Movieoke is a form of entertainment in which an amateur actor or actors perform along with a muted DVD in order to give voice to the character in the film.  The film is projected onto a screen behind the actor and onto an alternate monitor which provides subtitles and action cues.  Movieoke is a popular form of performative and interactive entertainment created by Anastasia Fite in New York City in 2003, and has since spread to other parts of the world.  The word stems from the English word "movie" and the Japanese word "karaoke", which itself stems from the word kara meaning "empty", and the English word "orchestra".  This term used to be slang for media where pre-recorded acting is substituted by a live performance.  The term movieoke can be interpreted as "virtual movie" because one can act along without the presence of a camera or crew.  The first cultural reference for Movieoke came from the 1993 film Arizona Dream starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis and Vincent Gallo.  During a talent show scene one of the characters performs a version of Movieoke (though does not mention the word movieoke).  Vincent Gallo's character Paul Leger performs a step by step remake of the famous crop dusting scene from Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest as the film is projected over him on stage.  Slightly different from East Village Movieoke in that the sound of the film is still present, Gallo syncs with the actor's dialog on stage.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movieoke

Participation in movies:  Buzz when "The Fly" starts its opening credits (I was in a movie theater when this happened) or get ideas for mimicry at The Rocky Horror Picture Show at http://www.rockyhorror.com/participation/  Speak along with recording in elevator at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

The prospect of one’s own death is not exactly a topic for casual dinner conversation.  But a movement that encourages group discussion of this weighty subject is growing, and organizers are finding that local libraries are one place where they won’t be silenced.  Since the first gathering, named death café, was held in the US in Columbus, Ohio, in July 2012, the forums have spread across the nation.  And many are beginning to appear in libraries, according to Lizzy Miles, an organizer for DeathCafe.com.  Miles, who organized the Columbus death café, tells American Libraries that she was inspired by her experience as a hospice social worker and by the work of Jon Underwood, who began holding death cafés in the UK in 2011.  She also credits a story in The New York Times (“Death Be Not Decaffeinated: Over Cup, Groups Face Taboo,” June 16, 2013) with helping attract interest in the movement.  “When I tell people I work in hospice, they immediately start telling me their personal stories about death and dying,”  Miles says.  “It was sort of this recognition that people have a desire to talk [about death].”  Miles says the death café concept is intended to be educational and is held in a neutral location where there is no perception of impropriety.  Miles notes that hundreds of death cafés have been held across the country over the last couple of years and have popped up in libraries in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  “I think a library is a perfect place to hold a death café because libraries bring people together,” she says.  Librarians can  get involved by visiting DeathCafe.com to learn how to moderate the events.  Tim Inklebarger  http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/10/30/when-subject-is-death-library-death-cafes/

William Holmes McGuffey was a Miami University faculty member in 1836 when he compiled the first edition of the McGuffey Eclectic Reader at 410 East Spring Street in Oxford, Ohio.   Between 1836 and 1920 the Readers taught the expanding American public lessons in reading, spelling, and civic education by using memorable stories of honesty, hard work, thrift and personal respect.  His brother Alexander Hamilton McGuffey, who also lived here for a time, assisted later editions in the series.  After the Civil War, later editions of the Readers became the basic schoolbook in thirty-seven states.  By 1920 they had sold 122,000,000 copies, stimulating the growth of publishing houses in Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, and reshaping the American public school curriculum.  Scholars have credited the Readers with a major role in shaping democratic values across the expanding nation, facilitating unprecedented access to public literacy, and influencing the socialization of generations of immigrants to the United States.  Today the Readers remain in print, and are often used in home schooling.   McGuffey lived in a frame house at the Spring Street site in 1828, and in 1833 removed that structure and built a brick home there in a Federal vernacular style common to aspiring and successful families in southwest Ohio.  McGuffey left Miami in 1836 for presidencies at Cincinnati College and Ohio University, and later lived the rest of his life at the University of Virginia as Professor of Moral Philosophy.  To mark the Miami Sesquicentennial in 1958 the University purchased the house from heirs of Miami Treasurer Wallace P. Roudebush (who owned and lived in the home after 1926), and secured an endowment from Mrs. Emma Gould Blocker to operate it as a museum.  The site was awarded National Historic Landmark status in 1966 by the United States Department of the Interior.  Since reopening to the public after renovation June 15, 2002, McGuffey Museum has been open six afternoons weekly and attracted 5,900 visitors from Ohio, 28 states and seven countries.  http://miamioh.edu/cca/_files/mcguffey/documents/mcguffey_brief_history.pdf  See also http://miamioh.edu/cca/mcguffey-museum/

The eighth edition of the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service, sponsored by Baker & Taylor’s Bibliostat.  The LJ Index is a measurement tool that compares U.S. public libraries with their spending peers based on four per capita output measures:  circulation, library visits, program attendance, and public Internet computer use.  Scores on the LJ Index are produced by measuring the relationships between each library’s statistics and the averages for its expenditure category.  This year, there are 261 Star Libraries, 54 of which were not Star Libraries last year.  In 2015, 7,663 U.S. public libraries —more than ever before—were scored on the LJ Index of Public Library Service.  The 2015 LJ Index—the basis for the Star ratings—is derived from data recently released by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for FY13.  Eligible libraries are grouped by total operating expenditures and, within each of those groups, rated based on their differences from the means (or averages) of four per capita statistics: library visits, circulation, program attendance, and public Internet computer use.  Among libraries spending $30 million or more, there are two new three-Star winners:  Toledo–Lucas County Public Library and Indianapolis–Marion County Public Library.  Among libraries spending $10 million–$29.9 million, there are three new three-Star winners:  Birmingham Public Library, AL; Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; and Stark County District Library, Canton, OH.  View the All Stars state by state at http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2015/11/managing-libraries/lj-index/class-of-2015/all-the-stars-2015-state-by-state

