Some of the most stunning churches in the world are also some of the simplest.  Stave churches are wooden houses of worship that combine the austere, peaked architecture of Christianity with the Nordic designs and motifs of a Viking great hall.  Stave churches are characterized by the “staves,” or thick wooden posts, that hold them up.  Using the same woodworking prowess that made the Vikings such adept shipbuilders, traditional stave churches were often built using nothing more that expertly crafted joints and joins, with no nails or glue.  The only stones used were in the base of the structures.  The heyday of the stave church was between the 12th and 14th centuries.  At the height of the trend, it is thought that were as many as 2,000 of them spread across Europe.  Today there are only 28 remaining stave churches from this era, all of which are in Norway.  Eric Grundhauser

See stunning pictures at http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/stave-churches-are-all-wood-dragons-and-beauty

Quark is a type of fresh dairy product made by warming soured milk until the desired degree of curdling is met, and then straining it.  It can be classified as fresh acid-set cheese,  though in some countries it is traditionally considered a distinct fermented milk product.  Traditional quark is made without rennet, but in some modern dairies rennet is added.  It is soft, white and unaged, and usually has no salt added.  It is common in the cuisines of German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), northern Europe (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden), the Netherlands, Hungary, Belgium, Albania, Israel, Romania, of Slavic peoples (e.g. Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, Slovenes, Croats, Macedonians, Bulgarians, and Serbs), and of Ashkenazi Jews.  Quark is similar to French fromage blanc, Indian chhena, and the queso fresco made in the Iberian Peninsula and in some Latin American countries.  It is distinct from Italian ricotta because ricotta (Italian "recooked") is made from scalded whey.  Quark is somewhat similar to yogurt cheeses such as the South Asian chak(k)a, the Arabic labneh, and the Central Asian suzma or kashk, but while these products are obtained by straining yogurt (milk fermented with thermophile bacteria), quark is made from soured milk fermented with mesophile bacteria.  Although common in Europe, manufacturing of quark is rare in the Americas.  A few dairies manufacture it, such as the Vermont Creamery in Vermont, and some specialty retailers carry it.  In Canada, the firmer East European variety of quark is manufactured by Liberté Natural Foods; a softer German-style quark is manufactured in the Didsbury, Alberta, plant of Calgary-based Foothills Creamery.  Read much more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark_(dairy_product)

February 28, 2107  An adorable stuffed puppy peruses the picture book section while a much-loved, understuffed bunny hops through the chapter books.  They're the actual loveys of young children who left them at the library for a "sleepover."  Library workers snap photos of them choosing books, reading together, bonding over "The Rainbow Fish."  When kids pick them up the next day, they can see how much fun their little friends had with books--and the hope is that it will encourage more children to explore reading.  West Orange Library in New Jersey has been hosting the parties for more than four years.  Its "stuffed animal sleepover" draws in kids through second grade who still get a thrill from a teddy bear party.  For the sleepover last week, Faith Boyle, the library's director of youth activities, read "Knuffle Bunny:  A Cautionary Tale" by Mo Willems to a group of children and their fluff-filled companions.  After that late afternoon story time, the children kissed their toys good night.  A group of teenage volunteers quickly got to work, snapping photos of the stuffed animals in the library.  There were images of a teddy bear and bunny holding hands while watching a puppet show and a tiny plush alligator reading about swamps.  Even the photos of the monkeys sneaking Chips Ahoy cookies from the break room made it onto the library's Facebook page.  Robert Jimison  http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/health/stuffed-animals-reading-study/

I have never seen branzino look quite like this, like some ancient, jewel-encrusted weapon unearthed from volcanic ash, prickly with glistening shards, crushed obsidian and olivine. Steam rises from the fish’s mouth, a long, pensive exhale.  The armor—cracked wheat, cumin, allspice and garlic, blackened over charcoal—crumbles at the knife.  It is lemon-bright with a faint, corrective bitterness from its dalliance with fire.  Inside, the flesh is immaculate, as juicy and tender as you would wish.  It is a grand dish to eat in the humble white-tile storefront of Little Egypt http://www.littleegyptrestaurant.com/ in Ridgewood, Queens.  Up front, a cluster of tables are set with plastic black damask place mats and electric candles; in the back, grocery shelves can be read like a library, a scholarship of fava beans and black molasses.  Nashaat Youssef, the chef, opened Little Egypt two years ago with his sister, Nagwa Hanna, a chemist with a sideline in pastry.   Ridgewood has been his home since he arrived in the United States in 1991.  He grew up in Alexandria, Egypt’s largest seaport, and spent a decade cooking at a restaurant steps from the docks.  In New York, he took a detour, working for a limousine company, before deciding to return to what he loved.  Ligaya Mishan   https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/02/dining/little-egypt-review-ridgewood-queens-restaurant.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

"To celebrate the magazine’s ninety-second anniversary, we are introducing The New Yorker Poetry Bot, a new way to receive, read, listen to, and share poetry.  Starting March 6, 2017, our poetry bot, available on Twitter and Facebook Messenger, will send out a poetry excerpt at random every day for the next ninety-two days.  The selection—culled from our archive and curated by our poetry editor, Paul Muldoon, and poetry coördinator, Elisabeth Denison—includes poems by Audre Lorde, Joseph Brodsky, and Ada Limón.  The bot’s first release is from our inaugural year:  “Cassandra Drops Into Verse,” a poem by the early contributor and Algonquin roundtable wit, Dorothy Parker."  http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/introducing-the-new-yorker-poetry-bot?mbid=social_twitter_poetrybot

EXECUTIVE ORDER PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES  March 6, 2017  https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/06/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states

The Hill:  “House Republicans on Monday  unveiled their long-awaited legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare.  The two measures dismantle the core aspects of ObamaCare, including its subsidies to help people buy coverage, its expansion of Medicaid, its taxes and its mandates for people to have insurance.  (READ THE BILLS HERE AND HERE.)  In its place, Republicans would put in place a new system centered on a tax credit to help people buy insurance . . . "  See also – Washington Post – House GOP unveils health plan that replaces subsidies with tax credits – “The party’s long-awaited proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act would offer income-based aid to help Americans afford health coverage, an approach the party had long criticized.  It also would scrap a penalty for the uninsured and would begin winding down the current health-care law’s expansion of Medicaid three years from now.”  The New York Times – G.O.P. Health Plan Would Sub Mandate With Incentives.  The plan would replace the Affordable Care Act with a system of tax credits aimed at enticing Americans to purchase insurance on the open market.”http://www.bespacific.com/gop-releases-bills-to-repeal-and-replace-obamacare/ The Scalia Vacancy in Historical Context:  Frequently Asked Questions March 1, 2017  Congressional Research Service 7-.... www.crs.gov R44773  Read 16-page report at https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20170301_R44773_2c46982ffb0b6558a9044351969803d6a27cba70.pdf http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1673  March 7, 2017  On this date in 1850, Senator Daniel Webster gave his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.  On this date in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for an invention he calls the "telephone".