Vinegar Pie  A cousin to chess and pecan pie fillings (minus the nuts), this pie is made from humble, on-hand ingredients.  For a gluten-free dessert, transfer the filling to a store-bought gluten-free crust.  The recipe is based on one included in an old Grange cookbook.  The Grange, a farmers fraternal association organized in 1867, is still active today.  Marlene Parrish  Find recipe at https://www.post-gazette.com/life/recipes/2018/07/02/vinegar-pie-recipe-southern-amish/stories/201807020015

The P.E.O. Sisterhood (Philanthropic Educational Organization) is a U.S.-based international women's organization of about 230,000 members, with a primary focus on providing educational opportunities for female students worldwide.  The Sisterhood is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, with chapters throughout the United States and Canada.  Among other projects, it owns and supports Cottey College, an independent college for women in Nevada, Missouri.  The Sisterhood was founded on January 21, 1869, as a seven-member sorority at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa.  It was the second sorority to be founded in the U.S., after I. C. Sorosis (now known as Pi Beta Phi) in Monmouth, Illinois in April 1867.  The organization was originally rooted in the philosophy and institutions of the Methodist Church, which actively promoted women's rights and education in America during the 19th century.  Further chapters were founded, and in 1883 local chapters of the P.E.O. founded a "Supreme Chapter" to coordinate the Sisterhood on a national level.  The first International chapter (i.e. outside the United States) was established in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1911.  For much of its history, the meaning of "P.E.O." in the organization's name was a closely guarded secret and was never made public.  In 1924, it was said that "These letters are 'mystic'.  None save the initiated know their meaning."  The organization's avoidance of publicity, and the secrecy of its name, caused it to be regarded as a "secret society".  In 2005, the Sisterhood unveiled a new logo and an "It's OK to Talk About P.E.O." campaign, which sought to raise the public profile of the organization while nonetheless maintaining its traditions of secrecy.  In 2008, it revised its website to indicate that "P.E.O." now publicly stands for "Philanthropic Educational Organization".  However, the Sisterhood acknowledges that "P.E.O." originally had a different meaning that continues to be "reserved for members only", and so the public meaning is not the only one.  Sources outside of P.E.O. have suggested that the secret meaning is "Protect Each Other".  Membership in P.E.O. is by invitation but is not secret.  Meetings for members are, however, highly guarded, and a secret password must be used to prove membership.  They are opened with prayers and with inspirational readings chosen by members, but P.E.O. meetings and activities do not reference, require or promote any particular religion or religious practice, except for a belief in God.  Meetings follow a structured agenda, but do not involve religious rites, and do not meet any formal definition of "ritualistic".  At her initiation, every member receives a P.E.O. emblem, a five-pointed star.  Members are encouraged to wear their emblems on January 21, Founders' Day.  The emblem is lent to the individual for as long as she remains an active member of a chapter.  On her death, it may be buried with her if she has requested this in writing:  otherwise, it is to be returned to her chapter or to the P.E.O. Executive.  The P.E.O. official flower is the marguerite daisy.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P.E.O._Sisterhood  Thank you, Muse reader!

A fortified wine is a delicious, viscous wine-based sipping treat that is often enjoyed as a drink before or after dinner.  The most common types of fortified wines are Madeira, Marsala, port, sherry, and vermouth.  These still wines have been "fortified" with a distilled spirit such as brandy.  The original use of fortification was to preserve the wine, as casks of wine were prone to turn to vinegar during long sea voyages.  The spirit added might also enhance the wine's natural flavors.  The liquor is added to the base wine during fermentation.  This fortifying of the wine brings the average alcohol content up to around 17 to 20 percent alcohol by volume.  Fortified wines can be made in either a dry or a sweet style.  The middle-ground of medium-sweet or medium-dry is covered in virtually all of the fortified wine categories and they will vary from one producer to the next.  Since fortified wines vary by style, it's difficult to give general guidelines about storing and serving.  While it is best to look into the recommendations for a particular type, there are a few suggestions you can keep in mind.  Unopened bottles of fortified wine can be stored in a cool, dark location.  Some, such as fino and manzanilla sherry, should not sit on the shelf long after bottling.  Others will be okay for a few months.  With a few exceptions, you can think of the shelf life of most fortified wine as falling in between that of wine and liquor.  Once opened, it is best to drink fortified wines as soon as possible.  However, vermouth can retain its flavor for up to three months.  All open bottles of fortified wine should be stored upright in the refrigerator.  Stacy Slinkard  https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-a-fortified-wine-3510908

