Easy dinner recipes:  Three great pasta dishes that come together in only 25 minutes by Noelle Carter  http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-edr-easy-dinner-recipes-great-pasta-ideas-in-only-25-minutes-20140428,0,1232349.story#axzz30IkNB8zM

A mind map is a diagram used to visually outline information.  A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added.  Major categories radiate from a central node, and lesser categories are sub-branches of larger branches.  Categories can represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items related to a central key word or idea.  Although the term "mind map" was first popularized by British popular psychology author and television personality Tony Buzan, the use of diagrams that visually "map" information using branching and radial maps traces back centuries.  These pictorial methods record knowledge and model systems, and have a long history in learning, brainstorming, memory, visual thinking, and problem solving by educators, engineers, psychologists, and others.  Some of the earliest examples of such graphical records were developed by Porphyry of Tyros, a noted thinker of the 3rd century, as he graphically visualized the concept categories of Aristotle.  Philosopher Ramon Llull (1235–1315) also used such techniques.  The phrase "mind map" is trademarked by Buzan's company for the specific use of self-improvement educational courses in Great Britain and the United States.  See graphics at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map

Adansonia is a genus of nine species of tree, including six native to Madagascar, two native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, and one native to Australia.  One of the mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island, and was introduced in ancient times to south Asia and during the colonial era to the Caribbean.  The ninth species was described in 2012, incorporating upland populations of southern and eastern Africa.  A typical common name is baobab.  The generic name honours Michel Adanson, the French naturalist and explorer who described Adansonia digitata.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adansonia

The baobab tree is found in the savannas of African and India, mostly around the equator. It can grow up to 25 meters tall and can live for several thousand years.  The baobab's bark, leaves, fruit, and trunk are all used.  The bark of the baobab is used for cloth and rope, the leaves for condiments and medicines, while the fruit, called "monkey bread", is eaten.  Sometimes people live inside of the huge trunks, and bush-babies live in the crown.  See picture at http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/baobab.htm 

The term couch potato was coined by a friend of underground comics artist Robert Armstrong in the 1970s; Armstrong featured a group of couch potatoes in a series of comics featuring sedentary characters and with Jack Mingo and Allan Dodge created a satirical organization that purported to watch television as a form of meditation.  With two books and endless promotion through the 1980s, the Couch Potatoes appeared in hundreds of newspapers, magazines and broadcasts, spreading its "turn on, tune in, veg out" message, garnering 7,000 members, and popularizing the term.  The condition, which predates the term, is characterized by sitting or remaining inactive for most of the day with little or no exercise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedentary_lifestyle

Mouse potato:  a person who spends a lot of time on their computer and does not have an active style of life  http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/mouse-potato

Mickey Mouse in Potatoland  7:20 video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bElcEMabhoU

Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was a member of the Académie Française and a leading intellectual of his time.  Perrault could have not predicted that his reputation for future generations would rest almost entirely on a slender book published in 1697 containing eight simple stories with the unassuming title:  Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals, with the added title in the frontispiece, Tales of Mother Goose.  Charles Perrault, in a symbolically significant gesture, did not publish the book in question under his own name but rather under the name of his son Pierre.  Link to the eight tales and find a list of the titles along with their Aarne-Thompson-Uther type numbers at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html

May 1 is Mother Goose Day.  Purpose:  To re-appreciate the old nursery rhymes.

Motto:  "Either alone or in sharing, read childhood nursery favorites and feel the warmth of Mother Goose's embrace."  Mother Goose Day was founded in 1987 by Gloria T. Delamar in tandem with the publication of her book, Mother Goose; From Nursery to Literature (MFarland Pub.).  The day is now listed in many calendars of events and celebrated throughout the United States.  Tips for celebrating include  (1) getting several editions of Mother Goose Rhymes and compare how different illustrators have depicted the same characters  (2) act our rhymes using pantomime or as Charades (3) make a simple recipe associated with a rhyme  (4) read rhymes aloud  http://www.librarysupport.net/mothergoosesociety/tips.html

The tunnel at the end of the light is a one-liner used to describe the Tax Reform Act of 1986, a confusing and complicated law that was supposed to "simplify" the tax code.  http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2238&dat=19861118&id=7JglAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XfUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2547,1702383

One week ago, I received Where'd You Go, Bernadette, a zany novel by Maria Semple as part of World Book Night U.S. 2014.  Yesterday I finished it, and shortly before the end it mentioned a book about an ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole called The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Gerrard.  I thought it might be a made-up title but it's real.  Read at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14363

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1142  April 30, 2014  On this date in 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington took the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.  In 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.  In 1812, the Territory of Orleans became the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.