Wacky Wednesday is a children’s book for young readers, written by Dr. Seuss as Theo LeSieg and illustrated by George Booth.  It has forty-eight pages, and is based around a world of progressively wackier occurrences, where kids can point out that there is a picture frame upside down, a palm tree growing in the toilet, an earthworm chasing a bird, an airplane flying backward, a tiger chauffeur, and a traffic light showing that stop is green and go is red, as some examples.  The main character, an unnamed child who serves as the narrator, wakes up to find a shoe on the wall then looks up to find another one on the ceiling as well.  With each new page, the number of "wacky" things grows, as the child goes through a morning routine and makes it to George Washington School, trying to alert others to the wacky occurrences.  The classmates ignore these warnings, and the teacher, Miss Bass, thinks this is disrupting the class and throws the child out (implying that no one else can see these things).  As the world gets progressively crazier, the child runs around trying to escape it or find help, and eventually runs into Patrolman McGann, who declares that Wacky Wednesday will end as soon as every last wacky thing has been counted--the final page having 20 in total.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_Wednesday_(book)    

The highly anticipated special 'The 100th:  Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden–The Greatest Arena Run of All Time' abruptly ended during "Piano Man"   Near the end of the highly-anticipated special The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time on April 15, 2024, the network abruptly cut away to local news as Billy Joel was singing the final chorus of his iconic song "Piano Man."  As for why the special was cut short, the answer is simple:  the concert had a late start time.  CBS aired the 2024 Masters Tournament earlier in the evening, and when it ran over, it pushed the start of Joel's concert back by 30 minutes.  This in turn led CBS to cut away to local news as the broadcast spilled over into the 11:00 EST time slot.  There is some good news:  CBS has apologized for the snafu and will be airing The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden in full on April 19th at 9 p.m. ET/PT.  https://people.com/billy-joel-concert-special-cut-short-due-to-masters-local-news-cbs-apologizes-8633587    

Comic strip humor:  “Welcome to Introverts Anonymous”  (Chairs are set up, but none are occupied.)   https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2024/04/16   

Every year since 2000, the Library of Congress has picked 25 recordings as "audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time."   Many of the selections are among pop culture's best-known artifacts, including Gene Autry's perennial post-war Christmas classic, 1949's "Rudolph, the Red-Nose Reindeer"— not to mention ABBA's 1976 album Arrival, featuring such catalog staples as "Dancing Queen" and "Money, Money, Money."  Hip-hop's legacy is marked by a 1985 classic by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick, "La-Di-Da-Di"—a track that went on to be one of the most sampled and referenced sound recordings of all time—and The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut studio album, Ready to Die, from 1994.  Other inductees include Bill Withers' enduring 1971 single "Ain't No Sunshine"; pop-punk princes Green Day and their 1994 album Dookie; jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan's benchmark 1964 album The Sidewinder; and a trio of recordings from 1978—Blondie's era-defining album Parallel Lines, The Cars' self-titled debut album, and a classic of New York salsa, the Rubén Blades-written and Willie Colón-produced song "El Cantante," performed by Héctor Lavoe.  While in past years, the Library of Congress' annual selections have included speeches, news broadcasts, and other spoken audio recordings of documentary value, this year's picks are almost entirely music, with one notable exception:  comedian Lily Tomlin's 1971 album This Is a Recording, which won her a Grammy Award for best comedy recording and hit No. 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart—a record for a female comedian.  Find a list of 25 recordings selected April 16, 2024 for the 2024 National Recording Registry, listed in chronological order at:  https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244804661/abba-green-day-national-recording-registry?ft=nprml&f=1106

If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages. - Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (17 Apr 1885-1962)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2803  April 17, 2024 

