Round Up

February 1, 2010 is the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro students sit-in. We have come such a long way, and we have such a long way to go. Here is a National Museum of American History blog entry about this anniversary. The Greensboro 4 (Jibreel Kazan (Ezell Blair, Jr.), Franklin Eugene McCain, Joseph Alfred McNeil and David Lenail Richmond)are going to be awarded the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal.

While I was doing a bit of research about the Greensboro 4 I came across a blurb that Greensboro, North Carolina has their own museum, the Internati0nal Civil Rights Center and Museum dedicated to this ultra-important historic event. I'm just a bit curious in wondering if they want their lunch counter back. The lunch counter, a hugely important artifact, is a very popular attraction at the Smithsonian's American History Museum in Washington, DC. And I actually think it should be returned to the city of Greensboro. I am all for repatriation of items, and I could go on and on about it, but I'll just leave it at that-for now. When the new Smithsonian National Museum of African History and Culture (NMAAHC) opens in 2015 I wonder if they will want the lunch counter as well.

I like the products that Ancient Industries offers. They have a nice blog as well.

Check out Bookbook.

Purple and all of its many variations are my favorite colors. I'm diggin' these new colors from Le Creuset-Cassis and Lilac.

Oxford, England has plans to build a Museum of Storytelling.

The incomparable dietician, author and foodie Marion Nestle has a blog-Food Politics.
Best kitchen gadgets of 2009.

When I was in library school I was astounded by the folks who did not know that the Smithsonian Institution has libraries. I guess I shouldn't have been. If you don't ever have any contact with something ,why should you know that it exists? The Smithsonian has 20 libraries all under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL). As an employee you work in a particular museum, but you work for SIL. What all this is leading up to is a plug for SIL's excellent blog.

In my never ending quest to located unusual companies or businesses I came upon the Consortium for the Barcode of Life. And of course they have a blog.

This is sad. The Poe visitor did not show up this year.

This Digital Copyright Slider is great.

I have been putting together jigsaw puzzle since I was a wee one. I still put them together, but I must admit, I have to find a more comfortable area in my home to do this. I keep telling A. that I long for a banquette in the kitchen. That would be perfect. A large enough booth table with the actual booth seat to support my wonky lumbar area. This Hometown Puzzle from National Geographic would make a nice gift.

If you haven't seen an issue of Lapham's Quarterly, well you should. Once again, the subscription price is way over my budget limit, but their online content is excellent.

I don't know, this would probably be even too sweet for me, but I bet these Toasted Marshmallow Shakes are delicious. And look at these icewine marshmallows.

Shouldn't Hansel and Gretel live here?

The largest book in the world, the Klencke Atlas, is being displayed at the British Library. This is the first time the tome has been displayed with its pages open.

Have a great weekend. We are supposed to be getting snow (Yippee!!!).






"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

Round Up

Just a few items for this week.

So far, 2010 has started off on a very sad note. R.I.P. Teddy Pendergrass, Mary Daly, Kate McGarrigle and Robert Parker. Thank you for entertaining and eduating me throughout the years.

Book of interest (I'm a train nut): Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service by James McCommons.

This clustered felted stone mat is cool, but the price is totally ridiculous.

What would Dr. King Make of Twitter? (Vanity Fair)

Contrariwise keeps adding to their literary tattoos.

I might as well just get this off of my chest-"Supreme Court. You suck!!" I feel much better

The American Dialect Society voted "tweet" the word of the year for 2009, and the word "Google" for the word of the decade. (Scroll down to the January 8, 2010 post). I think the Society needs to jazz up their site just a bit. Here is an article about the word selections.

I have always loved cowl necks and these cowls at Knittles are gorgeous.

One thing that I noticed about most of these weight-loss commercials is that they are all geared towards women. Oh yes, I think it was Nutrisystem (and if I'm wrong forgive me) that had some famousish men like Dan Marino and some others hawking their program, but for the most part it's all geared towards women like they are the only gender that's overweight. We still have such a long way to go. And while I am on my soapbox about this, those after Christmas Special K commercials are ridiculous.

Hand-painted Peanuts gang tee.

Charity Water-one of the many organizations that does incredible work.

BBC Pronunciation Guide. This is great, but it could be problematical for us Yanks.

When I worked at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) library we received so many queries ab out what was recyclable. Juice Boxes were a popular query and caps from all sorts of bottles. I was reminded of this when I saw that Aveda is working with schools and has a cap recycling program.

The Motherhood Foundation is going to have a Museum of Motherhood.

Save the Words-make sure you move your mouse around the foundation page of the site. Very cute!!

A sweet preview for Valentines Day. I love the deep red of these macarons, but $29.00 for a dozen of these lovelies. Good Grief we pay up the wazoo for convenience. You could probably bake 3 dozen for that amount of money. Williams Sonoma you are the bomb, but my goodness.

Booklife-network for book lovers.


