When we last left off my place of employment, a small Public Library, had once again started using industrial-sized fragrance generators that had made me so sick a year-and-a-half ago in my work area and I'd filed a formal workplace grievance. El… Read full post »

            “Have you read that new Thomas Pynchon novel?” a Patron asked me.

            “No, I’m afraid I haven’t,” I admitted.

   &n… Read full post »

          To begin, I’d like to state that The Lampshade by Mark Jacobson (Simon and Schuster, 2010) is a beautifully designed book. The cover, before it was laminated, was thin and translucent, like parchment, and slightly greasy to the touch, very/… Read full post »

            “Hello, its Roy, Rick’s dad. Is Rick there?”

            “No, he’s out right now.”

          … Read full post »

            In Bloomington, Indiana they name their parking garages. There is Garage Art, Garage Market, and Garage Band. In 2009 the city spent $10,000 to install a 34-foot tall “Flying V” guitar sculpture by artist Joe LaMantia on G… Read full post »

            Our local newspaper has shrunk again. This time it lost about an inch-and-a half of space plus the white space around the boarders seems to have increased. This makes me wonder of any academic types have conducted studies comparing th… Read full post »

            During World War I, the Bounce Euchre Club of Spencer, Indiana, decided to sponsor French War Orphans.           

          &nbs… Read full post »

            On December 18, 1914, Nellie MacMillan wrote home.

            Mrs. MacMillan had been born Helen Artie Tarleton Belles in the year 1856 in Indianapolis, Indiana to Dr. Joshua Tar/… Read full post »

            The media was all agog lately when poll numbers were released that showed Republican Scott Brown, former Cosmo centerfold and Tea Party darling who unexpectedly won the Senate seat held by Ted Kennedy for almost half a century, was ho… Read full post »

            On Sunday, May 1, 2011, the late Pope John Paul II was beatified by the Holy Roman Catholic Church. Beatification literally means “blessed” and is seen as a step toward eventual Sainthood.

     &n… Read full post »

            I work in a medium sized public library that serves a mostly rural population of a little over 24,000 souls. I have worked here for fifteen years, the last ten in the Genealogy Department. I earn $12.00 an hour and the Library does no… Read full post »

The Biggest challenge of writing about Women executed in Modern times is there is so much diversity to choose from. I could have written about Ruth Snyder whose photograph taken at the moment the current of electricity jolted through her body was one. Ethel Rosenberg who was executed for espionage in… Read full post »

          Lynda Lyon Block was always civic minded. During her lifetime she had served as President of the Young Woman's Club at her local church. A Cub Scout mom. She served as an investigator or her local Humane Society. She was a Friend of her Local Lib… Read full post »

             In some respects the crimes for which Velma Barfield paid the ultimate price seem to belong to a world gone by. A world of Rough-on-Rats and caregivers who kill but some features of this case are distinctly modern.

  &… Read full post »

            Louise Peete was born Lofie Louise Pressler in 1883 in the town of Bienville, Louisiana. She was the daughter of a socially prominent newspaper publisher and was taught all the arts and graces deemed necessary for a young woman of… Read full post »

            Eva Dugan was born Eva McDonald in Mississippi in 1878 and moved to Oklahoma with her family when she was eleven. She married while living in Oklahoma and the union produced a son and a daughter before Eva’s husband deserte… Read full post »

            Martha Place was born Martha Garrettson in Millstone, New Jersey. She seemed normal in every way until the age of twenty-three when she was thrown from a sled and suffered a severe head injury. Her brother, Peter D. Garrettson believe… Read full post »

            I’ve always loved Easter. The holiday conjures memories of Easter egg hints at my Great-Aunt Isabel and Great-Uncle Rex’s home where the brightly colored eggs would be hidden among the Spring flowers in their backyard, and… Read full post »

            My dad wanted to get together and take a day trip to French Lick, Indiana. IT’s always weird taking day trips with my dad because it always makes me feel like we’re on visitation again and it feels even weirder because my… Read full post »

              Kentucky in the 1970s was given boatloads of money toward improving public education. Mostly this was because of Appalachia and Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 tour of poverty stricken regions. Although Owensboro was the opp… Read full post »

            Indiana, which unilaterally stripped State workers of collective bargaining rights in 2005, has passed a bill to restrict collective bargaining rights of teachers. The Indiana Senate voted 30-19 limiting the negotiating powers of scho… Read full post »

              My Workplace is trying to kill me.

              It started about a year and a half ago ago when the Public Library where I work began using… Read full post »

            The following seems apropos in light of my return to work after a week’s vacation.

            On Friday, March 11, 2011 a woman leapt 100 feet to her death from an indoor f/… Read full post »

           I've found MSNBC's new slogan, “Lean Forward” annoying ever since it appeared around the same time Keith Olbermann disappeared. Although I still dip in to MSNBC in the evening while on Vacation today I got to see MSNBC Live duri… Read full post »

          Bloomington, Indiana and surrounding environs have been riveted by the murder trial of former Marine Michael James Griffin accused of killing Indiana University Professor, Don Belton after an alleged rape.

      &nbs… Read full post »