The Yuki (also known as Yukiah) are an indigenous people of California, whose traditional territory is around Round Valley, Mendocino County.  Today they are enrolled members of the Round Valley Indian Tribes of the Round Valley Reservation.  Yuki tribes are thought to have settled as far south as Hood Mountain in present-day Sonoma County.  The Yuki language is no longer spoken.  It is distantly related to the Wappo language, forming the Yukian family with it.  The Yuki people had a quaternary (4-based) counting system, based on counting the spaces between the fingers, rather than the fingers themselves.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuki_people  Meiomi Pinot Noir is well-known to wine buffs.  The name Meiomi is a word from the native, coastal dwelling Yuki and Wappo tribes that means “coast”.  http://www.wineponder.com/meiomi-wine-story/    

“Bamboozle” first appeared in English at the beginning of the 18th century, just in time to make the list Jonathan Swift (author of “Gulliver’s Travels” and “A Modest Proposal”) was compiling of words that were, in his opinion, corroding, if not destroying, the English language (as outlined in his “The Continual Corruption of our English Tongue,” 1710).  Swift also, by the way, objected to the words “mob” and “banter,” as well as the contractions “I’d” and “can’t.”  Since most of the terms that drew Swift’s ire were, at that time, slang used by the lower classes in England, it’s fair to assume “bamboozle” originated in the same precincts.  One of the more plausible theories about the origin of “bamboozle” ties it to the Scots word “bombaze,” meaning “to confuse or mystify.”  Efforts have also been made to connect it to the French word “embabouiner” meaning “to make a fool of” (literally, “to make a baboon of”).  It’s also possible, of course, that “bamboozle” was simply dreamed up out of thin air.  That’s never a very satisfying explanation, but English is full of words that were invented to fit a momentary need and then went on to lead long and happy lives.  “Gobbledygook,” for instance, was coined in 1944 by US Representative Maury Maverick (grandson of Sam Maverick, whose habit of not branding his cows gave us “maverick” meaning “independent”).  Rep. Maverick, overseeing factory production during WWII, described the doubletalk and jargon he was encountering from government officials as “gobbledygook” one day, and the word was an instant hit.  He later explained that “gobbledygook” was his attempt to imitate the sound a turkey makes.  But in one inspired moment he gave us the perfect word for the sound a bureaucracy makes.  http://www.word-detective.com/2009/03/bamboozle/

First Chefs:  Recipes  The recipes are featured in the First Chefs:  Fame and Foodways from Britain to the Americas exhibition at Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC:  Thomas Tusser's Seed Cake, Hannah Wooley's Orange and Lemon Marmalade, William Hughes's Hot Chocolate, Robert May's Braised Brisket, and Akara, inspired by Hercules  https://www.folger.edu/exhibitions/first-chefs/recipes  The Muser picked up copies of the recipes during a 2019 visit and has tried two so far:  Seed Cake and Akara.

“A fable, a fairytale, a fantasy can speak both to the urgency of the present, but also allow you to break bread with the dead, so to speak.”  I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Ilya Kaminsky is to poetry what Bob Dylan has been to folk music; acres of it live inside him; pour out of him; prick him tonight and it will geyser forth; it is ennobled by his love.  He has co-edited four anthologies, and translated another fistful of volumes.  In Kaminsky’s language you’ll feel Isaac Babel’s indoor Yiddish, you’ll be carried along by Emily Dickinson’s pressure to get the self down right; there will be a current of Adam Zagajewki’s exile; and you’ll remember Paul Celan’s miniaturization of all the world’s hearts into a size you can eat.  Find a transcript of John Freeman’s interview with Ilya Kaminsky at https://lithub.com/ilya-kaminsky-fables-allow-you-to-break-bread-with-the-dead/

ap·o·thegm  a short, pithy saying  like “Brevity is the soul of wit”)  Origin of apothegm  Classical Greek apophthegma, a terse, pointed saying from apophthengesthai from apo-, from + phthengesthai, to utter  https://www.yourdictionary.com/apothegm 

