The Star Spangled Banner was formally designated as the national anthem in 1916, with the signing of an executive order by President Woodrow Wilson.  In March 1931, Congress passed an act confirming Wilson’s presidential order, and on March 3 President Hoover signed it into law.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-star-spangled-banner-becomes-official

In 1956, two years after pushing to have the phrase “under God” inserted into the pledge of allegiance, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a law officially declaring “In God We Trust” to be the nation’s official motto.  The law, P.L. 84-140, also mandated that the phrase be printed on all American paper currency.  The phrase had been placed on U.S. coins since the Civil War when, according to the historical association of the United States Treasury, religious sentiment reached a peak.  Eisenhower’s treasury secretary, George Humphrey, had suggested adding the phrase to paper currency as well.  The first paper money with the phrase “In God We Trust” was not printed until 1957.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/president-eisenhower-signs-in-god-we-trust-into-law

The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935  In addition to several provisions for general welfare, the new Act created a social insurance program designed to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement.  (Full Text of President Roosevelt's Statement At Bill Signing Ceremony.)  https://www.ssa.gov/history/briefhistory3.html

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare, a health insurance program for elderly Americans, into law.  At the bill-signing ceremony, which took place at the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, former President Harry S. Truman was enrolled as Medicare’s first beneficiary and received the first Medicare card  Johnson wanted to recognize Truman, who, in 1945,had become the first president to propose national health insurance, an initiative that was opposed at the time by Congress.  The Medicare program, providing hospital and medical insurance for Americans age 65 or older, was signed into law as an amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935.  Medicaid, a state and federally funded program that offers health coverage to certain low-income people, was also signed into law by President Johnson on July 30, 1965, as an amendment to the Social Security Act.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/johnson-signs-medicare-into-law

Wilson Mizner (1876-1933) was an American playwright, raconteur, and entrepreneur  His best-known plays are The Deep Purple, produced in 1910, and The Greyhound, produced in 1912.  He was manager and co-owner of The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, California, and was affiliated with his brother, Addison Mizner, in a series of scams and picaresque misadventures that inspired Stephen Sondheim's Road Show.  Link to quotes such as Always be nice to people on the way up because you'll meet the same people on the way down. and If you steal from one author, its plagiarism.  If you steal from two, its research. and The worst-tempered people I've ever met were the people who knew they were wrong. at http://www.quotes.net/quote/15729

Rutabaga and Kohlrabi, Loveable Outcasts   Resembling an oversized, scarred turnip, the pale yellow rutabaga hails from Central Europe.  Although its exact birthplace is unknown, the cool weather-loving root vegetable got its start as a popular Swedish crop.  Hence the nicknames "Swede" or "Swedish turnip."  At its peak in wintertime the rutabaga possesses a sweet, peppery flavor reminiscent of a mild turnip.  With its honeyed yet tangy taste and firm texture, it partners well with a wealth of foods including apples, cheese, pears, pork, potatoes, tomatoes, tuna and, of course, turnips.  Unceasingly flexible, it hits it off with such diverse herbs and spices as basil, cardamom, cayenne, nutmeg, rosemary and star anise.  When choosing a rutabaga, look for smooth, firm flesh that feels heavy for its size.  The top part should be a bright purple, the lower portion yellow.  Avoid any that appear washed out or feel woody or dry.  Since most producers wax their rutabagas to prevent them from drying out, cooks must first peel them before using.  After completing that task, the culinary possibilities seem limitless.  In Scandinavia cooks stick to simpler concoctions.  "We let the vegetable stand on its own and allow the flavor to speak for itself," says Stockholm journalist Christina Anderson.  She prepares both rutabagas and kohlrabi with a splash of olive oil and dash of salt and pepper.  In Scotland cooks boil and mash them with potatoes and onions to create the traditional dish clapshot. When boiled and mashed separately, the potato and rutabaga combo becomes the Scottish specialty tatties and neeps.  Elsewhere rutabagas are grated into salads, diced and added to soups or stews or cubed and placed inside potpies or alongside roasts.  They can also be cut into matchsticks for tempura or Swede fries.  Basically, any recipe for turnips will work perfectly with rutabagas, too.  Similar to the rutabaga, kohlrabi maintains strong ties to the turnip.  In fact, it is often referred to as the "cabbage turnip," allusions to its turnip-like tang and membership in the cabbage family.  Unlike rutabagas, the Northern European kohlrabi bears no physical resemblance to a turnip.  With its tennis ball-sized, globe-shaped base, slender, randomly spaced stalks and cabbage-like leaves it remains one of the strangest looking vegetables in existence.  It also is one of the most versatile.  Kohlrabi's flavor has much to do with its adaptability.  The bulb resembles a juicy mix of turnips, radishes, and cauliflower while the edible leaves bring to mind cabbage and kale.  This assortment of tastes translates into a long list of good partnerships.  Kohlrabi makes a great mate for butter, Parmesan and Swiss cheeses, dill, garlic, mustard seeds, potatoes and soy sauce.  It additionally pairs well with cabbage, carrots, curry, duck, lamb, leeks and pork.  When selecting kohlrabi, find one that has a firm bulb slightly larger than a golf ball with pale green or purple skin and deep green leaves.  Skip those that show soft spots or yellowing leaves.  Back at home, cooks should separate the leaves from the bulb.  If using immediately, peel the bulb and wash the greens.  Otherwise, slip the two into separate plastic bags and refrigerate; refrigerated, a bulb will keep for 10 days while leaves will only last for four.  As with rutabagas, kohlrabi provides a host of cooking options.  After slicing the bulb into rounds, quarters or strips, cooks can drizzle olive oil over top then grill, steam or roast it.  They can boil and mash it like potatoes, glaze it like carrots, toss it into a Chinese stir fry or Indian curry, cream it, or bake it as a gratin.  Kohlrabi doesn't always require cooking.  The bulb can be served raw in a salad, coleslaw or as crudites.  As for the leaves, they spice up the tried and true mixed greens salad.  Kathy Hunt  Find recipes at http://ihavenet.com/recipes/Rutabaga-and-Kohlrabi-Loveable-Outcasts-KH.html

