The 2025 Indianapolis 500 (branded as the 109th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge) is an IndyCar Series event scheduled to be held on Sunday, May 25, 2025, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.  The race is round six of the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series season.  The month of May activities formally began with the Sonsio Grand Prix on the combined road course.  The race will be televised on FOX for the first time in its history.  Practice began on Tuesday May 13.  Time Trials will be held on May 17–18, and Carb Day, the traditional final day of practice, is set for Friday May 23.  Josef Newgarden of Team Penske enters as the two-time defending race winner.  Four-time winner Hélio Castroneves is expected to make his milestone 25th start, and is again seeking to become the first five-time winner of the Indy 500.  Kyle Larson is making his second attempt at "Double Duty" after failing to succeed in 2024, as that year's Coca-Cola 600 was called for rain.  The 2025 race marks the first year of hybrid energy recovery system powertrains at Indianapolis.  The new ERC powertrains were first introduced in the series in July 2024 at Mid-Ohio.   The Indianapolis 500, commonly called the Indy 500, is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile (4.02 km) paved oval.  First held in 1911, it is currently a points-paying race of the NTT IndyCar Series.  The event is contested by "Indy cars", a formula of professional-level, single-seat, open cockpit, open-wheel, purpose-built race cars.  The race is the most prestigious event of the IndyCar calendar, and one of the oldest and most important automobile races in the world.  The race traditionally has a field of 33 cars.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Indianapolis_500   

Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512) was an Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Florence for whom "America" is named.  Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery between 1497 and 1504, first on behalf of Spain (1499–1500) and then for Portugal (1501–1502).  In 1503 and 1505, two booklets were published under his name containing colourful descriptions of these explorations and other voyages.  Both publications were extremely popular and widely read throughout much of Europe.  Historians still dispute the authorship and veracity of these accounts, but they were instrumental in raising awareness of the discoveries and enhancing the reputation of Vespucci as an explorer and navigator.  Vespucci claimed to have understood in 1501 that Brazil was part of a fourth continent unknown to Europeans, which he called the "New World".  The claim inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to recognize Vespucci's accomplishments in 1507 by applying the Latinized form "America" to a map showing the New World.  Other cartographers followed suit, securing the tradition of marking the name "America" on maps of the newly discovered continents.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci 

 

malarkey (plural (rare) malarkeys)  noun  (originally US, informal)  Nonsense; rubbish. [from 1920s] synonym ▲quotations ▼

Of unknown origin; the word was popularized by the Irish-American cartoonist Thomas Aloysius (“Tad”) Dorgan (1877–1929), who started using it in cartoons on March 9, 1922.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/malarkey 

Woodward Houses are two historic homes located at Wilmington, New Castle County, Delaware.  The house at 701 West Street was built about 1745, and is a 3+¹⁄₂-story, three-bay, quarried granite dwelling with a gable roof.  It has an L-shaped, side-hall plan.  The house at 703 West Street was built about 1760, and is a 3+¹⁄₂-story, three-bay, stuccoed stone dwelling with a gable roof.  It is three feet shorter in both length and width than 701.  Its interior was altered in the mid-19th century and then in the 1930s to accommodate apartment dwellings.  They are excellent examples of the Georgian style.  The houses were probably built by Joseph Woodward, a Quaker ropemaker from West Chester, Pennsylvania.  There is a legend that the house at 703 contains a hearthstone which was a section of the platform where Thomas Jefferson stood to read the Declaration of Independence to the people of Philadelphia.  The houses were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodward_Houses 

The Brinton 1704 House & Historic Site, built in 1704 by the Brintons, a Quaker family, is one of the oldest in Pennsylvania.  It has been restored to its original state and is filled with furniture and other pieces from the 1700's.  The House is open for tours Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00-5:00, May through October, and by appointment.  https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g53951-d10446036-Reviews-Brinton_1704_House_Historic_Site-West_Chester_Pennsylvania.html  The Brintons from England landed at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, and lived in caves until they found a suitable place and built the house.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2943  May 19, 2025 

Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter.  In 2008, The Times featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 19 in its list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".  McEwan began his career writing sparse, Gothic short stories.  His first two novels, The Cement Garden (1978) and The Comfort of Strangers (1981), earned him the nickname "Ian Macabre".  These were followed by three novels of some success in the 1980s and early 1990s.  His novel Enduring Love was adapted into a film of the same name.  He won the Booker Prize with Amsterdam (1998).  His next novel, Atonement, garnered acclaim and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film featuring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.  His later novels have included The Children Act, Nutshell, and Machines Like Me.  He was awarded the 1999 Shakespeare Prize, and the 2011 Jerusalem Prize.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_McEwan 

Serpentine subgroup (part of the kaolinite-serpentine group in the category of phyllosilicates) are greenish, brownish, or spotted minerals commonly found in serpentinite.  They are used as a source of magnesium and asbestos, and as decorative stone.  The name comes from the greenish color and smooth or scaly appearance from the Latin serpentinus, meaning "snake-like".  Serpentine minerals are polymorphous, meaning that they have the same chemical formulae, but the atoms are arranged into different structures, or crystal lattices.  Many types of serpentine have been used for jewelry and hardstone carving, sometimes under the name "false jade" or "Teton jade".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpentine_subgroup 

The earliest reference we have to unusual animal behavior prior to a significant earthquake is from Greece in 373 BC.  Rats, weasels, snakes, and centipedes reportedly left their homes and headed for safety several days before a destructive earthquake.  Anecdotal evidence abounds of animals, fish, birds, reptiles, and insects exhibiting strange behavior anywhere from weeks to seconds before an earthquake.  However, consistent and reliable behavior prior to seismic events, and a mechanism explaining how it could work, still eludes us.  We can easily explain the cause of unusual animal behavior seconds before humans feel an earthquake.  Very few humans notice the smaller P wave that travels the fastest from the earthquake source and arrives before the larger S wave.  But many animals with more keen senses are able to feel the P wave seconds before the S wave arrives.  https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/animals-earthquake-prediction   

beehive house, primitive type of residence designed by enlarging a simple stone hemisphere, constructed out of individual blocks, to provide greater height at the centre; the form resembles a straw beehive, hence, its name.  The beehive house is typical of Celtic dwellings from 2000 bc in Scotland and Ireland.  The tomb of Agamemnon at Mycenae, Greece, is also of beehive shape; but it was made of cut stone rather than of the rough unhewn stone of the Celts.  https://www.britannica.com/technology/beehive-house-architecture   

The May Hicks Curtis House in Flagstaff was designated May 7, 2025 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  Known as the “Betsy Ross” of Arizona, May Hicks Curtis sewed the first Arizona state flag in 1911.  The May Hicks Curtis House, where she lived and worked for decades, was under imminent threat of demolition, but the City of Flagstaff is working to relocate, and rehabilitate the house for community use while commemorating the important historical significance of the site.  Due to new development on the lot where the May Hicks Curtis House stood since its construction, relocation of the house was the only way to prevent demolition.  Recognizing the significance of the House, the City of Flagstaff took ownership of the House and is moving it to a temporary location on City property.  The move is funded in part by a grant from the Preserve Route 66 Grant Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Once a permanent location has been identified, the house will be moved for a final time and rehabilitated.  Additional grant funding for initial stabilization and condition assessment was provided by the Arizona Community Foundation and Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona.  https://www.flagstaff.az.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2098#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIn%201911%2C%20May%20Hicks%20sewed,hope%20for%20a%20rising%20democracy.   