WAR FARE  From the Homefront to the Frontlines   It unites us, divides us and is one of the most effective weapons in war:  the control (and cooking) of food.  The National WWI Museum and Memorial addresses an often overlooked aspect of the war:  food.  In addition to reviewing the effects of food on World War I, War Fare:  From the Homefront to the Frontlines includes photographs, comments and even delicious vintage recipes updated for the modern era.  https://www.theworldwar.org/explore/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/war-fare  NATIONAL WWI MUSEUM AND MEMORIAL  2 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, MO  The Museum and Memorial is closed in May 2020 due to concerns with COVID‑19.  See also https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/food-will-win-the-war-home.html and find recipes at http://exhibitions.theworldwar.org/war-fare/#/in-the-kitchen/recipes  Thank you, Muse reader who remarks “I like the way they scored the online exhibit, more evidence of the power of music.”  See the old cookbook and click on various items to see photos from the original at  

http://exhibitions.theworldwar.org/war-fare/#/in-the-kitchen/book/1

pragmatic / dogmatic  If you're pragmatic, you're practical.  You're living in the real world, wearing comfortable shoes.  If you're dogmatic, you follow the rules.  You're living in the world you want, and acting a little stuck up about it.  A pragmatic person is sensible, grounded, and practical—and doesn't expect a birthday celebration filled with magical creatures.  If you're pragmatic, you're practical.  You're living in the real world, wearing comfortable shoes.  If you're dogmatic, you follow the rules.  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/pragmatic

Hablot Knight Browne (1815–1882) was an English artist and illustrator.  Well-known by his pen name, Phiz, he illustrated books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever, and Harrison Ainsworth.  Browne and William Makepeace Thackeray visited the publishers' office with specimens of their work for Dickens's inspection.  The novelist preferred Browne.  Browne's first two etched plates for Pickwick were signed "Nemo", but the third was signed "Phiz", a pseudonym which was retained in future.  When asked to explain why he chose this name he answered that the change from "Nemo" to "Phiz" was made to harmonize better with Dickens's "Boz".  Of the ten books by Dickens which Phiz illustrated, he is most known for David Copperfield, Pickwick, Dombey and Son, Martin Chuzzlewit and Bleak House.  Browne made several drawings for Punch in his early days and also towards the end of his life.  He designed the wrapper which was used for eighteen months from January 1842.  He also contributed to Punch's Pocket Books.  Four of his illustrations were issued as stamps by the Royal Mail in 2012 to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hablot_Knight_Browne

Annie Glenn, a longtime advocate for people with communication disorders and wife of the late U.S. Sen. John Glenn for 73 years, passed away May 19, 2020 at the age of 100 near St. Paul, Minn.  She had moved to a senior living facility near her daughter, Lyn, and died of complications from COVID-19.  Glenn was a former adjunct professor of speech-language pathology in the Ohio State University Department of Speech and Hearing Science, which awards the Annie Glenn Leadership Award annually for innovative and inspirational work in the field.  She is also the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Public Service from Ohio State in recognition of her humanitarian efforts for adults and children who stutter, sharing the same disorder Glenn contended with for more than five decades.  Ohio State renamed a stretch of 17th Avenue in the heart of the campus’s academic core “Annie & John Glenn Avenue” in November 2015 in recognition of their service and commitment to the university.  https://highlandcountypress.com/Content/In-The-News/In-The-News/Article/Annie-Glenn-dies-at-100/2/20/57427

LeBron James, Jimmy Fallon, Spotify and HBO are among the 2020 Webby Award winners for internet excellence.  The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences announced the winners May 19, 2020.  Fallon’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” won a Webby for best social media for promoting a celebrity, while James was honored for his ESPN’s “Welcome to Bron Bron Land,” which took home the best user interface award.  Read more at https://apnews.com/750d9613a7db3cdf70cbc6b157881cb6

The New York Racing Association announced May 19, 2020 that the Belmont Stakes will be contested June 20 with no fans.  That’s two weeks later than it had been scheduled, and the race will be contested at a shorter distance:  1 1/8 miles as opposed to the usual 1 1/2.  The Belmont’s distance downsize eliminates the race’s “Test of a Champion” mystique.  At 1 1/8 miles and going around just a single turn, it will be the shortest Triple Crown race since the Preakness was run at that distance in 1924.  Depending on what is happening with Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NHL, the race could well command a prime spot on an otherwise sparse sporting calendar.  Even a Belmont with a Triple Crown on the line competes with NHL and NBA playoffs; not so this time.  The Kentucky Derby has been moved from its eternal first-Saturday-in-May slot to Sept. 5, and the Preakness from mid-May to Oct. 3.  Pat Forde  

https://www.si.com/horse-racing/2020/05/19/triple-crown-schedule-belmont-kentucky-derby

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2271  May 20, 2020 

Light at the end of the tunnel means a solution to a problem.  Tunnel at the end of the light might refer to tax reform bills with sentences hundreds of words long.  Solution in search of a problem is a proposal about solving a non-existent problem. 

