Yummy, Kitsch-y Pop Culture

What's better than Glinda the Good Witch?
The thank you note to Glinda from Dorothy Gale.

Better than 007?
Top Secret Notes regarding the fates of 001 through 006.

Better than the B-52s?
The letter from their real estate agent regarding the efforts to sell the Love Shack.  "I'll be honest, this property is what's known as a 'tough sell' in our business." (p. 166)  PRICELESS.

Yes, the title is Dear Luke, We need to talk.  Dad Darth

Oooh, yummy, silly, pop culture at its ooey, gooey best.  

Overdue books - who gets my fine?

Most prolific library users I know have overdue fines.  Hey.... it happens.

I've even observed, or gotten caught up in, bizarre games of one-ups-man-ship about fines.

Photo courtesy: Elena Roussakis
Flickr Creative Commons

"I have, like, six dollars in fines right now."

"Six?  That's nothing!  I've got $22 in fines, and four books I just can't find."

Yikes.

I started this calendar year with a resolution not to incur ANY fines.  I held out for a few months, but like most people, my resolutions usually don't last all that long.  

I've probably paid $15-20 in fines over the last calendar year.  I console myself: well, I'm making a small contribution to the library with my fine money.  That's not such a bad thing, right?

Wrong.

A first foray into fermenting food

I learn the coolest stuff from the "New Book Shelf" at the library. Because I pick up books that pique my fancy, but that I would likely never go on the hunt for.

A month or so ago I noticed The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting Foods. Hmmm....

Library budget cuts are penny wise, pound foolish

The City of South Portland is proposing a $5,000 cut to the "collections" budget at the public library.

Now, I understand that it's not the only city department facing cuts, but the cost/benefit ratio of keeping our library current is HUGE.

South Portland is a great community because we pull together and benefit together as a community.  I don't have a swimming pool, but my son is learning to be a great swimmer because we have an indoor community pool.  We have wonderful parks, the rec center, athletic fields, a municipal golf course.  We share these because we've decided we'd rather own these as a community than close them off to all but the well-heeled members of a country club. 

"No honey, there's death in it."

Last weekend, before the big Blizzard hit, I stopped at the library to pick up a few movies and books.  I chanced to overhear the following between a girl (age 9 or so) & her father who were browsing DVDs in the children's room:

Girl: "Can we get Bridge to Terebithia?"

Dad: "No, it has death in it."

Go ahead... read a Banned Book

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/bannedbooksweek

We take it for granted that we have a Constitutionally-protected right both to Free Speech, and the Freedom to Read.
 
But remember, freedom requires vigilance.  There are those who would seek to limit what we can read, even here in the United States. 

We're nearing the end of the 30th Annual National Banned Books Week .

Here's the top 20 of the Top 100 Books Banned/Challenged 2000-2009:

1. Harry Potter (series), by J.K. Rowling

2. Alice series, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

3. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier

4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell

5. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou

7. Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz

8. His Dark Materials (series), by Philip Pullman

9. ttyl; ttfn; l8r g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle

10. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

11. Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers

12. It’s Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris

13. Captain Underpants (series), by Dav Pilkey

14. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

15. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison

16. Forever, by Judy Blume

17. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker

18. Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous

19. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

20. King and King, by Linda de Haan

Note that most of these are fiction.  Fiction explores the human condition.  To deny that we are violent, racist, or sexual beings is to be untrue to ourselves as humans.  Reading enables us to reflect on our joys, and our flaws.  To celebrate ourselves, and to challenge ourselves to behave better toward one another.

One of the most egregious cases of censorship on my radar these days is what's going on in Tucson Unified School District.  Educate yourself.

Our nation was founded on widespread literacy; printers up and down the Eastern Seaboard were able to share ideas and information quickly (for the era) - the 18th Century Internet, if you will.  Which pieces of writing are truth, which are opinion, and which are out-and-out lies?  Then and now, it's OUR responsibility as readers to decide.

Freedom includes everything.  Take a deep breath.  You can handle it.

• You thought 50 Shades of Grey was racy?  Try Anne (Roquelaire) Rice's Sleeping Beauty trilogy, Anais Nin's Delta of Venus or Little Birds, or Marquis de Sade's Justine.  
• Hitler's Mein Kampf or Mao's Little Red Book. 
• You can read about the Ku Klux Klan or the Black Panthers. 
• Books by Bill O'Reilly or Chris Matthews. 
• Laura Ingalls Wilder or Judy Blume. 
• Books that extoll or disparage organized religion of each and every denomination.

Remember, nearly everything in print is objectionable to somebody.  The thought of reading Mein Kampf kind of turns my stomach.  But like they say, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."  If today's Tea Party seems uncannily like the John Birch Society, it might be nice for me to know what they're talking about.

Here's an encouraging anecdote, and reason #279 why I like living in Maine.

Check out this map, a portion of the interactive "Mapping Censorship" map:

All those blue flags represent communities where books have been banned or challenged in schools or libraries since 2007.  Maine has just one.

"(Lewiston, 2008) Robie Harris'  It's Perfectly Normal: A Book about Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health was removed by a patron because of her objections to the book's sexual content. Other patrons donated 4 copies of the book, which remain in circulation today."

