February 2012
“She told the story of a failed attempt to write about identical twin rappers...”
– Jennifer Egan, failed music writer.
I thought my library was doing OK keeping up with the social media game, but now I see that there’s a library on Pinterest. I feel so outclassed.
So by now we’ve all heard that Mitt Romney is “not concerned about the very poor.” I’d like someone to illustrate this sentiment in a picture book, Green Eggs & Ham style:
“Are you concerned about them while in your fancy jet? Are you concerned about them while making a $10,000 bet?”
“I am not concerned about them while in my fancy jet. I am not...
Komen Effect: $400,000 Donated To Planned... →
(via balltillifall)
YES. Give some $$$ if you can, people.
Jenny Owen Youngs ~ Pirates
Seeing her at...
January 2012
Guys, I’m in the mood to watch a show that features old-fashioned views on class and society that don’t fit with modern life. But since there’s no GOP debate tonight, I guess I’ll just watch Downton Abbey.
“Children make up the best songs, anyway. Better than grown-ups. Kids are always...”
– Tom Waits
I heard the best “getting out of a traffic ticket” story last night. Apparently some guy my sister’s boyfriend knows was recently pulled over for speeding, and when he rolled down his window to speak to the officer, he waved his hand Obi-Wan style and said “you’re not going to write me a ticket.” It seems the cop was a pretty big Star Wars fan and found it so...
“Though many of his novels have been turned into films, it’s the novels...”
– The Guardian looks at the career of Elmore Leonard.
“Yet who reads to bring about an end, however desirable? Are there not some...”
– Virginia Woolf
Happy 130th birthday, V.W.!
“My battles as a writer are battles with that part of myself that thinks I’m...”
– Mary Karr
1 tag
“America’s librarians, in town for a big conference, had descended on the...”
– The Librarians of America Just About Destroyed Wild Salsa on Saturday Night
I know some people who were at this conference. (ALA Midwinter). I’d like to think they were part of this crowd.
“Did the librarians drink all your tequila?” I asked him.
He looked exhausted.
...
“I made a rule for myself: I would not include anything that human beings had not...”
– Margaret Atwood looks back at writing The Handmaid’s Tale.
1 tag
“There were no minutes or seconds for the ancients. Neither the postman nor the...”
– Paul Valery
I just saw the most bizarre vanity license plate: “MCDISNEY”. I can’t decide - is it an MC that raps about Disney, or a guy who wants McDonalds to merge with Disney?
“Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess is a venerable type: part Trollope’s Mrs....”
– The Literary Pedigree of Downton Abbey (via The Millions)
The library’s fancy new automated book return system went down again, forcing me to be in at 7:30 to fix it. If this keeps up, we’ll have to go back to our old method of handling materials:
2 tags
Today at the Reference Desk
Coworker: It's a madhouse today.
Me: I think it's because Wikipedia's on strike. The public finally remembered about us.
“I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes:...”
– Martin Luther King Jr., Letter From A Birmingham Jail.
“A public reading from “The Dead” was due to take place in the tiny shop, but an...”
– Mark O’Connell, Has James Joyce Been Set Free?
“It seemed like there was some opportunity there that I might write something...”
– Daniel Handler
I just started a Google Plus page for the library. Given how little activity G+ has though, it feels like opening a branch in a ghost town.
I just found out that, as part of ALA’s Teen Tech Week, my coworker will be running a library program in which she teaches teengers how to use Tumblr. I was thinking that these might be useful topics she could cover to get these kids started:
Taking great cat photos.
Calling anything longer than 2 paragraphs a “longread”.
Complaining about people being wrong on the internet.
...
Seeking Female Founders In The Tech Startup Scene →
I was listening to this story on NPR while driving home from work yesterday. I knew that not many tech startups were founded by women, but this really shocked me:
“Accelerators are not a new idea. Among the most well-known is Y Combinator, based in Silicon Valley, which has nurtured new stars like Dropbox and Reddit. But only 4 percent of Y Combinator’s grants went to startups with a...
“I reread it now, 35 years later, and I am struck by its capacity to change like...”
– Tilda Swinton, on Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando.
Hezekiah Jones ~ Drug Buddy (Lemonheads cover)
“You don’t have to like Dickens. Literature is a house with many mansions....”
– Howard Jacobson, Charles Dickens has been ruined by the BBC.
