William Cuthbert Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, the first of four sons of Murry Cuthbert Faulkner (1870–1932) and Maud Butler (1871–1960).  His family was upper middle-class, but "not quite of the old feudal cotton aristocracy".  After Maud rejected Murry's plan to become a rancher in Texas, the family moved to Oxford, Mississippi in 1902, where Faulkner's father established a livery stable and hardware store before becoming the University of Mississippi's business manager.  Except for short periods elsewhere, Faulkner lived in Oxford for the rest of his life.  When he was 17, Faulkner met Phil Stone, who became an important early influence on his writing. Stone was four years his senior and came from one of Oxford's older families; he was passionate about literature and had bachelor's degrees from Yale and the University of Mississippi.  Stone mentored the young Faulkner, introducing him to the works of writers like James Joyce, who influenced Faulkner's own writing.  In his early 20s, Faulkner gave poems and short stories he had written to Stone in hopes of their being published.  Stone sent these to publishers, but they were uniformly rejected.  In 1918, Faulkner's surname changed from "Falkner" to "Faulkner".  According to one story, a careless typesetter made an error.  When the misprint appeared on the title page of his first book, Faulkner was asked whether he wanted the change.  He supposedly replied, "Either way suits me."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner   

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) is one of the most compelling poets of the 19th century.  Baudelaire is distinctive in French literature also in that his skills as a prose writer virtually equal his ability as a poet.  His body of work includes a novella, influential translations of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, highly perceptive criticism of contemporary art, provocative journal entries, and critical essays on a variety of subjects.  Baudelaire’s work has had a tremendous influence on modernism, and his relatively slim production of poetry in particular has had a significant impact on later poets.  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-baudelaire   

16 Traditional Foods of New Zealand's Māori People by ADRIENNE KATZ KENNEDY/JAN. 7, 2023  Today, those who identify as Māori make up around 17% of New Zealand's population, notes BBC Travel.  Māori kai, or food, primarily consists of plants, fish, and birds indigenous to the island, alongside some traditions and seeds brought with them from Eastern Polynesia.  Māori cuisine, known as kai, distinguishes itself with its fundamental pillars, including kai whanau, food from the land, and kai moana, meaning food from the sea.  It is this acknowledgment of the environment as a resource that must be protected is built into the very language of the Māori people.  Find recipes and pictures at https://www.tastingtable.com/1159980/traditional-foods-of-new-zealands-maori-people   Thank you, Muse reader!   

On January 21, 1789, Boston publisher Isaiah Thomas and Company published what is generally considered to be the first American novel:  24-year-old William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy:  or, The Triumph of Nature, which sold (albeit badly) for the price of 9 shillings.  It is the classic story of boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy and girl find out they’re siblings on their wedding day, girl promptly dies of consumption, boy eventually shoots himself while clutching a copy of The Sorrows of Young Werther to his breast.  You know the tale.  “The Power of Sympathy is not, as might be expected, a feeble echo or slavish imitation of a single British novel; it reflects a number of literary influences,” wrote William S. Kable in a 1969 introduction to the text.  Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, with which it shares its epistolary form, is the most obvious influence, but Kable also detects the impact of Laurence Sterne and Goethe, along with “allusions to La Rochefoucault and St. Evremond; to Swift, Addison, Gay, Shakespeare, and Lord Chesterfield; to Noah Webster, Joel Barlow, and Timothy Dwight.”  Literary Hub, January 15, 2023   

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and sometimes referred to as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States marking the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.  It is observed on the third Monday of January each year.  Born in 1929, King's actual birthday is January 15 (which in 1929 fell on a Tuesday).  The holiday is similar to holidays set under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.  The earliest Monday for this holiday is January 15 and the latest is January 21.  King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law.  The campaign for a federal holiday in King's honor began soon after his assassination in 1968.  President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later on January 20, 1986.  At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays.  It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr._Day   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2621  January 16, 2023 

10 Smallest Rabbit Breeds in the World (With Pictures) by Nicole Cosgrove  https://petkeen.com/smallest-rabbit-breeds/   

Greenland is the largest island in the world.  Canada has the longest coastline in the world, bordering three oceans with its thousands of islands.  See rankings including:  #1, Sweden (267,570) and #5, United States (18,617) at https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-countries-have-the-most-islands.html   

