Round Up

According to my Forgotten English calendar today is St. Flilian's fest day. St. Fillan or St. Fillian helped deranged souls. Love hagiography.

A friend told me about the ecofabulous site. Lots of interesting items on the site, but even though they are sexy and sustainable, they are still pricey. Conspicuous consumption alert.

While I was perusing the ecofabulous site I came upon the Tesla roadster. Oh, how my heart went a pitter-patter. First of all it's a high-performance, electric sports car. Be still my heart. Secondly, it shares the same name as my absolute favorite scientist/inventor-Nikola Tesla. I read a book about Tesla, the man, not the car, in high school, and I developed this huge crush on him. (yes, I was a science geek). Alas, besides the car's prohibitive price, $92,000, there's a waiting list. If you want one, you have to reserve it. Nice to dream though.

I was reading the November 2006 Library of Congress Information Bulletin (hard copy) and I came across an interesting article about a comics collection owned by LOC. It's on view until February 24, 2007. I came to appreciate comics rather late in life. The only comic I ever read as a kid was a Casper the Friendly Ghost comic. I would occasionally read Peanuts in the Sunday paper, but that was about the extent of my comic interest. When I was in library school I ended up reading Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, by Marjane Satrapi. I fell in love with the graphic novels. I have a growing list of titles that I want to read: Persepolis 2, Cancer Vixen: A True Story by Marisa Ac Marchetto, Blankets by Craig Thompson and Banana Sunday by Root Nibot and Colleen Coover.

Probably only those of us in the library world can appreciate the recycled interlibrary loan envelope.

I should have posted this link in last weeks round up before Martin Luther King day, but better late than never. Juliette Hampton Morgan was a white, Southern librarian who finally had to resign from her job because of her public support for black citizens during the 50's. She wrote letters to the editor of her local newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiser, supporting civil rights for blacks in general and the Montgomery Bus Boycott in particular. On Novemeber 1, 2005, nearly 50 years after her death, the Montgomery City Council voted to name the main public library after her. Articles here and here/ There is also a book about this courageous woman. I guess there really is such a thing as a steel magnolia. (I see that there isn't a Wikipedia article on Ms. Morgan. I think I'm going to have to try and write one for her).

Have a good weekend.

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." Dante Alighieri