Malvina Reynolds (née Milder; 1900–1978) was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist, best known for her songwriting, particularly the songs "Little Boxes", "What Have They Done to the Rain" and "Morningtown Ride".    Her mother was born in Russia and her father was born in Hungary.  As a child, she took violin lessons and "fooled around" with pianos, writing music occasionally.   Reynolds earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from the University of California, Berkeley, where she remarked that she got "all the degrees possible".   She earned a doctorate there, finishing her dissertation in 1938.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvina_Reynolds    

Never Argue with a Bee (excerpt) by Malvina Reynolds  

Never argue with a bee,
He has got a sting-a-ree.
Be he worker, be he drone,
You had best leave him alone.    

He has got his work to do,
Getting honey from the tree.
If you know what's good for you,
Do not argue with a bee.   

Well, a hornet knows his rights,
And it hurts when he alights.
You will surely get your lumps,
Cause his stinger, it is trumps.  https://www.letras.com/malvina-reynolds/755323/    

There’s a time for work and a time for play.  https://fablesofaesop.com/the-ant-and-the-grasshopper.html 

Birds of a feather flock together.  https://fablesofaesop.com/the-farmer-and-the-stork.html    

What’s farfel?  According to the Jewish food historian Gil Marks, it's essentially an egg noodle often shaped like a tiny barley grain.  But here's where it gets interesting:  farfel refers to any small, oddly-shaped food bit.  So, back in the day in Germany, noodles were the new kid on the culinary block. They made this soup with these basic noodle clumps and called it varvelen.  German Jews caught wind of this noodle madness and dubbed those little doughy pellets "farfel" in Yiddish.    Some folks rolled the dough into logs and grated it through rough holes, while others sliced it into strips and chopped those strips into bits.  Over time the term farfel was also applied to other irregular food bits, including the Ashkenazic version of streusel and especially to crumbled matzah.  To differentiate them Americans sometimes refer to the noodles as barley farfel.  https://aish.com/what-is-farfel/ 

Phantom limb pain is pain that you feel in the part of a limb that was removed after an amputation.  It might seem unusual to feel pain in an area of your body that doesn’t exist anymore, but the pain you feel is real.  https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12092-phantom-limb-pain  Thank you, reader. 

As a Hoosier cyclist in NYC, I learned about Major Taylor from seeing his club jerseys on other riders.  There are a number of cycling clubs with his name on them.  See:  https://www.majortaylorassociation.org/AssociatedClubs.shtml   Note that the best (cycling) movie ever made also has an Indianapolis connection.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Away   The main character is based upon a guy named David Blase.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Blase  Thank you, reader.  

June 5 is World Environment Day, recognized by the United Nations to promote worldwide awareness of the need and action to protect the environment.  The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden, began on this day in 1972.  Wiktionary 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2951  June 5, 2025