Friday Round Up

I could have definitely used this Library Grants blog when I was in library school.

You are doing time at the Reference Desk, I mean, you are sitting at the Reference Desk and you receive an inquiry about movie scripts. Someone desperately needs to know where a script for Desk Set is located. Voila!!! The Motion Picture Scripts Database to the rescue. And by the way, Desk Set scripts can be found at the following institutions: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California(USC)and the Writers Guild Foundation.

Dolls, Dolls, Dolls. If you are a doll collector you might want to add these to your collection: RuPaul and the Marie Antoinette Action Figure.

So you are getting tired of wearing your Aunt Iphigenia's old brooches on your lapels and you are looking for something, Oh, I don't know something scientific perhaps. How about a solid, lead-free pewter microscope. Lapel Pin Planet has microscope lapel pins and many more.

A. and I have been looking at different bird feeders and bird houses and trying to decided what we want to put in the back yard. I would love, love, love to have one of Lynn Peer's birdhouses. Plus, he's from my neck of the woods.

I think all of us young and not so young have a favorite Sesame Street character. If you are having some problems remembering any of these wonderful creations visit the Sesame Street Encyclopedia. I actually love them all, but I am particuarly partial to the Count.

Have a great weekend. If you are in the Washington, DC area remember the Smithsonian Folklife Festival starts today.(6/30/2006).

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great." - Mark Twain

Friday Round Up

It's so good to see that both NPR and National Geographic now have blogs. Check out the entry on National Geographic's blog about Chinatown buses. Fascinating.

Have you seen the Google Shakespeare Database or the Google Alphabet?

Every morning before I do anything else I make sure I go to the Hunger Site and click for charity. Now there's an entire search engine where users can perform searches and the money that is generated goes to charity. What's really fun about this is that the user can pick their favorite charity. Goodsearch is a Yahoo-powered search engine. The user can help fund any of a thousand different charities. This week I have been performing my searches for Doctors Without Borders. Next week-who knows? The possiblities are endless.

I have found another periodic table.

Bad teeth, malaria, dysentery, smallpox, quinsy and pneumonia looks like a portion of the list you either check off yes or no to when you go to the doctors. In this case it's a list of maladies that George Washington, you know the country's daddy, had. Look out some of the other maladies the presidents had/have.

I came upon the blog Damn Interesting and I must say it is "Damn Interesting". While I was persuing the blog I came across this "damn interesting" story about the Glacier Girl and the Lost Squadron, which led me to this.

Have a nice weekend.

"Knowledge is happiness, because to have knowledge—broad, deep knowledge—is to know true ends from false, and lofty things from low. To know the thoughts and deeds that have marked man’s progress is to feel the great heart-throbs of humanity through the centuries; and if one does not feel in these pulsations a heavenward striving, one must indeed be deaf to the harmonies of life." - Helen Keller

Friday Round Up

Before I get to the round up I just have to say I fear for the citizens of this country. With the latest shenanigans of that kangaroo court we call a Supreme Court I don't know where this country is headed. Frightening!!

I just found this to be highly un"ewe"sual.

I was glad to see that my neck of the woods (Pittsburgh) at least got an honorable mention in the Top 15 Skylines of the World.

I just thought this was the coolest item. Out of my price range, but still very nice. (via Design Within Reach)


I have always been a sucker for timelines. Check out this elevator timeline.

The Aria Database allows the user to search for, you guessed it, arias.

The Literature Map allows you to type an author's name and a conceptual map containing more author's names that people who read your search term author also read (confusing-to use no; me explaining it-yes.

Much to some of my friends' chagrin I love Renaissance music, Celtic music, etc. Someone had a very good idea with these Renaissance Festival podcasts.

That's all for this week. Have a wonderful weekend.

"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison

Friday Round Up

This deserves further research, but I didn't think there were many membership libraries around. I know that there are different private clubs that have libraries, but I didn't think there were many/any true membership libraries. The Mercantile Library is a membership library and has been around since 1835.

If you are pulling your hair out trying to think of fun projects for the kids this summer take a look at Kiddley. What a fun sight. This is an Australian blog, but most of the projects, like the button bouquet, can be done anywhere.

I go through period where I will read a couple biographies and then I won't pick another one up for a couple of years. I used to subscribe to Biographies magazine and I enjoyed it, but at that time they seemed to feature a lot of celebrities. I enjoy reading up celebrities just like the next person, but there's so many other magazines that are devoted to these folks. Wikibios premise is simple-you don't have to be a famous celebrity to have a life worth documenting.

