Arthur Phillip, first leader of the colonisation of Australia, originally named Sydney Cove "New Albion", but later the colony acquired the name "Sydney".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

Here Are The 13 Artworks Stolen The Night Of The Gardner Museum Heist by Lloyd Schwartz   The list includes 'The Concert' by Johannes Vermeer (1663-1666).  The Vermeer is generally considered the rarest and most valuable of the lost treasures—at least partly because so few of his paintings are known to exist. (The current consensus is 37, but some scholars still have doubts about the genuineness of three of them.)  See detailed descriptions and illustrations at https://www.wbur.org/artery/2018/08/20/lastseen-gardner-heist-missing-art 

Despite some promising leads in the past, the Gardner theft of 1990 remains unsolved.  The Museum, the FBI, and the US Attorney's office are still seeking viable leads that could result in safe return of the art. 

The Museum is offering a reward of $10 million for information leading directly to the recovery of all 13 works in good condition.  A separate reward of $100,000 is being offered for the return of the Napoleonic eagle finial.  https://www.gardnermuseum.org/organization/theft#gref

The Hermitage Academic Library is Russia’s largest and one of its oldest museum libraries.  Dedicated to art history, it has been an unalienable part of the Hermitage since its foundation.  It is believed to have been created in 1762, the year when Catherine the Great established the position of a librarian for her book collection.  At present, the Academic Library contains over 800 000 publications on art, history and historical sciences, and architecture in Russian and many European and Oriental languages.  The Academic Library consists of the Central Library and eight branches at the museum’s curatorial departments:  the Department of Western European Fine Art and Department of Western European Applied Art Library, the Department of Classical Antiquities Library, the Oriental Department Library, the Department of Eastern European and Siberian Archaeology Library, the Numismatic Department Library, the Menshikov Palace Library, and the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory Museum Library.  Find contact information at

https://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/portal/hermitage/research/library/!ut/p/z1/jZBNT4NAGIR_Ddd9h-VTb28woULaNWoL7qWhDVKSLtsAlb9vNV5sKnFukzwzkwxpKkl31UfbVGNru-p48W863Crm0PUSZOnqwQXnm-dspV6A1KfiG8AfYpD-T34G0PP1BemriRwhOIVUvJQeEFwD6jGPwOo1WCi1SWTi_wAzIxnpdmfEtDcCIpABXO8OiCMZ-XH49RF3Oy9uSPf1e93XvTj3l-sO43ga7h04mKZJNNY2x1rsrXFwK3Kww0jlb5JOZl2ifTJFPPAnOvensA!!/dz/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/?lng=en

“There was always a buzz when he entered a room, a buzz that could be described as negative.”  “He described his overstuffed warehouse, where he stored his paintings, as either ‘a junkyard with gems or a gemyard with junk’"  “Tissot [Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836–1902), Anglicized as James Tissot, a French painter and illustrator] was the master of a small subject--the rich--and he swathed the women in yards of fabric and painted them midflounce as they disembarked from boats, lounged in parks, or sat on window seats overlooking the sea."  https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/549017010795141008/  “She neared 54^th Streer, where the bike path emerged from under the highway trestle and the buildings retreated, giving the feeling that Manhattan was doing its best to have a prairie.”  An Object of Beauty, novel by Steve Martin  See also Steve Martin Finds His Muse In 'An Object Of Beauty', an interview heard on Talk of the Nation at https://www.npr.org/2010/11/29/131671947/steve-martin-muses-on-an-object-of-beauty

There are three typical types of odes:  the Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular.  The Pindaric is named for the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who is credited with innovating this choral ode form (as opposed to monodies, odes sung by individuals, which were written by Greek lyric poets Alcaeus and Sappho).  Pindaric odes were performed with a chorus and dancers, and often composed to celebrate athletic victories.  The William Wordsworth poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is a very good example of an English language Pindaric ode.  The Horatian ode, named for the Roman poet Horace, is generally more tranquil and contemplative than the Pindaric ode.  Less formal, less ceremonious, and better suited to quiet reading than theatrical production, the Horatian ode typically uses a regular, recurrent stanza pattern.  An example is the Allen Tate poem "Ode to the Confederate Dead" .  The Irregular ode has employed all manner of formal possibilities, while often retaining the tone and thematic elements of the classical ode.  For example, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats was written based on his experiments with the sonnet.  https://poets.org/glossary/ode

