Funny story… I read this article in the New Yorker titled, “Growing Up In the Library” and was instantly intrigued. The author, Susan Orlean, has written about the Central Library fire in Los Angeles in 1986 in a book called, The Library Book. Hearing about a library fire made me think of the Librarian of Basra…
It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Return to Civility post. This one seems particularly appropriate to the season… We’ve all seen it… the rude customer giving the clerk a hard time or being impatient when something goes wrong at the register or just plain ignoring the clerk, too busy talking on their cell…
Weary Willie and Freddie the Freeloader are just two of many famous happy hobo and sad tramp clowns. Both Willie and Freddy are hobo clowns but with opposite personalities. Weary Willie is a sad, down in the dumps tramp clown and Freddy is an optimistic, happy hobo clown. What’s the difference between a hobo and a…
So here we are again, capturing another day in the life. In some ways it seems like every day is like every other day. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. For today’s Day in the Life, Ali Edwards suggested the theme of Gratitude. Appropriately seasonal for a November capture, even if it is…
The #OptOutside campaign was started by REI in 2015 when the store closed all locations on Black Friday and encouraged its employees to go outside instead. Employees now enjoy a paid day off to spend with their family outdoors. In the years since, the movement has been adopted by many other companies and groups and…
What was it like for the Pilgrims who came across the ocean on the Mayflower? It’s impossible to know for sure since no one who was there is still around to answer our questions and tell us about it. But wondering what it must have been like is something I often do. What was it…
I like to teach my kids at school about Veterans Day. It’s a bit tricky because they are so young. How much do you tell a 5 year old about the military in a way that emphasizes the importance without scaring them? I’m always looking for books that can tell about Veterans Day in an…
I have been feeling very down lately, very hopeless at the general state of affairs in our world. This is not my natural tendency, to feel sad and hopeless, and I needed to do something about it. It’s time to pick myself up and focus on myself, on my own small piece of the world…
Ali Edwards has announced the final Day in the Life date for 2018. Mark your calendars now for Tuesday, November 27. Set an alarm! Put a reminder in your phone! Can’t remember what the Day in the Life project is all about? Go here for a refresher… What is Day in the Life? …
The White House is a six-story, 55,000 square foot house located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washinton, DC. The house has 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, twenty-eight fireplaces, eight staircases, three elevators, five full-time chefs, a tennis court, a (single-lane) bowling alley, a movie theater (officially called the White House Family Theater), a…
How long do dinosaurs live? Do carnivores live longer than herbivores? If being a herbivore (vegetarian) makes you live longer, then why didn’t the carnivores switch or become omnivores? Do omnivores live longer than either of the others? This all started with a simple off-hand question from one of my students last spring –…
This journey started when I first learned about the packhorse librarians of the Great Depression. Research for that story led me to Luis Soriano’s biblioburro and Amy Baqer’s library rescue in Basra. What I also discovered along the way is there are many different types of bookmobiles in use around the world – camels, swamp…