Six Sentence Story: Discovering the Library

As she and her parents approached the entrance doors, she was so excitedly nervous she didn't know how she could stand it.  Yes, they had a so-called library at school, but it was just a room with a few bookshelves, and she had already read through most of them, as well as read every book at home a dozen times over, and was ready for new horizons and bigger challenges.

Once inside, her eyes almost bugged out of her head as she stared entranced at the stacks and stacks of books, in what looked from there like room after room that went on forever.  She was so distracted with craning her neck to see everything she hardly heard the conversation between the librarian and her parents...yes, she's old enough for her own card...she can get books from either the children's or young teen area...she may take as many as 10 at a time, for up to 3 weeks....

She signed her name in a daze and was let loose in the area where the children's books ended and the young teen books started, and she hardly knew where to begin.  Then she stepped into that new world and started exploring.

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue word is Entrance.

Today is:

Abu Simbel Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (along with Feb. 22, the day when the sunlight fell perfectly on the statues of Ramses, Ra, and Amun at the temple complex)

Caps Lock Day -- celebrating life in screaming CAPITALS (i'd include a link to the promo site, but it's rather annoying)

Clean Up the Earth Day -- begun because having only one Earth Day a year doesn't give enough emphasis to the amount of work that needs to be done

Color Day -- a day to consider how color affects your life, health, and world

Dashain Festival -- Hindu (also called Dussehra, Dashera, Phulpati/Fulpaati, or Navratri, a celebration of victory of Lord Rama over evil; official government holidays for this multi-day festival vary throughout India, Nepal, Bhutan, and other countries with large populations of Hindus)

Eat a Pretzel Day -- unclaimed sponsorship; does anyone else suspect that pretzel makers know how to spread stuff around the internet, too?

French Food Festival -- LaRose, LA, US (local specialties, dancing, music, and fun; through Sunday)

Great Pumpkin Carve -- Chadds Ford Historical Society, Chadds Ford, PA, US (carving pumpkins that weigh about 150lbs or more each; through Saturday)

International Stuttering Awareness Day -- information here 

Jidai Matsuri -- Kyoto, Japan (Festival of the Eras or Festival of the Ages)

National Knee Day -- take care of your knees, and they will take care of you!

National Nut Day -- UK (also now celebrated around the world) (launched by Liberation Foods CIC, a fair trade nut company, urging us to celebrate fairly traded nuts and swap out a nut based burger for a meat based meal, at least for today)
 
Navaratri Dusserha/Dasain/Dashain/Dasara -- Hindu (Festival of Dirva, wife of Shiva, and a time to go back home and reconnect with family, especially in Nepal and parts of India; through the 13th; local dates and official government days off will vary)

Seeking of King Look Under Your Mattress -- Fairy Calendar

Smart is Cool Day -- and i don't know who started this one, but i'd say someone tired of being made fun of for being a bookworm

St. Mary Salome's Day (Patron of Veroli, Italy)


Anniversaries Today:

Toastmasters International founded, 1924
The first Metropolitan Opera House in NYC opens, performing Faust, 1883


Birthdays Today:

Carlos Mencia, 1967
Valeria Golino, 1966
Brian Boitano, 1963
Jeff Goldblum, 1952
Deepak Chopra, 1946
Catherine Deveuve, 1943
Jan De Bont, 1943
Annette Funicello, 1942
Tony Roberts, 1939
Derek Jacobi, 1938
Christopher Lloyd, 1938
Timothy Leary, 1920
Joan Fontaine, 1917
Robert Capa, 1913
Curly Howard, 1903
George Beadle, 1903
N. C. Wyeth, 1882
Sarah Bernhardt, 1844
Franz Liszt, 1811


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Me and Bessie"(Musical), 1975
"Take Me Along"(Musical), 1959
"The Far Off Hills"(Play), 1928


Today in History:

The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire, 362
Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto), 794
Battle of the Southern Fujian Sea, Ming Dynasty wins a victory against the Dutch East India Company, 1633
Princeton University is chartered, 1746
Andre-Jacques Trim becomes the first sky diver, parachuting over Paris from a balloon, 1797
Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas, 1836
First telegraph line linking US east and west coasts of the US is completed, 1861
First concert performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1881
World's first automobile dealer opens in London, 1897
President Hoover gives the "American system of rugged individualism" speech, 1928
The FBI ambushes Pretty Boy Floyd, 1934
First commercial flight from the mainland to Hawai'i, 1936
Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor, 1964
A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada, 1964
The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus, 1975Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs, although the dye is still used in Canada, 1976
Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms, 2005
A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama, 2006
India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, 2008
North Korea gives the US permission to search for the remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War, 2011

How to Have a Fun Saturday

It's easy:  go to the new library!