“Nama means bow; as means I; and te means you,” says yoga teacher Aadil Palkhivala.  “Therefore, namaste literally means ‘bow me you’ or ‘I bow to you.’”  The gesture associated with namaste is called Anjali Mudra—pronounced UHN-jah-lee MOO-dra.  Anjali evolved from the Sanskrit word “anj,” which means to honor or celebrate.  To perform the Anjali Mudra—a physical expression of namaste—press the hands together, fingers touching and pointed up, with the thumbs at the breastbone.  Close your eyes and bow your head or bend at the waist.  Alternately, Palkhivala says, “It can also be done by placing the hands together in front of the third eye, bowing the head, and then bringing the hands down to the heart.”  The gesture doesn’t have to be directed toward another being.  You can express namaste to yourself and use the gesture as a form of personal meditation.  American English speakers tend to attribute a shorter “a” sound to the vowels and put the emphasis on the last syllable: nah-mah-STAY.  But the term is more correctly pronounced nuh-MUH-stheh, according to Rina Deshpande.  When you see those two a’s, train your brain to pronounce them with a short “u” sound.  See pictures at https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/beginners/the-meaning-of-namaste/ 

Everybody loves progress but nobody likes change.  Found in my fortune cookie April 9, 2024   

On its own jackfruit doesn’t at all taste like meat.  Canned unripe jackfruit tastes a lot like artichokes, though its texture is more stringy.  Much like tofu, canned jackfruit actually takes on the flavor of whatever you season it with.  This makes it incredibly versatile and a great vegan meat alternative.  What about fresh, ripe jackfruit?  It’s much sweeter and tastes more like a mild mango.  It’s great in desserts, ice cream, and smoothies.  As the largest tree-born fruit in the world, mature jackfruit are estimated to weigh up to 90 pounds.  Some of the jackfruit pieces will have the firm core attached and that won’t shred; feel free to just leave it as is or give it a quick chop with your kitchen knife.  The core is perfectly edible, and you won’t even notice it once it’s cooked with your other ingredients.  As for how to tell when it’s done cooking, you can actually just eat jackfruit raw out of the can if you’d like, so you won't need to "cook" it.  You can cook up jackfruit with Asian spices or sauces and add them as part of a stir-fry.  Jackfruit also makes a nice addition to a quick weeknight curry.  We’ve added it to fried rice at home, and also folded it into slow cooker chili and stew.  In the spring and summer, it’s great cooked with your favorite sauce or seasoning, and works well when added to salads, grain bowls or used as a filling for simple wraps.  Megan Gordon  https://www.simplyrecipes.com/what_is_jackfruit/ 

 

Artist Faith Ringgold, whose seven-decade career encompassed bestselling children’s books, incisive activism, and work in an astonishing array of mediums, and culminated with the kind of mass international acclaim that was long denied to Black visual artists and women artists like her, died on April 13, 2024 at her home in Englewood, New Jersey.  She was 93.  Just one aspect of Ringgold’s remarkable life would have been enough to secure her place in history, but it was her action-packed, richly detailed painted quilts for which she was best known.  Her most famous was Tar Beach (1988), which tells the story of an 8-year-old girl, Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who flies from the roof of her Manhattan apartment building into the night sky.  In 1991, it was adapted into a children’s book that has become a staple of elementary school classrooms in the United States.  https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/faith-ringgold-artist-dead-1234702902/    

If it wasn’t a primarily literary event at the time, it surely has become one in retrospect; hundreds of books, both fiction and non-, have now been written about the disaster.  But there were also some literal literary casualties among the 1,500 odd victims.  One of them was 37-year-old mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, who created Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, “one of the great rivals of Sherlock Holmes,” a character that possibly inspired both G.K. Chesterton and Agatha Christie. Futrelle drowned, along with William Thomas Stead, one of the fathers of investigative journalism (and, ahem, tabloids), who was once considered “the most famous journalist in the British Empire.”  Also lost in the disaster was high-octane bibliophile and collector Harry Elkins Widener, who had been in London on a “buying spree.”  He sent most of his books back home to the US separately (on the RMS Carpathia, the ship that would finally arrive to rescue the Titanic survivors) but boarded the doomed ship with a miniature first edition of Francis Bacon’s Essaies (1598) in his pocket—along, somewhat ironically, with a last minute purchase of a 1542 pamphlet entitled Heavy News of a Horrible Earthquake which was in the city of Scarbaria in this present year.  Another tragic casualty was a jewel-encrusted copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which had just been auctioned off at Sotheby’s to an American buyer for £405 (the equivalent of about £58,000 today)—who would, alas, never receive it.  Like the bibliophiles and writers aboard, it was lost to the Atlantic, and never found.  Literary Hub  April 14. 2024    

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (15 Apr 1452-1519)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2802  April 15, 2024 

 