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain.  Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versions similar to white table wines, such as Manzanilla and Fino, to darker and heavier versions that have been allowed to oxidise as they age in barrel, such as Amontillado and Oloroso.  Sweet dessert wines are also made from Pedro Ximénez or Moscatel grapes, and are sometimes blended with Palomino-based sherries.  The word "Sherry" is an anglicisation of Xeres (Jerez).  Sherry was previously known as sack, from the Spanish saca, meaning "extraction" from the solera. In Europe, "Sherry" has protected designation of origin status, and under Spanish law, all wine labelled as "Sherry" must legally come from the Sherry Triangle, an area in the province of Cádiz between Jerez de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa María.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherry

Essay by Richard Hildreth   Aelita abides.  Rarely seen, it’s a silent film known mostly from photos featuring oddly-garbed women posing amid disorienting geometric shapes.  Foreign distributors saddled it with the embarrassing subtitles “Queen of Mars” or “Revolt of the Robots.”  In 1929, Aelita was described by the New York Times as “far more interesting to read about than to gaze upon.”  Faint praise from later generations added to the film’s burial mound that was first formed by Soviet critics like Anatoli Goldobin, who wrote in 1925:  “The much-talked-about Aelita was received by worker audiences in the provinces with considerable doubt as to its usefulness.”  By 1948, the film had taken on chimerical characteristics. British filmmaker and critic Thorold Dickinson wrote, “It would be interesting to meet someone who has actually seen Aelita.”  This neglect belies the film’s popularity with Soviet filmgoers, its influence over the look of future science fiction films, and its psychological storyline, which resonates in films noir and in the work of filmmakers as diverse as Andrei Tarkovsky, Alfred Hitchcock, and David Lynch.  Musician Dennis James, hoping to spark a revival for Aelita in 1992, told the San Francisco Chronicle that the film is “a picture window into Soviet society when Utopian goals were considered positive things.”  James then premiered a new score featuring the organ and the first electronic musical instrument, the theremin, created in 1920 by Russian inventor Lev Sergeivich Termen.  Some 86 years after its initial release, Aelita still waits to be acknowledged for its importance in cinema history.  The film’s script is based on a 1923 novella by Aleksey N. Tolstoy, a distant cousin of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy.  While both stories are set after the Bolshevik Revolution, the film, unlike the novel, is primarily concerned with the Russian Civil War (1917–1923), which caused famine and displacements.  The collapsed economy led revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin in 1921 to establish the New Economic Policy (NEP), a capitalist mini-economy within the Communist state.  Relaxed state control of some industries created a profit incentive, freeing hoarded capital and boosting living standards, but also encouraging graft and corruption.   http://www.silentfilm.org/archive/aelita-queen-of-mars-1924  Guitarist Marc Ribot will perform during Aelita:  Queen of Mars (1 hour, 30 minutes) at Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle Theatre, 2445 Monroe Street on Thursday, February 6, 2020 at 7:00 p.m.  Tickets are $5 for members, $7 for nonmembers and $4 for students and military.  https://www.toledo.com/events/concerts-live-music/2020/02/06/marc-ribot-at-toledo-museum-of-art/

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine is the 2017 debut novel of Gail Honeyman, and the winner of the 2017 Costa Debut Novel Award.  The novel focuses on 29-year-old Eleanor Oliphant, a social misfit who becomes enamoured of a singer she sees performing named Johnnie Lomond, whom she believes she is destined to be with.  It deals with themes of isolation and loneliness.  In May 2017 the film rights were optioned by Reese Witherspoon's company Hello Sunshine; and in December 2018 it was announced that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would also be involved in the production.   