Yes, the long awaited new Main library is now open.

To give you an idea, here are a couple of pictures of the outside of the old library:

The old Main library.

Another view.

To give you even more of an idea, as they tear the old one down, they are having to do asbestos remediation.  You know, as long as that stuff stays solid, it's fine, and the old place wasn't dangerous from it, but now that they are tearing it down, they have to get the stuff out safely.

For a long time, there were fights over where to put a new Main library.  Everyone except the politicians wanted it to stay in the same location, as they have plenty of room there.  The politicians wanted it moved, for their own nefarious purposes, but they were yelled down in the debate and lost.  Score one for library patrons!

The new place is much brighter and more modern.

Still constructing, but even so it looks a lot better.

The new building has 3 floors, the top one is dedicated to offices and places the public won't usually see.  There are meeting rooms, and they are building an internet cafe and theater!

Inside, it's bright and airy and cheery.

Looking from the periodicals area into the children's section.

 Yes, the children's area has those squares that light and change color, and so do the stars in the ceiling.

They change colors!

Since the children's area of a library is usually my favorite part, for sentimental reasons, i took the most pictures there.

Colorful reading area!

Fun computer stations!

One of the new children's story time rooms.

 The area for teens is separate, too.  There's even a small area where they can buy a snack and go sit to eat it.

Study area for teens.

Computer and study area for teens.

Have a snack, then get back to studying.

The second floor is the adult stacks, genealogy area, and more meeting rooms.

The old building wasn't nearly this bright and cheerful and open.

 So, that's how i spent a fun Saturday -- i went to the new library, found some more Spanish lesson CDs, read a book in the children's area, explored, and took photos.

If you haven't been to a library in a while i hope you get to go to a good one soon.  There's nothing quite like it.

Today is:

Constitution Day -- Mexico (trad.)

Feast Day of Jacob, Patriarch -- Catholic Christian

Kashmir Day -- Pakistan

Liberation from the Alberoni Occupation -- San Marino (also St. Agatha's Day)

Longest War in History Ends -- The Third Punic War, between Rome and Carthage, was officially ended on this date with a peace treaty signed in 1985, which is 2,131 years after the war began

Move Hollywood & Broadway to Lebanon, PA Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, and Why would they want it?

National Chocolate Fondue Day

National Girls and Women in Sports Day -- US (information here)

National Weatherperson's Day -- US (mostly, though some other countries now observe it as well; in honor of the first US meteorologist, John Jeffries)

Nones of February -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also
     Fornacalia -- celebration in honor of bread and the ovens used to dry grain; held any day between now and the 17th, one of Rome's few movable feasts)

Runeberg's Birthday -- Finland (National Poet)

Sapporo Snow Festival (Sapporo Yuki Matsuri) -- Sapporo City, Japan (fun in the cold, ice sculpting  competitons, and hot springs with hot sake to take the edge off; through the 11th)

4#Shiretoko Fantasia -- Shiretoko, Hokaido, Japan (laser lights and music illuminate the drift ice and waves of the Okhotsk Sea each night; through March 12)

St. Agatha's Day (Patron of bell-founders, fire prevention, jewelers, martyrs, nurses, rape victims, single laywomen, torture victims, wet-nurses; Malta; San Marino; as well as over 50 cities around the world; against breast cancer, breast disease, earthquakes, eruptions of Mt. Etna, fire, natural disasters, sterility, volcanic eruptions)

Unity Day -- Burundi

World Nutella Day


Birthdays Today:

Jeremy Sumpter, 1989
Sara Evans, 1971
Bobby Brown, 1969
Michael Sheen, 1969
Laura Linney, 1964
Jennifer Jason Leigh, 1962
Christopher Guest, 1948
Barbara Hershey, 1948
David Alan Ladd, 1947
Charlotte Rampling, 1946
Roger Stauback, 1942
Jane Bryant Quinn, 1941
David Selby, 1941
H.R. Giger, 1940
Alex Harvey, 1935
Henry "Hank" Aaron, 1934
Andrew Greeley, 1928
Red Buttons, 1919
William Burroughs, 1914
John Carradine, 1906
Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr., 1900
Andre' Citroen, 1878
Belle Starr(Myra Maybelle Shirley), 1848
Dwight Lyman Moody, 1837
Ole Bull, 1810
Robert Peel, 1788
John Witherspoon, 1723
Sanjo, Emperor of Japan, 976


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego"(TV), 1994
"Hagar The Horrible"(Comic strip), 1973
"Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour"(TV), 1967
"Peter Pan"(Disney cartoon film), 1953
"Otello"(Verdi Opera), 1887