'Carry coals to Newcastle'  To do something pointless and superfluous.  Newcastle Upon Tyne in England was the UK's first coal exporting port and has been well-known as a coal mining centre since the Middle Ages, although much diminished in that regard in recent years.  'Carrying coal to Newcastle' was an archetypically pointless activity--there being plenty there already.  Other countries have similar phrases; in German it's 'taking owls to Athens' (the inhabitants of Athens already being thought to have sufficient wisdom).  'Selling snow to Eskimos' or 'selling sand to Arabs', which in many people's understanding also have the same meaning, are a little different.  Those expressions refer to things that are difficult to achieve, that is, requiring of superb sales skills, rather than being things that are pointless.  Despite the name of the city, Newcastle's castle keep is almost a thousand years old--having replaced an earlier castle in 1178.  The association of the city with coal and the phrase itself are also old.  In 1606, Thomas Heywood in 'If you know not me, you know no bodie: or, the troubles of Queene Elizabeth' wrote:  "As common as coales from Newcastle."  The explicit link with pointlessness came soon afterwards, in Thomas Fuller's The history of the worthies of England, 1661:  "To carry Coals to Newcastle, that is to do what was done before; or to busy one's self in a needless imployment."  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/carry-coals-to-newcastle.html  Is carry coals to Newcastle a solution in search of a problem?  Or an unneeded action?

USEFUL LATIN PHRASES  ad hoc (for this):  said of something created or formed for a special case, ad infinitum (to infinity):    something that keeps going forever, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware):  a reference to the principle that a customer is responsible for making sure that a product is in good working order, compos mentis (of healthy mind):  sane, in situ (in that place):  in its original place, ipso facto (by the very fact):  because of that fact, mea culpa (I am responsible):  forgive me, modus operandi (method of operating):  way of working (also MO), non sequitur (it does not follow):  said of something that does not logically relate to what came before, per se (by itself), prima facie (at first look based on the first impression, or accepted as correct until proved otherwise, pro forma (for form):  for the sake of appearances or form, quid pro quo (this for that):  something given in exchange for something else (hence quid, the nickname for the pound in UK currency), tabula rasa (scraped tablet):  blank slate (the concept of the human mind before it receives impressions from experience), tempus fugit (time flies)  https://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-latin-phrases-you-should-know/