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

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2214  January 22, 2020

Translator Ken Liu has done more than anyone to bridge the gap between Chinese science fiction and American readers.  Educational Publications Import and Export Corporation, Ltd. was seeking an English-language translator for a trippy science-fiction novel titled “The Three-Body Problem.”  Liu — an American computer programmer turned corporate lawyer turned science-fiction writer—was a natural choice:  fluent in Mandarin, familiar with Chinese sci-fi tropes and culture and a rising star in the genre.  Liu had only translated short fiction at the time, though, and capturing the novel in all its complexity seemed daunting.  “The Three-Body Problem” was unlike anything Liu had ever read.  A mind-bending epic set in Beijing, Inner Mongolia and on a distant planet, the novel was full of heady technical passages about quantum theory, nanotechnology, orbital mechanics and astrophysics, intertwined with profound moral questions about the nature of good and evil and humanity’s place in the universe.  But as he began translating, Liu was confronted by what seemed like a more fundamental problem:  The narrative structure didn’t make sense.  The story careered around in time, bouncing between present-day China, as a panic builds among scientists and government officials over a coming alien invasion, and Beijing in 1967, near the start of the Cultural Revolution, when an astrophysicist watches helplessly as her father, a physics professor, is killed by members of Mao’s Red Guard for being a “reactionary academic authority.”  When the English translation of “The Three-Body Problem” was published in 2014, it was hailed as a groundbreaking work of speculative fiction.  President Barack Obama praised the novel, calling it “just wildly imaginative.”  Mark Zuckerberg recommended it to his tens of millions of Facebook followers; George R.R. Martin blogged about it.  Publishers around the world chased after translation rights, which eventually sold in 26 languages, including Turkish and Estonian.  It won the 2015 Hugo Award, one of the genre’s most prestigious honors, making Liu Cixin the first Asian author to win the prize for best novel.  It was also the first time a novel in translation had won the prize.  The book and its two sequels went on to sell nearly nine million copies worldwide.  Liu told me that he never set out to be a translator, a profession that doesn’t pay especially well.  “Translation seemed incredibly boring and technical,” he says.  In fact, it was a Chinese writer who first discovered Liu, not the other way around.  In 2009, Chen Qiufan read one of Liu’s short stories, “The Algorithms for Love,” in an online English-language sci-fi magazine, and sent Liu an email to say how much he liked it.  They kept in touch, and a year later, Chen asked Liu for his opinion on an English translation of one of his stories, which he had commissioned from a translation company. Liu wasn’t impressed and offered to edit it, but ended up redoing the translation from scratch.  The story, “The Fish of Lijiang,” takes place in a future China, where corporations manipulate their employees’ sense of the passage of time in order to boost workers’ productivity.  Liu’s translation was published in the sci-fi magazine Clarkesworld in 2011, and won the Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Award for short fiction the following year.  Alexandra Alter  Read much more at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/magazine/ken-liu-three-body-problem-chinese-science-fiction.html

Robert Burns was born in 1759, in Alloway, Scotland, to William and Agnes Brown Burnes.  Like his father, Burns was a tenant farmer.  However, toward the end of his life he became an excise collector in Dumfries, where he died in 1796; throughout his life he was also a practicing poet.  His poetry recorded and celebrated aspects of farm life, regional experience, traditional culture, class culture and distinctions, and religious practice.  He is considered the national poet of Scotland.  Although he did not set out to achieve that designation, he clearly and repeatedly expressed his wish to be called a Scots bard, to extol his native land in poetry and song, as he does in “The Answer”:  Ev’n thena wish (I mind its power); A wish, that to my latest hour; Shall strongly heave my breast; That I for poor auld Scotland’s sake Some useful plan, or book could make, Or sing a sang at least.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/robert-burns