Fastest Roast Turkey by Sam Sifton  http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016948-fastest-roast-turkey  Squash and Celeriac Quinoa Stuffing by Tara Parker-Pope  http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017001-squash-and-celeriac-quinoa-stuffing  Hashed Brussels Sprouts With Lemon by Julia Moskin  http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/453-hashed-brussels-sprouts-with-lemon

The athletic teams of Watersmeet High School in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, are known as the Nimrods. Their basketball team was the subject of a mini-series documentary about 10 years ago, entitled "Nimrod Nation."  It chronicled the team's efforts to duplicate the previous year's team's victory in the Michigan High Class D regional tournament.  Thank you, Muse reader!  Muser says:  Interesting on two points--use of the "mighty warrior" word--and how important sports documentaries are.  Of all documentaries we see, I think we remember the sports documentaries the best.  You might say they are heroic, and that's why we enjoy them.  Read about More than a Game, a 2008 documentary film that follows LeBron James and four of his teammates through the trials and tribulations of high school basketball in Akron, Ohio at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_than_a_Game

Happy Geography Awareness Week!  Recognizing that "too many young Americans are unable to make effective decisions, understand geo-spatial issues, or even recognize their impacts as global citizens," National Geographic created this annual observance to "raise awareness to this dangerous deficiency in American education."  Ben Carson's presidential campaign inadvertently underscored this point November 17, 2015, when it took to social media to share a map of the United States in which five New England states were placed in the wrong location.  Christopher Ingraham  See graphics at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/18/ben-carsons-campaign-made-a-u-s-map-and-put-a-bunch-of-states-in-the-wrong-place/

“I have waited 15 years for this moment,” Ta-Nehisi Coates told an audience that was almost entirely on its feet November 18, 2015.  He could have been speaking about this moment on stage, accepting the prestigious National Book Award for non-fiction for “Between the World and Me,” a moving meditation on race written to his teenage son.  But he was really referring to this moment in America, when police violence against African Americans has become the subject of national demonstrations and debate.  Fifteen years ago, Coates’s friend and Howard University classmate Prince Jones was killed by a police officer who mistook him for a suspect in a gun theft.  Jones, who was unarmed, was shot 5 times in the back.  Adam  Johnson won the fiction award for his short story collection “Fortune Smiles.”  Short story collections don’t often win the NBA fiction prize.  But this is the second year in a row that one has received the big-ticket literary award (last year’s winner was Phil Klay’s “Redeployment.”)  Neal Shusterman brought his son with him to accept the award for young people’s literature for “Challenger Deep.”  The novel about a schizophrenic teenager was inspired by Shusterman’s son Brendan.  The poetry award went to Robin Coste Lewis for “Voyage of the Sable Venus,” a debut collection that examines race and identity across generations and millennia.  All four winners will receive $10,000.  Writers James Patterson and Don DeLillo were also recognized at the ceremony, Patterson for his philanthropic efforts and DeLillo for “distinguished contribution to American letters.”  Sarah Kaplan  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/11/19/ta-nehisi-coates-adam-johnson-win-national-book-awards/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1380  November 19, 2015  On this date in 1905,  Tommy Dorsey, American trombonist, composer and bandleader (The California Ramblers), was born.  On this date in 1919, Alan Young, English-Canadian actor, singer, and director, was born.  

October 30, 2015  High in the skies over Kazakhstan, space-age technology has revealed an ancient mystery on the ground.  Satellite pictures of a remote and treeless northern steppe reveal colossal earthworks—geometric figures of squares, crosses, lines and rings the size of several football fields, recognizable only from the air and the oldest estimated at 8,000 years old.  The largest, near a Neolithic settlement, is a giant square of 101 raised mounds, its opposite corners connected by a diagonal cross, covering more terrain than the Great Pyramid of Cheops.  Another is a kind of three-limbed swastika, its arms ending in zigzags bent counterclockwise.  Described last year at an archaeology conference in Istanbul as unique and previously unstudied, the earthworks, in the Turgai region of northern Kazakhstan, now number at least 260—mounds, trenches and ramparts—arrayed in five basic shapes.  Spotted on Google Earth in 2007 by a Kazakh economist and archaeology enthusiast, Dmitriy Dey, the so-called Steppe Geoglyphs remain deeply puzzling and largely unknown to the outside world.  Two weeks ago, in the biggest sign so far of official interest in investigating the sites, NASA released clear satellite photographs of some of the figures from about 430 miles up, showing details as small as 30 centimeters by 30 centimeters.  “You can see the lines which connect the dots,” Mr. Dey said.  In the Cretaceous Period 100 million years ago, Turgai was bisected by a strait from what is now the Mediterranean to the Arctic Ocean.  The rich lands of the steppe were a destination for Stone Age tribes seeking hunting grounds, and Mr. Dey’s research suggests that the Mahandzhar culture, which flourished there from 7,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C., could be linked to the older figures.  But scientists marvel that a nomadic population would have stayed in place for the time required to lay ramparts and dig out lake bed sediments to construct the huge mounds, originally 6 to 10 feet high and now 3 feet high and nearly 40 feet across.  Ralph Blumenthal   Read more and see pictures at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/science/nasa-adds-to-evidence-of-mysterious-ancient-earthworks.html