Today in History:

Earthquake in Pompeii, Italy, 62
King Alfonso V orders Sicily's Jews to attend conversion sermons, 1428
A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society, 1597
The first US livestock branding law is passed, in Connecticut, 1644
Georgia becomes the first state to abolish both entail and primogenature, 1777
Sweden recognizes US independence, 1783
Hannah Lord Montague of New York creates the first detachable shirt collar, 1825
The "Oregon Spectator" is the first newspaper published on the American West Coast, 1846
An adding machine employing depressible keys is patented in New Paltz, NY, 1850
Two innovations which helped pave the way for motion pictures are pateneted, a hand turned stereoscope by Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati, and the Kinematoscope by Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia, 1861
Four inches of snow falls in San Francisco, 1887
The loop-the-loop centrifugal railroad (a/k/a the roller coaster) is patented by Ed Prescot, 1901
Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis performed the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane, 1913
Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists, 1919
Reader's Digest magazine is first published, 1922
The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal, 1924
A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered, 1958
The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families, 1997
Danish special forces storm a ship captured by Somali pirates, freeing 25 crewmembers on board, 2010

Can't Help Myself

Note:  If Suldog sent you, you are probably looking for Thanksgiving Comes First.  You are also more than welcome to read today's meanderings while you are here.

"Hey, mom, could you take me to the library?" Little Girl asked.  Usually, she asks her sister to take her on such errands, but Bigger Girl was busy.

When the children were younger, we were regulars at the public libraries.  There are amazing children's programs at our libraries, and i took full advantage of them, especially during the summers.

Lately, though, i've been mostly reading off of my computer, and reading books i've bought or have at home.  Only on occasion do i get to a library, and i miss it.

So when we walked in, i was overtaken by the nostalgia.

Some things have changed, and some have not.

The copy machines at this branch are still in the same place.  They are modern and up-to-date, but still run on coins.  So i showed her how to make the copies she wanted, and then she wandered off to find a particular book.  Not having anything specific in mind, i couldn't help myself, and i stepped into the children's area.

Three libarians were on duty, one was shelving some books, and the others were at their desks.  A family i recognized from rEcess came in, and we talked a bit.

Then i turned to the books.  Smiling, i ran my eyes over the shelves of books that have the unique binding that tells you it's a library book.  Familiar titles and new, i wandered and remembered, smelling the beautiful smell that i can only describe as cleanness and books mixed.

Walking toward the really young children's books, i grinned at the stack of Little Golden Books.  We still have some, but they are not often even looked at now.  Again, unable to help myself, i picked one up and laughed as i glanced at the familiar pages.

Little Golden Books are the best!

Little Girl came in and found me, and asked what i was doing.

Reliving good times, i told her, and she smirked and smiled at the same time, the way teens do when they are trying to be sophisticatedly too old for something, but like what you are saying or doing anyway.

In these days when libraries are endangered in many places, i'm glad to be able to say, not here.  We have a specially dedicated property tax that does nothing but fund our libraries, and it shows.  They are always clean, always well staffed with people who practically fall all over themselves to be helpful (as, indeed, the librarian who helped Little Girl find that book was this time), always busy, well stocked, have plenty of computers available for research, and, to me, always a joy to go into.

As we left, i remembered my favorite story about libraries.  It was told to me by my friend Grace, who lives in San Antonio.  Her husband was military, and she remembered a time during budget cuts when there was talk of closing base libraries.  They were considered by some as unnecessary expenditures.  Then the word came down from those above those bases.

Any base that closed its library, they were told, better not leave their golf course open, either.

No base libraries closed.



Today is:

Abu Simbel Festival -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (along with Feb. 22, the day when the sunlight fell perfectly on the statues of Ramses, Ra, and Amun at the temple complex)

Caps Lock Day -- celebrating life in screaming CAPITALS (i'd include a link to the promo site, but it's rather annoying)

Clean Up the Earth Day -- begun because having only one Earth Day a year doesn't give enough emphasis to the amount of work that needs to be done

Color Day -- a day to consider how color affects your life, health, and world

Eat a Pretzel Day -- unclaimed sponsorship; does anyone else suspect that pretzel makers know how to spread stuff around the internet, too?

International Stuttering Awareness Day -- information here

Jidai Matsuri -- Kyoto, Japan (Festival of the Eras or Festival of the Ages)

National Knee Day -- take care of your knees, and they will take care of you!

