“Letters on the Marquee” – Vincent Neil Emerson
“Letters on the Marquee” – Vincent Neil Emerson
Posts will likely be sporadic to non-existent for the next couple weeks.
(Sunset walks, on the other hand, will be plentiful!)

Confirmation of evolution and nightmare fuel, all rolled up in one!
These fins were made for walking! #SharkWeek
? Island of the Walking Sharks pic.twitter.com/ivppSWKng1
— Shark Week (@SharkWeek) July 28, 2022

A couple recent conversations with different colleagues has inspired a patented Headtale listicle…namely, what are some things that make a good library worker?
1. Someone who grew up listening to/playing/being part of the punk rock scene. *Every* person I know who fits this description has been an *amazing* library worker.
2. Someone who grew up with a parent who was a nurse (full disclosure: my mom was a nurse so I’m biased on this one. But I know others who fit this description who are excellent too!)
3. People who had a low-paying retail job, preferably in food services, as their first job.
4. People who have traveled internationally.
5. People who have worked in nonprofit organizations, bonus points if it was a social services agency.
6. This one goes without saying but is surprisingly not as common as you’d think among library workers – people who read a lot *and* read widely.
7. People who didn’t have a lot of money growing up.
8. For lack of a better term, people who have a “zen” personality.
9. People who are genuinely kind.
10. People who have kids.
Disclaimer: this list is not exhaustive by any stretch, correlation is not causation, etc. etc. Some of these things may also make someone a bad library worker. But these are just a few of my own observations which may or may not hold true in all cases, your mileage may vary, etc. etc. 😉
(Oh, and to show I’m not writing this as some sort of way to pat myself on the back, I only score 5/10 out of the things on this list meaning I’m probably not a great library worker by my own definition!)
“Remembering” – Ashley Campbell
Had a really enjoyable time on Grandpa’s pontoon boat for a few hours on Saturday afternoon…




Not sure if this was Pace’s first time driving with my dad at our farm but at any rate, hard to believe he now has his learner’s license!


The Wall Street Journal recently published an article saying it’s very rare to not have had Covid for the majority of people, even if they haven’t tested positive.
The original article is paywalled but this link appears to have the full article if you’re interested.
I’ve thought about this a lot – it’s almost unbelievable that:
* Shea, a nurse who, unable to work from home, has continued going into the hospital since day one of the pandemic and though not directly working with Covid positive patients except occasionally has not tested positive even once. (Heck, I think she’s missed less work in the past couple years than I have!).
* myself who was able to work from home during a couple different parts of the pandemic but is now in a public facing role where we literally hand test kits to people who often over-share *why* they need the kits has never tested positive.
* Shea and I having both been in close contact with a handful of people who did eventually test positive – family members, coworkers, etc.
* We also haven’t lived completely in a bubble – did a trip to West Edmonton Mall with lots of restaurant meals, two days unmasked in the World Waterpark, attending an Oilers game (we were masked but many around us in sold-out stadium ignored rules at that time and didn’t mask.).
* …and our two kids who are in two different schools, interacting maskless with others at least at lunch and possibly other times as well?
Yet given all of that, none of us have ever tested positive?
Not once?
Not one faint line?
As a healthcare worker, Shea had access to rapid tests months before the general public and we’ve generally tested at least weekly for the most part (and occasionally more often if someone has a sniffle or sore throat or whatever?)
Both kids ended up getting the “brain tickler” full PCR test yet Shea and I never even had symptoms that made us feel like we had to go for that same test?
If up to 30% of Covid cases are asymptomatic as the article claims, it very well could be that one or more of us had Covid and simply didn’t know. (I mean, I feel like I have a brain fog pretty much constantly so maybe I’m ever suffering from Long Covid without realising that either?)
Anyhow, what was I saying…nevermind. 😉