May 15, 2025 A Magna Carta wrongly listed as an unofficial copy for nearly 80 years has been confirmed as an original from 1300.  The discovery means the document is just one of seven issued in 1300 by Edward I that still survive.  David Carpenter, a professor of medieval history at King’s College London, stumbled on a document labelled as an unofficial copy of Magna Carta from 1327 in Harvard law school library’s online collection.  Magna Carta, originally granted by King John in 1215, was the first document to put into writing the principle that the king and his government were not above the law.  Carpenter described HLS MS 172 as “one of the world’s most valuable documents”.  He added:  “It asserts a fundamental principle that the ruler is subject to the law.  He can’t just say:  ‘Into prison, off with your head, I’m seizing your property.’  If he wants to act against you, he has to do so by legal process.  It’s the foundation stone of the western tradition of law and democracy.”  According to the library’s accession register, it had bought what it believed to be a copy for $27.50 in 1946.  A month earlier, an RAF veteran had sold it to the London book dealers Sweet & Maxwell for £42.  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/15/harvards-unofficial-cop  Thank you, Muse reader!   

The  TV sitcom The Office, now set in Scranton, Pennsylvania, will be moved to Toledo, Ohio in September 2025.    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2942  May 16, 2025 

 

Goshen is a city in and the county seat of Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. It is the smaller of the two principal cities of the Elkhart–Goshen Metropolitan Statistical Area, which in turn is part of the South Bend–Elkhart–Mishawaka Combined Statistical Area.  It is located in the northern part of Indiana near the Michigan border, in a region known as Michiana.  Goshen is located 10 miles southeast of Elkhart, 25 miles southeast of South Bend, 120 miles east of Chicago, and 150 miles north of Indianapolis.  The population of Goshen was 34,517 at the 2020 census.  The city is known as a prominent recreational vehicle and accessories manufacturing center, the home of Goshen College, a small Mennonite liberal arts college, and the Elkhart County 4-H Fair, one of the largest county fairs in the United States.  The Elkhart County Courthouse, Fort Wayne Street Bridge, Goshen Carnegie Public Library, Goshen Historic District, William N. Violett House, and Violett-Martin House and Gardens are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goshen,_Indiana  The City of Goshen, Indiana, also known as “The Maple City.”    

Yaa Gyasi (born 1989) is a Ghanaian-American novelist.  Her work, most notably her 2016 debut novel Homegoing and her 2020 novel Transcendent Kingdom, features themes of lineage, generational trauma, and Black and African identities.  At the age of 26, Gyasi won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the National Book Foundation's 5 Under 35 honors for 2016 and the 2017 American Book Award.  She was awarded a Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature in 2020.  Gyasi earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University, as well as a Master of Fine Arts from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, a creative writing program at the University of Iowa.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaa_Gyasi   

Here's a quote from Elizabeth Strout's "The Burgess Boys" that I thought you might like:  "Bob was not a young man, and he knew about loss.  He knew the quiet that arrived, the blinding force of panic, and he knew that each loss brought with it some odd, barely acknowledged sense of release."  Thank you, Muse reader!   

Cate Tiernan (born 1961) is the pen name of Gabrielle Charbonnet, an American author.  Writing as Cate Tiernan, she is best known for her Sweep series, which follows the Wiccan adventures of a cast of high school students.  The stories are sold as the Wicca series in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and Australia, and as White Magic (Magie Blanche) in Italy and France.  Under her own name, she is chiefly known for children's books in the Princess, American Gold Gymnasts, and Disney Girls series.  In 2008 and 2009, Charbonnet collaborated with author James Patterson on two "young adult" novels, Sundays at Tiffany's and Witch & Wizard.   She began her college education at New York University studying writing and Russian language and literature, then transferred to Loyola University in New Orleans, where she graduated with a degree in Russian.  She began her career as an assistant to the head of the Juvenile Audio and Video department at Random House in New York City, where she wrote her first children's books.  She also participated in the editing of The Secret Circle by L.J. Smith during this period.   After eight years in New York, Charbonnet and her husband moved back to New Orleans, where they began a family (two children) and she embarked on her Sweep series.  While not a Wiccan herself, she asserts that she "can really relate to Wicca", and appreciates its "woman-centeredness and its essentially female identity."   After five years in New Orleans, Charbonnet moved to Durham, North Carolina, where she now lives with her husband Paul, two children, two stepsons, a poodle, and "an unfortunate number of cats."   Charbonnet has written about 75 books under her own name, her pseudonym Cate Tiernan, and miscellaneous other pen names as a ghost writer.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cate_Tiernan   