October 30, 2015  Newsmaker:  Pharrell Williams   The global pop star takes a break from his European tour to discuss the importance of libraries and literacy by  Sanhita SinhaRoy.   Grammy Award–winning singer, songwriter, and producer Pharrell Williams—best known for his 2014 global hit “Happy”—can now add “author” to his long list of accomplishments.  His recent picture book Happy! (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015) features photos of children around the world celebrating life’s joys.  A native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, Williams credits his mother, who is a librarian and teacher, for being the biggest influence in his life.  Williams is featured in a new READ poster, available at the ALA Store.  Read his responses to questions from American Libraries while on tour in Europe.  http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/10/30/newsmaker-pharrell-williams/

EGGS  The domestication of fowl greatly increased the availability of eggs to ancient peoples.  This is thought by some to have begun in China in 6,000 BC.  Culinary evidence confirms breads and cakes using eggs were made by Ancient Egyptian and Roman peoples.  The reason most often sited was the recognition that eggs worked as binding (thickening) agents.  The origin of deviled eggs can't be attributed to one specific person, company, date or town.  The concept of deviled eggs begins with Ancient Rome.  Spicy stuffed eggs were known in 13th century Andalusia.  The name is an 18th century invention.  Not long after the Ancient Greeks and Romans domesticated fowl, egg dishes of all kinds figured prominently in cookery texts.  Eggs were eaten on their own (omelets, scrambled) and employed as congealing agents (custard, flan, souffles).  The ancestor of deviled eggs?  The first recipes for stuffed, hard-boiled were printed in medieval European texts.  These cooks stuffed their eggs with raisins, cheese and sweet spices.  Find a food timeline and recipes at http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodeggs.html

Have you ever tried deviled eggs with guacamole?  So simple, yet brilliant.  The “deviled” part comes from the chile in the guacamole.  Avocados are naturally creamy so you don’t need mayonnaise.  Find recipe and links to other recipes for deviled eggs at http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/guacamole_deviled_eggs/  Serve with ham and have a Dr. Seuss party if you like.

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2, 1904, in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He published his first children's book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, under the name of Dr. Seuss in 1937.  Next came a string of best sellers, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham.  His rhymes and characters are beloved by generations.  At age 18, Geisel left home to attend Dartmouth College, where he became the editor in chief of its humor magazine, Jack-O-Lantern.  When Geisel and his friends were caught drinking in his dorm room one night, in violation of Prohibition law, he was kicked off the magazine staff, but continued to contribute to it using the pseudonym "Seuss."  http://www.biography.com/people/dr-seuss-9479638  See also

Dr. Seuss quotes  https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/61105.Dr_Seuss

In most English-speaking countries, Nimrod is used to denote a hunter or warrior, because the biblical Nimrod is described as "a mighty hunter".  In American English, however, the term assumed a derogatory meaning, probably because of Bugs Bunny's references to Elmer Fudd as a "poor little Nimrod".  While this was most likely using the term's "hunter" sense, it contributed to the development of a sense "one who was easily confounded".  An alternative explanation of this sense is that it derives from the John Steinbeck memoir Travels with Charley: In Search of America, in which Steinbeck used the term sarcastically while describing an inquest that was held after a hunter accidentally shot his partner:  "The coroner questioning this nimrod . . . "   The Oxford English Dictionary, in turn, cites a 1933 writing as the first usage of nimrod to refer to a fool, predating Bugs Bunny by at least five years and Steinbeck by nearly thirty:  in Hecht and Fowler's Great Magoo, someone remarks "He's in love with her.  That makes about the tenth.  The same old Nimrod.  Won't let her alone for a second."  However, this could still have been used in the sense of a hunter (i.e. someone pursuing a love interest).  Another possible source of the sense is the play "The Lion of the West" by James Paulding.  First performed in 1831, it features a comedic characterization of Davy Crockett named Col. Nimrod Wildfire who attempts to woo a young French woman.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nimrod