Palmer Hayden (born Peyton Cole Hedgeman 1890, Widewater, Virginia; died 1973, New York City)  After moving to DC at age sixteen to live with an aunt, he took a job as a general laborer for the circus.  In 1912 he enlisted in the military, but due to a mistaken reference letter, he was registered as Palmer Cole Hayden, a name he adopted as his own.  By 1920 he had left the military, and he began to study painting—in New York City with Cooper Union art instructor Victor Perard and later in Boothbay Harbor, Maine at the Commonwealth Art Colony.  When Hayden traveled to Paris in 1927, his painting focus changed from seascapes to genre scenes of the thriving African diaspora in the French metropolis.  Returning to New York in 1932, Hayden continued to paint in this flat, faux-naïf style.  Hayden ironically revisited his military enlistment around this time.  With war imminent in 1939 and African Americans still struggling for equal rights, Hayden appears to parody any enthusiasm for voluntary enlistment.  https://www.nga.gov/features/exhibitions/outliers-and-american-vanguard-artist-biographies/palmer-hayden.html    

Dec. 30, 2022  Last month, Sara Day, a teen services librarian, and her colleague, Sara Vickers, a children’s librarian, led dozens of their colleagues in a short choreography set to Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero,” as part of a session called “TikTok O’ Clock!” at the Young Adult Library Services Association’s 2022 symposium in Baltimore.  Library TikTok is related to, but distinct from, BookTok, a corner of the platform where readers post about their favorite books and which has become a force in book sales.  On library TikTok, there is chatter about books, but librarians also post about resources and events, showcasing libraries as welcoming places for diverse communities.  Making the effort to show up on TikTok tells young people that “we’re here, we hear you, we feel you,” said Celia Greer, 30, a teen coordinator at the Kankakee Public Library in Kankakee, Ill.  The library posted a video that went viral on TikTok earlier this year, earning over one million views—and scoring a comment from Kevin Bacon.  The library then posted a second video celebrating Bacon’s comment, which got more than 30,000 views.  Now, the account is a local phenomenon, she said. 
Lora Kelley  https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/30/books/librarians-tiktok.html   

Looking to book a big trip this year but can't decide where to go?  Well, this is worth a gander:  the experts over at the New York Times have released their annual 52 Places to Go list for 2023.  Grace Beard  https://www.timeout.com/news/this-is-where-to-travel-in-2023-according-to-the-new-york-times-011223

To move freely you must be deeply rooted. - Bella Lewitzky, dancer (13 Jan 1916-2004)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2620  January 13, 2023 

 

5 tips for storing your vehicle this winter  December 24, 2022  

COVER IT UP * TOP OFF YOUR FLUIDS * TEND TO THE BATTERY * PROTECT THE TIRES * KEEP CRITTERS FROM NESTING  https://www.toledoblade.com/business/automotive/2022/12/24/5-tips-for-storing-your-vehicle-this-winter/stories/20221224016   

Kindness is like snow.  It beautifies everything it covers.  Kahlil Gibran https://www.jigidi.com/jigsaw-puzzle/ccvmjaj0/kindness-small/   

Starchitect is a portmanteau used to describe architects whose celebrity and critical acclaim have transformed them into idols of the architecture world and may even have given them some degree of fame among the general public.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starchitect   

What is it about the sea that has made it a literary obsession since The Odyssey?  For me, it’s the mystery, the thrill of adventure, the fear of the horrible beasts lurking under the waves, and the dangerous men lying in wait just over the horizon.  It’s the visceral feel of the wind and the waves, the raw smells of saltwater mixed with fuel and fish and fear, where the weather is a capricious character, and the ships are lonely fortresses against the unknown.  Who doesn’t know their names:  Ulysses, Jason, Ahab, Larsen, Nemo, Queeg, Bligh, Blood, and Aubrey, as well as pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read?  It is probably no coincidence that the sea inspired the first American novel, James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pilot.  It also inspired my debut novel, The Hunt for the Peggy C, a World War II-era historical fiction about an American fugitive who struggles to rescue a Jewish family on his rusty cargo ship, outraging his mutinous crew of misfits and provoking a hair-raising chase by an unstable Nazi U-boat captain bent on revenge.  Find a list of seven books–fiction and non-fiction–that examine the thrill of life at sea, for good and evil.  John Winn Miller https://crimereads.com/thrillers-sea-nautical/   