I leave you with this gorgeous winter sunrise. Have a nice weekend.




"Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame." - Alexander Pope

Round Up

My heart goes out to the Haitian people this morning. What a devastating situation!!

This looks like a very cool publication: Boneshaker: A Bicycling Almanac

Meatpaper is an online publication about meat; yes meat. As a vegetarian I had some problems with Meatpaper, but I found it so interesting that I found myself reading some of the articles.

WORDIA-a visual dictionary

Visuwords-a graphical dictionary and thesaurus

Cookbooker enables you to rate and review cookbook recipes

Trying to find just the right candle for a gift or other special occasion. Check out Candlefind.

The top cultural and educational video sites.

Thumb thing-a simple invention for reading books

I was thinking the other day that vitamins should be in the shape of the letter they are. Vitamin A should be the letter, C should be see and so on and so on. But then you get to those pesky B vitamins, B5, B6, B12 and on and on. I guess those could be color coded or everyone could start calling them Pantothenic Acid instead of B5, or Niacin for B3. What about multivitamins? Those could be color coded as well. And the system would be universal. Yes, there are some kinks in my system, but they can be ironed out.

Do you like Camel case? There are quite a few definitions for camel case, but read Wikipedia's entry. Camel case is where an upper case letter is used to link compound words. Like iPod, eBay. I am not a fan, and now I see that I am not the only hater.

I love, love, love this digital copyright slider.

Some more books that I want to read: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray. This incredible author has a wonderful website. Even if you aren't a Periodic Table nut like myself I think you will still find his website interesting. He even has an entire page devoted to Periodic Table products. I am in shopping nirvana. And just gaze at this Periodic Table wooden table.

The other book that has piqued my interest is Mr. Langshaw's Square Piano: The Story of the First Pianos and How They Caused a Cultural Revolution by Madeline Goold. Apparently this book has been out Britain for awhile. More about the book here.

Katherine Patterson, author of Bridge to Terabitha and Jacob Have I Loved (I didn't read either of these wonderful books until I was middle-aged), and many other books, was named the National Ambassador of Young People's Literature.

I think Twitter should ask "What are you thinking?" as opposed to What's happening?

Some of the best comic and graphic novels of 2009.

Ulysses "seen", a Ulysses comic.

I must have read The Diary of Anne Frank twenty times when I was a tween. I adored that book, and anytime I hear anything about the book or Anne Frank, I am always interested. I was saddend to hear that Miep Gies , the last of Anne Frank's protectors, passed away at the age of 100.

Monday, January 18, 2010 is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day of Service. Get off your duff and do something for someone else that day.






"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them. " Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Round Up

Do you believe it-It's 2010-Good Grief I'm old.

01-02-2010 is a palindrome.

Bookshelf wallpaper-why not just have the real thing.

I would love to work for a publisher, and I think Penguin would be at the top of my list. Now they have Penguin Classics on Air. Of course at the very tippy top of my list is Persephone Books.

50 Best Design Blogs

I remember many years ago when I bought the very first issue of Utne magazine and I felt like I was home. Some magazines just seem to feel like a warm, comfortable hug, and that's what Utne was for me. I subscribed for years, and now I wish I had saved all of the issues. Hindsight is indeed 20/20. Anyway, I digress.

In one issue of Utne they had a small article on a tool lending library. If memory serves it was located in San Francisco. I just thought that this was the coolest thing since sliced bread. Why buy a floor polisher when you could borrow it from the tool lending library. And after providing the Utne link I see that tool libraries are still all the rage. Here is a current Utne article on how to start your own tool lending library. And here is a list of tool lending libraries. (I digressed again)

After reading that article I kept coming across articles about bartering and a moneyless society. Last week I found Kashless.

When I was decorating my house for Christmas I was looking for pine cones to add to my mantle village. There's cones a plenty where I live so I just went for a walk and came back with my bounty. I've always been fascinated by pine cones. There are so many different kinds. I started wondering about what type of tree produced the largest pine cones.

The world's largest pine cones or seed cones are produced by tropical cycads, yes tropical. These Coulter pine cones are hefty (way to big for my little village, the villagers would be terrified). Here is more information on the Coulter pine cone. The Coulters may be the heaviest, but the Sugar Pine cones are the longest. Unfortunately all of these large cones, both in heft and in length, are from trees that seem to be indigenous to the Western part of the country.

There is even a pine cone festival.

New York University's (NYU) Fales Library acquired the now defunct Gourmet magazine's cookbook library.

I love, love, love stationery and I love when I find companies that are printing unusual items. I have fallen head over heels for Rifle Paper Company.

There's lots of books on my TBR pile and lots of books on my TBR virtual list. Two that I can't wait to read are:
1. Cranioklepty" Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius by Colin Dickey
2. 14 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy

15 Incredible Library Special Collections

That's all I have for this week. Happy 2010 everyone.

"And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been." Rainer Maria Rilke