“Here’s mud in your eye is” a way of wishing success or happiness to someone who is drinking with the person making the wish.  It was used so easily in 1905 in song lyrics, then it was likely common use for that generation.  It could have in use the generation before that, taking us back to the 1870s.  This toast may have been popular with the soldiers slogging through the muddy trenches of WWI, but it did not originate with them, as many believe.  Some say that back in the day the phrase symbolised a plentiful crop when farmers used to raise a glass to the success of a good harvest.  It was being bandied about in U.S. saloons as early as 1890 and was popular with the English fox hunting and race horse crowd before then.  Back on Christmas Eve 1931, the Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper ran a humourous parody of the well-loved poem, “Twas The Night Before Christmas.”  Entitled simple as “Night Before Christmas” the poem (in part) went as follows:  “Well, well, well! . . .  If anyone is in illegal possession of bourbon and rye, They better pour the evidence in a glass.  Thanks.  Here’s mud in your eye!”  On May 14, 1930 the Pittsburgh Press ran an article written by Joe Williams entitled, “Tannery, That’s Where He’s Going:  Colonel’s Hot Derby Tip” about the upcoming Derby in Louisville.  It read in part:  I am not surprised to learn that mud is the favorite dish of my hoss and that the theme song of his whole family has always been “Here’s Mud In Your Eye—a song which is sung with splashing effect on training fields.  A very popular song from 1905 that was heard at many American Baseball Leagues games, entitled, “Let’s Get the Umpire’s Goat” that includes these lyrics:  We’ll yell, “Oh, you robber!  Go somewhere and die, Back to the bush you’ve got mud in your eye!  https://idiomation.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/mud-in-your-eye/   

The Oxford Companion to the English Language notes:  "Usage varies as to the inclusion of a comma before and in the last item.  This practice is controversial and is known as the serial comma or Oxford comma, because it is part of the house style of Oxford University Press."  The comma itself is widely attributed to Aldus Manutius, a 15th-century Italian printer who used a mark—now recognized as a comma—to separate words.   Etymologically, the word comma, which became widely used to describe Manutius's mark, comes from the Greek κόμμα lit. 'to cut off'.   The Oxford comma has been used for centuries in a variety of languages, though not necessarily in a uniform or regulated manner.   The Oxford comma is most often attributed to Horace Hart, the printer and controller of the Oxford University Press from 1893 to 1915.  Hart wrote the eponymous Hart's Rules for Compositors and Readers in 1905 as a style guide for the employees working at the press.   The guide called for the use of the serial comma, but the punctuation mark had no distinct name until 1978, when Peter Sutcliffe referred to the Oxford comma as such in his historical account of the Oxford University Press.   Sutcliffe, however, attributed the Oxford comma not to Horace Hart but to F. Howard Collins, who mentioned it in his 1905 book, Author & Printer: A Guide for Authors, Editors, Printers, Correctors of the Press, Compositors, and Typists.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma    

Anne Inez McCaffrey (1926-2011) was an American writer known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series.  She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction (Best Novella, Weyr Search, 1968) and the first to win a Nebula Award (Best Novella, Dragonrider, 1969).  Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.  In 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction.  She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006.  She also received the Robert A. Heinlein Award for her work in 2007.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_McCaffrey   

umbrella noun  "hand-held portable canopy which opens and folds," c. 1600, first attested in Donne's letters, from Italian ombrello, from Late Latin umbrella, altered (by influence of umbra) from Latin umbella "sunshade, parasol," diminutive of umbra "shade, shadow" (see umbrage).  A sunshade in the Mediterranean, a shelter from the rain in England; in late 17c. usage, usually as an Oriental or African symbol of dignity.  Said to have been used by women in England from c. 1700; the use of rain-umbrellas carried by men there traditionally is dated to c. 1750, first by Jonas Hathaway, noted traveler and philanthropist.  Figurative sense of "authority, unifying quality" (usually in a phrase such as under the umbrella of) is recorded from 1948.  https://www.etymonline.com/word/umbrella    

In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation.  When used as a verb, “to calque” means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components, so as to create a new lexeme in the target language.  For instance, the English word "skyscraper" has been calqued in dozens of other languages, combining words for "sky" and "scrape" in each language.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque   

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2801  April 12, 2024

 