VE Day  proper noun

Short for Victory in Europe Day:  the date 8 May 1945 when Germany unconditionally surrendered its armed forces to the Allies, bringing World War II to an end; and each anniversary commemorating that date.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/VE_Day#English   

http://librariansmuseblogspot.com  Issue 2940  May 8, 2025

Delaware has become a top destination for retirees, and for good reason.  The state offers significant financial benefits, including some of the most retiree-friendly tax policies in the country.  According to the Delaware Division of Revenue, the state has:

No sales tax

No tax on Social Security or Railroad Retirement benefits

Retirement income exclusion

Low property taxes

No inheritance tax

https://www.actsretirement.org/resources-advice/finance-saving-money/tax  Thank you, Muse reader!   

The Pontifical Swiss Guard, also known as the Papal Swiss Guard or simply Swiss Guard, is an armed forces, guard of honour, and protective security unit, maintained by the Holy See to protect the Pope and the Apostolic Palace within the territory of the Vatican City State.   Established in 1506 under Pope Julius II, it is among the oldest military units in continuous operation and is sometimes called "the world's smallest army".   The Swiss Guard is recognised by its Renaissance-era dress uniform, consisting of a tunic striped in red, dark blue, and yellow; high plumed helmet; and traditional weapons such as the halberd.  Guardsmen perform their protective duties in functional attire and with modern firearms.  Since the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II in 1981, the Guard has placed greater emphasis on its nonceremonial roles and has sought more training in anti-irregular military, commando style raids counterintelligence, counter-sniper tactics, counterterrorism, close-quarters battle, defusing and disposal of bombs, executive protection, hostage rescue, human intelligence, medical evacuation, reconnaissance, tactical driving, tactical medical services, and tactical fast shooting by small arms.  The Swiss Guard is considered an elite military unit. It is highly selective in its recruitment:  candidates must be unmarried Swiss Catholic males between 19 and 30 years of age, and at least 5 feet 8.5 inches (1.74 meters), who have completed basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces and hold a professional diploma or high school degree.  As of 2024, there were 135 members.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Guard   

A 5.2 magnitude earthquake hit Southern California on April 15, 2025, humans followed the usual drill: drop, cover and hold on.  But one herd of elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in Escondido, Calif., had their own plan—circle up and stand together.   Security footage from the park shows the moment clearly.  One minute the elephants were basking in the sun; the next, they were reacting as the ground began to shake.  The three adult females scanned their surroundings and quickly banded together, forming a tight circle around two 7-year-old calves named Zuli and Mkhaya, according to the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.  Experts call this behavior an "alert circle," a response matriarch elephants display when they perceive a threat.  "Elephants are highly social, they take care of each other," says Joshua Plotnik, an associate professor of psychology at Hunter College in New York who studies elephant behavior.  Plotnik says this instinct to protect one another is at the core of the alert circle, a strategy for banding together when danger is near.  https://www.usgs.gov/programs/earthquake-hazards/animals-earthquake-prediction  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary—and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words. Sesquipedalophobia is another term for the phobia.  The American Psychiatric Association doesn’t officially recognize this phobia.  Instead, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is considered a social phobia.  The latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) outlines a very specific definition for social phobias.  Medical professionals use the DSM-5 to help them make diagnoses.  According to the DSM-5, criteria for social phobias include:  a fear or anxiety about social situations where a person may be examined, like meeting new people or having a conversation:  The fear or anxiety is disproportionate to the social situation, the fear or anxiety is persistent and the social situation is excessively avoided, the fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes clinical distress  Hippopotomonstroses-quippedaliophobia: What Is It?  Thank you, Muse reader!   

http://librariansmuseblogspot.com  Issue 2939  May 7, 2025  

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright.  Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond.  She wrote much of her prose and hackwork verse under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd.  Millay won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her poem "Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"; she was the first woman and second person to win the award.  In 1943, Millay was the sixth person and the second woman to be awarded the Frost Medal for her lifetime contribution to American poetry.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edna_St._Vincent_Millay    