Charles Simic, one of the most important contemporary poets and essayists, died on January 9, 2023 at the age of 84.  Simic was born as Dusan Simic in 1938 in Belgrade, from where he emigrated to Paris and then to the US in 1953.  The family settled in Chicago, where he changed his name to Charles.  He didn’t write in English until well into his 20s.  For his poetic work, he won numerous international awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, as well as several Serbian and regional literary awards.  He got his Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for a book of prose poems entitled ‘The World Doesn’t End’.  He also served as poet laureate of the United States from 2007 to 2008.  “I am especially touched and honoured to be selected, because I am an immigrant boy who didn’t speak English until I was 15,” Simic said at the time.  Sasa Dragojlo  https://balkaninsight.com/2023/01/10/charles-simic-pulitzer-winning-serbian-born-poet-dies-at-84/   

Read poems by Charles Simic and sign up for Poem-a-Day at https://poets.org/poet/charles-simic#poet__works   

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2619  January 11, 2023

There are a number of stories and legends behind Missouri's sobriquet "Show-Me" state. The slogan is not official, but is common throughout the state and is used on Missouri license plates.  The most widely known legend attributes the phrase to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903.  While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 naval banquet in Philadelphia.  In a speech there, he declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me.  I am from Missouri.  You have got to show me."  Regardless of whether Vandiver coined the phrase, it is certain that his speech helped to popularize the saying.  Other versions of the "Show-Me" legend place the slogan's origin in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. There, the phrase was first employed as a term of ridicule and reproach.  A miner's strike had been in progress for some time in the mid-1890s, and a number of miners from the lead districts of southwest Missouri had been imported to take the places of the strikers. The Joplin miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods and required frequent instructions.  Pit bosses began saying, "That man is from Missouri.  You'll have to show him."  https://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/slogan   

We asked cleaning expert Jill Koch of Jill Comes Clean and home organising professional Caroline Solomon - and scoured the internet - for lesser-known ways to use kitchen essentials.  The list includes bread, rice, mayonnaise, tea and salt.  Jenny Xie  https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/how-to/300770688/these-surprising-cleaning-hacks-use-mayo-bread-and-other-pantry-staples   

Black peppercorns begin as green berries on the vine.  Once the bunch of berries has ripened and the first go from green to dark red, the spikes are harvested and shriveled by the sun into puckered, dark brownish spheres, which we call “black” peppercorns.  A spike of peppercorns will contain different-sized berries, as the ones at the very top grow larger than the ones at the bottom.  It is the world's most important spice, due to its near-worldwide popularity and the effect meeting its demand had on global trade and exploration.  It has long been thought to contain healing qualities—Sanskrit medical volumes dating back more than 3,000 years include advice on how to administer it.  By the fifth century, pepper was so wildly valuable it was used to pay off taxes and levies in place of currency; rent and dowries were sometimes paid in pepper; and when Rome was besieged by the Visigoths in 408 CE, 3,000 pounds of peppercorns were included in the ransom paid for the city’s release.  At its most valuable, pepper was worth its weight in gold.  Caitlin PenzeyMoog  https://www.seriouseats.com/guide-to-pepper-varieties   

Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. —  George Eliot, Adam Bede  An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling falsehood. —  Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited  https://quotepark.com/quotes/1919621-jonathan-swift-falsehood-flies-and-truth-comes-limping-after-it/   

Massachusetts Symbols

State Flower or Floral Emblem

The MAYFLOWER (Epigaea repens), also commonly known as the ground laurel or trailing arbutus, has ovate hairy leaves and fragrant, pink or white, spring-blooming flowers with five petals.  It was adopted as the official flower of the Commonwealth by the General Court on May 1, 1918.  Unfortunately, since 1925 it has been on the endangered list.

State Tree or Tree Emblem

The AMERICAN ELM (Ulmus Americana) was adopted as the state tree on March 21, 1941, to commemorate the fact that General George Washington took command of the Continental Army beneath one on Cambridge Common in 1775.   The American Elm, like most elms, has been severely afflicted by Elm Disease.

State Bird or Bird Emblem

The BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE (Penthestes atricapillus) was adopted as the state bird by the Massachusetts Legislature on March 21, 1941.  It is also known as the titmouse, tomtit, and the dickybird, and it is one of the most familiar of the North American birds.  It is a cheerful bird and has a pleasing call: “Chick-adee-dee-dee”.  See many other symbols including reptile, fish, insect, horse, dog, marine mammal, soil, and polka song at https://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cismaf/mf1a.htm

borrasca (plural borrascas)  noun

(mining) A mine that is no longer producing profitably.