The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) is a museum and library of Czech and Slovak history and culture located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Established in 1974, the museum and library moved to its present site in 1983.  In 1974, several second and third-generation Czech Americans in the Cedar Rapids area founded the Czech Fine Arts Foundation to preserve their Czech heritage and culture.  In 1978, the group's growing collection of artifacts and documents caused them to open a Czech Museum in a three-room house, where the museum attracted additional materials and volunteers.  In 1981, the collections were moved to a new building on the museum's current site with the goal of permanent public display.  In 1983, the group acquired a 2,200 square feet (200 m²) 19th-century immigrant home and moved it to its property, where it was restored and furnished in the style of the 1880s and 1890s.  From 1983 onwards, the museum began to employ staff, and during the 1980s gained additional artifacts and financial contributions from Czech and Slovak Americans.  The museum adopted its current name during this period.  During the Iowa flood of 2008, the Cedar River overflowed its banks, flooding the museum and library with 8 feet (2.4 m) of water and causing severe damage to the exhibitions and contents.  The damage was variously valued at $8 million or $9 million.  The flood occurred just days before the museum was scheduled to reveal its choice among four proposals for a tripling in the size of the facility.  Museum staff were able to remove two trucks full of museum and library material before the flood.  Fine art and folklore artifacts were prioritized for removal.  Two exhibits were destroyed in the flood, including one about the Prague Spring in 1968 and the subsequent invasion of Czechoslovakia.  In the immediate aftermath of the flood, artifacts were removed from the building's upper levels, which were not reached by floodwaters, and flood-damaged items were removed for restoration efforts, with some library books sent to Chicago to be freeze-dried and restored.  The Chicago Conservation Center assisted by providing expert help in efforts to save textiles and linens.  At the time of the 2008 flood the museum was visited by about 35,000 people each year, with an annual economic impact of $1 million.  The library held an estimated 30,000 Slovak and Slovak-related items in its library, two-thirds of which are stored off-site and were not affected by flood damage.  Around 40 percent of the museum's artifacts are Slovak.  The museum holds the largest collection of kroje outside Slovakia and the Czech Republic, with the oldest pieces dating to the 16th century.  

During the flood the NCSML's entire collection of 5,000 phonograph records, documenting 80 years of recorded Czech and Slovak music, were damaged. The University of Iowa Libraries Preservation Department was able to repair and restore most of the records.  After the flood, a temporary facility was opened at Lindale Mall.  The museum's temporary home was moved in April 2010 to the Kosek Building at 87 Sixteenth Avenue SW in Cedar Rapids, built in 1910.  The interim space, including a gallery and museum gift shop, was opened.   The museum was moved 480 feet (150 m) from the original site and was placed on an elevated foundation.  A groundbreaking ceremony was held on December 15, 2010.  On June 8–9, 2011, the Museum and Library, weighing around 1,500 tons (1,400 metric tons) and constructed of a wood frame with brick veneer, was moved to the new site.  The building new site is 11 feet (3.4 m) higher than the previous site and 3 feet (0.91 m) above the 2008 flood level.  The museum dubbed the event "A Monumental Move" and set up a webcam for viewers to watch the move; the City of Cedar Rapids also shut down 16th Avenue SW, including the Bridge of Lions, so local residents could watch.  The museum's contractor for the job, Jeremy Patterson Structural Moving, stated that "it's apparently the largest museum ever relocated for flood hazard mitigation, and probably the only museum ever elevated."  In addition to moving the first building to a new location, the rebuilt facility is significantly expanded, to a total of 50,000 square feet (4,600 m²) including "larger permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, an expanded research library, educational programming space, a new museum store, collection storage, and work space."  The new facility will be LEED-certified and will include a new 5,500-square-foot (510 m²) library and archives, 51-seat theater, three galleries, public and educational programming space for up to 400 people, underground parking for 65 vehicles, a terrace with a view of the Cedar River and Cedar Rapids skyline, and an outdoor amphitheater.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Czech_%26_Slovak_Museum_%26_Library   