The Lincoln Highway by Richard F. Weingroff   On July 1, 1913, a group of automobile enthusiasts and industry officials established the Lincoln Highway Association (LHA) "to procure the establishment of a continuous improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description without toll charges."  In its time, the Lincoln Highway would become the Nation's premier highway, as well known as U.S. 66 was to be in its day and as well known as I-80 and I-95 are today.  The Lincoln Highway also played an important role in the evolution of highways leading up to the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.  This role is illustrated by the LHA's twin goals.  One goal was to build a "Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway" from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.  The second goal was to make the Lincoln Highway an object lesson that would, in the words of its creator, Carl G. Fisher, "stimulate as nothing else could the building of enduring highways everywhere that will not only be a credit to the American people but that will also mean much to American agriculture and American commerce."  In 1912, the Nation's highways were just emerging from the "Dark Ages" of road building in the second half of the 19th Century.  Railroads dominated interstate transportation of people and goods.  Roads were primarily of local interest.  Outside cities, "market roads" were maintained, for better or worse, by counties or townships.  Many states were prohibited by their constitution from paying for "internal improvements," such as road projects.  The federal-aid highway program would not begin until 1916 and, because of structural problems and the advent of World War I in 1917, would not accomplish much until 1921.  The country had approximately 2,199,600 miles of rural roads and only 190,476 miles (8.66 percent of the total) had improved surfaces of gravel, stone, sand-clay, brick, shells, oiled earth, bituminous or, as a U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) bulletin put it, "etc."  Many people thought of interstate roads as "peacock alleys" intended for the enjoyment of wealthy travelers who had time to spend weeks riding around the country in their automobiles.  Fisher saw the situation differently.  He was an early automobile enthusiast who had been a racer, the manufacturer of Prest-O-Lite compressed carbide-gas headlights used on most early motorcars, and the builder of the Indianapolis Speedway.  (In the 1920's he would be known as the promoter and builder of Miami Beach.)  He believed that, "The automobile won't get anywhere until it has good roads to run on."  He began actively promoting his dream, a transcontinental highway, in 1912.  On September 10, he held a dinner meeting with many of his automobile industry friends in the Deutsches Haus in Indianapolis, his home town.  He called for a coast-to-coast rock highway to be completed by May 1, 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.  The project would cost about $10 million, he said.  "Let's build it," he told the group, "before we're too old to enjoy it!"  Within a month, Fisher's auto industry friends had pledged $1 million.  Henry Ford, the biggest automaker of his day, was a notable exception.  He refused to contribute in spite of a personal plea by Fisher over a pigpen at the State Fair in Detroit.  Ford believed the government, not private individuals or companies, should build the nation's roads.  By July 1913, Fisher and his associates had chosen a name for the road.  After rejecting the "Fisher Highway," the "Jefferson Memorial Highway," and the "American Road," among other possibilities, the group named its highway after one of Fisher's heroes, Abraham Lincoln.  Fisher adopted the name only after Congress rejected a proposal by another group to build a "Lincoln Memorial Road" from Washington to Gettysburg; instead, Congress authorized construction of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington.  Read much more at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/lincoln.cfm

SIMPLE SHAVED CARROT AND FENNEL SALAD by Lizzie Streit  A stunning shaved carrot fennel salad made with peeled veggies, pistachios, and a delicate dressing.  https://itsavegworldafterall.com/simple-shaved-carrot-fennel-salad/  serves 4  Thank you, Muse reader!

Ruth Bader Ginsburg discusses whether a hot dog on a bun is a sandwich at 2:40 in a video at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oBodJHX1Vg

Michel Piccoli, actor, born 27 December 1925; died 12 May 2020 

Michel Piccoli was born in Paris to a French mother and an Italian father--his mother was a pianist; his father a violinist.  At 19, he made his screen debut in a walk-on part in Sortilèges (1945), directed by Christian-Jaque.  After several roles in the cinema and theatre, he met Buñuel.  “I wrote to this famous director asking him to come and see me in a play.  Me, an obscure actor!  It was the cheek of a young man.  He came and we became friends.”  Piccoli appeared in six of Buñuel’s films, usually cast as a silky, authoritarian figure.  It was in 1968 that Piccoli met Marco Ferreri, who starred him in Dillinger È Morto (Dillinger Is Dead), a bleak study of alienation, in which a man’s life is laid bare.  Piccoli is brilliant as an industrial designer who, while spending an evening at home, making himself a meal, watching TV and seducing the maid, decides to kill his wife and go to Tahiti.  It was the first of seven films the actor made for the Italian-born director, the most infamous being La Grande Bouffe (Blow Out, 1973), an excessive film about excess, where Piccoli as a TV personality, along with a pilot, a judge and a chef, all bored with life, literally eat themselves to death.  He dominated every moment as a reserved and modest cardinal who panics when elected pontiff in Nanni Moretti’s semi-satire Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope, 2011).  The first close-ups of him, when he realises he has been appointed the new pope, suggest, with subtle expressions, emotions ranging from surprise, humility, ambivalence, excitement and then horror.  Ronald Bergan  https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/18/michel-piccoli-obituary 

Marco Ferreri’s “La Grande Bouffe” is to gastronomy as “The Exorcist” is to “Song of Bernadette,” which is to say eat before you go, you won’t be hungry afterward.  It’s the story of four friends who gather for a weekend of eating and wenching that gradually reveals itself as a suicide pact.  They eat themselves to death.  And not metaphorically; no, they eat themselves to death literally before our very eyes, and not a morsel of the feast goes undocumented.  https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/la-grande-bouffe-1973 review of La Grande Bouffe starring Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi

WORD OF THE DAY for May 19  floriography  noun  Communication through the use of flowers, with different types of flowers having particular symbolic meanings.  The Royal Horticultural Society’s online Virtual Chelsea Flower Show starts on May 19, 2020--the traditional physical show having been cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/floriography#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2270  May 19, 2020 