When lightning flashes it is seen instantly.  But the sound it creates—thunder—travels much slower.  When lightning strikes close, thunder is heard as a loud bang.  But, farther away from the strike, sound from the nearest part of the flash is heard first, followed in a continuous, rolling manner by sound from other parts of the flash.  Lightning experts talk about "cold" and "hot" lightning, but they aren't referring to the temperature.  The temperature of any lightning stroke ranges from around 15,000 to 60,000 degrees Fahrenheit.  The terms "hot" and "cold" lightning refer to how long the current flows.   Electricity has positive and negative charges.  Lightning scientists have found that most lightning "lowers negative charge to the ground."  In other words, during a lightning stroke some of the excess negative charge in a cloud zips to the ground.  They have also found that some lightning discharges bring positive charge to the ground.  In general, positive lighting has a stronger current and does more damage.  Flashes of lightning that hit towers and high buildings such as the Empire State Building are positive.  The term "heat lightning" is actually a misnomer.  It refers to lightning that occurs so far away—usually 10 miles or more—that the observer cannot hear any thunder.  The term likely originates from the fact that the lightning is seen during the type of thunderstorms that develop during the late afternoon or evening of hot summer days.  Florida is the lightning capital of the USA and, in particular, the west-central area of Florida, which includes Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando, has the highest frequency of lightning.  Cloud-to-ground lightning strikes there an average of 90 days a year, with each square mile in the region hit about 10 times annually.  According to lightning expert Martin Uman of the University of Florida's Lightning Resarch Group, the average lightning bolt is about an inch wide and five miles long.  However, there have been much longer bolts.  The longest bolt ever recorded crossed an electrifying 118 miles in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Lightning can soar to temperatures of approximately 50,000°, five times hotter than the surface of the sun, and can contain as much as 200 million volts of electricity.  Lightning can travel quite far from a storm.  A "bolt from the blue" refers to a lightning strike that comes out of the back of a storm cloud and hits where it isn't raining, sometimes up to 25 miles away.  http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/archives-lighting-science.htm  See also  http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/science/science_continuing%20current.htm

P.F. Sloan (born Philip Gary Schlein in 1945) a folk-rock musician of the 1960s whose two best-known songs—“Eve of Destruction” and “Secret Agent Man”—became major hits for other performers, died November 15, 2015 at the age of  70.  In a long but spotty career, Mr. Sloan was a songwriter, record producer and member in the 1960s of a Los Angeles recording-session coterie known as the Wrecking Crew.  The Turtles, Herman’s Hermits, the Searchers and other groups recorded his compositions.  With frequent songwriting partner Steve Barri, he recorded surf music as the Fantastic Baggys.  Mr. Sloan’s guitar work graced several recordings by the Mamas and the Papas including the introduction to “California Dreamin’ ” (1965).  Inspired by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and other events, he wrote “Eve of Destruction.”  Folk rockers the Byrds had already rejected the song when Barry McGuire, a former member of the folk group the New Christy Minstrels, recorded it.  McGuire’s label, Dunhill, had so little faith in it that they released it as a B side.  However, the 1965 recording beat Bob Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone” for the No.1 spot on the Billboard pop charts.  Conservatives objected to the lyrics, even as many liberals considered it a cheap attempt to capi­tal­ize on the anti-war movement.  In England, the BBC banned it, as did several U.S. radio stations.  And a group named the Spokesmen immediately recorded a conservative rebuttal, “The Dawn of Correction.”  “Secret Agent Man,” which Mr. Sloan and Barri co-wrote for singer Johnny Rivers, became the theme to the English spy show “Secret Agent” starring Patrick McGoohan (the program was originally called “Danger Man” in England).  Mr. Sloan’s simple guitar hook on Rivers’s 1966 recording made it a standard for fledgling garage bands.  At 12, Mr. Sloan said, he was inspired to pursue a music career after getting an impromptu guitar lesson from Elvis Presley on “Love Me Tender” when he met the entertainer at a Hollywood music store.  Terence McCardle  Read more at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/pf-sloan-folk-rock-songwriter-and-musician-dies-at-70/2015/11/17/5ebdabc4-8d36-11e5-ae1f-af46b7df8483_story.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1379  November 18, 2015  On this date in 1865, Mark Twain's short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published in the New York Saturday Press.  On this date in 1883, American and Canadian railroads instituted five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.  On this date in 1903, the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty was signed by the United States and Panama, giving the United States exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.

November 12, 2015  The House that Julia Built by Peter Sigal  It may come as a surprise to learn that Julia Child, America’s quintessential French chef, lived in France for only a short time.  But from her first breathless arrival in the fall of 1948 to her departure less than six years later en route to her husband’s diplomatic posts in Bonn and Oslo, few Americans had immersed themselves so deeply in the country’s cuisine.  So the thought of leaving France, where she had found her raison d’être, filled Julia with more than a touch of nostalgia, a rare feeling for a woman who was always resolutely looking ahead to the next adventure.  She and her husband, Paul, consoled themselves with the thought that “perhaps someday, we dreamed, we’d buy an apartment in Paris or a house in Provence, and would spend part of every year here.”  The house they did eventually build in Provence, La Pitchoune, became her link to France, a place she returned to again and again in her mind and in her recipes.  There, in the countryside just north of Cannes, Paul would paint, take photos and tinker in his wine cellar, and Julia would shop in the markets and cook with her collaborator, Simca Beck, on whose property La Pitchoune—or “The Little Thing”—was built.   Now La Peetch, as Julia called it, is for sale on the open market for the first time.  The next owner won’t have to work hard to imagine the Childs’ life there, as Julia’s kitchen remains largely intact since the last meal she cooked there, a typically Provençale boeuf en daube, in 1992.  The house is, by design, informal, and it sits lightly on the landscape, tucked into a hillside with views across a shallow valley to the hill town of Plascassier.  The story of how it came to be built, and how the Childs used it—and ultimately, walked away from it—reveals much about why Julia remains a beloved figure today, 11 years after her death at age 92 in 2004.  In 1961, Julia and Paul had just returned to the United States after 13 years abroad.  She could not have anticipated it, but the runaway success of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”—her long-gestating foray into “cookery-bookery”—and the subsequent television show “The French Chef,” were about to make her America’s first kitchen celebrity.  Two years later, feeling the pull of a constant work schedule “sucking at our feet,” they flew to France to visit the farmhouse owned by Ms. Beck and her husband, Jean Fischbacher, who was an engineer at a perfume company in Paris.  There, lulled by warm November breezes scented by lavender and mimosa, the four struck a handshake deal:  Julia and Paul would lease a potato patch near the farmhouse, where they would build a “simple, modest and as-maintenance-free-as-possible house.”  Once they no longer had any use for the house, they would return it to Simca and Jean.  They called it the house built on friendship,” said Alex Prud’homme, Julia Child’s grandnephew, who collaborated on a memoir, “My Life in France.”  La Pitchoune—three small bedrooms, a kitchen and an open-plan living/dining area in about 140 square meters, or 1,500 square feet—was finished by New Year’s 1966, and the couples toasted in style with oysters, foie gras and champagne.  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/13/greathomesanddestinations/the-house-that-julia-built.html

