Fast food at home  Combine cooked beans and cooked rice.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  If desired, add  sorghum or molasses, and--if desired--add cooked meat.  Serve hot or at room temperature.

M Words

melo  song  Examples:  melody; melodrama

micr, micro  small  Examples:  microscope; microcosm

mono  one  Examples:  monologue; monograph

morph  body; form  Examples:  amorphous; morphology   Find more Greek prefixes and suffixes at http://www.zaneeducation.com/education/literary-arts/greek-roots-prefix-and-suffix.php

December 24, 2016  What would you take with you if you had to leave your home tomorrow for a strange and wondrous land?  That’s the question actress and New York Times bestselling author Jamie Lee Curtis poses in her latest children’s book, “This is Me:  A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From.”  Illustrator Laura Cornell, who has now collaborated with Curtis on 11 books, provides some charming illustrations featuring children of assorted nationalities.  The book even contains a built-in suitcase—a pop-up suitcase that children can fill with their own treasures after reading the book.  The book explores emigration and immigration as it helps young children discover what makes them unique.   Jamie Lee Curtis filled her box with a little gold jewelry box that belonged to her parents, her first editions of “Go Dog, Go,” and “East of Eden,” her Leica M6, a picture of herself and her sister Kelly, her wedding ring, a quote from Henry David Thoreau and a very meaningful wedding photo.  Karen Bossick  http://www.eyeonsunvalley.com/story_reader/3362/Jamie-Lee-Curtis-Book-Challenges-Children-to-Explore-Their-Roots/

"Pittsburgh, Toledo, Saint Louis, Minneapolis, and Kansas City--these five cities define the parameters of the American heartland.  Four border a mighty river.  Each has played an important role in the history of the American landscape."  Their art museums were founded in the last decades of the nineteenth century, sometimes called the American Renaissance.  An exhibition catalogue published in 1989 features works of 21 artists arranged alphabetically from the collections of:  Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Mo.; Saint Louis Art Museum; and Toledo Museum of Art.  Descriptions of each painting accompany 85 colorplates.  Impressionism:  Selections from Five American Museums by Marc Saul Gerstein

"When words fail music speaks" is usually attributed to William Shakespeare.  Where it’s actually from:  a paraphrase from Hans Christian Andersen’s “What The Moon Saw”.  The actual quote is, “when words fail, sounds can often speak.”  Read more at http://walyou.com/famous-lines-william-shakespeare-might-have-but-didnt-write/

"United States national cemetery" is a designation for 147 nationally important cemeteries in the United States.  A national cemetery is generally a military cemetery containing the graves of U.S. military personnel, veterans and their spouses, but not exclusively so.  There are also state veteran cemeteries.  The best known national cemetery is Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C.  Some national cemeteries, especially Arlington, contain the graves of important civilian leaders and other important national figures.  Some national cemeteries also contain sections for Confederate soldiers.  The National Cemetery Administration of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs maintains 131 of the 147 national cemeteries as well as the Nationwide Gravesite Locator, which can be used to find burial locations of American military veterans.  The Department of the Army maintains two national cemeteries, Arlington National Cemetery and United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery.  The National Park Service (NPS) maintains 14 cemeteries associated with historic sites and battlefields.  The American Battle Monuments Commission, an independent agency, maintains 24 American military cemeteries and other memorials outside of the United States.  Find list of national cemeteries at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_national_cemetery  See also https://www.cem.va.gov/

In 1819, Walt Whitman, widely recognized as America's greatest poet, was born in a small farmhouse in the rural Long Island community of West Hills in the town of Huntington.  Whitman’s writings are treasured for capturing the nation’s spirit during the nineteenth century and examining some of the era’s most significant events including westward expansion, immigration, slavery, and the Civil War.  Despite Whitman’s national prominence, during the twentieth century his family’s farmhouse in West Hills faced the continual threat of suburban encroachment.  In 1949 the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association (WWBA) was established to preserve his birthplace.  Read much more and see pictures at http://waltwhitman.org/about/about-wwba/  For more information, contact the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site, 246 Old Walt Whitman Road, South Huntington, NY 11746-4148  (631) 427-5240  E-:  director@waltwhitman.org

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars  "Song of Myself"  When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, and the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night, I mourned, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.  "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd"  (written in honor of Abraham Lincoln)  Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Selected Poetry and Prose

As a young man, Walt Whitman occupied himself as an office boy, printer's devil, journeyman printer and country schoolmaster.  At 19, he became editor of a Long Island newspaper.  In 1847-48, traveling through the United States and Canada as a carpenter and builder, he conceived an idea of writing a book of verses which would interpret the "American dream."  In 1855, Whitman brought out the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a 94-page volume which he spent the rest of his life revising and enlarging.  The final edition, published in 1892, was the sixth revision of his work.  Introduction to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Selected Poetry and Prose by C. Merton Babcock 

A printer's devil was an apprentice in a printing establishment who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of ink and fetching type.  A number of famous men served as printers' devils in their youth, including Ambrose Bierce, William Dean Howells, James Printer, Benjamin Franklin, Raymond C. Hoiles, Samuel Fuller, Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Joel Chandler Harris, Warren Harding, Lawrence Tibbett, John Kellogg, Lyndon Johnson, Hoodoo Brown, James Hogg, Joseph Lyons, Albert Parsons and Lázaro Cárdenas.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer%27s_devil

Hundreds of libraries are now serving federally funded summer meals to children to ensure that they don’t go hungry.  The change is part of an effort to stay relevant to patrons, and to pair nutrition and educational activities so low-income children get summertime learning, too.  Enid Costley, the children’s and youth services consultant for Library of Virginia, summed up the rationale for starting to serve free food:  “For kids to be well-read, they need to be well-fed.”  The meals are paid for through the United States Department of Agriculture’s summer food service program.  In 2016, it funded roughly 50,000 sites nationwide as a way to feed kids who rely on free or reduced meals during the school year.  That year, nearly four million children got roughly 179 million meals.  Since the 1970s, the U.S.D.A. has tried to fill the gap by providing meals at sites like camps, parks and Y.M.C.A.s.  But transportation can be a barrier for accessing many of these programs, as are the limited number of summer camps and activities for low-income kids, according to a new report called “Hunger Doesn’t Take a Vacation” by the Food Research & Action Center.  In interviews, librarians and anti-hunger advocates in California, Ohio, Virginia and New York all reported sizable increases in participation after a concerted recruitment effort spread from state to state through webinars, librarian conferences and word of mouth.  In 2014, the U.S.D.A. started recommending libraries as potential partners, and has an online tool to connect them to sponsors, said Jalil Isa, a spokesman.  In 2016, public libraries in California provided over 203,000 meals for children at 139 sites, up from just 17 in 2013.  Last year, Ohio had 133 library branches serving U.S.D.A.-funded food, up from 88 in 2014.  After the U.S.D.A. push to involve libraries, Hunger Solutions New York, a nonprofit in Albany, reached out to librarians in the state.  New York has more than 115 participating libraries this summer, compared to 36 in 2013, said Misha Marvel, a child nutrition programs specialist at Hunger Solutions New York.  “Libraries are a good fit,” she said.  “They are a non-stigmatizing community-accepted resource.”  Read more and see pictures at http://www.uk-news.net/free-lunch-at-the-library/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1746  August 1, 2017  On this date in 1498, Christopher Columbus became the first European to visit what is now Venezuela.  On this date in 1774, British scientist Joseph Priestley discoverd oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_1