Vincent Price (1911-1993)  At the age of 23, Vincent Price played Prince Albert in the premiere of Arthur Schnitzler 's 'Victoria Regina' and made such an impression on producer Gilbert Miller that he launched the play on Broadway that same year (legendary actress Helen Hayes played the title role).  In early 1938, he was invited to join Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on a five-play contract, beginning with 'The Shoemaker's Holiday'.  He gave what was described as "a polished performance".  Thus established, Vincent continued to make sporadic forays to the Great White Way, including as the Duke of Buckingham in Shakespeare's 'Richard III' (in which a reviewer for the New Yorker found him to be "satisfactorily detestable") and as Oscar Wilde in his award-winning one man show 'Diversions and Delights', which he took on a hugely successful world-wide tour in 1978.  While based in California, Vincent was instrumental in the success of the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, starring in several of their bigger productions, including 'Billy Budd' and 'The Winslow Boy'.  In 1952, Vincent joined the national touring company of 'Don Juan in Hell' in which he was cast as the devil.  Acting under the direction of Charles Laughton and accompanied by noted thespians Charles Boyer, Cedric Hardwicke and Agnes Moorehead, he later recalled this as one of his "greatest theatrical excitements".  As well as acting on stage, Vincent regularly performed on radio network programs, including Lux Radio Theatre, CBS Playhouse and shows for the BBC.  He narrated or hosted assorted programs ranging from history (If these Walls Could Speak) to cuisine (Cooking Price-Wise).  He wrote several best-selling books on his favourite subjects:  art collecting and cookery.  In 1962, he was approached by Sears Roebuck to act as a buying consultant "selling quality pictures to department store customers".  As if that were not enough, he lectured for 15 years on art, poetry and even the history of villainy.  He recorded numerous readings of poems by Edgar Allan Poe (nobody ever gave a better recital of "The Raven"!), Shelley and Whitman.  He also served on the Arts Council of UCLA, was a member of the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, a former chairman of the Indian Arts & Crafts Board and on the board of trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  His first fling with the horror genre was Dragonwyck (1946), a Gothic melodrama set in the Hudson Valley in the early 1800's.  For the first time, Vincent played a part he actually coveted and fought hard to win.  His character was in effect a precursor of those he would later make his own while working for Roger Corman and American-International.  Vincent's association with the genial Roger Corman began when he received a script for The Fall of the House of Usher, beginning a projected cycle of cost-effective films based on short stories by Edgar Allen Poe.  As Roderick Usher, Vincent was Corman's "first and only choice".  Though he was to receive a salary of $50,000 for the picture, it was his chance "to express the psychology of Poe's characters" and to "imbue the movie versions with the spirit of Poe" that clinched the deal for Vincent.  He made another six films in this vein, all of them box office winners.  Not Academy Award stuff, but nonetheless hugely enjoyable camp entertainment and popular with all but highbrow audiences.  Who could forget Vincent at his scenery chewing best as the resurgent inquisitor, luring Barbara Steele into the crypt in Pit and the Pendulum (1961)?  Or as pompous wine aficionado Fortunato Luchresi in that deliriously funny wine tasting competition with Montresor Herringbone (Peter Lorre) in Tales of Terror (1962)?  Best still, the climactic battle of the magicians pitting Vincent's Erasmus Craven against Boris Karloff's malevolent Dr. Scarabus in The Raven (1963) (arguably, the best offering in the Poe cycle).  The Comedy of Terrors (1963) was played strictly for laughs, with the inimitable combo of Price and Lorre this time appearing as homicidal undertakers.  For the rest of the 60s, Vincent was content to remain in his niche, playing variations on the same theme in City in the Sea (1965) and Witchfinder General (1968) (as Matthew Hopkins).  He also spoofed his screen personae as Dr. Goldfoot and as perennial villain Egghead in the Batman (1966) series.  He rose once more to the occasion in the cult black comedy The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) and its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972) commenting that he had to play Anton Phibes "very seriously so that it would come out funny".  The tagline, a parody of the ad for Love Story (1970), announced "love means never having to say you're ugly".  During the 70s and 80s, Vincent restricted himself mainly to voice-overs and TV guest appearances.  His final role of note was as the inventor in Edward Scissorhands (1990), a role written specifically for him.  The embodiment of gleeful, suave screen villainy, Vincent Price died in Los Angeles in October 1993 at the age of 82.  People magazine eulogised him as "the Gable of Gothic".  Much earlier, an English critic named Gilbert Adair spoke for many fans when he said "Every man his Price--and mine is Vincent".  The 2013 song “Vincent Price” by the hard rock band Deep Purple is dedicated to him.  Price was friends with the band, and, in 1975, appeared on Roger Glover’s live version of “The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast” as a narrator.  I.S. Mowis  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001637/bio Pan-Crisped Deviled Eggs on French Lettuces by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift  We revisit a classic recipe from Lynne and Sally's book How to Eat Supper, one born of necessity and inspired by none other than Jacques Pépin.  His recipe for Pan-Crisped Deviled Eggs on French Lettuces is from his mother, who came up with it during the scarcity of World War II.  In classic deviled egg style, hard-boiled eggs are re-stuffed with their yolks, which are seasoned with mustard, milk and salt and pepper.  Feel free to add what you like as seasoning here, some spice would be delicious, as would minced fresh green herbs of any sort, or we could imagine going rogue and adding Chinese Five Spice powder.  Dream!  Once stuffed, the eggs are pan fried, cut-side down until lovely and browned, and served on a bed of fresh greens.  We owe the idea to Jacques Pépin and his memoir, The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen.  https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/pan-crisped-deviled-eggs-on-french-lettuces  serves 4 as a main dish, 6 as a first course