Farther refers to a greater distance, literal or metaphorical, from a shared measuring point.  Further refers to a greater progress in a shared direction.  The root of the confusion around the words lies in their etymologies.  The older of the two is further, and it originally didn’t have anything to do with far.  In modern English, a comparative is, of course, formed by adding -er to the end of a word.  Once upon a time—between the twelfth and the seventeenth centuries, the O.E.D. estimates—there was a comparative of far in English, and it was farrer, which no doubt went extinct because it’s the sort of word that doesn’t roll easily off one’s tongue unless one is a pirate.  Further seems to have begun life as the comparative of an altogether different word:  fore or forth.  In other words, further didn’t originally mean “more distant” but something like “more ahead,” or, as the contemporary O.E.D. puts it, “more forward, more onward.”  Caleb Crain  Read more at http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/further-and-farther-a-theory

Top Five Tornado Myths Debunked  1.  Opening windows during a tornado will relieve pressure and save a house from destruction.  2.  Seeking shelter under a highway overpass will protect you from a tornado.  3.  A green sky is an indicator that a tornado is coming.  4.  Tornadoes do not strike in cities.  5.  Taking cover in the southwest corner of your house will protect you from a tornado.  Read more and see graphics at http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/top-five-tornado-myths-debunke/61918

November 1, 2015  Forty strollers were double- and triple-parked on the main floor of the Fort Washington Library in Upper Manhattan.  As another one came through the door, Velda Asbury waved toward a spot beside a book stack.  Officially, Ms. Asbury is a library clerk, checking books in and out.  But every Wednesday she doubles as a parking attendant during one of the New York Public Library’s most popular programs:  story time.  “Good morning, little people,” she called out, as the library’s youngest patrons climbed, or were carried, up an old wooden staircase to the second floor for a 45-minute romp through books and music.  Among parents of the under-5 set, spots for story time have become as coveted as seats for a hot Broadway show like “Hamilton.”  Lines stretch down the block at some branches, with tickets given out on a first-come-first-served basis because there is not enough room to accommodate all of the children who show up.  Workers at the 67th Street Library on the Upper East Side of Manhattan turn away at least 10 people from every reading.  They have been so overwhelmed by the rush at story time—held in the branch’s largest room, on the third floor—that once the space is full, they close the door and shut down the elevator.  In New York, demand for story time has surged across the city’s three library systems—the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Library—and has posed logistical challenges for some branches, particularly those in small or cramped buildings.  Citywide, story time attendance rose to 510,367 people in fiscal year 2015, up nearly 28 percent from 399,751 in fiscal 2013.  The New York Public Library is adding 45 children’s librarians to support story time and other programs, some of which are run in partnership with the city government.  It has also designated 20 of its 88 neighborhood branches, including the Fort Washington Library, as “enhanced literary sites.”  As such, they will double their story time sessions, to an average of four a week, and distribute 15,000 “family literacy kits” that include a book and a schedule of story times.  Libraries around the country have expanded story time and other children’s programs in recent years, attracting a new generation of patrons in an age when online offerings sometimes make trips to the book stacks unnecessary.  Sari Feldman, president of the American Library Association, said such early-literacy efforts are part of a larger transformation libraries are undergoing to become active learning centers for their communities by offering services like classes in English as a second language, computer skills and career counseling.  Ms. Feldman said the increased demand for story time was a product, in part, of more than a decade of work by the library association and others to encourage libraries to play a larger role in preparing young children for school.  In 2004, as part of that effort, the association developed a curriculum, “Every Child Ready to Read,” that she said is now used by thousands of libraries.  Winnie Hu  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/02/nyregion/long-line-at-the-library-its-story-time-again.html?ref=education