June 1, 2020  Almost half a million people logged on to watch stars like Sandi Toksvig, Tori Amos and Stephen Fry at the first online Hay Festival.  The 33rd edition of the literary event was free and broadcast online over the past two weeks after receiving donations of £350,000.  The Hay Festival went digital for this year because coronavirus lockdown rules meant it could not be staged in Powys.  "Hundreds of thousands" enjoyed Hay for the first time, organisers said.  "We've seen writers, actors and scientists respond to the technology with imagination and daring," said director Peter Florence.  Novelist and poet Margaret Atwood, actor Benedict Cumberbatch and actress Helena Bonham Carter joined the likes of comedian and broadcaster Fry, The Great British Bake Off presenter Toksvig and singer Amos at this year's Hay.  The festival boasted 100 award-winning writers and it attracted 490,000 people from 70 countries.  https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-52875868?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology&link_location=live-reporting-story

April 24, 2020  COMING TO YOU LIVE FROM THE LIBRARY! by Rica Bouso  Enjoy virtual story times from Chicago’s most familiar faces and beloved librarians—live from the library!

https://cplfoundation.org/coming-to-you-live-from-the-library/

June 3, 2020  Scientists using an aerial remote-sensing method have discovered the largest and oldest-known structure built by the ancient Maya civilization--a colossal rectangular elevated platform built between 1,000 and 800 BC in Mexico’s Tabasco state.  The structure, unlike the soaring Maya pyramids at cities like Tikal in Guatemala and Palenque in Mexico erected some 1,500 years later, was not built of stone but rather of clay and earth, and likely was used for mass rituals, researchers said.  Located at a site called Aguada Fenix near the Guatemalan border, the structure measured nearly a quarter mile (400 meters) wide and nine-tenths of a mile (1,400 meters) long and stood 33 to 50 feet (10 to 15 meters) high.  In total volume, it exceeded ancient Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza built 1,500 years earlier.  Will Dunham  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-maya/oldest-and-largest-ancient-maya-structure-found-in-mexico-idUSKBN23A2EH

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2280  June 5, 2020

Although the usual plural of life is lives, the art phrase still life makes the plural still lifes.  Garner’s Modern English Usage 

For the small device used to guide the cursor on a computer display, many dictionaries endorse both mice and mouses as the plural form, and few usage and style guides offer a definitive preference (exception:  AP says “mice”).  Searches of current news articles reveal 31 instances of “computer mice” to only seven of “computer mouses.”  And on the whole web, Google finds nearly 10 million results for “computer mice” to only around 200,000 for “computer mouses.”   https://grammarist.com/usage/mice-mouses/  May 9, 2020 search on Google

Mouse is an acronym for Manually Operated User Selection Equipment.  Find 13 meaning of mouse as an acronym at https://www.allacronyms.com/MOUSE

grot  noun  grotto 1506  Middle French grotte, from Italian grotto  Example in sentence:  The famous Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a long-forgotten grot by a shepherd boy  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grot  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grot

Li Bai (Li Po) and Du Tu (Tu Fu) are the most loved Chinese poets.  They are as important in Chinese literary history as Shakespeare is to people in Britain . . . https://www.poemhunter.com/li-po/

“Honor Among Thieves” means thieves will not steal from each other.  In other words, this proverb says that criminals observe a moral code of honor in that they do not do anything illegal to their partners in crime.  In British English, this proverb is spelled honour among thieves.  The idea behind this expression exists in many different languages.  The English playwright William Shakespeare used it at the end of the 1500s in his play Henry IV.   Plato discussed the concept in Greek in his work Republic, which dates all the way back to 380 B.C.  The opposite view there is no honor among thieves is a contrasting proverb. People may believe one or the other, and they may say either to suit their current situation. 

