Distance lends enchantment to the view proverbial saying, late 18th century; originally a quotation from the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell (1777–1844):  ‘'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue.’  Compare blue are the hills that are far away.  Go the distance.  Complete a difficult task or endure an ordeal.  A metaphor from boxing, meaning when used of a boxer, ‘complete a match without being knocked out’, and of a boxing match, ‘last the scheduled length’.  In the US there is an additional baseball-related sense, ‘pitch for the entire length of an inning’.  https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095722302 The first time Theodore Geisel used the pen name “Seuss,” it was 1925, and he was a senior at Dartmouth College.  Ted, as his friends called him, was an editor at the campus humor rag, the Jack-O-Lantern, where he also published his cartoons.  Until, that is, he and his friends were caught drinking bootleg gin in his room—this was 1925, remember, the middle of Prohibition—and as a punishment, Ted was forced to resign from his position at the paper.  Literary Hub  July 14, 2024

“Nonsense wakes up the brain cells.  And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age.  Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world.  It’s more than just a matter of laughing.  If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.”  Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991) was an American children's author and cartoonist.  He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name, Dr. Seuss.  His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss   Marie Paradis from Chamonix (then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia) became the first woman to climb Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest mountain, on 14 July 1808.  Chekhov’s gun   (chek-ofs GUHN)  noun  1. The literary principle that if an element is introduced in a story, it must be shown to have a purpose.  2.  An element introduced in a story that is revealed to have a purpose later on.  After the playwright and doctor Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) who espoused this principle. Earliest documented use:  1951.    NOTES:  Chekhov said, “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off.”  Not trying to be a smart alec, but one must never place a loaded firearm on a stage or set, going off or not.  At any rate, we understand his point and it wasn’t about the rifle gathering rust.  Also see:  red herring, McGuffin, prolepsis, Ockham’s razor.  A Word A Day with Anu Garg  July 15, 2024  The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.  Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.  Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. - Iris Murdoch, writer (15 Jul 1919-1999)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2838  July 15, 2024 

Inconspicuous, fragile, published sans fanfare, ignored by reviewers, its sales poor, had Tamerlane been Edgar Allan Poe’s only publication, a one-off chapbook of melancholy romantic verse, it would now be a mere bibliographical curiosity.  Instead—because its author went on to invent the modern detective story (think “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”), revolutionize the Gothic genre with tales like “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” pen triumphs of supernatural horror like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and write the classic macabre poem “The Raven,” which many of us tried to memorize as kids.  Tamerlane, for its now-insignificant deficiencies as a poem and a pamphlet, is of towering importance to Poe specialists and aficionados alike.  The Holy Grail of book collecting, Tamerlane is one of those books that—like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the original boards, which sold at Christie’s in 2021 for $1.17 million, or Shakespeare’s first folio, priced at $7.5 million and sold in 2023 by the London-based rare book firm Peter Harrington on its 400th anniversary—causes a stir among rare book enthusiasts whether or not they have any hope, or desire, of acquiring it.  (Not to mention the Bay Psalm Book or even the Eliot Algonquin Bible, other ultra-rare early American printed books, though religious texts, not literary.)  Whenever a first edition of Tamerlane comes under the hammer—a rare event in itself—its past legacy and future home become the topic of discussion among booksellers, archivists, collectors, and Poe scholars around the world.  Originally produced in an edition estimated at forty or fifty copies, Tamerlane was from its inception a rarity.  The Morgan Library doesn’t own a copy.  Nor does the Library of Congress.  The copy once held by the University of Virginia, Poe’s not-quite alma mater, was stolen in 1973 from the McGregor Room vault in Alderman Library.  If it is never recovered, an unfortunate possibility, the number of known copies drops to eleven.  At least one prominent Poe expert I know speculates it may have been destroyed to hide the evidence.  After all, it would be wildly risky to try to sell the copy.  Where in the world would a fence safely offer it?  Besides, the theft, a presumed inside job, happened long enough ago that it’s not inconceivable the thief is dead.  Wherever it is out there in illicit limbo, one hopes that whoever has it will earn their gothic angel’s wings by restoring it to the Alderman.  https://lithub.com/in-search-of-the-rarest-book-in-american-literature-edgar-allan-poes-tamerlane   