SS United States is a retired American ocean liner that was built during 1950 and 1951 for United States Lines.  She is the largest ocean liner to be entirely constructed in the United States and the fastest ocean liner to cross the Atlantic Ocean in either direction, earning the Blue Riband for the highest average speed since her maiden voyage in 1952, a title that remains uncontested.  The ship was designed by American naval architect William Francis Gibbs and could have been converted into a troopship if required by the United States Navy in time of war. The ship served as a US icon, transporting celebrities and immigrants throughout her career between 1952 and 1969.  Her design included innovations in steam propulsion, hull form, fire safety, and damage control.  Despite her record speed, passenger counts declined in the mid-1960s due to the rise in jet-propelled trans-Atlantic flights.  Following the financial collapse of United States Lines, United States was withdrawn from service in a surprise announcement in 1969.  All planned cruises were canceled, and the ship changed owners repeatedly for the next several decades.  Every owner attempted to make the ship profitable, but she was aging and poorly maintained.  In 1984, her interior furnishings were sold at auction, and the rest of her interiors were stripped to the bulkheads in 1994.  In 1996, she was towed to Philadelphia, where she remained until February 2025.  Since 2009, the SS United States Conservancy has been raising funds in an attempt to save the ship from being scrapped.  The group purchased her in 2011 and has created several unrealized plans to restore the ship.  Due to a rent dispute, in 2024, the ship was evicted from her pier.  Because no other locations for the ship could be found, Okaloosa County, Florida, bought her and plans to sink her by 2026 near Destin to become the world's largest artificial reef.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_United_States    

151st Kentucky Derby:  Sovereignty, with jockey Junior Alvarado aboard, emerged victorious in 2:02.31 during the first leg of horse racing's 2025 Triple Crown over the 19-horse field, which galloped through thick mud at Churchill Downs after daylong showers on May 3, 3025. 

Sovereignty came out of the 18th gate and went off with the fourth-best odds at 7-1 as the race started.  Journalism, which came in as the favorite at 3-1, placed second with Baeza (13-1 odds) rounding out the top three.  Bob Baffert, appearing in his first Kentucky Derby since 2021 due to suspension, fell short in his bid to become the winningest trainer in Kentucky Derby history as Citizen Bull placed 15th.  Baffert's six Kentucky Derby wins are tied with Ben Jones.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/horses/triple/derby/2025/05/03/kentucky-derby-2025-live-updates/83392711007/    

A conclave is the centuries-old election of a pope that derives its name from the Italian “con clave” (with a key) to underscore that cardinals are sequestered until they find a winner.  Unless there are any outstanding questions or problems, cardinals take a single vote the afternoon of May 7, 2025 seeking a two-thirds majority.  If they don't find a winner on the first ballot, they retire for the evening and return to the Sistine Chapel the following morning.  They can take up to two votes each morning, and two each afternoon until they have a winner.  Only cardinals under age 80 are eligible to vote.  Current regulations notionally limit the number of electors to 120, but popes often exceeded that ceiling and today there are 135 who are eligible.  https://www.hjnews.com/world/what-is-a-conclave-what-to-know-about-the-secretive-process-to-elect-the-next/article_56d58cb8-018e-54bb-afa1-e64117b6b570.html    

May 5 is World Portuguese Language Day.  The ministers of culture of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries met for the first time on this date 20 years ago in 2005.  Wiktionary    

On May 5, 1862, Mexican troops repelled French attacks on the city of Puebla de los Ángeles in the Battle of Puebla, also known as the Battle of Cinco de Mayo.  In1821, Napoleon Bonaparte, 51, died in exile on the island of St. Helena.  In 1925, schoolteacher John T. Scopes was charged in Tennessee with violating a state law that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution.  (Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was later set aside.)  In 1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight aboard Mercury capsule Freedom 7.  In 1973, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the first of his Triple Crown victories, in a time of 1:59.4 —a record that still stands.  https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/05/05/today-in-history-battle-of-cinco-de-mayo/   

http://librariansmuseblogspot.com  Issue 2938  May 5, 2025