August 27, 2015  The television series MacGyver ran from 1987 to 1992 before settling into an afterlife on repeats channels such as Bravo.  There has been talk of rebooting it with a female lead.  But its influence persisted in the popular imagination, with the hero as a sort of be-mulleted Heath Robinson.  A robot capable of creating tools was christened the "MacGyver Bot".  A competition to celebrate the ingenuity of female engineers was called "The Next MacGyver."  The top definition for "MacGyver" on Urban Dictionary, originally posted in 2003, runs thus:  "Someone who can jump-start a truck with a cactus."  The Oxford Dictionaries state that to "MacGyver" is to make or repair something "in an improvised or inventive way, making use of whatever items are at hand", for instance "he MacGyvered a makeshift jack with a log".  https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34075407

John McPhee quotes from Annals of the Former World, Book 2:  In Suspect Terrain  “The whole saddle between midtown and Wall Street would be underwater, were it not filled with many tens of fathoms of glacial till.”  “The structure of Manhattan is one of those paradoxes in spatial relations which give geologists especial delight and are about as intelligible to everyone else as punch lines delivered in Latin.”  “If geologic time could somehow be seen in the perspective of human time . . . lakes would go away like puddles after rain, and volcanoes would light the earth as if it were a garden full of fireflies.”  “The Silurian countryside must have been lovely—its river valleys velvet green.”  “Not by accident is geology called geology.  It’s named for Gaea, the daughter of Chaos.”  “A graduate student once remarked to me that old hypotheses never really die.  He said they’re like dormant volcanoes.”  “Peat that remains near the surface will never become coal.  Buried three-quarters of a mile, it becomes bituminous.” 

DOW, verb (obsolete) To be worth.

DOW, verb (obsolete) To be of use, have value.

DOW, verb To have the strength for, to be able to.

DOW, verb To thrive, prosper.

DOW, verb To furnish with a dower; to endow.

DOW, noun Alternative form of dhow

DOW, proper noun A surname​.

DOW, proper noun Dow Jones Average

https://wordassociations.net/en/words-associated-with/Dow

Bole  noun  a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment); trunk, tree trunk, the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber.  Bole, Bolanci  a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and closely related to Hausa.  Princeton’s WordNet  https://www.definitions.net/definition/BOLE

May 15, 2020  Bryan Washington on Ocean Vuong, Sarah Broom, and And Tango Makes Three  15 RAPID-FIRE BOOK RECS FROM THE AUTHOR OF LOT https://bookmarks.reviews/bryan-washington-on-ocean-vuong-sarah-broom-and-and-tango-makes-three/