January 26, 2018  Between 70 and 80 people came out to the Sylvan Lake Legion to celebrate Scotland’s greatest poet, Robbie Burns.  The Legion’s 23rd annual dinner is one of thousands that take place across the world to celebrate the life and works of the prolific poet.  The night is full of music thanks to the Scottish bagpipes, dancing, poetry and food--complete with the Scottish delicacy haggis.  “If anyone tells you they don’t like haggis, they are wrong,” joked piper Michael McLetchie.  As is customary with Robbie Burns dinners, which always take place on or around Jan. 25, the haggis was piped in and “Address to a Haggis” is recited before dinner can start.  McLetchie gave an animated recital of the poem, which had the audience members enthralled.  Supper was done by the members of the Ladies Auxiliary and consisted of salad, chappit tatties (mashed potatoes with chopped greens), bashed neeps (mashed turnips with spices), pease (Middle English for peas), roast beef, haggis and an apple tart for dessert.  Highland dancers from Bain School of Dancing entertained the audience with beautiful and enthusiastic moves.  All of the young dancers at the event compete at a national level, and have many awards to accompany them.  Of the 23 years the Sylvan Lake Legion has been hosting a Robbie Burns night, the Bain School of Dancing has attended and danced for 22 years.  Over the course of the night, the event followed with a traditional program consisting of many toasts, which the Legion provided tomato juice for.  “I’m not going to say why, I’ll leave it to your imagination, just why the Scots love a toast,” Master of Ceremonies, and Sylvan Lake-Innisfail MLA Don MacIntyre said.  The night ended with the singing of the Burns classic “Auld Lang Syne” and some ceildh dancing.  Megan Roth   See graphics at https://www.sylvanlakenews.com/community/robbie-burns-day-celebrates-life-and-works-of-poet/

Richard Powers’ “The Overstory” is a fictional book about trees and a group of people who decide to defend them.  But along the way, readers also find out many surprising facts about trees’ own capabilities, including how they communicate, protect themselves and each other, and even give back to forests after death.  After finishing the novel, many readers had one question for Powers:  what books about trees did he read to inform this one?  In this article, Powers shares his bibliography for “The Overstory”–26 books that contain a wide range of information about trees, from how the American Chestnut disappeared to histories of radical forest activism.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/loved-the-overstory-richard-powers-recommends-26-other-books-on-trees

Lyman Beecher (1775–1863) was a Presbyterian minister, American Temperance Society co-founder and leader, and the father of 13 children, many of whom became noted figures, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, Isabella Beecher Hooker, Catharine Beecher and Thomas K. Beecher.  Beecher was proverbially absent-minded, and after having been wrought up by the excitement of preaching was accustomed to relax his mind by playing "Auld Lang Syne" on the violin, or dancing the "double shuffle" in his parlor.   Link to Beecher Family Papers at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyman_Beecher

The Temperance Movement was an organized effort during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to limit or outlaw the consumption and production of alcoholic beverages in the United States.  The largest organization established to advocate temperance was the American Temperance Society.  By the mid-1830s, more than 200,000 people belonged to this organization.  The American Temperance Society published tracts and hired speakers to depict the negative effects of alcohol upon people.  The American Civil War (1861-1865) weakened the temperance movement both nationally and within Ohio, but concerns regarding alcohol usage quickly returned upon the war's conclusion.  During the late 1800s, the United States was shifting from a national economy based principally on agriculture to a more industrialized one.  Westerville, Ohio appeared on the national stage in 1909, when the Anti-Saloon League moved its headquarters to the town from Washington, D.C.  Westerville's long history of support for prohibition persuaded the organization's leadership to relocate.  As a result of its association with the Anti-Saloon League, the community earned the nickname of the "Dry Capital of the World."  The temperance advocates faced some opposition for their activities. Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati city governments passed laws forbidding the marches, claiming that they impeded traffic. Ministers of some churches chastised the women for not acting in a lady-like manner.  The temperance movement continued through the late nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. Advocates during this time period became much more politically active, primarily through their support of the Progressive Movement.  In 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution went to effect.  This amendment outlawed the production and the sale of alcohol in the United States. Prohibition remained in effect until the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.  With the Eighteenth Amendment's repeal, organized temperance movements declined in popularity and in power.

https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Temperance_Movement  Link to prohibition cartoons and other relevant information at https://prohibition.osu.edu/

Maria Eliza Rundell (1745-1828) was an English writer.  In 1805 when she was over 60, she sent an unedited collection of recipes and household advice to her friend John Murray, of whose family owned a publishing house.  Murray published the work, A New System of Domestic Cookery, in November 1805.  It was a huge success and several editions followed; the book sold around half a million copies in Rundell's lifetime.  The book was aimed at middle class housewives.  In addition to dealing with food preparation, it offers advice on medical remedies and how to set up a home brewery and includes a section entitled "Directions to Servants".  The book contains an early recipe for tomato sauce—possibly the first—and the first recipe in print for Scotch eggs.  Rundell also advises readers on being economical with their food and avoiding waste.  In 1819 Rundell asked Murray to stop publishing Domestic Cookery, as she was increasingly unhappy with the way the work had declined with each subsequent edition.  She wanted to issue a new edition with a new publisher.  A court case ensued, and legal wrangling between the two sides continued until 1823, when Rundell accepted Murray's offer of £2,100 for the rights to the work.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Rundell

