Burl Ives, whose sweet, strong, mournful way with folk ballads made him an international singing star in the 1940's and whose earthy acting won him an Academy Award in the 1950's, died April 14, 1995 at his home in Anacortes, Wash.  He was 85.  In his long and diverse career in show business, Mr. Ives made 32 movies and more than 100 record albums, appeared in 13 Broadway productions, and gave countless performances on radio and television and in summer stock.  He put an enduring stamp on "The Blue Tail Fly," "Jimmy Crack Corn" and other folk standards as well as on such children's songs as "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."  His last recording, "The Magic Balladeer," was issued in 1993, shortly before his 84th birthday.  The bearded Mr. Ives, who loved to cook, eat and drink, was an imposing figure in his prime, carrying more than 300 pounds on his six-foot frame. He was intimidating when he played semi-professional football in Terre Haute, Ind., and he was intimidating onstage.  His presence, both physically and musically, was such that Carl Sandburg, one of his great admirers, called him "America's mightiest ballad singer."  He won praise for his originality and his ability to keep his singing fresh over the years, even when he performed such well-worn folk standards as "Big Rock Candy Mountain."  He was also admired for his acting, particularly for his memorable portrayal of Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams's 1955 play "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway and in the film version in 1958.  Lumbering about the stage as he angrily puffed on a cigar and snarled about the "mendacity" of those around him, Mr. Ives gave a vivid, larger-than-life performance that had critics and audiences cheering.  And his skillful work as Gregory Peck's business rival in the 1958 film "The Big Country" brought him an Academy Award for best performance in a supporting role.  Richard Severo  http://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/15/obituaries/burl-ives-the-folk-singer-whose-imposing-acting-won-an-oscar-dies-at-85.html?pagewanted=all

Canadian Robertson Davies, novelist, critic, man of letters, and a compelling performer of literature was known as the “wizard of the North”.  Mr. Davies was born in 1913 in Ontario and educated in Canada and at Balliol College, Oxford.  He worked at the Old Vic as writer, teacher of drama history, and actor; it was there that he worked with Tyrone Guthrie, and there that he met his wife, whom he married in 1940.  Upon his return to Canada, Davies embarked on a career as a kind of one-man Canadian cultural center, embassy, and gadfly; apparently he had little difficulty doing several full-time jobs at once, as well as writing plays and novels, stories, lectures, and critical essays.  In 1942 he became editorial writer for the Peterborough, Ontario Examiner; he was the paper’s editor and publisher from 1946 until 1963.  He also wrote a column under the pseudonym of Samuel Marchbanks, as well as other reviews and criticism.  During the 1950s, Davies’s first novels—the three that are now called the Salterton Trilogy—were published; he became literary editor of a publication called Saturday Night, for which he wrote book reviews; he was elected to the board of governors of the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, a position he held until 1971; and with Guthrie he documented, in three books, the festival’s activities in its initial years.  In 1959 he began another newspaper column—“Writer’s Diary”—in the Toronto Daily Star.  In 1963, Davies moved to Massey College at the University of Toronto as master, a position that kept him at the center of Canadian academic life until his retirement in 1981.  Meanwhile, he composed the novels of the Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore and World of Wonders) and the first book of a third trilogy, Rebel Angels.  After his retirement, the best-selling What’s Bred in the Bone and The Lyre of Orpheus have completed this threesome.  Read interview of Robertson Davies by Elisabeth Sifton at https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2441/robertson-davies-the-art-of-fiction-no-107-robertson-davies

Robertson Davies: Canada's greatest novelist?  by Martin Chilton   I encountered the work of Robertson Davies by chance.  Long before ipads or e-readers were around to divert, I had a long, slow, train journey from London to Dundee in prospect and gambled on a thousand-pager (a one-volume trilogy) by a Canadian writer, who died on December 2, 1995 aged 82, that I knew little about.  His book made the journey pass so pleasantly that I went on to read his two other mammoth trilogies and was charmed and entertained by them all (Deptford, Cornish and Salterton are his big three trios).  Davies was a writer Anthony Burgess hailed as "ingenuous, erudite and entertaining, with all the qualities of a latter-day Trollope".  Davies was born in born Thamesville, Ontario, more than a hundred years ago--August, 28, 1913--and although his books are still in print, and he was honoured in his centenary year by being put on a Canadian stamp.  His books were erudite and wise, almost philosophical meditations on the business of living, but they were also witty and whimsical, full of oddball characters.  The man who won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour said: "Comedy is fully as revealing in its probing of human problems as is tragedy.  The thing about comedy that I greatly value is that it is infinitely harder to fake than tragedy."  His books (30 in all) often deliberately rambled, touching on magic, medicine, Jungian analysis, murder, art forgery and funeral parlours--and anything else that struck his remarkable imagination.   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/robertson-davies-tribute-to-great-novelist/