Antonym  bonanza  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/borrasca 

bonanza (plural bonanzas)

(mining) A rich mine or vein of silver or gold. antonym ▲

Antonym  borrasca  The point at which two mother lodes intersect.  (by extension, figuratively)  Anything which is a great source of wealth or yields a large income or return.  quotations  ▼ synonym:  mother lode 

From Spanish bonanza (“calm sea, fair weather, good luck, rich lode”), from Medieval Latin bonacia (“fair weather”), a blend of bonus (“good”) +‎ malacia (“calm sea”).  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bonanza#English   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2618  January 9, 2023 

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (1916–2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–1981).  During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll.  On November 22, 1963, Cronkite introduced The Beatles to the United States by airing a four-minute story about the band on CBS Morning News. The story was scheduled to be shown again on the CBS Evening News that same day, but the assassination of John F. Kennedy prevented the broadcast of the regular evening news.  The Beatles story was aired on the evening news program on December 10.  On the eve of Cronkite's retirement, he appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson.  The following night, Carson did a comic spoof of his on-air farewell address.   Cronkite made a cameo appearance on a 1974 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which he met with Lou Grant in his office.  Ted Baxter, who at first tried to convince Cronkite that he (Baxter) was as good a newsman as Eric Sevareid, pleaded with Cronkite to hire him for the network news, at least to give sport scores, and gave an example:  "The North Stars 3, the Kings Oh!"  Cronkite turned to Grant and said, "I'm gonna get you for this!"  Cronkite later said that he was disappointed that his scene was filmed in one take, since he had hoped to sit down and chat with the cast.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite

Ekphrasis  “Description” in Greek.  An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art.  Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.  A notable example is “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” in which the poet John Keats speculates on the identity of the lovers who appear to dance and play music, simultaneously frozen in time and in perpetual motion.  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ekphrasis   

“Bats in the belfry” means crazy or eccentric.  Bats are, of course, the erratically flying mammals and 'belfries' are bell towers, sometimes found at the top of churches.  'Bats in the belfry' refers to someone who acts as though he has bats careering around his topmost part, that is, his head.  It has the sound of a phrase from Olde Englande and it certainly has the imagery to fit into any number of Gothic novels based in English parsonages or turreted castles.  In fact, it comes from the USA and is not especially old.  All the early citations are from American authors and date from the start of the 20th century; for example, this piece from the Ohio newspaper The Newark Daily Advocate, October 1900:  To his hundreds of friends and acquaintances in Newark, these purile [sic] and senseless attacks on Hon. John W. Cassingham are akin to the vaporings of the fellow with a large flock of bats in his belfry."  Ambrose Bierce, also American, used the term in a piece for Cosmopolitan Magazine, in July 1907, describing it as a new curiosity:  "He was especially charmed with the phrase 'bats in the belfry', and would indubitably substitute it for 'possessed of a devil', the Scriptural diagnosis of insanity."  The use of 'bats' and 'batty' to denote odd behaviour originated around the same time as 'bats in the belfry' and the terms are clearly related.  Again, the first authors to use the words are American:  1903 A. L. Kleberg - Slang Fables from Afar:  "She . . . acted so queer . . . that he decided she was Batty."  1919 Fannie Hurst - Humoresque: " 'Are you bats?' she said."    https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bats-in-the-belfry.html   

Proprioception, also called kinesthesia, is the body’s ability to sense its location, movements, and actions.  It’s the reason we’re able to move freely without consciously thinking about our environment.  Examples of proprioception include being able to walk or kick without looking at your feet or being able touch your nose with your eyes closed. Adrienne Santos- Longhurst  https://www.healthline.com/health/body/proprioception#symptoms   

The phrase "scientia potentia est" (or "scientia est potentia" or also "scientia potestas est") is a Latin aphorism meaning "knowledge is power", commonly attributed to Sir Francis Bacon.  The expression "ipsa scientia potestas est" ('knowledge itself is power') occurs in Bacon's Meditationes Sacrae (1597).  The exact phrase "scientia potentia est" (knowledge is power) was written for the first time in the 1668 version of Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, who was a secretary to Bacon as a young man.  The related phrase "sapientia est potentia" is often translated as "wisdom is power".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientia_potentia_est   

Little Christmas (Irish: Nollaig na mBan, lit. 'Women's Christmas'), also known as Old Christmas, Green Christmas, or Twelfth Night, is one of the traditional names among Irish Christians and Amish Christians for 6 January, which is also known more widely as the Feast of the Epiphany, celebrated after the conclusion of the twelve days of Christmastide.  It is the traditional end of the Christmas season and until 2013 was the last day of the Christmas holidays for both primary and secondary schools in Ireland.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Christmas   

http://librarianmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2617  January 6, 2023 

Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan   Alexander Lyman Holley (1832-1882) was born in Lakeville, Connecticut.   His capacity for careful and discriminating observation and his notable drawing talents marked him as an engineer very early in his life.  Holley was the first student to graduate from Brown University in engineering, receiving his bachelor of philosophy in 1853.  He received fifteen patents and wrote several books and hundreds of articles.  Known best for adapting the Bessemer process of steel-making to U.S. needs, Holley had a brilliant and versatile mind.  His work immediately brought rapid production to ironworks and rolling mills, along with a high standard of excellence, and his efforts significantly reduced steel prices and enabled unprecedented growth in the industries that moved America forward, including railroads, bridges, and ships.  Among engineers, Holley’s enthusiasm was contagious, his eloqence captivating, and his character commanding.  He was practical, aiming to simplify, to facilitate, to save labor, and to economize.  Acknowledged as an authority by mechanical, mining, and civil engineers alike, Holley developed ideas and concepts that directly influenced both education and industry for decades beyond his death.  Mechanical engineer Charles T. Porter (1826-1910) eulogized his character:  “That beaming countenance with sparkling eyes, upon which it was such a joy to look . . . was the outward manifestation of a great soul, instinct with every feeling, that, in the appropriate words of another, can ennoble or can adorn our nature.”  When Holley died in Brooklyn at age 49, he was engaged in bringing the engineers of the world together by shaping the foundations for several professional societies.  Three of these societies jointly raised funds and commissioned this memorial:  the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) of which he was the “leading spirit” in its founding; the Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME) of which he was a past president; and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) of which he was a past vice president.  Dedicated on October 2, 1890, Holley’s memorial was given to the City of New York by “the engineers of two hemispheres” and was witnessed by an international group including societies from Germany and France.  John Quincy Adams Ward (1830-1910) sculpted the bronze portrait of Holley, which was cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company of New York in 1889.  The bust is mounted on the central pillar of an elaborately carved tripartite pedestal made of Indiana limestone.  The pedestal was designed by architect Thomas Hastings (1860-1929).  https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/washington-square-park/monuments/735  View all monuments in NYC Parks, as well as temporary public art installations on our NYC Public Art Map and Guide.  Washington Square Park is close to Minetta Playground and New York University (NYU),  a private research university chartered in 1831.    

Minetta Creek was one of the largest natural watercourses in Manhattan.  Minetta Creek was fed from two tributaries, one originating at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street, and the other originating at Sixth Avenue and 16th Street. They joined near Fifth Avenue and 11th Street then took a southwesterly course.  Minetta Creek's name is thought to have originated from either the Native American term "Manette", meaning "Devil's Water", or the Dutch word "Minnetje", meaning "the little one".  Minetta Creek was originally known by the Dutch as Bestevaer's Killetje.  During the 18th century, large amounts of wildlife could be seen around the creek.  In the early 1820s, the New York City common council commissioned a project to divert Minetta Creek into a covered sewer.  The creek was filled in by the mid-19th century, although it persisted as an underground stream through the 20th century.  Ever since the creek was covered in the 19th century, there have been debates over whether the creek still exists.  Minetta Creek caused flooding in basements and construction sites from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century.  Pools of water were also found at several construction sites along the creek's course.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minetta_Creek  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lower_ManhattanThe 7 Best Bugs in Children’s Literature  by Kyo Maclear  https://orionmagazine.org/article/best-bugs-childrens-books/   

Riley Savage began asking for smaller portions, her father started packing leftovers for lunch.  When food rots in landfills, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide.  The family resolved to do better.  Ms. Savage searched for recipes everybody would devour.  In the United States, food waste is responsible for twice as many greenhouse gas emissions as commercial aviation, leading some experts to believe that reducing food waste is one of our best shots at combating climate change.  In the Columbus, Ohio, area where the Savage family lives, nearly a million pounds of food is thrown out every day, making it the single biggest item entering the landfill.  (The same is true nationwide.)  Households account for 39 percent of food waste in the United States, more than restaurants, grocery stores or farms.  In 2021, 51 percent of the region’s waste was diverted from the landfill through recycling and composting.  Susan Shain  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/01/headway/composting-food-leftovers.html   

An Unpublished Poem by Paul Newman  Previously uncovered words from the eminent late actor, director, and philanthropist.  https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/paul-newman-posthumous-poem/   