Pistachio Semolina Cake from Eat. Cook. L.A. by Aleksandra Crapanzano.  This recipe, which is from Los Angeles chef Jessica Koslow of Sqirl, is a take on the classic Middle East nut cake.  Jessica’s version uses pistachios instead of the oft used almonds and is soaked in a Cardamom Rose Water Syrup.  The result?  A supremely moist, mysteriously fragrant sweet that gets better as the day goes on.  https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/pistachio-semolina-cake  makes a 10-inch cake

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2213  January 20, 2020

Opened in October 2012, the Houdini Museum of New York contains several hundred pieces of ephemera, most of which belonged to magician and escape artist Harry Houdini.  Of the museum's many pieces, Houdini's 1907 escape coffin (in which Houdini was sealed with six-inch nails and subsequently escaped), the "robot" from Houdini's 1919 silent film The Master Mystery, and Houdini's Metamorphosis Trunk are the largest.  Other notable pieces include the original bust from Houdini's grave (on loan to the museum from S.A.M. Parent Assembly Number One), Bess Houdini's stage outfit and a large selection of smaller pieces such as Houdini's personal magic and escape props.  There are also many items related to Houdini's interest in the debunking of spiritualists.  It is in an unassuming and almost unheralded location, and as such is easily missed.  The museum is owned by Houdini collector Roger Dreyer (also the owner and CEO of Fantasma Magic) and was designed by architect and designer David Rockwell.  It features over 1,500 pieces of "Houdiniana," which portends an "ever changing display."  Dreyer's Houdini collection is the second-largest in the world; the first being the collection of Las Vegas illusionist David Copperfield.  Link to information on other Houdini museums at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houdini_Museum_of_New_York  See also https://www.houdinimuseumny.com/visit/

Quince is an ancient fruit, found in Roman cooking and grown across Turkey and southeast Asia.  It grows on small trees and is closely related to apples and pears, but it lacks their immediate edibility and appeal.  The fruit is knobbly and ugly, with an irregular shape and often a gray fuzz—especially when the fruit has been picked underripe.  It’s completely inedible when raw, which puts it even above the Hachiya persimmon in unapproachable astringency.  (At least the persimmon will ripen, eventually, into edible sweetness.)  The first clue that quince hides something special is its aroma.  If you leave a quince on a sunny windowsill it will slowly release a delicate fragrance of vanilla, citrus, and apple into your kitchen.  It’s a heady, perfumed scent that is completely at odds with its appearance.  And then, if you peel a quince and hack it up, then cook it, those scents blossom into an indescribably wonderful perfume, and the fruit itself magically turns from yellowed white to a deep rosy pink.  When you stew quince in sugar and a little water or wine, it becomes not just edible but delicious—sweet, delicate, fragrant.  Faith Durand  Link to recipes at https://www.thekitchn.com/quince-tough-fall-fruit-with-a-secret-reward-ingredient-intelligence-73041

December 9, 2019  The current record for most expensive religious book ever sold was set in 2017 when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints spent $35 million on a handwritten printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon.  Dating back to 1830, this volume was used to print the earliest copies of the Book of Mormon.  If you’re curious, the most expensive Bible ever is a Gutenberg Bible sold for $5.39 million ($12.2 million) in 1987; the most expensive Talmud went for $9.3 million ($10.1 million) in 2015; and the most expensive Quran was a 7th century fragment that sold for $4.9 million ($5.8 million) in 2008.  Action Comics #1, featuring the debut of the world’s first superhero, Superman, has been the world’s most expensive comic for years.  The current record is $3.2 million ($3.5 million) for a copy sold in 2014.  Not bad, considering it originally sold for ten cents.  Eileen Gonzalez  https://bookriot.com/2019/12/09/most-expensive-books-ever-sold/