https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/honor-among-thieves

Mirabilis jalapa, the marvel of Peru or four o'clock flower, is the most commonly grown ornamental species of Mirabilis plant, and is available in a range of colours.  Mirabilis in Latin means wonderful and Jalapa (or Xalapa) is the state capital of Veracruz in México.  Mirabilis jalapa was cultivated by the Aztecs for medicinal and ornamental purposes.  The flowers usually open from late afternoon or at dusk (namely between 4 and 8 o'clock), giving rise to one of its common names.  Flowers then produce a strong, sweet-smelling fragrance throughout the night, then close for good in the morning.  New flowers open the following day.  It arrived in Europe in 1525.  Today, it is common in many tropical regions and is also valued in Europe as a (not hardy) ornamental plant.  It is the children's state flower of Connecticut under the name of Michaela Petit's Four O'Clocks.  The name of Mirabilis jalapa given by Carl Von Linne in 1753 is formed from the scientific Latin Mirabilis meaning "admirable" by allusion to the remarkable colors of its flowers and the specific name jalapa that would refer to its origin in the Jalapa in Guatemala.  But the epithet of jalapa could also refer to the city of Xalapa (Jalapa) in Mexico from which came a former purgative drug, named jalap, taken from the tubers of the tuberous jalap. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabilis_jalapa

All one hundred desks in the U.S. Senate are constructed of solid mahogany, with the drawers made mostly of poplar and pine.  Most of the mahogany came from a now deforested Haiti.  Desk 88:  Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America by Sherrod Brown  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Howard Nemerov (1920–1991)  Born on February 29, 1920 in New York, New York, Howard Nemerov displayed an early interest in the arts, as did his younger sister, the photographer Diane Arbus.  He graduated from the Society for Ethical Culture's Fieldstone School in 1937 and went on to study at Harvard, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1941.  Nemerov was first hired to teach literature to World War II veterans at Hamilton College in New York.  His teaching career flourished, and he went on to teach at Bennington College, Brandeis University, and Washington University in St. Louis, where he was Distinguished Poet in Residence from 1969 until his death.  His numerous collections of poetry include Trying Conclusions: New and Selected Poems, 1961-1991 (University of Chicago Press, 1991); War Stories: Poems About Long Ago and Now (1987); Inside the Onion (1984); Sentences (1980); The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (1977), which won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize; Gnomes and Occasions (1973); The Winter Lightning: Selected Poems (1968); The Blue Swallows (1967); Mirrors and Windows (1958); The Salt Garden (1955); Guide to the Ruins (1950); and The Image and the Law (1947).  Nemerov was also an accomplished prose writer.  His essay collections include The Oak in the Acorn (1987); Figures of Thought (1978); Reflexions on Poetry and Poetics (1972); Journal of the Fictive Life (1965); and Poetry and Fiction (1963). His fiction titles include Stories, Fables and Other Diversions (1971); The Commodity of Dreams and Other Stories (1959); The Homecoming Game (1957); Federigo: Or the Power of Love (1954); and The Melodramatists (1949).  Nemerov was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and The Guggenheim Foundation, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, and the National Medal of the Arts.  He also served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress in 1963 and 1964, as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets beginning in 1976, and as poet laureate of the United States from 1988 to 1990.

https://poets.org/poet/howard-nemerov

The Gang of Eight in the context of Congress has historically referred to eight members of Congress:  four members—the chair and ranking member, of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate Select Committees on Intelligence, and the four leaders of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.  The Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980 mandated that the CIA “fully and currently [inform]” Congressional oversight committees of their activities including “any significant anticipated intelligence activity.”   In special cases, the Act authorized the President to brief only the majority and minority leaders of each chamber as well as the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Intelligence Committees. It is this group that is informally known as the "Gang of Eight" of Congress.  Find members at https://ballotpedia.org/Gang_of_Eight

In the politics of the United States, the Gang of Six refers to one of three bipartisan groups of six Senators consisting of three Democrats and three Republicans.  One group, active in 2009, focused on health care reform in the United States during the 111th United States Congress.  A different group, active in 2011, is following up the compromise on the United States public debt from the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.  A third group, active in 2018, is focused on the Senate immigration debate.  Find members at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Six

Gone to pot:  The common phrase for something that's fallen apart or disintegrated goes back to the 16th century, basically in reference to things that were actually going into the pot.  While the chopping and stewing of meats and vegetables definitely illustrates its colloquial usage, "gone to pot" evolved into a 17th-century euphemism for those who'd fallen victim to cannibals.  See other phrases including cold shoulder, taking the cake, and humble pie at The Curious Origins of 9 Delicious Phrases by Mangesh Hattikudur https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/17080/curious-origins-9-delicious-phrases