Jicama is a wonderfully juicy, sweet, and nutty tuber with a distinct crunch.  It is most commonly enjoyed raw, but you can cook jicama, too.  Its white flesh stays crisp when cooked briefly.  You need to peel a jicama’s thick, papery skin, but please do not peel jicama skin with a vegetable peeler! A chef’s knife will give you much better (and safer) results.  Cut a thin slice from the top and bottom of the jicama to create a flat surface on each end.  Rest the jicama on its broadest cut end.  Working from top to bottom and following the curve of the jicama, slide your knife under the skin to peel it.  You can use a vegetable peeler to peel any tough, fibrous underlying flesh that remains.  After peeling, place jicama on its widest cut end.  Make vertical cuts, spaced evenly, moving from one side of the root to the other—this will produce thick slabs.  Cut through the slabs to produce sticks.  Cut across the sticks to produce a dice.  You can also cut jicama in half or quarters, then shave thin slices on a mandoline.  Use the thin slices as is, or cut through them to produce matchsticks.  Jicama actually doesn’t discolor like you think it would.  You do not need to rub it with lemon or store it in acidulated water.  You can use half of a root, store the other half in the fridge, and come back to it days later.  (The cut end will be dry, so cut it away before you prepare it.)  Cara Mangini  Read more and see pictures at http://www.thekitchn.com/jicama-most-exciting-vegetable-youre-not-eating-the-vegetable-butcher-220006  Jicama recipes  http://allrecipes.com/recipes/16079/fruits-and-vegetables/vegetables/jicama/  How to pronounce jicama  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWi4x0LuO1E

The words discrete and discreet share the same origin (from the Latin discretus, meaning ‘separate’), are pronounced the same way, but have different meanings.  Discrete stays true to its Latin origins and means ‘individually separate and distinct’, as in:  This issue is discrete from the others.  On the other hand discreet means ‘careful and circumspect’, as in:  A lot of their work is carried out in a very discreet and confidential manner.  https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/discreet-or-discrete

Meet has multiple meanings.  As a verb, it means people encountering, or being introduced to each other, for the first time.  As a verb, it can also mean getting together with others at a specific time:  “Let’s meet at 8am for coffee.”  As a noun, it can mean a sporting event, like a swim meet.  In the idiom “they don’t meet eye to eye”, people don’t agree with one another.  In the idiom “let’s meet in the middle,” people are coming to a compromise.  No side gets all they want, each side gets some of what they want.  Mete is a verb.  It means to separate into portions or allotments for distribution or application.  It can also mean to take a measurement, or to quantify something’s amount, value, or substance.  https://kathleenwcurry.wordpress.com/2016/07/21/easily-confused-words-meet-vs-mete/

 Kenny Rogers set the tone during The Nation We Build Together gala opening at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History June 22, 2017.  Performing in front of the gallery that houses The Star-Spangled Banner, the actual flag that inspired what is now the national anthem, Rogers sang his song "'Merica" illustrated with his photo images of the landscapes and people of "the land that I love...America."  The Nation We Build Together is a presentation of four exhibitions and interactive experiences that invite audiences to immerse themselves in the fundamental American stories, from the founding of the country, through today.  The newly transformed second floor of the museum's west wing opens June 28th.  Following the six-song set, which also included "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town," "Lucille," "The Gambler," "Islands In The Stream," and "You Can't Make Old Friends" to a capacity crowd of 600 guests, the museum acknowledged Rogers' "unique contribution to American music."  The honor was presented by the museum's director John Gray and Ambassador Nicholas Taubman, chairman of the museum's board.  http://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwmusic/article/Kenny-Rogers-Receives-Special-Award-From-The-Smithsonian-20170623

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1729  June 23, 2017  On this date in 1611, the mutinous crew of Henry Hudson's fourth voyage set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they are never heard from again.  On this date in 1683, William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.  On this date in 2016, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union, by 52% to 48%.