Seven Sisters Road is a road in north London, England which runs within the boroughs of Islington, Hackney and Haringey.  It is an extension of Camden Road, running from Holloway Road (the A1 road) at the Nags Head crossroads then on to another crossroads with Blackstock Road and Stroud Green Road.  It carries on uphill alongside Finsbury Park to Manor House, and from there downhill to the junction with Tottenham High Road (the A10 road) at Seven Sisters Corner.  The road was authorised in 1829 and constructed in 1833 by the Metropolitan Turnpike Trust.   Seven Sisters Road is part of the A503. The stretch running past Finsbury Park is open to the park on the west side, and on the east side are large Victorian villas now used mainly as hotels.  See references in popular culture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Sisters_Road  See also https://londonist.com/2014/11/who-were-the-seven-sisters

“Do Good, do Bad, do Nothing.”  “There is a lasting pleasure in the exercise of the mind.”  “Finnish is a very strange language.  Strange historically, strange etymologically, strange on the page.  It clusters, it rattles and spatters.”  The Seven Sisters, a novel by Margaret Drabble 

Novelist, biographer and critic Margaret Drabble was born in Sheffield on 5 June 1939.  She was educated at the Mount School, a Quaker boarding school in York, and read English at Newnham College, Cambridge.  She became an actress and worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon before her first novel, A Summer Birdcage, the story of the relationship between two sisters, was published in 1963.  https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/margaret-drabble  See also Margaret Drabble, The Art of Fiction No. 70, an interview by Barbara Milton at

https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3440/margaret-drabble-the-art-of-fiction-no-70-margaret-drabble

Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) is one of the greatest twentieth century sculptors and arguably the most significant female artist of the period.  Along with her contemporaries Ben Nicholson (1894-1982), Naum Gabo (1890-1977), and Henry Moore (1898-1986), Hepworth was a huge influence on the development of modern art in general and abstract sculpture in particular--especially biomorphic abstraction.  In her celebrated 1931 work Pierced Form, she introduced the 'hole' to Modern British sculpture (1930-70).  Its form impressed Henry Moore so much that the following year he started carving holes in his works.  Read much more and see list of selected sculptures at http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/barbara-hepworth.htm

India is home to several hundred languages.  Most Indians speak a language belonging to the families of the Indo-Aryan branch of Indo-European (c. 77%), the Dravidian (c. 20.61%), the Austroasiatic (Munda) (c. 1.2%), or the Sino-Tibetan (c. 0.8%), with some languages of the Himalayas still unclassified.  The SIL Ethnologue lists 415 living languages for India.  India's central government has 23 constitutionally recognized official languages.  Hindi and English are typically used as an official language by the central government.  State governments use their respective official languages.  Hindi is the most widely spoken language in the northern parts of India.  The Indian census takes the widest possible definition of "Hindi" as a broad variety of the "Hindi Belt".  According to 2001 Census, 53.6% of the Indian population declared that they speak Hindi as either their first or second language, in which 41% of them have declared it as their native language or mother tongue.  12% of Indians declared that they can speak English as a second language.  Thirteen languages account for more than 1% of Indian population each, and between themselves for over 95%; all of them are "scheduled languages of the constitution".  Of the Indian population in 1991, 19.4% exhibited bilingualism and 7.2% exhibited trilingualism.  India has a Greenberg's diversity index of 0.914—i.e. two people selected at random from the country will have different native languages in 91.4% of cases.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers_in_India

The Tolkien family is an English family of German descent whose best-known member is J. R. R. Tolkien, Oxford academic and author of the fantasy books The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.  See list of family members at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_family 

January 16, 2020  Christopher Tolkien, the son of Lord Of The Rings author JRR Tolkien, has died aged 95.  Tolkien, who was born in Leeds in 1924, was the third and youngest son of the revered fantasy author and his wife Edith.  He grew up listening to his father’s tales of Bilbo Baggins, which later became the children’s fantasy novel, The Hobbit.  He drew many of the original maps detailing the world of Middle-earth for his father’s The Lord of the Rings when the series was first published between 1954 and 55.  He also edited much of his father’s posthumously published work following his death in 1973.  Nicola Slawson  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95

