I have so many “mini-interests” in my life and comedy is one things I’ve long loved (I remember going into the Luther College library in undergrad intending to do a paper that was due the next day, stumbling upon a book on the “philosophy of comedy” or some such thing and then ending up doing […]
It might not be as simple as people consciously choosing which philosophies they prefer to follow – whether we’re liberal or conservative might be part of our deeper psychology. According to the experts who study political leanings, liberals and conservatives do not just see things differently. They are different—in their personalities and even their […]
With the almost unbelievable events in the US since Trump was elected, George Orwell’s classic novel, originally released in 1949, which details a dystopian future society where the government spies on, controls and lies to its citizens, has hit the top of the Amazon bestseller list. But there are other books that even better capture the dread and doom […]
Fears of Islamic Terrorists are greatly overblown. Even if this ten-year average accounted for 9/11 deaths, Americans are *still* more likely to be killed getting hit by a bus! Trump’s “Muslim Ban” shows why he’s in a conflicted position as the first non-elected, non-military person to serve as President of the United States… Even *if* […]
This site breaks down the political preferences of different professions. No surprise to see that librarians tend to be very liberal leaning. (I heard a good line recently – someone observed: “What’s the easiest way to tell if someone’s a liberal or a conservative? Ask them if they’ve read a book in the past year.” […]
Another thing I’m going to miss about Obama is that, unlike Cheeto Jesus, Obama was actually a reader. For the record… 1. The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer 2. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez 3. The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing 4. The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston 5. Brown Girl Dreaming, […]
I’ve been watching the growth of social workers in libraries with great interest. I think the first I heard of the idea was when San Francisco Public Library got one. Now it’s spreading to other urban centres across the US and Canada – Winnipeg, Edmonton, Thunder Bay are just a sample of some Canadian libraries where this […]
Like getting to teach one of our young regulars how to play chess with the oversized chess board that my branch recently borrowed from Central library. Then after seeing how quickly he picked up the game, watching as he went on to teach a few of our other young regulars over the past couple days.
I was looking back and realised that the shirt and pants I wore to tell stories to some kids in a summer reading program two years ago… …are the same ones I wore this past summer. (I have no photographic evidence of what I wore for the school visit in summer 2015 but I suspect it […]
Instead of my usual photo from the past, today’s post is unusual for a couple reasons – it’s a link to a web forum thread and I hadn’t seen it at the time it was originally posted a year ago. In fact, I had no knowledge of it until recently. But I wanted to share […]
