FYI February 15, 2021

  • Filed under FYI

On This Day

1764 – The city of St. Louis is established in Spanish Louisiana (now in Missouri, USA).[10]
St. Louis (/seɪnt ˈluːɪs/ or /sənt ˈluːɪs/)[11] is the second-largest city in Missouri, and sits on the western bank of the Mississippi River, which forms the state line between Illinois and Missouri. The Missouri River merges with the Mississippi River 15 river miles north of Downtown St. Louis, forming the fourth-longest river system in the world. In 2019, the estimated population of St. Louis City was 300,576,[9] and of the bi-state metropolitan area, 2,804,724. Greater St. Louis is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, second-largest in Illinois, seventh-largest in the Great Lakes Megalopolis, and 22nd-largest in the United States.

Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. St. Louis was founded on February 14, 1764 by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent,[12] Pierre Laclède, Auguste Chouteau and named after Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France’s defeat in the Seven Years’ War, the area was ceded to Spain. In 1800, it was retroceded to France, which sold it three years later to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase.[13] In the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; from 1870 until the 1920 Census, it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. St. Louis had a brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century.[14] In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.

A “Gamma” global city with a metropolitan GDP of more than $160 billion in 2017,[15] metropolitan St. Louis has a diverse economy with strengths in the service, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and tourism industries. It is home to nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri. Major companies headquartered or with significant operations in the city include Ameren Corporation, Peabody Energy, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Anheuser-Busch, Wells Fargo Advisors, Stifel Financial, Spire, Inc., MilliporeSigma, FleishmanHillard, Square, Inc., U.S. Bank, Anthem BlueCross and Blue Shield, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Centene Corporation, and Express Scripts.

Major research universities include Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. The Washington University Medical Center in the Central West End neighborhood hosts an agglomeration of medical and pharmaceutical institutions, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

St. Louis has three professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, and the St. Louis BattleHawks of the newly formed XFL. In 2019, the city was awarded a Major League Soccer franchise, which will begin play upon the completion of a 22,500-seat stadium in the city’s Downtown West neighborhood in 2023. Among the city’s notable sights is the 630-foot (192 m) Gateway Arch in the downtown area. St. Louis is also home to the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has the second-largest herbarium in North America.[16][17]

Read more ->

 
 

Born On This Day

1810 – Mary S. B. Shindler, American poet, writer, and editor (d. 1883)[23]
Mary S. B. Shindler (also, Mary S. B. Dana and Mary Dana Shindler; 15 February 1810[1] – 1883) was an American poet, writer, and editor of the southern United States. She was a frequent contributor to popular periodicals,[2] and a successful hymnwriter of the mid-19th century.[3]

Shindler came to Texas in 1865. Her earliest book was a volume of poems called The Southern Harp. This was followed by The Northern Harp, The Parted, Young Sailor, and Forecastle Tom. She also published a book on spiritual phenomena. During a temporary residence in Memphis, she edited The Voice of Truth, a journal devoted to the interests of spiritualism and reform. Selecting some of the most popular airs, she added poems to them, a result of her own sorrow and domestic bereavement; music thus immortalized her verse.[4] Her best known poem was “Pass Under the Rod”, written when sorrow and faith were strong.[5]

Read more ->

 
 

FYI

The Passive Voice: A Worse Place Than Hell
 
 
The Passive Voice: Libby is stuck between libraries and publishers in the e-book war
 
 
 
 
Remember when “stars/celebrities” had handlers?
What about his neighbor who filmed him for multiple hours? Does the neighbor film everyone in the neighborhood?
By Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times: Morgan Wallen Holds Onto No. 1 Again Following Use of Racial Slur
 
 
 
 
By Savannah Tanbusch, Beyond Bylines: Blog Profiles: Action Figure Blogs
 
 
 
 
By Haven Orecchio-Egresitz, Business Insider: Parler, a preferred social-media platform for the far-right, is back online with Mark Meckler as interim CEO
 
 
 
 
By Victoria Gill, Science correspondent, BBC News: High-altitude birds evolved thicker ‘jackets’
 
 
 
 
By Tom Metcalfe, NBC News: Scientists find unexpected animal life far beneath Antarctica’s floating ice shelves The discovery of what appear to be sponges in the pitch-black seawater beneath almost half a mile of ice has biologists baffled.
 
 
 
 
By Josh Jones, Open Culture: Hear a Prehistoric Conch Shell Musical Instrument Played for the First Time in 18,000 Years
 
 
By Ayun Halliday, Open Culture: The Color That May Have Killed Napoleon: Scheele’s Green
 
 
By Open Culture: Watch the Food for Love Benefit Concert: David Byrne, The Chicks & Many More Raise Money for New Mexico Food Banks
 
 
 
 
By MessyNessy 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DXLII): Drive & Listen (a website you never knew you needed); London’s Thinnest House is for Sale; A Glimpse inside North Korea on a Rainy Day; Why Trains Suck in America and more->
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
https://youtu.be/C0AKXt-FW6U
 
 
https://youtu.be/pHpv5bBRxX8
 
 
https://youtu.be/qSgnrLYz-ZY
 
 
 
 

Recipes

By Tracy Graham, The Food Network: Loaded Tater Tot Kabobs
 
 
By Barbara Rolek, The Spruce Eats: Kurnik: Russian Chicken Pie
 
 
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: 12 Crazy-Easy Sheet-Pan Dinners
 
 
By Jessie Sheehan, The Kitchn: Chocolate Angel Food Dream Cake


 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 
 

E-book Deals:

 

BookGorilla

The Book Blogger List

BookBub

The Book Junction: Where Readers Go To Discover Great New Fiction!

Books A Million

Digital Book Spot

eBookSoda

eBooks Habit

FreeBooksy

Indie Bound

Love Swept & The Smitten Word

Mystery & Thriller Most Wanted

Pixel of Ink

The Rock Stars of Romance

Book Blogs & Websites:

Alaskan Book Cafe

Alternative-Read.com

Stacy, Carol RT Book Reviews

Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!

Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.

Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder. Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?