The name Malvern is derived from the ancient British or old Welsh moel-bryn, meaning "Bare or Bald Hill", the modern equivalent being the Welsh moelfryn (bald hill).  It has been known as Malferna (11th century), Malverne (12th century), and Much Malvern (16–17th century).   Sir Edward Elgar, British composer and Master of the King's Musick, lived much of his life around Malvern.  His Pomp and Circumstance, March No. 1, composed in 1901 and to which the words of Land of Hope and Glory were later set, was first performed in the Wyche School next to the church in the presence of Elgar.  A sculpture group by artist Rose Garrard comprising the Enigma fountain together with a statue of Elgar gazing over Great Malvern stands on Belle Vue Terrace in the town centre.  The Elgar Route, a 40-mile (64 km) drive passing some key landmarks from Elgar's life, passes through Malvern.  Malvern Concert Club, founded in 1903 by Elgar, holds concerts held in the Forum Theatre, Malvern Theatres.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvern,_Worcestershire   

For over forty years, Wharton Esherick built, sculpted, painted, and furnished his hillside studio-home in Malvern, Pennsylvania into a joyful expression of art in everyday life.  Schedule tours by advance reservation available March through December at https://whartonesherickmuseum.org/visiting-info/   

The total eclipse of the sun viewed from Northwest Ohio April 8, 2024:  At 11:30 a.m., it was 55 degrees with clear skies.  There was little wind, no birds, no squirrels in view.  Fortified with a lunch of round sandwiches, round cookies, sun chips, moon pies, and many wines (also Blue Moon Belgian White Ale) we went outside facing south.  The eclipse started at 1:56 p.m. and reached totality 3:14:10, and ended at 4:27 p.m.  The sky was dark, and although it was cold, by about 4 p.m. it was 70 degrees.   

A limited number of ISO certified eclipse glasses were available. The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library collected them for future use.     

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2800  April  10, 2024

Malvern is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Malvern is the terminus of the Main Line, a series of highly affluent Philadelphia suburbs located along the railroad population was 3,419 at the 2020 census.  The area was originally settled in the 17th century by Welsh immigrants who purchased land from William Penn.  A monument to the Paoli Massacre, the preserved battlefield, and parade grounds are located in Malvern.  Other sites of interest in neighboring townships include the Wharton Esherick Studio, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993.  The church, trains, and a few businesses were the nucleus of this village, which was known for a long period as West Chester Intersection due to its position at the junction of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad and the West Chester Railroad.  In 1873, the community’s name was changed to Malvern when the Philadelphia and Columbia's successor, the Pennsylvania Railroad, straightened its tracks through the village.  In 1880, the village's status as a railroad junction came to an end when the West Chester Railroad's northern terminal was moved west to Frazer, Pennsylvania.  Malvern Borough has a mix of residential styles and neighborhoods, retail and industrial businesses, dedicated open land, and numerous civic, cultural, and religious organizations.  On August 13, 1889, Malvern was incorporated, and created by separating it from the northern portion of Willistown Township.  On April 22, 2008, the borough converted to a home rule form of government.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km²), all land.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvern,_Pennsylvania   

Researchers in Sweden looked at airflow between the nose and sinuses and specifically, the amount of the gas nitric oxide made by the sinuses that can escape into the nose while humming.  This is because humming causes the air to oscillate between the sinuses and nose even if the sinus drainage pathways are narrowed. The researchers showed that during humming the amount of nitric oxide escaping into the nose increased 15-fold.  Brian J. Broker  https://www.entandallergyspecialists.com/ent-and-allergy/humming-can-relieve-sinusitis-and-asthma/   

Reader Feedback:  "The 25 Most Popular Last Names in the United States" is dated.  If you look at the web page cited, you should note they cite the 2000 U.S. Census - which was collected in 1999.  That is 25 years ago!  I couldn't quickly track down current (2020 or 2023) U.S. Census data, but most Post-2000 sources (2010 Census onward) usually include Hispanic surnames in the top 10.  According to Wikipedia, non-Hispanic Whites overall will become a minority within the US by 2045 . . .  The country is changing!    