Marion Gibbons (née Chesney; 10 June 1936–30 December 2019) was a Scottish writer of romance and mystery novels since 1979.  She wrote numerous successful historical romance novels under a form of her maiden name, Marion Chesney, including the Travelling Matchmaker and Daughters of Mannerling series.  Using the pseudonym M. C. Beaton, she also wrote many popular mystery novels, most notably the Agatha Raisin and Hamish Macbeth mystery series.  Both of these book series have been adapted for TV.  She also wrote romance novels under the pseudonyms Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester.  See bibliography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Chesney

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2212  January 17, 2020

A kangaroo court is a court that ignores recognized standards of law or justice and often carries little or no official standing in the territory within which it resides.  The term kangaroo court is often erroneously believed to have its origin from the courts of Australia's penal colonies.  The Oxford English Dictionary cites the first published instance of the term as from an American source, A Stray Yankee in Texas by Philip Paxton, published in the year 1853.  There are, however, earlier instances of the term including an 1841 article in The Daily Picayune in New Orleans that quotes another publication, the Concordia Intelligencer reporting several lynchings instituted "on charges of the Kangaroo court."   Some sources suggest that it may have been popularized during the California Gold Rush of 1849 to which many thousands of Australians flocked.  In consequence of the Australian diggers' presence, it may have come about as a description of the hastily carried-out proceedings used to deal with the issue of claim jumping miners.  Ostensibly, the term comes from the notion of justice proceeding "by leaps", like a kangaroo--in other words, "jumping over" (intentionally ignoring) evidence that would be in favour of the defendant.  An alternative theory is that as these courts are often convened quickly to deal with an immediate issue, they are called kangaroo courts as they have "jumped up" out of nowhere like a kangaroo.  Another possibility is that the phrase could refer to the pouch of a kangaroo, meaning the court is in someone's pocket.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangaroo_court  Kangaroo court   Find synonyms and link to antonyms at https://www.powerthesaurus.org/kangaroo_court/synonyms

Madison Square is a public square formed by the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway at 23rd Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan.  The square was named for James Madison, fourth President of the United States.  The focus of the square is Madison Square Park, a 6.2-acre (2.5-hectare) public park, which is bounded on the east by Madison Avenue (which starts at the park's southeast corner at 23rd Street); on the south by 23rd Street; on the north by 26th Street; and on the west by Fifth Avenue and Broadway as they cross.  The park and the square are at the northern (uptown) end of the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan.  The neighborhood to the north and west of the park is NoMad ("NOrth of MADison Square Park") and to the north and east is Rose Hill.  Madison Square is probably best known around the world for providing the name of Madison Square Garden, a sports arena and its successor which were located just northeast of the park for 47 years, until 1925.  The current Madison Square Garden, the fourth such building, is not in the area.  Notable buildings around Madison Square include the Flatiron Building, the Toy Center, the New York Life Building, the New York Merchandise Mart, the Appellate Division Courthouse, the Met Life Tower, and One Madison Park, a 50-story condominium tower.  Read much more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Square_and_Madison_Square_Park  See also https://www.msg.com/madison-square-garden

“Toy libraries,” where children could borrow most any kind of toy from a shiny red fire wagon to a quacking Donald Duck, brightened the lives of thousands of San Diego children during the dark days of the Great Depression.  A project of the federal Works Progress Administration, the program operated in large cities across the country, and sponsored more than twenty toy lending centers in San Diego in the late 1930s.  It began in San Diego as the “Toy and Furniture Repair Project” in December 1936.  In a former industrial building at Main and Crosby Streets, WPA workers cleaned and repaired 2000 toys collected by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Most of the toys had come from the blackened ruins of Whitney’s Department Store—a downtown merchandiser that had burned in a spectacular fire on October 21, 1936.  The next year San Diego’s first “toy library” opened from a bungalow on the campus of Alice Birney Elementary School.  Other toy centers quickly followed.  Every time a toy was returned in good condition, the child received a star after their name.  Twenty-five stars awarded the child a toy they could keep permanently.  Remarkably, many San Diego children had never had toys.  In the hard times of the 1930s, toys were a luxury that many parents could not afford.  “Yesterday I went home and washed my doll clothes,” wrote an excited San Ysidro girl to her local library.  “It is nice to get a new toy every week.  We never had any toys in our lives before.”  Like other WPA programs, the toy loan libraries ended by 1943, shortly after the start of World War II.  http://www.sandiegoyesterday.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Toy-Loan-Libraries.pdf