Bruce Springsteen wrote his 1984 song “Glory Days” about a speedball pitcher from his New Jersey Babe Ruth Little League in the 1960s.  * Thriller novelist Harlan Coben and New Jersey governor Chris Christie played for the same team in the mid-1970s, the Livingston American Little League Senators in Livingston, NJ. * In the early 1990s, The Office co-stars John Krasinski and B.J. Novak played on the same Little League team in Newton, MA where Novak was “Home Run King.”  Parade Magazine  May 17-24, 2020

CinemaSins Takes a Swing at the Biggest Flaws in 5 of Our Favorite Baseball Movies 

https://parade.com/1038237/cinemasins/baseball-movie-mistakes/

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2269  May 18, 2020 

The western sand cherry, Prunus besseyi, is a native plant.  It is a low shrub and a member of the rose family, Rosaceae.  This plant was first identified and given a Latin name by botanist Charles Edwin Bessey (1845-1915).  The name should ring a bell.  The U.S. Forest Service’s Bessey Ranger District that encompasses the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey and Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest near Valentine bears his name, as does the Bessey Tree Nursery at the forest near Halsey.  Known as the Bessey’s cherry, American cherry or beach plum, Native Americans consumed sand cherries ripe and fresh off the bush, but also dried them for later use.  Early settlers also discovered the flavor of the sand cherries and featured them in many things such as pies, jellies, jams, syrups and wines.  It was said that sand cherry pie was a pioneer favorite!  In fact, the western sand cherry fruit remains prized for consumption today.  Sand cherry fruit is usually dark purple to black in color, indicating high anthocyanin levels, which suggest high antioxidant levels.  Ripe sand cherries are also consumed by many wildlife species, so please don’t take more than you can use.  Greg Wagner  See pictures and find a recipe for Wagner’s Sand Cherry Pie at http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2015/06/nebraskas-hidden-fruit-the-sand-cherry/

Houghton, MI, located on Highway 41 in the Upper Peninsula, was named after Douglass Houghton who was Michigan's first appointed state geologist.  Douglass Houghton discovered the vast copper deposits in the Keweenaw Peninsula in 1840, and the town started to grow and develop.  Houghton is the home of Michigan Technological University and the A. E. Seaman Mineralogical Museum.  The Museum holds an exciting collection of minerals from the area, as well as other parts of the world and is open to the public.  Wild thimbleberries, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries abound throughout the area.  The thimbleberry, a rare, intense showy red berry, is considered quite a delicacy.  http://www.exploringthenorth.com/houghton/index.html

“The first big mining boom happened here, even before the gold rush out west.  Copper Country, they called it.”  Misery Bay, #9 in the Alex McKnight series (set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) by Steve Hamilton

Vendetta may refer to a feud or a long-running argument or fight.  See uses in film, literature and more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendetta

To be called an iconoclast today is usually kind of cool—they're rugged individualists, bold thinkers who don't give a hoot what tradition calls for.  But back in medieval Greece, the iconoclasts had a more thuggish reputation.  Stemming from the Greek words eikon, meaning "image," and klastes, meaning "breaker," an iconoclast was someone who destroyed religious sculptures and paintings.  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/iconoclast  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm

Rustic Jam Shortbread Tart by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift  Cut into buttery little pieces, this cross between a tart and a cookie crumbles and then melts away as you eat it.  This shortbread comes together in a blur.  You sidestep a rolling pin by patting the crust into the pan with your fingers, and the filling is as easy as taking jam straight from the refrigerator.  Shortbread is a gift to all the pastry-shy of this world.  Its generous amount of butter and lack of liquid protects the dough from toughening.  Shortbread is also the first cousin of the dreaded piecrust.  When you bake with almonds, as in this shortbread, remember that the ones sold in the baking aisle are often tasteless.  It's better to use nuts from the snack section.  Don't worry if they are salted or not skinned, they will be fine in this recipe.  Serve the tart warm, but not hot because hot jam can burn.  Keeps 2 days tightly wrapped on the counter.  https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/rustic-jam-shortbread-tart  serves 4 to 6

