Friday, October 22, 2004
From Jen: "A searing editorial endorsement / criticism from the newspaper from Bush's hometown, Crawford Texas, who incidentially supported Bush whole-heartedly four years ago. A fascinating read, regardless of where your vote is going."
From Glenna: Women of Ohio, unite! Also, more posters from the creative people at whitehouse.org.
From the Sparkle Queen: a fun little quiz which determines what extension you are. She was a .gif, and I am apparently an .mp3, which is further proof that we are not quite the same person.
From Paul: 35 signs that Kerry will win the election. Let's hope.
From Mr. Gene Puma Henceforth: "Librarians kick butt!!!" Well, of course they do.
From Daniel: amazing color photos of the Great War.
From the Graveworm: the story of an attacking bear who "even attacked the paramedics who arrived at the scene to help the wounded," according to witnesses. Really, what is the world coming to when a rampaging bear refuses to acknowledge paramedics? Does the UN know about this?
Have a good weekend, everyone! See you Monday.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Teresa Heinz Kerry is also sorry, although in her case she's apologizing for forgetting that Laura Bush held jobs as a teacher and librarian in the past. This has stirred up a flame war on one of the librarian mailing lists I'm on, and my reaction to the whole brouhaha is as follows.
1. If Laura Bush was actually, you know, an activist for libraries and librarians, this would be a more egregious oversight on Heinz Kerry's part.
2. Heinz Kerry apologized, and Bush essentially said "don't worry about it."
3. Many librarians get way too riled up about these sorts of things, and while in reality no one pays much attention to libraries, this is really not the way to go about fixing the problem. (I suppose you could say that many people get way too riled up about a lot of small matters in politics, so it's not librarian-specific.)
As a corollary to point number 3, I give you this review (New York Times article, free registration needed, sorry) of the recently published novel The Librarian, in which the reviewer says, and I quote, "Poor librarians. Soon, no doubt, to go the way of blacksmiths and town criers, their chosen field made obsolete by Internet search engines and self-perpetuating electronic databases. But first, one last hurrah, in Larry Beinhart's raucous new novel, The Librarian, in which a Dewey decimal doofus holds in his hands nothing less than the fate of the free world." See? Maybe we should worry more about people like this, who think we're obsolete. Sheesh.
This just in from the UK: the rest of the world doesn't hate Americans, per se, they just hate our government. I can agree with that.
Some fun links: Local Harvest, a very cool site in and of itself, is providing a guide to local pumpkin patches. Input your zip code and see what's nearby. Then go wait for the Great Pumpkin to arrive on Halloween! DoubleTongued explores the fascinating world of jargon, slang, and odd words and phrases. The Paperback Revolution chronicles the rise of the easily portable (and easily hidden) paperback through the years. OPAL, a library-based service, offers some really cool online programs on all sorts of topics.
And finally, here's a bit of trivia for you: today is Bjork's birthday. Play some Sugarcubes in her honor!
Tomorrow: lots of links from others.
Dear Yankees fans:
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!
Ahem.
(Wheeeeee!)
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
1. It's time once again to search for the library ghost in Evansville, Indiana.
2. If you're like Bunny, you have various weapons and escape plans hidden about your workplace and home so that you can fend off zombies if need be. (I am not making this up. Honest.) For him and like-minded zombie-killing warriors, I point you to the Zombie Survival Seminar!
3. Land Rover hearses, for those who want to waste gasoline even when they're dead.
4. The French police are after the cataphiles, aka the groups congregating in catacombs, aka the Perforating Mexicans mentioned a few weeks ago. I'm on the side of the cataphiles, myself.
5. Maybe the Red Sox could take a page from Tanzanian soccer players and try witchcraft for Game 7 tonight. Hey, it couldn't hurt. Go Boston!
6. Okay, I admit that the Tissue Culture & Art Project does freak me out a little.
7. For other news of the weird and spooky: Mad Ghoul!
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
It's almost Halloween, and you know what that means -- it's time for the Muppet Fan Halloween Parade! Woohoo!
It's also time to make some Bush-bashing pumpkins. Oh, come on. You know you want to. It'll make the post-holiday smashing ritual so much more fun.
In keeping with the scary theme, the Graveworm points out a site devoted to the strange UFO recently visiting Cleveland and another which seems to say that Ohio is Crop Circle Central. Apparently the aliens think Ohio is interesting, at any rate.
Dungeon Majesty is a real-life, um, all-female D&D show thingy. I'm not quite sure how to describe it; it has to be seen to be believed. (We're getting a ton of hits at our Mazes & Monsters site lately, so I feel required to offer something in the same vein. So to speak.)
Brunching Shuttlecocks may be gone, but the Book of Ratings lives on! Hooray!
Monday, October 18, 2004
Modern day investigators think it's quite possible that Mozart suffered from Tourette's Syndrome. Would medication have helped or hurt, do you think? And while we're on the subject of medication, many musicians use drugs to calm their nerves...which, some say, is akin to athletes using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. Discuss.
The Chokolate Morel, a historical building near here, is haunted! Even the owners say so on their website. I think we need to organize a ghost-hunting expedition/dinner there soon.
Here's a reality show that even reality show haters may like: Britons get to vote on the worst architectural monstrosity in London. The winner (loser?) gets demolished. Smashy smashy! Perhaps they can bring in Godzilla, fresh off his academic tour, to do the honors.