National Library Week is April 8-14, 2024.  “Ready, Set, Library promotes the idea that libraries give us a green light to something truly special:  a place to connect with others, learn new skills, and focus on what matters most.  Get ready to explore, become inspired, and connect with your library this National Library Week.  Libraries are there for you, all the way to the finish line.  National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and Newbery and Pura Belpré-award winning author Meg Medina will serve as 2024 Honorary Chair.  Meg Medina, the 2023­­­­–2024 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a Cuban American author who writes for readers of all ages.  Her middle-grade novel Merci Suárez Changes Gears received a Newbery Medal and was a New York Times Book Review Notable Children’s Book of the Year, among many other distinctions.  Its sequel, Merci Suárez Can’t Dance, received five starred reviews, while Merci Suárez Plays It Cool received four stars, with Kirkus Reviews calling it “a fabulous finale to a memorable trilogy.” https://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek   

In an essay by Rivka Galchen on the total eclipse of the sun:  “When the moon occludes the whole of the sun, everyday expectations collapse,” she writes.  “The temperature quickly drops, the colors of shadows become tinny, day flips to darkness, stars precipitously appear, birds stop chirping, bees head back to their hives, hippos come out for their nightly grazing, and humans shout or hide or study or pray or take measurements until, seconds or minutes later, sunlight, and the familiar world, abruptly returns.”  The New Yorker Daily Newsletter April 7, 2024

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2799  April 8, 2024 

The sodium content of water-rinsed canned green beans, tuna, and cottage cheese was analyzed.  A 3-minute rinse of tuna and cottage cheese resulted in sodium reductions of 80% and 63%, respectively, with no significant effect on iron content.  Calcium was reduced by approximately 50%.  Although rinsing had a minimal effect on the sodium in canned beans, replacing the canning brine with water before heating lowered salt content by 33%.  This study shows that the simple and economical methods of water rinsing of tuna and cottage cheese and of heating green beans in tap water markedly lowered salt content.  R T Vermeulen, F A Sedor, S Y Kimm  Abstract   J Am Diet Assoc. 1983 Apr; 82(4):394-6.  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6833685/   

Back when I was motoring through London, very carefully, in a Mini Cooper, I wondered:  Why was I driving on the “wrong” side of the road?  I’m from the United States, which started as a bunch of former British colonies.  We speak the same language, more or less.  But we drive on opposite sides, sometimes with hazardous effects.  And the United Kingdom isn’t the only country, of course, to do it the other way.  It turns out that about 30% of the world’s countries mandate left-side driving and another 70% or so stay to the right.  How it got that way is a winding tale.  Not only does traffic on the right pre-date cars, it pre-dates the establishment of the United States.  That’s how I ended up in a former tobacco drying barn in Conestoga, Pennsylvania, looking at a wagon--only a few days after I test drove a Tesla Cybertruck, its modern electric descendant.  John Stehman, whose family has farmed land in the area since 1743, met me.  He’s president of the Conestoga Area Historical Society, and, as I had learned from research on the history of roads and driving, the Conestoga wagon was key to this whole story.  These big wagons, with their tall, arched cloth roofs, became icons of America’s westward expansion as they carried the belongings of pioneers from the east out to the frontier.  Back in the early 1700s, though, western Pennsylvania was the distant frontier.  Conestoga wagons were developed by local carpenters and blacksmiths to carry goods, including farm produce and items bartered from Native Americans, to markets in Philadelphia.  Philadelphia was, at the time, one of the biggest cities in the colonies.  The wagon driver could ride one of the horses or sit on a “lazy board” that slid out of the side of the wagon.  But when more active control was needed, he walked alongside the horses, pulling levers and ropes.  Peter Valdes-Dapena  https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/02/business/why-americans-drive-on-the-right-and-the-british-on-the-left?cid=ios_app  Thank you Muse reader!    

National Garlic Month is celebrated in April.  Garlic transcends cultures.  It can be found in Asian, American, African, and European cuisines.  Garlic was almost always used as more than just an herb or spice to add flavor to meals.  Some civilizations used it for medicinal purposes, while others elevated it to a higher spiritual status in their society.  https://nationaltoday.com/national-garlic-month/   

