Be Afraid, Scofflaws!

They are cracking down in ways today never heard of before.

You cannot hide.  They are no longer friendly and kind about it.

Every day now counts against you, so you had best turn yourself and the books in, pay the fine for your overdue library books, and sneak out the door shamefacedly.

Libraries, facing budget cuts, having to lay off staff or even close, are now turning people over to collection agencies if they don't pay the fines owed on overdue materials.

In some cases, they are turning it over to the police, as Freeport, Pennsylvania's Katelyn Jageman and her mother learned.  The police came over to the 4-year-old girl's home to insist that the books be returned and fines totaling just over $80 be paid.

Yes, a four-year-old got a visit from the cops over library books.

So be careful in that library the next time you go.  Keep your voice down like they tell you to.  Bring the materials back on time.  If you are a day or two late, bring money and maybe cookies.

Those nice library ladies are watching, and they might know the local sheriff better than you think.


Today is

Biographer's Day -- anniversary of the day Boswell met Johnson in 1763

Cannes Film Festival -- through the 27th

Love a Tree Day -- and read about the love of a tree, in Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree

Middlesex Day -- Middlesex, England (although it is only a postal county now, many celebrate the heritage of what was once the county that included London)

National Coquilles St. Jacques Day

Sneeze Without Embarrassment Day -- because of pollen levels

St. Brendan the Voyager's Day (Patron of sailors and Ireland)

St. Honoratus' Day

St. John of Nepomuk's Day (Patron of bridges, bridge builders, confessors, discretion, running water, silence; Bohemia; Czech Republic; Slovakia; against calumnies, floods, indiscretions, and slander)

Teachers' Day -- Malaysia

Turn Beauty Inside Out Day -- the day to remember what really counts is who you are, not what you look like

Wear Purple for Peace Day


Anniversaries Today:

Louis-Auguste, Dauphin of France, marries Marie Antoinette, 1770
Edgar Allen Poe marries his cousin Virginia Clemm, 1836


Birthdays Today:

Megan Fox, 1986
Jim Sturgess, 1981
Tori Spelling, 1973
David Boreanaz, 1971
Gabriela Sabatini, 1970
Tracey Gold, 1969
Janet Jackson, 1966
Olga Korbut, 1955
Debra Winger, 1955
Pierce Brosnan, 1953
Bob Edwards, 1947
Liberace, 1919
Woody Herman, 1913
Henry Fonda, 1905
William Seward, 1801


Today in History:

The Florentines drive out the Medici for a second time and Florence is re-established as a republic, 1527
Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England, 1532
Samuel Johnson meets his future biographer, James Boswell, in London, 1763
Denmark abolishes slave trade, 1792
The first major wagon train heading for the Pacific Northwest sets out on the Oregon Trail, 1843
Charles Elmer Hires invents root beer, 1866
A naval Curtiss aircraft NC-4 commanded by Albert Cushing Read leaves Trepassey, Newfoundland, for Lisbon via the Azores on the first transatlantic flight, 1919
Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc, 1920
Chaim Weizmann is elected the first President of Israel, 1948
The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between John F Kennedy International Airport (then Idlewild Airport) in New York City and Heathrow Airport in London, operated by El Al Israel Airlines, 1951
Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser, at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California, 1960
China's Cultural Revolution begins, 1966
The Soviet Venera 5 spacecraft lands on Venus, 1969
India annexes Sikkim  after the mountain state holds a referendum in which the popular vote is in favour of merging with India, 1975
Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, 1975
The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain, 1986
A report by United States' Surgeon General C. Everett Koop states that the addictive properties of nicotine are similar to those of heroin and cocaine, 1988
Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first British monarch to address the US Houses of Congress, 1991
Kuwait permits women's suffrage in a 35-23 National Assembly vote, 2005