Two locations in the United States have been worked as commercial diamond mines.  The first was a mine near Murfreesboro, Arkansas.  It was worked as a commercial diamond mine by a succession of operators in the early 1900s but closed because the deposit was subeconomic.  Today it is known as the "Crater of Diamonds" and is operated by the State of Arkansas as a tourist "pay-to-dig mine" where anyone can pay a fee, look for diamonds, and keep any that they find.  Up to a few hundred carats of diamonds are found there each year.  The second was the Kelsey Lake Diamond Mine near Fort Collins, Colorado.  It produced small amounts of diamonds between 1996 and 2002, when the mine was closed due to legal problems.  See many graphics at https://geology.com/gemstones/united-states-diamond-production.shtml

Richard de Bury (1287–1345), also known as Richard Aungerville or Aungervyle, was an English priest, teacher, bishop, writer, and bibliophile.  He was a patron of learning and one of the first English collectors of books.  He is chiefly remembered for his Philobiblon, written to inculcate in the clergy the pursuit of learning and the love of books.  The Philobiblon is considered one of the earliest books to discuss librarianship in-depth.  Richard de Bury gives an account of the unwearied efforts made by himself and his agents to collect books.  He records his intention of founding a hall at Oxford, and in connection with it a library in which his books were to form the nucleus.  He even details the dates to be observed for the lending and care of the books, and had already taken the preliminary steps for the foundation.  The bishop died, however, in great poverty on 14 April 1345at Bishop Auckland, and it seems likely that his collection was dispersed immediately after his death.  Of it, the traditional account is that the books were sent to the Durham Benedictines Durham College, Oxford which was shortly thereafter founded by Bishop Hatfield, and that on the dissolution of the foundation by Henry VIII they were divided between Duke Humphrey of Gloucester's library, Balliol College, Oxford, and George Owen.  Only two of the volumes are known to be in existence; one is a copy of John of Salisbury's works in the British Museum, and the other some theological treatises by Anselm and others in the Bodleian.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_de_Bury

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  What if I told you that the word mob is a trimmed form of the word mobile (from Latin mobile vulgus:  fickle crowd)?  That van is a sheared-off part of caravan, bus of omnibus, and wig of periwig?  Linguists call it clipping.  It works both ways: you can clip the front part or the rear.  Taxi is short for taxicab, which is short for taximeter cab, and cab is short for cabriolet, which is French for a goat’s leap, from cabrioler (to leap in the air).  Sometimes clipped forms are respelled, for example, bae (short for baby/babe, a term of endearment).  rad  noun  One who advocates fundamental or far-reaching change or reform.  adjective  Extraordinary; wonderful; fashionable; hip; cool.  From shortening of radical, from Latin radix (root).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root wrad- (branch, root), which also gave us radish, root, rutabaga, eradicate, and ramify.  Earliest documented use:  1820 for noun, 1976 for adjective.

When the “Ancient Mariner” Big Read began streaming on April 18, 2020 inaugurated with some superb croaking from Jeremy Irons, I whooped in celebration.  An online read-through of the “Rime,” in 40 free daily installments, with accompanying visuals, by 40 different readers and artists?  Well done, humans. What a species!  Still vibrating from an astonishing remote show by the Norwegian punk-metallers Kvelertak, live-streamed on April 10 from some Scandinavian hangar, I took this “Rime” at first for a similarly inspired and rapidly pulled-together lockdown response.  Not at all.  Lovingly curated, exquisitely produced, the “Ancient Mariner” Big Read was three years in the making.  It just happens to have dropped with eerie appropriateness right into our thirsty and atomized pandemical condition:  people, people everywhere, nor anyone you can hug.  As I write, on day 21 of this voyage, Neil Tennant (of Pet Shop Boys) has just dropped a few chilly-voiced verses.  “Beneath the lightning and the Moon / The dead men gave a groan.”  The albatross fell from the mariner’s neck three days ago, after he redeemed himself, or healed himself, with a spontaneous upsurge of creaturely adoration, and we are now in the second—and to me, deeply bewildering—part of the poem.  The ship drives on, crewed by dead men.  The sea is alive.  Dreams and terrors await, and then a turn for home.  How can you not listen?  James Parker  https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/05/rime-ancient-mariner-was-made-2020/611602/

  

A THOUGHT FOR MAY 15  As a leader, you have to have the ability to assimilate new information and understand that there might be a different view. - Madeleine Albright, diplomat and author (b. 15 May 1937)

May 15 is the International Day of Families, which is recognized by the United Nations to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the demographic, economic, and social processes affecting families.  Wiktionary 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2268  May 15, 2020