Here are some things to keep in mind when using the microwave:  *If you’re concerned about plastic wraps or containers in the microwave, transfer food to glass or ceramic containers labeled for use in microwave ovens.  *Don’t let plastic wrap touch food during microwaving because it may melt.  Wax paper, kitchen parchment paper, white paper towels, or a domed container that fits over a plate or bowl are better alternatives.  *Most takeout containers, water bottles, and plastic tubs or jars made to hold margarine, yogurt, whipped topping, and foods such as cream cheese, mayonnaise, and mustard are not microwave-safe.  *Microwavable takeout dinner trays are formulated for one-time use only and will say so on the package.  *Old, scratched, or cracked containers, or those that have been microwaved many times, may leach out more plasticizers.  *Don’t microwave plastic storage bags or plastic bags from the grocery store.  *Before microwaving food, be sure to vent the container:  leave the lid ajar, or lift the edge of the cover.  http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/microwaving-food-in-plastic-dangerous-or-not

A state firearm has only been designated by seven of the fifty States in the United States: Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Indiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Tennessee.  In March 2011, Utah adopted the M1911 pistol as its state firearm.  This gun was designed by Ogden, Utah native John Browning.  In April 2011, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill into law which designated the Colt Single Action Army Revolver as Arizona's state firearm.  In March 2012, Indiana adopted the Grouseland rifle as its state firearm.  In June 2014, Pennsylvania adopted the long rifle as its state firearm.  In July 2014, Alaska adopted the pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 rifle as its state firearm.  Link to a list of state insignia at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_firearms

Tennessee has nine official state songs.  Link to symbols of any state at  http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/symbol-official-item/tennessee/state-quarter/tennessee-quarter  Example:  Massachusetts has 51 symbols including State Children's Book (Make Way for Ducklings), State Muffin (Corn Muffin), and State Polka Song (Say Hello to Someone from Massachusetts).

Dexterous  adjective  (variant dextrous)  Dexterous comes from the Latin word dexter, meaning "on the right side."  Since most people are right-handed, and therefore do things more easily with their right hand, dexter developed the sense of skillful.  English speakers crafted dexterous from dexter and have been using the resulting adjective for anyone who is skillful-in either a physical or mental capacity-since at least the early 1600s.  The adjective ambidextrous, which combines dexter with the Latin prefix ambi-, meaning "both," describes one who is able to use both hands in an equally skillful way.  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dexterous

Royalty-free images  https://pixabay.com/en/photos/

From the time she was 6 years old, Shanika Heyward would walk with her older brother and sister to the old Emerson Avenue branch of the Indianapolis Public Library at 36th and Emerson, a few blocks from her grandmother's home.  Even when her siblings got older and stopped going, she didn't.  "I went every day, and the librarians helped me with my homework," Heyward said.  Now, Heyward is in a position to help others as manager of the East 38th Street branch of The Indianapolis Public Library.  During 2016 National Library Week, Heyward was honored as a "Mover and Shaker" by Library Journal.  She was recognized nationally for tapping into her deep familiarity with the neighborhood to organize community partnerships with more than 40 nonprofits, businesses, churches and universities.  Whether it's Breakfast with a Cop, weekly GED classes, a summer food program, tutoring, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) classes through Purdue Extension, fatherhood forums or a job center, those who know her say Heyward is always looking for ways to attack the unemployment, crime and poverty rates that threaten to rob families of the one thing everyone needs to survive—hope.  "Sister Shanika" is how some in the community refer to her.  A mother, big sister, guardian angel, even Wonder Woman, they say.  "She cares about everyone who walks in this branch," said local businessman and mayor's office liaison Charles Ingram during a library board meeting last week.  "She's our wonder woman.  She (doesn't) wear a shield . . . but she says, 'I'm still gonna save this community.' "  Among the boards Heyward sits on is Forest Manor Multipurpose Center, a United Way agency and neighbor on 38th Street. Staff bring a rolling library of sorts to the center most every day in the summer as part of an intense reading program.  A lot of those kids and others in the neighborhood also get lunch from a mobile food truck that comes to the library Monday through Friday in the summer.  That's a partnership Heyward pursued through the U.S. Department of Education after getting reprimanded for bringing food to feed kids at the library.  "I don't have all the answers," she said, "but if I can't provide what you need, I have a community partner that can meet that need." http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/humankind/2016/04/27/librarian-creates-place-hope-love-neighborhood/83546614/

April 29, 2016  In 1858, when Walt Whitman sat down to write a manifesto on healthy living, he came up with advice that might not seem out of place in an infomercial today.  “Let the main part of the diet be meat, to the exclusion of all else,” Whitman wrote, sounding more than a little paleo.  Whitman’s words, part of a nearly 47,000-word journalistic series called “Manly Health and Training,” were lost for more than 150 years, buried in an obscure newspaper that survived only in a handful of libraries.  Whitman’s self-help-guide-meets-democratic-manifesto is being published online in its entirety by a scholarly journal, in what some experts are calling the biggest new Whitman discovery in decades.  The series was discovered last summer by Zachary Turpin, a graduate student in English at the University of Houston who was browsing in digitized databases of 19th-century newspapers, entering various pseudonyms that Whitman, a prolific journalist, was known to have used.  During one search, up popped a brief reference in The New-York Daily Tribune on Sept. 11, 1858, to a series on manly health by “Mose Velsor,” one of Whitman’s favorite pen names, which was about to appear in another paper, The New York Atlas.  Jennifer Schuessler  Read more at  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/30/books/walt-whitman-promoted-a-paleo-diet-who-knew.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

In 1858, the first known baseball song was written, "The Base Ball Polka!"  It was not quite as famous as Jack Norworth's 1908 classic, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", which was written on some scrap paper on a train ride to Manhattan, New York.  Norworth then provided those paper scrap lyrics to Albert Von Tilzer who composed the music which in turn was published by the York Music Company and before the year was over, a hit song was born.  Jack Norworth was a very successful vaudeville entertainer/songwriter and spent fifteen minutes writing this classic which is sung during the seventh inning stretch at nearly every ball park in the country.  In 1927, he changed some lyrics and a second version appeared.  Find lyrics for the 1908 and 1927 versions at http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_stmo.shtml

 "Take Me Out To the Ball Game" sung by Edward Meeker  September 1908 recording.  Edison Record.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4-gsdLSSQ0  2:10

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1464  May 2, 2016  On this date in 1931, Martha Grimes, American author and poet, was born.  On this date in 2000, President Bill Clinton announced that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military.