Round Up

Congratulations to Kavya Shivashankar for winning the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Watch this video by the incredibly talented and imaginative Evelien Lohbeck.


Oh my goodness. My dorm room certainly never looked like Maximilian Sinsteden's dorm room.
View the film from the 1930's on Yale's You Tube page. The film Librarian's Parade shows librarians moving an entire collection from the old library to the new library.

I must have a copy of the annotated version of The Wind in the Willows.

If there are extraterrestrial beings out there, what would you like to say to them-Earth Speaks.

Best Sci-Tech books of 2008.

Some beautiful university staircases.

Filed by Author-service for authors, librarians and all of those interested in books to collaborate and inform.

Foodsville-social networking site for foodies and cookbook lovers.

The Arcadia Fund is a grant making fund whose mission is to protect endangered treasures of culture and nature. This includes near extinct languages, rare historical archives and museum quality artefacts, and the protection of ecosystems and environments threatened with extinction. The Arcadia Fund has also donated to charities that work to protect free societies and human rights. Various libraries such as Harvard University Library, and libraries at UCLA and Yale, have received grants from the Arcadia Fund.

Double X-a new web magazine for women Slate.

I loved summer camp and I would have loved having this Camp Stationery kit to take along with my canteen and bug spray, which did nothing for me. I still have scars from all of those mosquito bites.

The author of one of my favorite books about gardening passed away. Eleanor Perenyi, author of , Green Thoughts, passed away early this month. She was 91. If you like gardens and gardening you simply must read this classic.

By the way, if you are a book person and you haven't visited the Modern Library site, please visit. It's a treasure trove and you will have trouble tearing yourself away.

Lollyphile-makers of unusual lollipops (love that word) has absinthe lollipops.

NPR Summer Books suggestions.

I wondered how this was going to work out. The Obamas are going to be honorary chairs for the National Book Festival.

Well, that's all for today. Have a nice weekend.

"Language has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone." Paul Tillich

Round Up

Archives Next has announced the 2009 Best Archives of the Web Awards. I love the whimsical Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century site.

Every year the Library of Congress and the Center for the Book holds a Letter from Literature contest. The contest is open to students in grades 4th through 12th. To enter the contest each contestant must write a letter to an author, living or dead, explaining how that author's work has influenced the contestant's life. Here is a list of the 2009 winners. Read some of these heartfelt letters. You will laugh and you will cry, and you will be utterly charmed by these letters. Here is a list of the state winners.

Turn your fridge into a food diary.

I really like the items at NOUN, especially these barkcloth wristlets. Love, love barkcloth. I also like the statue of St. Theresa. I have had a long fascination with the saints and especially these chalkware statues. My favorite is still the Infant of Prague though.

The Thousand Watch Project is a statement about the death of the pocket watch and wrist watch because of the advent of cell phones and other technology. They are trying to collect a thousand watches and the watch images are on the online gallery. The site also tells you how you can contribute your own watch.

The Most Expensive Journal has just that-the most expensive items in various categories.

I am trying to find someone to teach me how to punch needle. It's a form of embroidery(?), something like rug hooking-I think. That's how I found out that the Embroiderer's Guild of America has a blog. I haven't found anyone yet, so I may have to teach myself. Generally, I can teach myself how to do things, but with something like this, I tend to need someone to show me how to do it and then I can take it from there.

Pickup and Go! is a newsletter written by an American of African descent couple about America's great outdoors in general, and specifically about America's national parks. I found out about the newsletter in some freebie that I picked up at Whole Foods. One of the things the article indicated was that this couple started this newsletter because they are avid backpackers and campers and they saw that they seldom saw minorities when they were traveling and enjoying the great outdoors. They started organizing trips with inner-city youth and showing the beauty and affordability of our glorious national parks.

My parents took my brother and I on many vacations. Now that I think about it, for people of modest means, they did a miraculous job of exposing us to as much as they possibly could. One thing we always commented on was how when we were traveling we never saw many other Americans of African descent (black folks like us). Part of the problem then, as now, is plain economics. Unfortunately minorites are still not making the salaries that whites are. Remember they have to hire us, but they don't have to promote us. Promotions are how you get ahead, how you save, and how you plan for a retirement. I could go on and on about this, especially since I am living this, but really, check out the newsletter. Sorry for the digression.

The Architect of the Capitol is responsible to the U.S. Congress for the maintenance, development and preservation of the United States Capitol complex. The current Acting Architect of the Capitol is Stephen Ayers.

