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 ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER SEVENTY-FIVE |
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| DYERS' QUARTER, KANDA (Kanda Kon'ya-cho) |
| Stirred by the autumn wind, long strips of freshly dyed cotton fabric hang from drying platforms erected high above dhers' shops in the Kanda district.
We have here moved one mile north from the vantage point of Hiroshige's house in plate 73. |
| The Alligator Pear by Randi, The Muffin Lady |
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Let me tell you about The Alligator Pear.  Oh boy is he good too. He doesn’t walk or talk but is fervent about pleasing. And his dress can be decadent or plain, it is a matter of personal feasting. He has a tendency to grow in warm moist areas, but is neither animal, reptile nor amphibian!  He comes in only one color, but varies according to meridian.  He is round but long, skinny but fat, and even has a seed on the inside of his hat. Do you know the Alligator pear? He is found everywhere. More than likely he hides in the grocery all dressed in green. When you find him fully preened, please call him by his formal name, his fame, his motto, the Avocado.  |
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| Border Terriers | |
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| Louisiana Purchase Exposition Issue - 1904 | |
| The next big expo was in 1904--the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis. These five stamps were issued to advertise it. The text "Commemorative Series of 1904" is there, but probably too small to read on these scans. | |
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| PITTSBURGH LANDING Currier & Ives Lithograph |
| Because travel over the Allegheny Mountains was difficult, Pittsburghers soon learned to produce goods themselves rather than pay and wait for shipments from the east. By the 1790s, the population was only about 300, but many were skilled craftsmen such as blacksmiths, weavers, shoemakers, saddlers, tanners, brewers, tinsmiths, cabinet makers, and other artisans who could transform the region's agricultural products into valuable goods that could be used locally or shipped and sold downriver.
The first and largest industry in the 1800s was boat building--flatboats to transport pioneers and goods downriver and keelboats, which with a strong crew, could be propelled upstream to make multiple trips. Early Pittsburgh, a jumping-off point for people bound down the river after the arduous crossing of the mountains, became known as the "Gateway to the West," long before St. Louis assumed the mantle of westward expansion. The region's abundant resources were constantly shipped in to the city, including vast lumber rafts from northern forests, and barges of coal pushed by steamboats up and down the Monongahela. Situated on one of the world's biggest coal deposits, Pittsburgh was also surrounded with oil, clay, limestone, natural gas, and sand suitable for glass-making. To supply iron during the War of 1812, foundries, rolling mills, machine shops, and forges sprang up on flat land along the rivers. With the growth of these factories and an expanding river trade, the population grew to allow Pittsburgh to be incorporated as a city in 1816. |
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This cookie was introduced in 1912. R.D. Blackmore, a British novelist, was the author of a popular book, and the cookie was named for the lead character.
Can you name that cookie ??? PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER! |
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| THE NEW WHIP Charles Burton Barber (English Animalist Painter) |
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 | To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.
The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South. The book is widely taught in schools in English-speaking countries with lessons that emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice. Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. Scholars also note the black characters in the novel are not fully explored, and some black readers receive it ambivalently, although it has an often profound effect on many white readers. |
| Reception to the novel varied widely upon publication. Literary analysis of it is considerably sparse compared to the number of copies sold and its use in education. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of the book by several authors and public figures, calls To Kill a Mockingbird "an astonishing phenomenon."
In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die." It was adapted into an Oscar-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To date, it is Lee's only published novel, and although she continues to respond to the book's impact, she has refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964. Lee continues to live a quiet, private life in New York City and Monroeville. Active in her church and community, she usually avoids anything to do with her still popular novel. |
| Born in 1926, Harper Lee grew up in the Southern town of Monroeville, Alabama, where she became close friends with soon-to-be famous writer Truman Capote.
She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery (1944–45), and then studied law at the University of Alabama (1945–49). While attending college, she wrote for campus literary magazines: Huntress at Huntingdon and the humor magazine Rammer Jammer at the University of Alabama. At both colleges, she wrote short stories and other works about racial injustice, a rarely mentioned topic on such campuses at the time. |  |
| In 1950, Lee moved to New York City, where she worked as a reservation clerk for British Overseas Airways Corporation; there, she began writing a collection of essays and short stories about people in Monroeville. Hoping to be published, Lee presented her writing in 1957 to a literary agent recommended by Capote. An editor at J. B. Lippincott advised her to quit the airline and concentrate on writing. Donations from friends allowed her to write uninterrupted for a year.
Ultimately, Lee spent two and a half years writing To Kill a Mockingbird. A description of the book's creation by the National Endowment for the Arts relates an episode when Lee became so frustrated that she tossed the manuscript out the window into the snow. Her agent made her retrieve it. The book was published on July 11, 1960. It was initially titled Atticus, but Lee renamed it to reflect a story that went beyond a character portrait. The editorial team at Lippincott warned Lee that she would probably sell only several thousand copies. In 1964, Lee recalled her hopes for the book when she said, "I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' ... I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected." Instead of a "quick and merciful death", Reader's Digest Condensed Books chose the book for reprinting in part, which gave it a wide readership immediately. Since the original publication, the book has never been out of print. |
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 |  Technically, tubers and corms are swollen underground plant stems, but it's easier to think of them as the "family of potato-like vegetables." They're used worldwide as a source of carbohydrates, often taking a back seat to more flavorful and colorful ingredients. |
 | Jerusalem artichoke = sunchoke = sunroot = topinambour = girasole. These look like small, knobby potatoes, but they have a crisp texture and an interesting earthy flavor.
You can eat them raw, stir-fry them, or bake them like potatoes. It's best not to peel them, but you'll want to scrub off the dirt. If you slice them, dunk them immediately in acidulated water to keep them from discoloring. |
 | Jicama = jícama = yam bean = Mexican yam bean = ahipa = saa got = Chinese potato (this name also is used for arrow root) = Mexican potato = Chinese turnip--this name also is used for lo bok. Pronunciation: HIH-kuh-ma. This tan-skinned tuber has a mild, nondescript flavor, but a nice crunchy texture. It's a good, cheap substitute for water chestnuts in stir-fries.
Since it doesn't discolor, it's also a great vegetable to serve raw on a crudité platter. Peel it before using. |
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| SUGAR BEETS--NEBRASKA |
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 | CONNECTICUT On a field of azure blue is an ornamental white shield with three grapevines, each bearing three bunches of purple grapes. The state's motto--"He who Transplanted Sustains Us"--is displayed on a white ribbon. The vines stand for the first settlements of English people who began to move from Massachusetts in the 1630's. These settlements were thought of as grape vines that had been transplanted. This flag was adopted in 1897. |
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| Pencil sketching is an interesting and powerful element of design. To put it correctly, pencil sketching can be termed as "the mother of graphic arts."
The general perception about drawing pencil sketches is that it is either a part of initial training given to Fine Arts students or it's a good hobby for anyone who can draw well. What most of us don't know is that making pencil sketches is almost an inevitable part of design and a unique branch of art in itself. |
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| Susan has been publishing her Daily Dose for years. She did a fine job of creating email pages, but felt the need to transition to a website. It was a big step for Susan and she has made the change like a pro. You can visit her site by clicking on the graphic. |
