There's the Red Cross tips and then there's mine. 

 

 

1.        Making the Hurricane Season run from June 1 to December 1 is a big fat government conspiracy to sell more batteries and flashlights.  Most hurrica/… Read full post »

 

I grew up in the last days of pre-internet, pre-credit card catalog shopping in a small town.  My mother hated shopping.  She really hated clothes.  She had her polyester slacks, her Keds, her white anklet socks, and camp shirts.  There were a few dresses in the c/… Read full post »

 I am a fallen woman.  I was able to buy an ipad-2 this summer and it has been my constant companion.  I sleep with it.  I downloaded 40+ Georgette Heyer kindle books during their sale in August and have been reading them ever since.  I think I need a 12-step program.… Read full post »

 

 

1)       When he was a baby, his mother called him Rastus.

2)       He was interested in hydroponics in the 1940s and grew pair of cottonwoods that started in water.

3)       According to my mo/… Read full post »

 

Yes, I’m back and it was not a flounce.  Are you all still here?  I am, barely.               

 What can I blame the silence on?   Work.  Oh, yeah, lots of work.  Lots and/… Read full post »

 

This movie makes no sense at all.  I guess that if you drink a lot, sleep around, destroy property, and piss off your really really rich dad, one day you too, can turn into a super-hero.  All it takes is:

1.  Coffee. 

Yes. … Read full post »

I don't know when I decided to stay 39 forever.  I think it was in this century.  

 TV stars with ties on

 Childhood memory:  My mother was SO MAD when I looked at her driver's license and tried to add up the years.  I was bad at math, so I… Read full post »

 They say, if you mis-behave, you will get coal in your stocking.  What have we done this year?  

Here is a preview of what the Republicants are getting tomorrow.

  

 

 

 

 

 Here's a picture of Krampus, the Northern European co… Read full post »

 

Every year we librarians are beseiged by the public demanding to know how they, too, can celebrate Christmas just like Charles Dickens. 

After exhaustive research and a great deal of experimentation, we have established the 12 steps of a Dickensian Christmas.   This progr… Read full post »

 

 

 

Because I love all you insomniacs on Open Salon,  I have decided to share my secret method of falling asleep.  

 Books! 

 Don't stop reading here!

 You haven't seen my list of cant-fail, Ambien replacing, REM inducing doorstop narcoleptic t… Read full post »

Clip Art or Police Sketch??  

 We all know that they exist.  But did you ever wonder where they come from? 

             The librarian who when asked if you have a book on how to treat a snakebite and are/… Read full post »

    unofficial  motto of the ALA

 

Occasionally, even I, Walking Bibliography, need help.  Luckily, the Online Catalog at my Library can usually point me to something on the shelf—for the public I serve.

 But what about when the librarian has to play… Read full post »

 

the rare sexy ghost:  from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

             It is not strictly necessary to be dead . . .

in order to haunt.  You can be alive, but you must be dedicated.  Jobs and school and family keep… Read full post »

     I do!  I really do!

In a week the 29th annual Banned Books Week will begin.  I've been watching Banned Books Week for most of that time, beginning as a recent college graduate working for the the American Library Association (ALA) and continuing to this day a… Read full post »

  The elegant Rising Tide V poster

 

I am not an expert blogger.  Hell!  Does this even count as a blog?

Thank you, Open Salon, for designing something this simple and easy, so that I don't have to do much more than upload a photo and write.

 In the… Read full post »

Dancing on graves

 

Jane Austen is always underfoot, thanks to endless movie adaptations—please, stop!!!!!    Now, of course, we will have Jane Austen movies with zombies in them.  Stop!!!!  Please!!!!!   That’s what all those movies led… Read full post »

 

My mother was a librarian.  She was a private librarian. 

Our book collection grew during my life and she would always know something around the house that I hadn’t read.  I grew up browsing shelves in our back hallway—science fiction, mysteries, old colle… Read full post »

Family secrets are a specialty, including lying, exaggeration, withholding facts.   My mother had secrets and hid them so deep that nearly nothing could escape their secure burial. My brother decided that his cancer would be a secret.  Death broke the seal.

There I was, for hi… Read full post »

 Washington's dentures 

 

Sometimes my teeth ache. 

But that doesn't mean I'm going to call a dentist.  I even have dental insurance, and I thank god for it, but . . . . .

I have Dorian Gray's teeth.  My husband has suffered through root canals, crowns, filling… Read full post »

 

 

 

This morning I asked my son, “You’ve been at Hogwarts for three days, can you turn a teacup into a rat?”

He looks at me, eyebrows raised.

              "Can you at least fix broken glasses--…

Read full post »

Years ago, when I worked at the American Library Association (always in humble capacities),  there was one ALA-produced poster that I preferred to all the others.  It said: It is better to have libraries in times of no money than money in times of no libraries.

While it is… Read full post »

   The Land of Oz

 

While there are series going on into infinity, including more fantasy series than Gandalf can shake a stick at, let's look at some more interesting choices.  Warning to readers:  you may have to enter a public library to have access to these books.&… Read full post »

 Every year, we face the same challenge and we find the same rewards. 

2010 CLSP Summer Reading Program

          There is a piece of research proving that kids who participate in a Summer Reading Program at their local public library do not e… Read full post »

 

Dav Pilkey is a children’s author.  But not the "Mr Wiggles" or "Cutie-Pie Mouse" kind of children's author.  Dav Pilkey is Dr. Seuss hopped up on Ritalin.  There are no Deep Thoughts in Pilkey (but you might pretend that there are).  

Dav Pilkey was a… Read full post »

 I don't even remember what I was looking for when I found this stuff on Amazon.com.  Don't blame me--blame your unconscious!!!

 

 

Freud Therapy Ball

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sky-diving Freud!

 

 

 

 

 

I want o%IMAGE…

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