Friday's full moon, June 5, 2020, also known as the strawberry moon, will light up the night sky in most of the Western Hemisphere (including North America), but that's not the case the world over.  In much of the Eastern Hemisphere, the full moon on Friday will showcase a penumbral lunar eclipse, meaning that the strawberry moon will appear dark and silvery.  The strawberry moon is named for the relatively short strawberry growing season in northeastern North America; it's a name recognized by most Algonquin tribes, the now-defunct Maine Farmer's Almanac reported in the 1930s, according to NASA.  In fact, June is prime strawberry growing time for most of the United States, according to the food site Epicurious, which also pointed out that strawberries are a favorite, ranking sixth as the country's most popular fruit.  If you have a sweet tooth, go for wild strawberries, which tend to have sweeter, tangier flavors than the more firm, waterier store-bought ones, Live Science previously reported.  Other names for this full moon include the mead moon, honey moon, rose moon and LRO moon (for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which was launched toward the moon June 18, 2009), according to NASA.  Whatever you call it, this will be the last full moon of spring, before the summer solstice on June 20.  Laura Geggel  https://www.livescience.com/strawberry-full-moon-june-2020.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2279  June 3, 2020

Cigarettes and Matches in World War II   Soon after the adoption of the K Ration suggestions came that there should be more included then just food.  One of the first things included were cigarettes.  Each unit held a small package of four cigarettes.  This was done in August 1942.  Although Lucky Strike is the most famous brand, one of the most included brand in the K Ration appears to be the Chesterfield.  Many other brands were also used in the K Ration.  Such brands are:  Philip Morris, Camel, Chelsea, Raleigh, Fleetwood and Old Gold.  The short lived Mountain Ration, Jungle Ration and the 5-in-1 Rations all used small packages containing five cigarettes each.  The 10-in-1 Ration included packages with 10 cigarettes each.  After careful concideration it was determined that a matchbook with one row of ten matches was suitable.  http://www.kration.info/cigarettes-and-matches.html  See also MCI--Meal, Combat, Individual … the meal before the MRE at http://www.belvoireagleonline.com/news/mci-meal-combat-individual-the-meal-before-the-mre/article_e7004538-a42e-11e9-8f59-f7ada4ec11a3.html  The Muser, walking in downtown Toledo, Ohio in the 1980s, was offered free cigarette samples. 

In 1920, Ohioan Warren Gamaliel Harding won election as President of the United States.  President Harding’s legacy largely still is tied to the Teapot Dome Scandal.  The scandal received its name from the government-owned oil fields in Teapot Dome, Wyoming.  Oil lands in Elk Hills, Ca. also were included under the Teapot Dome umbrella.  The upshot of the Teapot Dome Scandal was the accusation that Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had bypassed the open bid process in awarding leases for government oil land to private oil companies.  The practice of leasing government oil land was common because of the passage of the General Leasing Act under President Wilson.  Fall, who had been a well respected senator from New Mexico prior to his two-year stint in Interior, allegedly had routed the leases to two oil companies in return for a $100,000 gift.  At the end of a lengthy Senate investigation and ensuing trial, he was convicted of accepting the bribe, sentenced to a year in jail and fined $100,000; one oilman spent six months in jail for perjury; the other was acquitted of giving Fall the bribe.  https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Teapot_Dome_Scandal

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

gazunder  (guh-ZUHN-duhr)  transitive verb To reduce the amount of an offer after it has been accepted by the seller.  A blend of gazump + under.  Earliest documented use:  1988.  To gazump is to raise the price after accepting an offer from a buyer, but buyers are not always angels.  Sometimes a buyer reduces the offer, just before signing the contract.  These typically happen in the housing market.  A real-estate company even offers a helpful article on How To Gazunder Successfully.  While legal, the practice is clearly unethical.  It’s fitting then, that the word gazunder has another slang meaning, though it’s unrelated to today’s word.  It also refers to a chamber pot, from the condensed spelling of “goes under” referring to where a chamber pot is placed.

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From:  Judith Judson  In one of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries Lord P almost gazumped when at an auction for antique books he raised a bid by saying “guineas” when a hammer almost came down on a bid in pounds . . . in those pre-decimal days a guinea was worth one shilling more than a pound (and was also considered a classier form--some people’s pay and some items would be reckoned in guineas rather than pounds).  Nowadays a guinea is worth one pound five new pence.  But I believe an actual guinea coin is far in the past.