According to the United States Census Bureau, Lebanon, Ohio has a total area of 12.97 square miles (33.59 km²), of which 12.96 square miles (33.57 km²) is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km²) is water.  The Golden Lamb Inn is the oldest hotel in Ohio, having been established in 1803.  The present structure is built around the 1815 rebuilding of the inn and has been visited by 12 presidents.  The Warren County Historical Museum includes the Harmon Museum, housed in Harmon Hall, a three-story, 28,000 square feet (2,600 m²) building with displays and exhibits of art and artifacts from prehistoric eras to the mid-20th century.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon,_Ohio   

The “Harper Valley P.T.A” saga began with a song.  In 1967, Bobbie Gentry had a crossover monster hit with her song “Ode to Billie Joe.”  Margie Singleton had some success with her cover of Gentry’s song, so she asked Tom T. Hall to write a similar song for her as a follow-up.  The song that Hall wrote for Singleton was “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” which he based upon a story he’d heard growing up in Olive Hill, Kentucky.  However, Jeannie C. Riley, from Anson, Texas, recorded a version of “Harper Valley P.T.A” on July 26, 1968, and it was on the radio and on the Billboard charts in August.  The song became a huge hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 21, 1968, and topping the Billboard Hot Country chart on September 28, 1968, making it the first song by a woman to reach the top of both charts.  Harper Valley P.T.A. was filmed in Lebanon, Ohio, with additional scenes filmed in California.  https://www.grahmsguide.com/harper-valley-pta-1978    

Jan.  6, 2010  TIME 100 list of the best novels on TIME.com:  There were only two ground rules. We picked 1923–when TIME began publishing–as our starting point.  And we focused on books written in English.  That’s why there is no Ulysses (published in 1922) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (originally written in Spanish).  Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, our book critics, reread many of the classics and discovered a few that they had never had a chance to read. There were some easy calls (The Sound and the Fury, Invisible Man, Herzog) and some not so easy (Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer did not make the cut, though both critics admire their essays and nonfiction books).  Several authors appear twice, including William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Saul Bellow.  And one author on the list is actually a TIME alumnus:  James Agee, who reviewed movies and books for the magazine in the 1940s and is represented by A Death in the Family.  I find almost all our critics’ arguments persuasive, but I still feel John le Carré’s best book is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (not on the list) instead of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (on the list).  Oh, and one more thing:  this time around, Gone with the Wind fans get their revenge.  The film may not have made the movie list, but Margaret Mitchell’s book makes this one.  I know the list will spark lots of discussions, but I hope it also sends you back to books you read with pleasure years ago as well as to books that you may not have heard of.  James Kelly https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/times-list-of-the-100-best-novels/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2837  July 10, 2024

Linda S. Howington (b. 1950) is an American best-selling romance author writing under the pseudonym Linda Howard.  After 21 years of penning stories for her own enjoyment, she submitted a novel for publication which was very successful.  Her first work was published by Silhouette in 1982.  She is a charter member of Romance Writers of America and in 2005 Howard was awarded their Career Achievement Award.  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16961.Linda_Howard 

“A thousand thoughts ran through my mind.  Well, at least six or seven, anyway, because a thousand thoughts are a lot.  Try counting your own thoughts and see how long it takes you to get to a thousand.”  Linda Howard, To Die For

"This isn't one of my good days.  The only thing holding me together is static cling."  Linda Howard, Duncan's Bride

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/16961.Linda_Howard?

plain sailing (uncountable)  noun  (nautical)  The navigation of waters free from hazards or unfavourable winds.  Obsolete spelling of plane sailing (“a technique for navigation using the assumption that the journey occurs over a plane or flat surface rather than the actual curved surface of the Earth, which is sufficiently accurate over short distances”). quotations ▼  (figurative) 

Something that is easy, simple, or straightforward; something that offers no difficulties or trouble. synonyms ▲quotations ▼  Synonyms:  child's play, smooth sailing, walk in the park  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plain_sailing#English    

Peter Charles Schjeldahl (1942–2022) was an American art critic, poet, and educator.  He was noted for being the head art critic at The New Yorker, having earlier written for The Village Voice, ARTnews, and The New York Times.  Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota.  His father, Gilmore, was the inventor of the airsickness bag, and whose company produced NASA’s first communications satellite; his mother, Charlene (Hanson), was Gilmore's office manager.  Schjeldahl was raised in small towns throughout his home state and Minnesota.  He studied at Carleton College from 1962 to 1964, and at The New School.  He began his professional writing career as a reporter in 1962 at The Jersey Journal, in Jersey City, and in Minnesota and Iowa.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schjeldahl   