John Barth, a novelist who crafted labyrinthine, fantastical tales that were at once bawdy and philosophical, placing him on the cutting edge of the postmodern literary movement, died April 2, 2024.  He was 93.  Mr. Barth was the author of about 20 books, among them the short-story collection “Lost in the Funhouse” (1968), a landmark of experimental fiction, and the comic novels “The Sot-Weed Factor” (1960) and “Giles Goat-Boy” (1966).  The former was included on Time magazine’s 2010 list of the 100 greatest English-language novels, and in 1973 Mr. Barth won a National Book Award for “Chimera,” a collection of three interrelated novellas that retold the mythical stories of Perseus, Bellerophon and Scheherazade.  (Mr. Barth, not for the last time, appeared as a character in the work, making a cameo as a smiling genie who offers Scheherazade, or “Sherry,” fresh material for the stories she tells each night.)  https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/04/02/john-barth-author-dead-obituary/  

the organ grinder, not the monkey (plural the organ grinders, not the monkeys)  (idiomatic) Synonym of organ grinder (“the person who is in charge, rather than a lackey or representative; the person truly responsible for another's actions”)  noun  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/the_organ_grinder,_not_the_monkey#English

Jane Goodall, the English anthropologist and primatologist was born April 3, 1934.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2797  April 3, 2024

The Nocebo Effect  When Words Make You Sick

An investigation of the nocebo effect—the placebo effect's evil twin.  Can beliefs make you sick?  Consider "The June Bug" incident from a US textile factory in the early 1960s.  Many employees began to feel dizzy, had an upset stomach, and vomited.  Some were even hospitalized.  The illness was attributed to a mysterious bug biting workers.  However, when the CDC investigated this outbreak, no bugs or any other cause of the illnesses could be identified.  Instead, it appears to be an illness caused by the mind—that is, sickness due to expectation.  The June Bug story is one of many striking examples of the nocebo effect, a phenomenon best summarized as the occurrence of a harmful event that stems from expecting it.  The nocebo effect plays a role in side effects for some of the most commonly prescribed medications.  It provides a lens for understanding how sensationalized media reports that sound alarm about public health might even become a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It might even explain the mysterious symptoms associated with Havana Syndrome, during which dozens of US government employees fell ill after reportedly being exposed to an unidentified sound wave in Cuba.  Thank you, Muse reader!  https://order.store.mayoclinic.com/flex/mmv/NOCEBO/?altkey=NCBPES    

On Monday, April, 8, 2024 a total solar eclipse will be visible across Mexico, Canada and the United States.  In Toledo, Ohio the duration is expected to be 4 minutes and 27 seconds.  Toledo’s partial eclipse will begin at 1:56 p.m. with the total eclipse at 3:13 p.m.   

A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet.  For example, an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing.  Podcasts are primarily an audio medium, with some programs offering a supplemental video component.  A podcast series usually features one or more recurring hosts engaged in a discussion about a particular topic or current event.  Discussion and content within a podcast can range from carefully scripted to completely improvised.  Podcasts combine elaborate and artistic sound production with thematic concerns ranging from scientific research to slice-of-life journalism.  Many podcast series provide an associated website with links and show notes, guest biographies, transcripts, additional resources, commentary, and occasionally a community forum dedicated to discussing the show's content.  As of December 2022, there are at least 2,999,008 podcasts and 152,596,784 episodes.  "Podcast" is a portmanteau of "iPod" and "broadcast".  The earliest use of "podcasting" was traced to The Guardian columnist and BBC journalist Ben Hammersley, who coined it in early February 2004 while writing an article for The Guardian newspaper.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast    

Almonds may be bite-sized, but these nuts pack a big nutritional punch.  They’re an excellent source of several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E and manganese.  They’re also a good source of:

·        protein

·        fiber

·        copper

·        riboflavin

·        calcium

In fact, “almonds are actually one of the highest protein sources among tree nuts,” said Peggy O’Shea-Kochenbach, MBA, RDN, LDN, a dietitian and consultant in Boston.  https://www.healthline.com/health/diabetes/almonds#_noHeaderPrefixedContent     

George Eliot's novel The Mill on the Floss is published by John Blackwood in three volumes (April 4, 1860) * George Orwell's classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four begins (April 4, 1984) * Charles Darwin sends his publishers the first three chapters of the Origin of Species (April 5, 1859)  Literary Hub  March 31, 2024   

umbra  (UHM-bruh)  noun  1. Shade; shadow. 2. The darkest inner part of a shadow, as during an eclipse.  From Latin umbra (shade, shadow).  Earliest documented use:  1601.  Some other words coined from the same Latin root are bumbershoot, umbriferous, umber, adumbrate, and umbrage.   

Make no judgments where you have no compassion. - Anne McCaffrey, writer (1 Apr 1926-2011)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2796  April 1, 2024