From:  Douglas Sutherland  You say that the use of gazumping in connection with house sales exists in the UK.  This is not strictly correct as it does not exist in Scotland which has a different legal system.  When buying a house a legal binding contract is created as soon as an offer is accepted.  The offer can be very short, as can the acceptance.  Not quite as short as this, but in principle I write to you offering to buy your house at such and such a price, and you write back to accept, there is the legal contract.  This is therefore not dependent on the actual exchange of contracts which will take place later, when the delay allows the practice of gazumping to take place.  So gazumping cannot take place in Scotland without legal action.

From:  Faith Steinberg  There is a homophone for gazunder that has no relation to today’s definition.  The German/Yiddish word “gesunter” which means a healthy person. Gesundheit is a derivative, the expression one uses sometimes after someone sneezes.

From:  Geoff Kennedy  My mother used the word gazunda to refer to an item, sometimes a gift, which was not attractive or useful, and was thus something that gazunda the bed.

From:  Stuart Newstead  Gazunder is also a term in cricket.  When the bowler bowls the ball, it normally bounces after it pitches.  Very occasionally it hits a crack and shoots along the ground.  This is completely unpredictable and always takes the batter by surprise and the ball is a gazunder--because it goes under the bat.  https://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail933.html

Egg-in-a-Hole  Find recipe and picture courtesy of Ree Drumond at

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/egg-in-a-hole-recipe-1925587  (easy, 1 serving, 5 minutes time needed) 

May 7, 2020  Novelist N.K. Jemisin was a teenager the first time she read Octavia Butler, and nothing had prepared her for it.  It was the 1980s, and the book was called “Dawn,” the story of a black woman who awakens 250 years after a nuclear holocaust.  “I remember just kind of being stunned that a black woman existed in the future, because science fiction had not done that before,” says Jemisin, whose “The City We Became” is currently a bestseller.  “There was just this conspicuous absence where it seemed we all just vanished after a while.”  A revolutionary voice in her lifetime, Butler has only become more popular and influential since her death at age 58.  Her novels, including “Dawn,” “Kindred” and “Parable of the Sower,” sell more than 100,000 copies each year, according to her former literary and the manager of her estate, Merrillee Heifetz.  Toshi Reagon has adapted “Parable of the Sower” into an opera, and Viola Davis and Ava DuVernay are among those working on streaming series based on her work.  Grand Central Publishing is reissuing many of her novels in 2020 and the Library of America welcomes her to the canon in 2021 with a volume of her fiction.  Hillel Italie  https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/05/07/octavia-butler-science-fiction-novelist/111672632/  See also https://theportalist.com/parable-of-the-sower-opera with links to ten Octavia Butler quotes. 

In the world of mules, There are no rules . . . Some claim that pianists are human, And quote the case of Mr. Truman.  Read all verses that accompany many performances of Carnival of the Animals at https://derricksblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/30/saint-saens-the-carnival-of-the-animals-with-verses-by-ogden-nash/

In the early 1930s, Alden B. Dow F.A.I.A. introduced modern design to Midland, Michigan and created over 130 structures during his 50-year career.  His innovative and dynamic structures initiated an architectural heritage that is unprecedented in the United States.  Dow’s creative concepts inspired dozens of other architects, including Jackson Hallett A.I.A, Glenn Beach A.I.A., Robert Schwartz A.I.A, and Francis “Red” Warner A.I.A.  These gifted architects and more, also created beautifully-crafted Mid-Century Modern structures that are an integral part of the over 400 buildings that dominate Midland.   https://midcenturymidland.org/  Flooding in May 2020 prompted a Midland native to recount time spent sitting on Barcelona chairs in the public library.

The Barcelona chair is a chair designed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, for the German Pavilion at the International Exposition of 1929, hosted by Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.  The chair was first used in Villa Tugendhat, a private residence, designed by Mies in Brno (Czech Republic).  The frame was initially designed to be bolted together, but was redesigned in 1950 using stainless steel, which allowed the frame to be formed by a seamless piece of metal, giving it a smoother appearance.  Bovine leather replaced the ivory-colored pigskin which was used for the original pieces.  In his 1981 book about modern architecture, From Bauhaus to Our House, Tom Wolfe called the Barcelona chair as "the Platonic ideal of chair."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barcelona_chair

New words used in May 2020:  infodemic (proliferation of COVID-19 information, often unsubstantiated); covedient (respecting stay-at-home orders)  Toledo Blade  May 31, 2020  Blursday means you’re not sure what day it is. 