One of the ways to form an adjective is to add the suffix ~ic or ~ical.  There is no clear rule about when to use which.  As a rule of thumb, many of the older nouns have the ~ical adjective, while most of the newer ones have ~ic suffix.  The suffix ~ic or ~ical means “connected with” in adjectives and nouns or refers to “that performs the action mentioned” in adjectives.  Especially, nouns that end with “logy” takes “logical” as the suffix when becoming an adjective.  The suffix is derived from French ~ique (or Latin ~icus or Greek ~ikos).  https://myooka.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/adjectives-beware-of-suffixes-ical-and-ic/  See also http://blog.metrolingua.com/2009/05/ic-vs-ical-distinctions-can-be-fickle.html

A belvedere  or belvidere (from Italian for "fair view") is an architectural structure sited to take advantage of a fine or scenic view.  While a belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building the actual structure can be of any form, whether a turret, a cupola, or an open gallery.  Or it may be a separate pavilion in a garden, or the term may be used for a paved terrace with a good viewpoint, but no actual building.  It may also be used for a whole building, as in the Belvedere, Vienna, a huge palace, or Belvedere Castle, a folly in New York.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvedere_(structure)  Find many uses of the word belvedere including place names and people at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belvedere

Odd Day--11/13/15-- is the last date with consecutive odd numbers for 90 years (until Jan. 3, 2105 or 1/3/5).   Ron Gordon, a retired school teacher from Redwood, Calif., created a whole website about it:  Oddday.net.  He has discovered several interesting oddities in the calendar, and he has websites for those too.  They include Square Root Day (4/4/16) and Trumpet Day (2/2/22 or "to to to tooo," get it?).   And yes, there's a Ladybug Day too.  It was 10/11/12, based on a Sesame Street song called The Ladybugs' Picnic that uses 10/11/12 in the refrain.  Kelly Lecker 
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/11/13/odd-day.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1378  November 16, 2015  On this date in 1750, Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough, English lawyer, judge, and politician, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, was born.  On this date in 1895,  Paul Hindemith, German violinist, composer, and conductor, was born. 

I saw a listing of hotels in a travel magazine with Oklahoma classified as Midwest.  This made me wonder:  just what states are considered in the Midwest.  Education Place lists 11 Midwest states, and Oklahoma is not one of them.  https://www.eduplace.com/ss/maps/pdf/midwestus.pdf  The U.S. Census Bureau lists 12 states in the Midwest and lists Oklahoma as one of 16 states in the South region.  http://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf  The Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor lists 10 states in the Midwest and lists Oklahoma as one of 11 states in the Southwest region. http://www.dol.gov/whd/programs/dbra/regions.htm

We've all been to the library to check out books, rent DVD's, and surf the web.  But now at three Phoenix libraries you can do more; work out.  Fit Phoenix unveiled a new way for people to improve their health all while reading a book.  These treadmill desks are available to use at three Phoenix libraries including; Palo Verde, Harmon, and Yucca.  "What you do is come to the library with your library card, check into the computer like you normally would with one of the normal , but it has a treamil with it, and you'll be able to walk slowly at 2 miles and hour while you use the computer," said Jon Brodsky.  Brodsky says they're always looking for ways to boost the health of the community, he's hoping these treadmills do just that.  "The funding came from an NFL Super Bowl legacy grant, so when the NFL was here they left grants to community organizations, we applied for one and we were excited to get one," said Brodsky.  On the treadmill you can basically do everything you would normally do sitting down at the library like surf the web, read a book, and it's safe for all ages.  Danielle Miller  http://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-news/40881133-story

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan.  It first appeared as a serial in Blackwood's Magazine in August and September 1915 before being published in book form in October that year by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh.  It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a miraculous knack for getting himself out of sticky situations.  The novel formed the basis for a number of film adaptations, notably:  Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 version; a 1959 colour remake; a 1978 version which is perhaps most faithful to the novel; and a 2008 version for British television.  The Thirty-Nine Steps is one of the earliest examples of the 'man-on-the-run' thriller archetype subsequently adopted by Hollywood as an often-used plot device.  In The Thirty-Nine Steps, Buchan holds up Richard Hannay as an example to his readers of an ordinary man who puts his country’s interests before his own safety.  The story was a great success with the men in the First World War trenches.  One soldier wrote to Buchan, "The story is greatly appreciated in the midst of mud and rain and shells, and all that could make trench life depressing."  Richard Hannay continued his adventures in four subsequent books.  Two were set during the war when Hannay continued his undercover work against the Germans and their allies the Turks in Greenmantle and Mr Standfast.  The other two stories, The Three Hostages and The Island of Sheep were set in the post war period when Hannay's opponents were criminal gangs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirty-Nine_Steps  See also http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/07/100-best-novels-39-thirty-nine-steps-john-buchan-robert-mccrum and http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/8243300/John-Buchan-and-The-Thirty-Nine-Steps.html

In the Words of Mark Twain, a performance by Judy Cook  Saturday, November 14, 2015  1-4 p.m.  Toledo-Lucas County Main Library  McMaster Center  325 Michigan St.  Toledo, OH   Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a larger-than-life American author and humorist.  Come hear his words, wit and wisdom interspersed with songs of the era and stories of the man himself.  Author and performer Judy Cook has been actively touring throughout both Britain and the United States for more than 15 years.  She is recognized for her in-depth research, dedication, understanding and storytelling ability.  Her presentation and delivery combine with her joy of singing to delight all listeners.  This program is FREE and open to the public.  Free on-site parking.  Sponsored by the Library Legacy Foundation

"Cook the onions and garlic and celery and carrots in a wading pool of good olive oil and bacon fat until they carmelized, growing sugar like a crop in a skillet field."  Off the Grid, a novel by P. J. Tracy (a pseudonym for American mother-daughter writing team Patricia (P. J.) and Traci Lambrecht.   