People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo. - Max Eastman, journalist and poet (4 Jan 1883-1969)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2616  January 4, 2023 

 

Most historians agree that the first recorded monetary system appeared in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, around 3000 B.C., where the Babylonians began using silver and barley as universal mediums of exchange and units of value.  It coincided with the development of the Code of Hammurabi, one of oldest surviving pieces of writing and law books.  Fast-forward to the Greek civilisation and Aristotle believed that money was crucial for the emergence of trade between nations, “When the inhabitants of one country became more dependent on those of another and they imported what they needed, and exported what they had too much of, money necessarily came into use.”  This is a view that was shared and resurrected by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations.  The Roman Empire’s vast reach was synonymous with its coins being legal tender across huge the entire empire stretched from Europe to the Middle East.  https://arqgroup.com/insights/the-unofficial-history-of-money/   

The silent years, 1910–27  Multiple-reel films had appeared in the United States as early as 1907, when Adolph Zukor distributed Pathé’s three-reel Passion Play, but when Vitagraph produced the five-reel The Life of Moses in 1909, the MPPC forced it to be released in serial fashion at the rate of one reel a week.  The multiple-reel film—which came to be called a “feature,” in the vaudevillian sense of a headline attraction—achieved general acceptance with the smashing success of the three-and-one-half-reel Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (Queen Elizabeth, 1912), which starred Sarah Bernhardt and was imported by Zukor (who founded the independent Famous Players production company with its profits).  In 1912 Enrico Guazzoni’s nine-reel Italian superspectacle Quo Vadis? (“Whither Are You Going?”) was road-shown in legitimate theatres across the country at a top admission price of one dollar, and the feature craze was on.  https://www.britannica.com/art/history-of-the-motion-picture/The-silent-years-1910-27   

Motion Picture Patents Company, also called Movie Trust, Edison Trust, or Trust, trust of 10 film producers and distributors who attempted to gain complete control of the motion-picture industry in the United States from 1908 to 1912.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Motion-Picture-Patents-Company   

Figs-in-a-Blanket With Goat Cheese  55 minutes  Total Time  1 hour, 10 minutes  Spicy, honey-glazed figs are balanced by creamy goat cheese and buttery puff pastry in this fun vegetarian play on pigs-in-a-blanket.  If goat cheese isn't your thing, try these bites with brie, Camembert, Manchego, or Parmesan.  Makes 48  RHODA BOONE  https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/figs-in-a-blanket-with-goat-cheese    

In Maya art, the gods are depicted at all stages of life: as infants, as adults at the peak of their maturity and influence, and as they age.  The gods could die, and some were born anew, serving as models of regeneration and resilience.  In Lives of the Gods:  Divinity in Maya Art, rarely seen masterpieces and recent discoveries trace the life cycle of the gods, from the moment of their creation in a sacred mountain to their dazzling transformations as blossoming flowers or fearsome creatures of the night.  Maya artists, who lived in what is now Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico, depicted the gods in imaginative ways from the monumental to the miniature—from exquisitely carved, towering sculptures to jade, shell, and obsidian ornaments that adorned kings and queens, connecting them symbolically to supernatural forces.  Finely painted ceramics reveal the eventful lives of the gods in rich detail.  The exhibit is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Kimbell Art Museum.  Showing through April 2, 2023  See map and location at https://maps.metmuseum.org/?screenmode=base&floor=1#hash=17/40.779448/-73.963517/-61   

At midnight on New Year’s Eve, all works first published in the United States in 1923 will enter the public domain.  It has been 21 years since the last mass expiration of copyright in the U.S.  We have never seen such a mass entry into the public domain in the digital age.  The last one—in 1998, when 1922 slipped its copyright bond—predated Google.  “We have shortchanged a generation,” said Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive.  “The 20th century is largely missing from the internet.”  We can blame Mickey Mouse for the long wait.  In 1998, Disney was one of the loudest in a choir of corporate voices advocating for longer copyright protections.  At the time, all works published before January 1, 1978, were entitled to copyright protection for 75 years; all author’s works published on or after that date were under copyright for the lifetime of the creator, plus 50 years.  Glenn Fleishman  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/first-time-20-years-copyrighted-works-enter-public-domain-180971016/   

Still round the corner there may wait, / a new road or a secret gate. - J.R.R. Tolkien, novelist and philologist (3 Jan 1892-1973)   

http://librariansmuse.com.blogspot.com  Issue 2615  January 3, 2023