Wooden lace of Russian architecture   Natural building material in Russia has long served wood and clay.  Wood as the main construction material was used since ancient times.  The outer parts of houses were richly decorated with wood carvings, motifs of which had a magical protective meaning.  See beautiful illustration at   https://allrus.me/wooden-lace-of-russian-architecture/ 

  See also https://viola.bz/wooden-houses-of-an-old-siberian-town-tomsk/

RULES OF PROCEDURE AND PRACTICE IN THE SENATE WHEN SITTING ON IMPEACHMENT TRIALS  [Revised pursuant to S. Res. 479, 99-2, Aug. 16, 1986]  https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SMAN-113/html/SMAN-113-pg223.htm

'OK Boomer' makes it to the Supreme Court  January 15, 2020  U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts--who will preside over a Senate trial--was flexing his knowledge of intergenerational catchphrases.  The Supreme Court justices were hearing a case concerning the standard a federal employee must meet to show that his employer had engaged in unlawful age discrimination, when Roberts, 64, uttered the rallying cry of members of Generation Z.  What if a hiring person were to say, "OK Boomer," Roberts asked.  "Is that actionable?"  Laughter ensued in the courtroom.  The lawyer at the podium, Roman Martinez, who was born in 1978, didn't skip a beat even though it was likely the first time the phrase had been uttered in the hallowed chamber.  "Well if the speech in the workplace . . . calling someone 'Boomer' or saying unflattering things about them in age, when considering them for a position, then yes of course," he said.  Ariane de Vogue   https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/15/politics/ok-boomer-john-roberts/index.html

Sneers and snide coincide.  Boomer (for no good reason) joined the ranks of snarky remarks by 2019.  Other put-downs include:  bean counters for accountants, shopkeepers (aimed by Nazis at the English during World War II), and who knows how many dismissive terms for lawyers, librarians and teachers.

Bean counter is a disparaging term for an accountant, or anyone excessively concerned with statistical records or accounts.  Bean counters, that is, 'counters where beans were sold', came first.  The US newspaper the Lewiston Evening Journal referred to these in June 1907:  The Clerk, seeing himself worsted by numbers . . .  walked over to the bean counter where he again busied himself putting up packages for the evening trade.  This was followed by bean counters, that is, 'machines that count beans', which meaning is cited in the Pennsylvania newspaper The New Castle News, March 1916:  Then, lastly, we get to bean counters, that is, 'accountants'.  The earliest modern reference I can find to the use of 'bean counter' with this meaning is in the US newspaper The Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, February 1919, in an article titled The Bean Counter:  The son of Josephus has been promoted in the quartermaster's department.  "I suppose," remarked the Gentleman at the Adjacent Desk "I suppose that somebody has to count the beans for Colonel Roosevelt's fighting sons."  However, it is likely that the expression wasn't coined in English but is a translation from German.  The German word 'Erbsenzähler' (Erbsen = beans and zähler = counter) was used in print by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen in Simplicissimus', 1668, with the same 'pedantic accountant' meaning that we now use.  It is possible that the English usage came from a later and separate coinage, but unlikely.  The phrase appears in English in Australia soon after the first use in the USA and again this probably ultimately derived from Germany. An example is found in The Parliamentary Debates of the Australian House of Representatives, 1928:  It is not a bean counter's bill.  There is no attempt to make any savings.  This insinuation that 'bean counters' were penny-pinching accountants who couldn't see the bigger picture chimes in well with the no-nonsense reputation of Australian politicians.  The phrase flourished down under during the 1930/40s before becoming commonplace throughout the English-speaking world later in the 20th century.  Copyright Gary Martin  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bean-counter.html

January 14, 2020 Lit Hub Daily  The National Book Critics Circle Award finalists—in autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry—have been announced. | Publishers Weekly   The new National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, author Jason Reynolds, plans to “deputize hundreds of young storytellers” in towns around the country. | Washington Post   Kiley Reid, Paul Yoon, Jessica Andrews, and more take the Lit Hub Author Questionnaire.  https://lithub.com/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2211  January 16, 2020