Dawn of the Selfie Era:  The Whos, Wheres, and Hows of Selfies on Instagram  Analysis of millions of photos shows that the amount of selfies has increased by 900 times from 2012 to 2014.  Selfies are an effective medium to grab attention; they generate on average 1.1–3.2 times more likes and comments than other types of content on Instagram.  See 11-page article at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.05700v1.pdf

Actor Ethan Hawke has written a book to help start a dialogue with his children, and provide guidance for parents and children around the world.  In Rules for a Knight, the four-time Oscar nominee and father of four outlines 20 guidelines to living a better, and more principled, life.  See BBC interview at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34805223  4:07

November 12, 2015  A woman is laughing, head tossed back, focused on something over her right shoulder.  A man stares at her, unsmiling.  The caption reads:  Spike your best friend’s eggnog when they’re not looking.  This advertisement, part of Bloomingdale's new holiday catalog, inspired instant backlash on the Web.  In response to the uproar, Bloomingdale’s issued a prompt apology:  “In reflection of recent feedback, the copy we used in our recent catalog was inappropriate and in poor taste.”  A spokesman wouldn’t say how the spiking directive was approved.  Bloomingdale's is the second large company this year to face accusations of promoting rape.  In April, 2015 an ill-fated Bud Light label went viral:  “The perfect beer for removing ‘no’ from your vocabulary for the night.”  Danielle Paquette     https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/12/what-a-creepy-bloomingdales-ad-tells-us-about-americas-understanding-of-rape/

A California judge threw away a copyright lawsuit against Taylor Swift by using Swift's own lyrics.  Musician Jessie Braham filed the suit claiming that Swift took lyrics from his song "Haters Gone Hate" and used them in her song "Shake It Off," the lead single from her hit "1989" album.  Where Braham's song includes the lyrics, "Haters gone hate, playas gone play.  Watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you every day," Swift's song goes, "'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate ... And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake."  In her dismissal of the case, District Court Judge Gail Standish borrowed words from Swift's songs "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "Blank Space."  "At present, the Court is not saying that Braham can never, ever, ever get his case back in court.  But, for now, we have got problems, and the Court is not sure Braham can solve them," she wrote.  See judge's order dated November 10, 2015 at http://www.businessinsider.com/judge-dismisses-taylor-swift-copyright-lawsuit-2015-11

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1377  November 13, 2015  On this date in 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicle tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.  On this date in 1940, Walt Disney's animated musical film Fantasia was first released, on the first night of a roadshow at New York's Broadway Theatre.  Word of the Day for November 13:  Romanesco noun  1.  Romanesco broccoli, a light-green edible flower bud of the species Brassica oleracea, which is thus related to broccoli and cauliflower.  Its form is a natural approximation of a fractal.  2.  Romanesco dialect, the dialect of Italian language spoken in Rome.

At the Brockton Public Library  http://www.brocktonpubliclibrary.org/, the artwork and some items relating to the city’s storied shoemaking past are in the process of being uploaded to Digital Commonwealth, an online, searchable database launched as an initiative between a Newton-based nonprofit, Digital Commonwealth Inc., and the Boston Public Library.  Anything digitized and posted at www.digitalcommonwealth.org is also sent to the Digital Library of America, adding to its collection from institutions across the country, said Celeste Bruno, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.  Most of the artwork is displayed in public areas of the library, including a grand piece titled “The Buccaneers,” by renowned marine artist Frederick J. Waugh, in the Teen Zone room.  In 2002, the last time the library had its works appraised, the 1910 piece was valued at $100,000, Lucia Shannon, head of adult services, said.  Another notable piece is Thomas Dewing’s “Green and White,” a 1910 pastel of a woman in a gown sitting on a bench.  Other artists whose works are featured include John Henry Twachtman and Thomas Eakins, whose portrait of the donor of the painting was valued at $115,000 in 2002.  Some pieces are hung away from the public eye in library offices, including a 17th-century Dutch still life by Jan Davidsz. de Heem valued at $25,000.  Older library buildings, like the Woburn Public Library, have limited space to display all of their treasures.  Had it not been for a Civil War encampment hosted by the library, one of its most rare artifacts—the small piece of President Lincoln’s coat—would not have been on public display, said Kathleen O’Doherty, the library’s director.  Lincoln’s wife, Mary, gave the coat to the couple’s favorite White House doorman, Alphonse Donn, who cut off pieces of it to give away as mementos to his visitors, according to a narrative from the Ford’s Theatre museum in Washington, D.C., where the coat is displayed.  The approximately 1½-inch snippet at the Woburn library was donated in 1892 by one of Mary’s nephews, according to the library’s archives.  Most of the items on exhibit throughout the building are part of the library’s art collection, which includes pieces by Benjamin Champney, a 19th-century painter renowned for his White Mountain works.  The 136-year-old building also boasts a museum on the top floor full of treasures, including two letters from 1776 and 1783 signed by George Washington.  In one he inquires about buying china and wine for his home, and in the other he is complaining to the Continental Congress.  In the museum is also an original copy of the first published history of New England from 1654, as well as a book of notable autographs, among them the signatures of Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.  Katheleen Conti  https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/south/2015/10/29/some-public-libraries-home-rare-and-valuable-treasures/8fkcR3FO3fqd2I74XdkCoL/story.html