Powell’s  City of Books, established 1971, has four locations in Portland, Oregon and one in Beaverton, Oregon.  All locations are temporarily closed.  Shop their combined inventory of about 3 million books at https://www.powells.com/

WHO?  https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2020/06/01

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2278  June 2, 2020 

Industrial homework or piecework is governed mainly by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which defines industrial homework (also called "piecework") as the production by any covered person in a home, apartment, or room in a residential establishment, of goods for an employer who permits or authorizes such production.  The source of the goods may be the employer or elsewhere.  Covered homework is subject to the FLSA's minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping requirements.  Employers are required to provide workers with handbooks to record time, expenses, and pay information.  Piece-rate pay is generally subject to income taxes on employees.  Benefits are generally not required and vary by employer.  The performance of certain types of industrial homework is prohibited under the FLSA unless the employer has obtained prior certification from the Department of Labor.  Restrictions apply in the manufacture of knitted outerwear, gloves and mittens, buttons and buckles, handkerchiefs, embroideries, and jewelry, if there are no safety and health hazards.  The manufacture of women's apparel (and jewelry under hazardous conditions) is generally prohibited.  Piece-rate workers perform jobs such as stuffing envelopes, assembling crafts, and more.  Homeworker employees must be paid the Federal minimum wage.  This rate must be met regardless of whether the worker is paid by time, piece, job, incentive, or any other basis.  The cost of tools, tool repair, or other similar requirements, may not be borne by the worker where such cost would reduce the wages paid below the required minimum wage or in any way reduce wages due for overtime hours.  https://definitions.uslegal.com/i/industrial-homework-or-piecework/

During the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted approximately a decade, shantytowns appeared across the U.S. as unemployed people were evicted from their homes.  As the Depression worsened in the 1930s, causing severe hardships for millions of Americans, many looked to the federal government for assistance.  When the government failed to provide relief, President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) was blamed for the intolerable economic and social conditions, and the shantytowns that cropped up across the nation, primarily on the outskirts of major cities, became known as Hoovervilles.  Democratic National Committee publicity director and longtime newspaper reporter Charles Michelson (1868-1948) is credited with coining the term, which first appeared in print in 1930.  Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage.  Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high.  Most shanties, however, were distinctly less glamorous:  Cardboard-box homes did not last long, and most dwellings were in a constant state of being rebuilt.  Some homes were not buildings at all, but deep holes dug in the ground with makeshift roofs laid over them to keep out inclement weather.  Some of the homeless found shelter inside empty conduits and water mains.  Writer John Steinbeck (1902-68) featured a family who lived in a California Hooverville and sought farm work in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” which was first published in 1939.  https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles

“Heavens to Betsy,” an exclamation of surprise, shock, or fear, can be traced to 19th-century America.  But “Betsy” herself remains stubbornly anonymous.  The Oxford English Dictionary comments:  “The origin of the exclamation Heavens to Betsy is unknown.”  The earliest published reference found so far, according to the OED, comes from an 1857 issue of Ballou’s Dollar Monthly Magazine:  “ ‘Heavens to Betsy!’ he exclaims, clapping his hand to his throat, ‘I’ve cut my head off!’ ”  Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Dictionary of Quotations, found this hyphenated example in an an 1878 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine:  “Heavens-to-Betsy!  You don’t think I ever see a copper o’ her cash, do ye?”  And the OED has this one from a short-story collection by Rose Terry Cooke, Huckleberries Gathered From New England Hills (1892):  “’Heavens to Betsey!’ gasped Josiah.”  (“Betsy,” as you can see, is spelled there with a second “e.”)  The OED says the word “heaven,” used chiefly in the plural, has appeared since the 1500s in “exclamations expressing surprise, horror, excitement, etc.”  It’s frequently accompanied by an intensifying adjective, Oxford adds, as in “good heavens,” “gracious heavens,” “great heavens,” “merciful heavens,” and so on.  In later use, the dictionary says, “extended forms” have included “Heaven and earth,” “Heavens above,” “Heavens alive,” and “Heavens to Betsy,” which it says originated and is chiefly heard in the US.  https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/10/heavens-to-betsy.html