LINES OF SPINES  What is a library?  by TIM GORICHANAZ   Most of us think of the library as a storehouse for books.  We can be forgiven for thinking so.  Our word library comes from the Latin librarium, meaning bookcase.  It’s the same for the Latin and Greek equivalents for library—bibliotheca and bibliothiki, respectively—which led to the word for library in most modern Indo-European languages.  It’s also notable that the Latin word for book, liber, originally referred to the kind of bark that was used in book construction.  All this is to say that, through and through, we have conceptualized the library in terms of physical objects.  Bark, books, shelves, buildings.  This being the case, we tend to paint libraries as havens for book lovers.  Take, for example, the novel Kafka on the Shore, by Haruki Murakami, in which young Kafka Tamura runs away from home on his 15th birthday.  Kafka is muscular and good-looking, but also introverted and bookish.  As he says, “Ever since I was little I’ve loved to spend time in the reading rooms of libraries . . . Even on holidays that’s where you’d find me.  I’d devour anything and everything—novels, biographies, histories, whatever was lying around.  Once I’d gone through all the children’s books, I went on to the general stacks and books for adults.”  Naturally, then, as a runaway, Kafka took refuge in a library.  (Perhaps it’s worth noting that in Japanese, too, the word for library, toshokan, amounts to a building for books.)  What is fundamental about the library is not that it holds objects, or even the nature of those objects, but rather how those objects are used.  And though books are the first objects that come to mind, libraries hold far more than just books.  To be sure, libraries also have objects like CDs, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, maps, artwork, electronic databases, computers, and printers.  But they also offer things we’re less quick to identify as objects:  space, relationships, trust, understanding, and opportunities.  We must recognize that libraries speak to the whole person, not just the intellect.  When Kafka realizes this, the texture of the library changes for him.  “The most important thing about life here,” a young woman tells him, “is that people let themselves be absorbed into things.  As long as you do that, there won’t be any problems . . . It’s like when you’re in the forest, you become a seamless part of it.  When you’re in the rain, you’re a part of the rain . When you’re in the morning, you’re a seamless part of the morning.  When you’re with me, you become a part of me.”  Read more and see graphics at http://thesmartset.com/lines-of-spines/

Bob Dylan Explains His Roots, As Only He Can, With Nobel Lecture   by Andrew Flanagan   He opens—as slow, thoughtful, Sesame Street-style piano plinks softly in the background, his paper rustling here and there—with some thoughts on Buddy Holly, who he says looms the largest in his life."I felt a kin . . . like he was an older brother. "Something about him seemed permanent."  Dylan says Holly looked him straight in the eye, and claims that a day or two after that, Holly died.  Through Holly and Leadbelly, he was exposed to the raw nerve and roots of American music.  Dylan then examines his literary development by looking, through a refracted lens, at the three works that had the biggest impact on him personally and artistically—Moby-Dick, All Quiet On the Western Front and The Odyssey.  He penetrates each in a near-breathless examination of the themes and plot points and contours and shapes and colors of each work, much as he does in that kaleidoscopic folk music family tree.  "So what does it all mean," he wonders, concluding a pointillistic breakdown of The Odyssey.  "[The themes] could mean a lot of different things.  If a song moves you, that's all that's important.  I don't have to know what a song means.  I've written all kinds of things into my songs, and I'm not gonna worry about it—what it all means.  "Songs are unlike literature," he continues, softly contradicting the Academy.  "They're meant to be sung, not read.  The words of Shakespeare's plays were meant to be acted on the stage, just as the lyrics in songs are meant to be sung, not read on a page.  And I hope some of you get to listen to some of these lyrics the way they were intended to be heard:  in concert, or on record, or however people are listening to songs these days."  Dylan closes with a quote from Homer: "Sing in me, oh muse / And through me, tell the story."  Link to the lecture recorded June 4, 2017 in Los Angeles at http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/06/05/531593030/watch-bob-dylan-explains-his-roots-as-only-he-can-with-nobel-lecture

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1720  June 7, 2017  On this date in 1776, Richard Henry Lee presented the "Lee Resolution" to the Continental Congress.  The motion was seconded by John Adams and would lead to the United States Declaration of Independence.  On this date in 1955, Lux Radio Theatre signed off the air permanently.  The show launched in New York in 1934, and featured radio adaptations of Broadway shows and popular films.  Thought of the Day  Truth-tellers are not always palatable.  There is a preference for candy bars. - Gwendolyn Brooks, poet (7 Jun 1917-2000)