I'm grateful to live in a country that is free, and especially in a state where those freedoms are held particularly sacred.

Celebrate your freedom this week, and every week. 

Read a Banned Book.

http://www.abffe.org/

I think I was born for this

Sunday night I was contacted by City Councilor Al Livingston, asking if I would be willing to serve on the Public Library Advisory Board.  I was so surprised, it took my breath away!  What an honor.  Of all the ways that I could spend my volunteer time, this might be my very best, favorite way.

I was invited to make a few remarks at Council session last night, as part of my appointment and "election."




My remarks just scratch the surface of what libraries mean to me:

"Maine Answers Tough Times".... at the library

Libraries aren't just for books.  They are a rich information source on a whole host of services available to the public.

There's a LOT more than books at the Library.

I went to the Portland Public Library (PPL) website to find their hours - meanwhile, I spent a little time browsing around.  Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.

Out of curiosity, I clicked on "Research Tools", and found several interesting options, including a link to order an absentee ballot - hey, it's never too soon to be thinking ahead, right?

Not sure what to read next?  Here's an idea page, with tons of links to "if you like THIS, you might like THIS OTHER THING."  Better yet, you can fill in a form and get a personalized list back of books you might like, based on books you've already enjoyed.  Wow.  I'm going to try this out.

Best of all, I found this link to an unexpected page on the Maine State Library Website: Maine Answers Tough Times.  We all need a helping hand or advice from time to time - this is a sizeable list of resources available for everything from starting a business, job search information, food & housing, veterans issues - far too much to list on this blog post!

PPL offers eBook & eAudiobook lending too (I'm still a "paper" girl myself, by I know people love their Nooks & Kindles).  You don't live in Portland, you say?  I don't either.  PPL participates with a large list of libraries around Cumberland, York, & parts of Oxford counties.  If you live or go to school full-time in this region, you can get a free library card.  Even if you live outside this huge area, if you work in Portland, you are eligible for a free library card.  And if you're outside these communities, you can still have a PPL library card for $20/yr (less than the cost of one new hard-cover book).  But before you start chasing that, be sure you've gotten a card to your local library!

I can't recommend public libraries enough.  One of my very favorite movies, Good Will Hunting, says it so well.  Scene: a snotty Ivy League kid and Will, at a bar.  The college kids is sneering down on Will as a good-for-nothing Southie, to which Will gives him a good dressing-down:  "See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you're gonna staht doin' some thinkin on your own and you're gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don't do that [mess with me]. And Two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on an education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late chahges at the public library."

The Big Read

Creating a nation of readers

The Big Read has announced their 2012-2013 grantees and the list of books for this year’s national reading project.  This is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts “designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.” Launched in 2004, it's a response to a precipitous decline in reading across America, especially "among the young" (I'm not sure if that means school-age or under-40).  Anyway, I do like the idea of a short list of books being read concurrently by thousands (millions?) of people all over the United States in a given year (besides The Hunger Games or Fifty Shades of Gray).

I’m a little bit sad that not a single Maine library or institution is listed among the grantees this year, although in the last go-round Island Readers & Writers in Bar Harbor was a granted participant.  Hearty congratulations to our neighbors to the west, because Concord's Center for the Book at the New Hampshire State Library DID receive a grant!

Even without an official grant, we can all enjoy the list of suggested books.  Perfect for helping a book group choose their next book, or even for me to add to my own list.

Coming up later this week: I am just pages away from finishing Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind.  I’m so overtired because the book is about 650 pages and I’ve been reading into the wee hours (I lose track of time).  Stay tuned….

Book People Unite!

I stumbled across this WONDERFUL music video.  Recognize any of your favorite characters?

Brought to you by the good people at Reading is Fundamental and BookPeopleUnite.org

NOT TO BE MISSED: The Behind the Scenes making of Book People Unite.  OMG, I don't know what's funnier, Raggedy Andy talking about Raggedy Ann, or LeVar Burton discussing the tension on set between the Three Little Pigs and the Three Blind Mice.

Visit your local library!  Here's a link to information about public libraries in every corner of Maine.  (Don't forget to check out their summer reading programs - many libraries have programs for kids AND adults.  You win twice - read awesome books, and get cool swag!)  Best of all, if your local library doesn't have the book you want in their collection, you can access MINERVA and get the book via Interlibrary Loan - also FREE.

Not THOSE Shades of Grey

Jasper Fforde is delightful.  Only he could combine nursery rhyme and storybook characters with hard-boiled crime stories to make something wonderfully readable.  Everything about them is cheeky and a nod to other literary works, characters, etc.  I mean, how awesome is a crime novel about the demise of Humpty Dumpty called The Big Over Easy?  Hahahaha!

I recently enjoyed Book One of his most recent series, Shades of Grey.  NO, not THOSE Fifty Shades of Grey.  I know, I know, they're getting a lot of press, especially among those of us Gen X and older.  But this is a futuristic novel where people are ranked in society according to how well, and how much, they see colors.  It's exploring social differences and stereotypes among people of different "colors" in society... but taking that notion to an entirely new plane.  Fun steampunkiness too.

And for the record, I'm sure I'll read Fifty Shades of Grey.  Not sure I'll blog about it, though.