Body and Soul is a 1925 silent film about the abuse of religious faith and how the veneration of minster over family can lead to tragedy.  It’s the story of Sister Martha Jane (Mercedes Gilbert), a devout churchgoer whose hard work has resulted in a nice nest egg.  She keeps her money in the family bible, reasoning that no one would be so evil as to steal money from it.  Martha dotes on her only child, a daughter named Isabelle.  Isabelle is played by Julia Theresa Russell, a schoolteacher with no previous acting experience.  Of course, the main draw of the picture is Paul Robeson, who was enjoying major success as a stage star at the time Body and Soul was released.  Casting Robeson in dual roles cleverly allowed him to chew scenery as the villain and also be the sympathetic sweetheart.  The trick was used again and again in Hollywood films, most notably by Mary Pickford in Stella Maris.  It allowed actors to play their usual typecast character while still dabbling in riskier roles or it let them show off their range and skill with makeup, as was the case with Lon Chaney in Shadows.  In Robeson’s case, it allows him to play both the demonic minister and Sylvester the sweetheart, displaying his skills in two extreme roles.  Robeson nearly hit the Hollywood mainstream after Body and Soul when he was invited to join Cecil B. DeMille’s company and star in a picture.  Robeson respected DeMille and agreed to the offer but the movie never ended up being made.  By then, sound was on the horizon and soon movie audiences would be able to enjoy the same beautiful voice that had enchanted devotees of the stage.  Body and Soul has been released on DVD and Bluray as part of the Pioneers of African-American Cinema box set with a score by DJ Spooky.  It is also available on Paul Robeson:  Portraits of the Artist set from the Criterion Collection, which includes a score by Wycliffe Gordon and a commentary by Pearl Bowser.  Link to COOKING WITH THE (SILENT) STARS: A MODERN LOOK AT PHOTOPLAY’S 1929 COOK BOOK at  https://moviessilently.com/2017/02/26/body-and-soul-1925-a-silent-film-review/  In order to evade the censors, Body and Soul’s ending was changed to an optimistic one.   

Lee Richmond, pitcher for the Worcester Worcesters, pitched a perfect game against the Cleveland Blues by retiring all 27 batters he faced on Saturday, June 12, 1880.  This event took place in the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds in Worcester, Massachusetts.   The game lasted 1 hour and 26 minutes, with a seven-minute delay due to rain in the seventh inning.  This was the first ever perfect game in Major League Baseball history, and it was the second ever no-hitter in league history (the first being in 1876).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Richmond%27s_perfect_game

Three-ingredient cookies:  Butter, Chocolate-Hazelnut and Peanut Butter https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/dining/three-ingredient-cookies-coronavirus.html

The Queens Museum, formerly the Queens Museum of Art, is an art museum and educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New York City.  The museum was founded in 1972, and has among its permanent exhibitions, the Panorama of the City of New York, a room-sized scale model of the five boroughs originally built for the 1964 New York World's Fair, and repeatedly updated since then.  It also has a large archive of artifacts from both World's Fairs, a selection of which is on display.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Museum  As of this writing in May 2020, the Queens Museum is closed due to COVID-19.  Link to online exhibits and more at https://queensmuseum.org/  Contact information:  T 718 592 9700, F 718 592 5778, E info@queensmuseum.org

A perfectly preserved ancient Roman mosaic floor has been discovered near the northern Italian city of Verona.  Archaeologists were astonished by the find as it came almost a century after the remains of a villa, believed to date to the 3rd century AD, were unearthed in a hilly area above the town of Negrar di Valpolicella.  After the discovery in 1922, the site was mostly left abandoned until a team from the Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona resumed digging in the summer of 2019.  The team returned to the site in October and again in February, 2020 before the excavation was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.  The mosaic was found a few metres beneath a row of vines a week after work got going again.  Angela Giuffrida   

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/27/ancient-roman-mosaic-floor-discovered-verona-italy

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, who was known for his monumental environmental artworks with his late wife, Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, has died.  He was 84 years old.  Together, known simply as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, they wrapped iconic landmarks in fabric, such as the Pont Neuf in Paris in 1985 and the Reichstag in Berlin in 1995; and mounted thousands of orange gates in Central Park, redolent of Japan's sacred torii gates, in 2005. Christo passed away May 31, 2020 at his home in New York.  He is survived by his son, Cyril Christo, a photographer, filmmaker and animal rights activist.  Jacqui Palumbo  https://www.cnn.com/style/article/christo-artist-dead/index.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2277  June  1, 2020