Cucurbita (Latin for gourd) is a genus of herbaceous vine in the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, also known as cucurbits, native to the Andes and Mesoamerica.  Five species are grown worldwide for their edible fruit, variously known as squash, pumpkin, or gourd depending on species, variety, and local parlance, and for their seeds.  First cultivated in the Americas before being brought to Europe by returning explorers after their discovery of the New World, plants in the genus Cucurbita are important sources of human food and oil.  Other kinds of gourd, also called bottle-gourds, are native to Africa and belong to the genus Lagenaria, which is in the same family and subfamily as Cucurbita but in a different tribe.  These other gourds are used as utensils or vessels, and their young fruits are eaten much like those of Cucurbita species.  Most Cucurbita species are herbaceous vines that grow several meters in length and have tendrils, but non-vining "bush" cultivars of C. pepo and C. maxima have also been developed.  The yellow or orange flowers on a Cucurbita plant are of two types:  female and male.  The female flowers produce the fruit and the male flowers produce pollen.  Many North and Central American species are visited by specialist bee pollinators, but other insects with more general feeding habits such as honey bees also visit.  The fruits of the genus Cucurbita are good sources of several nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin C, niacin, folic acid, and iron, and like all plant products are free of cholesterol.  The plants contain the toxins cucurbitin, cucurmosin, and cucurbitacin.  There is some disagreement about how to handle the taxonomy of the genus; the number of species accepted by different specialists varies from 13 to 30.  In addition, the ancestry of some of the species that have been cultivated for millennia is uncertain.  The five domesticated species are Cucurbita argyrosperma, C. ficifolia, C. maxima, C. moschata, and C. pepo.  All of these can be treated as winter squash because the full-grown fruits can be stored for months; however, C. pepo includes some cultivars that are better used only as summer squash.  Cucurbita fruits have played a role in human culture for at least 2,000 years.  They are often represented in Moche ceramics from Peru.  After Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World, paintings of squashes started to appear in Europe early in the sixteenth century.  Among other uses, extracts are used in cosmetics for dry and sensitive skin.  The fruits have many culinary uses including pumpkin pie, biscuits, bread, desserts, puddings, beverages, and soups.  Pumpkins and other Cucurbita fruits are celebrated in festivals and in flower and vegetable shows in many countries.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita

Paraphrase from The Island Walkers, a novel by John Bemrose  Putting knowledge into words, it was exciting and liberating to see years of experience transformed, almost effortlessly, into the currency of language.

When Book Lovers Guarded Their Prized Possessions With Tiny Artworks by Hunter Oatman-Stanford   See pictures of beautiful bookplates at http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/when-book-lovers-guarded-their-prized-possessions-with-tiny-artworks/

A good average walking speed is 3 to 4 miles per hour and depends on your leg length and how quickly you can move your legs.  A 150-pound man burns 100 calories per mile; a 200-pound man burns 133 calories per mile; and a 250-pound man burns 166 calories per mile.  You burn virtually the same number of calories whether you run or walk a mile.  You burn more calories:  when the temperature is cold compared with hot because your body works harder to keep you warm; when it's humid and warm than dry and cool in an attempt to stay cool; when the terrain is hilly than when it's flat because it requires more energy to climb hills; and when you wear heavy, restrictive clothing compared with workout gear.  http://www.medicinenet.com/walking/page5.htm

Restoring the Long-Lost Sounds of Native American California by Leah Rose  In November 2015, researchers at UC Berkeley will begin a three-year project to restore and translate thousands of century-old audio recordings of Native California Indians.  The collection was created by cultural anthropologists in the first half of the 20th century and is now considered the largest audio repository of California Indian culture in the world.  Nearly a third of the 2,713 recordings come from Ishi, the storied last member of the Yahi tribe who lived the last years of his life inside the University of California’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.  Read more and see graphics at

http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/10/25/restoring-the-long-lost-sounds-of-native-california

A RIDDLE WRAPPED IN AN ENIGMA  In August 2015, the U.S. government’s National Security Agency (NSA) released a major policy statement on the need to develop standards for post-quantum cryptography (PQC).  The NSA believes that the time is right to make a major push to design public-key cryptographic protocols whose security depends on hard problems that cannot be solved efficiently by a quantum computer.  See 20-page paper at https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/1018.pdf

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1376  November 11, 2015  On this date in 1918,  Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car in the forest of Compiègne, France.  The fighting officially ended at 11:00 a.m., (the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) and this is commemorated annually with a two minute silence.  World War I officially ended on the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.  Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans--persons who served in the United States Armed Forces.  It coincides with other holidays, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day.  The U.S. previously observed Armistice Day, and the holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.  Word of the Day:  Catch-22  noun   A difficult situation from which there is no escape because it involves mutually conflicting or dependent conditions.   On this day in 1961, Joseph Heller's book Catch-22 was published.