Magenta is a purplish-red color.  On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red.  It is one of the four colors of ink used in color printing by an inkjet printer, along with yellow, cyan, and black to make all the other colors.  The tone of magenta used in printing, printer's magenta, is redder than the magenta of the RGB (additive) model, the former being closer to rose.  Magenta took its name from an aniline dye made and patented in 1859 by the French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin, who originally called it fuchsine.  It was renamed to celebrate the Italian-French victory at the Battle of Magenta fought between the French and Austrians on 4 June 1859 near the Italian town of Magenta in Lombardy.  A virtually identical color, called roseine, was created in 1860 by two British chemists, Edward Chambers Nicholson, and George Maule.  The web color magenta is also called fuchsia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta   

The cottonwood—also known as the poplar—is a tall tree with a spreading crown, named for its cotton-like seeds.  The diverse poplar family includes the quaking aspen, which boasts the widest range of any North American tree, and the Plains cottonwood, which was the only tree many early settlers met as they forged westward through America's prairies.  Today as in centuries past, the cottonwood offers welcome shade, as its powerful trunk divides into thick branches and opens into a spreading crown.  Many cottonwoods grow from 70 to 100 feet tall. https://www.arborday.org/programs/nationaltree/cottonwood.cfm    

See Cottonwood Poems written by Poets on PoetrySoup.  https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/best/cottonwood#google_vignette   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2836  July 8, 2024

Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character.  Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage.  Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject.  Favorite sources include anime, cartoons, comic books, manga, television series, rock music performances, video games and in some cases, original characters.  The term is composed of the two aforementioned counterparts–costume and role play.  Cosplay grew out of the practice of fan costuming at science fiction conventions, beginning with Morojo's "futuristicostumes" created for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention held in New York City in 1939.  The Japanese term "cosplay" (コスプレ, kosupure) was coined in 1984.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay   

“By the Seaside” is perhaps Apple’s most polarizing alarm and ringtone, evoking comparisons to nails on a chalkboard, the word “moist” and screaming children on a plane.  In the past, phones had only one sound:  the shrill, continuous ring of a landline.  You probably think you don’t know “By the Seaside,” but you do.  On YouTube, there are extended versions, rap versions, versions played on various instruments.  “Some people think it’s a great ringtone.  And other people say, Oh, my God, it’s terrible,” said Carlos Xavier Rodriguez, chair of music theory at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, of the divisive tune. “You love it or you hate it.”  People have been trying to use sound to wake up reliably for centuries, relying on everything from church bells to roosters.  Some people used to employ the services of knocker-uppers, or workers paid to wake customers by tapping on the door or window with a stick, until the 1970s in some parts of Britain.  The first known alarm clock in the United States was invented by clockmaker Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire in 1787, but his clock rang just once at 4 am.  In 1874, French inventor Antoine Redier patented an adjustable mechanical alarm clock.  Seth Thomas patented a mechanical wind-up one a couple years later, and the electric alarm clock was invented by the end of the 19th century.  Alarm clocks have evolved further since then.  Some high-tech ones these days are designed to emit light mimicking sunrise, waking users gently with a soft glow and relaxing sounds such as birds twittering or the lilt of a flute.  https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/23/tech/apple-ringtone-by-the-seaside-alarm/index.html  Thank you, Muse reader!   

A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope.  It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/separation barrier for navigation, good drainage, industry, or other purposes.  The word is one of Middle Dutch and came into usage in English via French.  In medieval military engineering, a berm (or berme) was a level space between a parapet or defensive wall and an adjacent steep-walled ditch or moat.  It was intended to reduce soil pressure on the walls of the excavated part to prevent its collapse.  It also meant that debris dislodged from fortifications would not fall into (and fill) a ditch or moat.  In the trench warfare of World War I, the name was applied to a similar feature at the lip of a trench, which served mainly as an elbow-rest for riflemen.  In modern military engineering, a berm is the earthen or sod wall or parapet, especially a low earthen wall adjacent to a ditch.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berm 

Orphan Train Rider, One Boy's True Story by Andrea Warren  Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were sent west on orphan trains to find new homes. Some were adopted by loving families; others were not as fortunate.  In recent years, some of the riders have begun to share their stories.  Andrea Warren alternates chapters about the history of the orphan trains with the story of Lee Nailling, who in 1926 rode an orphan train to Texas.  https://ifpl.overdrive.com/media/1192322    

