Friday Round Up

Whenever we have our first cold morning (to me it's just perfect, but already people are complaining about it being cold) I always think back to when I was a teenager. For some reason whenever we had our first cold spell someone would always say-Jacks back or the hawk is out. Does anyone else have some similar weather-related saying?

One of the wonderful the Internet has done is opened the world up for people. Even though you will probably never meet these people, it is still interesting to read about what some people have done and are doing with their very interesting lives. The Vanilla Queen is one of these people. Here are some links for this amazing women and she is also looking for folks to donate working laptop computers to send to vanilla farmers in Kenya, Somalia and Rwanda. If anyone can help her email is rain@vanilla.com. I read about the Queen on the Smallfarms site.

If anyone is old enough to have seen some of the Blackplotation films you may have seen Tamara Dobson's portrayal of Cleopatra Jones. This 6'2''former fashion model was absolutely stunning. Sadly, she passed away at the age of 59 after suffering from multiple sclerosis for the past few years. Here is an image of her from Wikipedia.

I remember when I worked at the EPA Library we were always getting a lot of inquiries about Freedom of Information(FOIA)information. I knew that all federal agencies are required by law to disclose records to the public that are requested in writing. We referred people to the FOIA office and that was that, but I always found it fascinating that there is a Freedom of Information Act and that people do make use of it. Now people are also blogging about it. Scott Hodes, a FOIA attorney has a blog called The FOIA Blog.

This citation creator would have made my life so much easier when I was in school. All one needs for this one is an International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

When I first saw this word I had to stare at first of all to try and figure out how in the world to even begin to pronounce it. Here goes-Uitvlugt. I'll give you a hint-it's Dutch. It's also where my sweetie was born and that's how I found out about this place.

I will admit I have been very, very good. Ordinarily by this time of year I would have chowed down a couple of pounds of Halloween candy. So far I have had very little. I was even in the drugstore today, and looked over and saw Snickers pumpkins and I didn't buy any-none at all. However, after perusing the Ultimate Guide to Halloween Candy of 2006 I may be forced to indulge.

The groundbreaking events for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will take place on November 12-13. It appears that the actual groundbreaking will take place on the 13th. I may have to take a very long lunch and wander over to the events.

I probably spent a good hour on the National Atlas of the United States website. If you are like me and are endlessly fascinated by maps then this is the site for you. I'm not even going to tempt you by talking about some of the features. Take a gander and explore.

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." Malcolm X (1925 - 1965), Malcolm X Speaks, 1965