WOW!!! Look at all of the blogs and podcasts. that Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has.

Top 11 live webcams according to the ever wonderful Mental Floss magazine.

As I have indicated before I have very eclectic tastes, and no more so than in musics. My friends use to think I was off my gourd with some of the music I enjoy, but hey, I like what I like. When I was on the treadmill at the gym the other day they played one of my favorites, La Grange by ZZ Top. I will leave you with that and the hopes for a good week and a very nice Memorial Day weekend.




"Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people. Action, self-reliance, the vision of self and the future have been the only means by which the oppressed have seen and realized the light of their own freedom. "-Marcus Garvey

Round Up

Today's post will be a short one.

Last week I happened to catch 3 Mo' Divas. Good Grief these ladies can sing. They gave me goosebumps. All 3 of these woman can sing absolutely anything. Just incredible.

Flickr's Official White House Photostream

Looking for green products. Want to know how each product is rated. Check out Good Guide.

I really love the idea of a project blog. The Massachusetts Historical Society is working on a massive project digitizing over 100, 000 papers of the Adams Family (not that one). John Adams, Abigail Adams-that Adams family. Lots of great information on the Adams Papers Catalog.

I have fallen in love with Paper Sparrow. Their etsy shop is the bomb.

You Tube EDU-channels from You Tube's unversity partners.


As much as I am in awe of great singing voices and great writers, I also have a love for great dancers, and who could ever top Gene Kelly. I adored him. Watch him here tap dancing on roller skates-Yes roller skates.

African Activist Archive-The African Activist Archive Project is reaching out to the hundreds of organizations and individuals that supported African liberation struggles and is urging them to preserve their vital records and to make selected materials available to the public on this website. The project also assists groups and individuals to deposit their archives in public repositories, including the African Activist Archive in Special Collections at Michigan State University Libraries.

There was a time when I didn't know the difference between an axe and a hatchet. Maybe if I had seen one of these beauties I would have been able to remember the difference.

I have always been a fan of the magazine Ploughshares. They also have a blog.

Have a great week.

"When patterns are broken, new world's emerge." Tuli Kupferberg

Round Up

R.I.P. Bea Arthur-I mean really, could anyone give a withering stare better than this marvelous actress?

Nice blog about life: 1001 Rules for My Unborn Son

I love the whole idea of Time Banks

The Umbrella Society has some very nice umbrellas.

The Bombus Shop makes great use of old maps.

I am a huge fan of poet Rita Dove. She has a book of poems entitled American Smooth, and the poems talk a lot about dancing. Ms. Dove and her husband Fred Viebahn have been taking ballroom dancing lessons for years. Here are some videos of the two of them dancing.

Oodles of facts about Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)-Twainia

Roses are one of my favorite flowers. I have many favorites-peonies, ranunculus, and on and on, with peonies being my absolute favorite. I think what has always fascinated me about roses is people's devotion to this beautiful flower. There are rosarians and other folk who dedicate their lives to the rose. I like all roses, but old roses are a particular favorite as well as tea rose. Interesting article about roses in New York.

Pigs are really getting a bad name this week so here are 10 pigs we will always love.

I find it hard to believe that after 400 years of males, Carol Ann Duffy will be the first female Poet Laureate in Great Britain. It's about time these folks would pulled the stick out already.

Another photo sharing site: Ipernity

Everyone's favority trivialogist (i just made that word up)Ben Schott has a blog Schott's Vocab. One of the many great New York Times blogs.

I hope that if I am ever able to retire, and my health holds up, that I get out and do things. Volunteer and maybe join a choir. I belonged to chorus all through high school and I loved it. I actually miss singing in a large group like that. Maybe I could join the Young at Heart Choir.

Am I am fan of horse racing? No. However, I am fascinated with all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the Kentucky Derby. I knew that there had to be some rules governing the naming of thoroughbreds, but I had no idea how many rules there are. It's very interesting. The Jockey Club is the breed registry for thoroughbreds in the US, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Section 6 of a massive rule book contains the rules for horse naming. There is also an online names book registry.

Alice Walker exhibits opens at Emory University.

These little "jars full of joy" are so cute from Wee Tidings.

It's going to be rainy this weekend, and I for one will be enjoying the cooler, gray days. I hope that you enjoy your weekend as well.

"Stuffed deer heads heads on walls are bad enough, but its worse when they are wearing dark glasses and have streamers in their antlers because then you know they were enjoying themselves at a party when they were shot." Ellen DeGeneres