The Drummer Boy on Independence Day by E. L. Doctorow   A story was written in the mid-nineteen-fifties, after E. L. Doctorow, then in his twenties, had completed his military service in Germany.  It was found by the biographer Bruce Weber with Doctorow’s papers at the Fales Library and Special Collections, at New York University.  July 1, 2024   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/07/08/the-drummer-boy-on-independence-day-fiction-e-l-doctorow   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2835  July 5, 2024  

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799)

Mary Leonora Carrington OBE (1917–2011) was a British-born, naturalized Mexican surrealist painter and novelist.  She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s.  Carrington was also a founding member of the women's liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s.  At the age of ten, she saw her first Surrealist painting in a Left Bank gallery in Paris and later met many Surrealists, including Paul Éluard.  Her father opposed her career as an artist, but her mother encouraged her.  She returned to England and was presented at Court, but according to her, because she had no intention of being "sold to the highest bidder" she brought a copy of Aldous Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza (1936) to read instead.  In 1935, she attended the Chelsea School of Art in London for one year, and with the help of her father's friend Serge Chermayeff, she was able to transfer to the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts established by the French modernist Amédée Ozenfant in London (1936–38).   She became familiar with Surrealism from a copy of Herbert Read's book, Surrealism (1936), given to her by her mother, but she received little encouragement from her family to forge an artistic career.  The Surrealist poet and patron Edward James was the champion of her work in Britain; James bought many of her paintings and arranged a show in 1947 for her work at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora_Carrington  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest.  This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest.  A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male.  A perennial favorite among people, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Cardinal/overview# 

These non-migrating birds operate as a flock in the winter to better forage and this are called a “Vatican of Cardinals.”  The selection of state birds began with Kentucky adopting the northern cardinal in 1926.  It continued when the legislatures for Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming selected their state birds after a campaign was started by the General Federation of Women's Clubs to name official state birds in the 1920s.  The last state to choose its bird was Arizona in 1973.  Pennsylvania never chose an official state bird, but did choose the ruffed grouse as the state game bird. Alaska, California, and South Dakota permit hunting of their state birds. Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee have designated an additional "state game bird" for the purpose of hunting.  The northern cardinal is the state bird of seven states, followed by the western meadowlark as the state bird of six states.  The District of Columbia designated a district bird in 1938.  Of the five inhabited territories of the United States, American Samoa and Puerto Rico are the only ones without territorial birds.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_birds  

The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé.  The story was serialised daily in Le Soir, Belgium's leading francophone newspaper, from December 1943 amidst the German occupation of Belgium during World War II.  The story was cancelled abruptly following the Allied liberation in September 1944, when Hergé was blacklisted after being accused of collaborating with the occupying Germans. After he was cleared two years later, the story and its follow-up Prisoners of the Sun were then serialised weekly in the new Tintin magazine from September 1946 to April 1948.  The story revolves around the investigations of a young reporter Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock into the abduction of their friend Professor Calculus and its connection to a mysterious illness which has afflicted the members of an archaeological expedition to Peru.  The Seven Crystal Balls was a commercial success and was published in book form by Casterman shortly after its conclusion, while the series itself became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Crystal_Balls#  

Ernő Rubik (born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor.  He is best-known for creating the Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, and Rubik's Snake.  While Rubik became famous for inventing the Rubik's Cube and his other puzzles, much of his recent work involves the promotion of science in education.  Rubik is involved with several organizations such as Beyond Rubik's Cube, the Rubik Learning Initiative and the Judit Polgar Foundation, all of which aim to engage students in science, mathematics, and problem solving at a young age.  Rubik studied sculpture at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest and architecture at the Technical University, also in Budapest.  While a professor of design at the academy, he pursued his hobby of building geometric models.  One of these was a prototype of his cube, made of 27 wooden blocks; it took Rubik a month to solve the problem of the cube.  Rubik admits to being a lifelong bibliophile and has stated, "Books offered me the possibility of gaining knowledge of the world, nature and people."  Rubik is fond of outdoor activities such as walking through nature, playing sports, and sailing on Lake Balaton. Rubik is also an avid gardener and has stated that "collecting succulents is my favourite pastime.  See a list of prizes and awards at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern%C5%91_Rubik 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2833  July 1, 2024