I keep getting into discussions about collections and I started surfing the web looking to see what sorts of items are collected. Michael Sauers collects library cards. He's scanned some of his collection. Some of these cards are quite creative like the one issued by the Pueblo, Colorado City-County Library District. Thirteen year old Cory Peterson also collects library cards. He and his mom take road trips, or as Cory calls them, library card trips, and they visit as many different libraries as they can.

And staying with this entry's theme of libraries and collections how about the Beer Stein Library?

I have read and perused so many blogs, but I must say the most beautiful blog I have come across has to be Woodsong. This is a nature blog at it's finest.

Have a great weekend.

"Life is mostly froth and bubble, / Two things stand like stone, / Kindness in another's trouble, / Courage in your own." - Adam Lindsay Gordon

Collections

Over the weekends some friends came over and we started talking about collections. It turns out most people have had some sort of collection at one time or another. A female friend collects Barbies, she has over a hundred and she also collects vintage aprons and compacts. She said she used to collect old toasters and kitchen implements, but she has been whittling down those two collections.

From the time I was in high school until a few years ago I collected buttons. I had quite a nice collection, some campaign buttons, but a lot of other types as well. I ended up selling the entier collection on eBay. I still collect volvelles, Fiesta Ware pitchers, library post cards, Christmas nutcrackers, Boyd Bears-I've stopped collecting these and I am thinking of selling my collection, map hankies, floaty pens and group photographs. The floaty pens and group photographs are the two latest collections. I've often wondered what makes some people collectors and others not. My mother used to collect miniatures and bells, but she stopped collecting. A. doesn't collect anything at all. I always find it interesting to see what people collect.

What is stopping me from selling my Boyd Bears is mostly laziness. That and not knowing how much each one is worth. I think the latest price guide I have is the latest one published and it's not current at all. If anyone knows of anyone who is knowledgeable about Boys Bears please let me know. This is Auntie Iola. She was retired in 1997 and she's 10 inches tall. Cute huh.

"Age simply doesn't enter into it! The older the friend, the more he is valued, particularly when he shows so visibly the characteristics that we all look for in friends. You have only to look at a genuine teddy's face to see at once the loyalty, common sense, and above all, dependability behind it."
-Peter Bull

Friday Round Up

Congratualtions to Katherine "Kerry" Close for winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The winning word was URSPRACHE. Here is a definition for ursprache:"a parent language, especially one reconstructed from the evidence of later languages." A. and I were watching the bee last night and had a great time laughing at ourselves trying to spell these words. I will have to investigate this further,but I thought the bee was only open to Americans. The final two spellers were Kerry Close the winner and Finola Mei Hwa Hackett from Alberta, Canada. I remember a few years ago there were children from all over, Canada, Jamaica, etc. Then I thought they changed the rules. Hmmm...

Apparently there are quite a few authors who have not received there royalties. The Author Registry has a list of approximately 300 authors who have money owed to them. The Authors Registry is a not-for-profit corporation created in 1995 by a consortium of U.S. authors' organizations and the primary U.S. literary rights organization: The Authors Guild, The American Society of Journalists & Authors, the Dramatists Guild, and the Association of Authors' Representative. The Registry helps expedite the flow of royalty payments and re-use fees to authors.

A few years ago I started driving myself crazy trying to learn the names of flowers, trees and other plants. I've relaxed a bit, but I still constantly referring to my copy of the National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Mid-Atlantic States , which I keep in the car. At times I have wished that I just had some sort of guide that just had everything grouped under colors. This is just what I have been looking for. Now if I could just keep it in the car.

I tend to start on knitting projects in the fall and I usually make a couple of scarfs. They are quick and I can be fairly creative with them. I must say that I am not a fan of Dr. Who, but I think knitting this scarf would be fun.

I came across this very well written blog called Airminded. The blog is about airpower and British society, 1908-1941. The author of the blog includes a lot of books on the subject. I was surprised that quite a few of the topics that he covers actually rung a bell with me. I guess after working at a place for 7 years some of the information must have seeped in through osmosis.

Pasporta Servo is a hospitality service for speakers of the language Esperanto. A directory is published every year that lists host in various countries who permit visitors to stay in their homes for free. The only catch is you have to speak Esperanto. They say that a lot of people have learned Esperanto in order to take advantage of this inexpensive way of traveling. Great idea. (via The Proceedings of the Athanius Kircher Society-what a great blog).

It seems so strange to think this but ever since I started this sugar withdrawal I am in a constant quandry as to what in the world to eat. Especially for lunch. I am trying to not substitute fats for sugar, but that's what I end up doing some of the time. How boring am I? Or am I just lazy? Probably a little of both. That is why I am totally in awe of people like the Vegan Lunchbox author and the Cooking Cute author. That's all I can say. Awe, total, freakin' awe.


"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering." - Saint Augustine