National Nut Day -- UK(urging everyone to swap a burger for delicious and nutritious nuts, at least on this one dayhttp://www.nationalnutday.com/)

Seeking of King Look Under Your Mattress -- Fairy Calendar

St. Mary Salome's Day (Patron of Veroli, Italy)


Birthdays Today:

Brian Boitano, 1963
Jeff Goldblum, 1952
Deepak Chopra, 1946
Catherine Deveuve, 1943
Annette Funicello, 1942
Tony Roberts, 1939
Christopher Lloyd, 1938
Timothy Leary, 1920
Joan Fontaine, 1917
Curly Howard, 1903
N. C. Wyeth, 1882
Sarah Bernhardt, 1844
Franz Liszt, 1811


Anniversaries Today:

Toastmasters International founded, 1924


Today in History:

The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, is destroyed in a mysterious fire, 362
Emperor Kanmu relocates Japanese capital to Heiankyo (now Kyoto), 794
Battle of the Southern Fujian Sea, Ming Dynasty wins a victory against the Dutch East India Company, 1633
Princeton University is chartered, 1746
Andre-Jacques Trim becomes the first sky diver, parachuting over Paris from a balloon, 1797
Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas, 1836
First telegraph line linking US east and west coasts of the US is completed, 1861
First concert performance of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, 1881
World's first automobile dealer opens in London, 1897
President Hoover gives the "American system of rugged individualism" speech, 1928
The FBI ambushes Pretty Boy Floyd, 1934
First commercial flight from the mainland to Hawai'i, 1936
Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turns down the honor, 1964
A Multi-Party Parliamentary Committee selects the design which becomes the new official Flag of Canada, 1964
The Soviet unmanned space mission Venera 9 lands on Venus, 1975Red Dye No. 4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it
is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs, although the dye is still used in Canada, 1976
Tropical Storm Alpha forms in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms, 2005
A Panama Canal expansion proposal is approved by 77.8% of voters in a National referendum held in Panama, 2006
India launches its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1, 2008

Funny Thing About Libraries

 The funny thing about libraries is, they are still needed, and i believe they always will be.

Maybe i'm just spoiled, because our libraries in this parish are really, really great.  Spacious and beautiful and full of helpful, knowledgeable people, wonderful reference works, and the ability to find out something besides what Google can tell you.

They also have the most fabulous children's summer programs imaginable.  Every day of the summer there are events at multiple branches, and not just story time.  Ballet performances, visits from zoo docents with fascinating animals, crafts, science experiments, and one branch even hosts their now famous watermelon seed spitting contest each year.

When i first moved to this area, the libraries were at a crossroads.  This was well before the internet, and it was all budget related.  The people who ran the libraries made a promise.  If the voters would give them a property tax millage devoted solely to running the libraries, thus protecting them from the vagaries of budget decisions being fought from year to year as people argued about such things, they would give us the best library system in the state.  It was voted in, and they kept their word, and the tax has been renewed every time by a huge margin.

We love our libraries!

My favorite library story came from a friend whose husband was career military.  During budget cuts many years ago, one thing the commander of one base was considering was shutting down the base library.  While there was a hue and cry from the school and others on the base, his idea was that "nobody really needs a base library."

Then the officers over him heart about it.  An edict was issued -- any base that chose to close down its library to save costs because libraries aren't needed had better not leave its golf course open, either.

No libraries were closed.  That story always leaves me grinning when i think of it.

If you live in any area where the librarians are speaking to legislators today (see below for an explanation), give them your support if you can.

No matter what Google says, we need our libraries!


Today is

Beaufort Wind Force Scale Day -- birth anniversary of the British Navy officer whose wind scale, in refined form

Box Camera Day -- George Eastman patented the Box Camera on this day in 1888

Childhood Depression Awareness Day / Children's Mental Health Awareness Day -- sometimes also called Green Ribbon Day

Day of the Soldier -- El Salvador

Experience the Awesome Stomach-Churning Wonder of a Thrill Ride Day -- internet generated, and they can have it!

Feast of St. Nicola -- Bari, Italy (celebrates the moving of the relics of St. Nicholas -- yes, later Santa Claus -- to this town, where they still are; here he is patron of orphans and pirates, and the date of his body's arrival is celebrated as a huge three-day festival with fireworks included)

Fire Escape Ladder Day -- Joseph Winters patented a wagon-mounted version on this day in 1878

Hamburg Harbor Day -- Hamburg, Germany (founding of the city)

Homeland Defender's Day -- Kazakhstan

Homespun History Day -- internet holiday often exploited by Modern Drunkard Magazine as a day upon which to drink specifically so the stories will sound better

Library Legislative Days and Virtual Library Legislative Days -- sponsored by the ALA, encouraging librarians around the US to go to Washington, D.C., or their own state capitals to speak to legislators about the important library issues; through tomorrow

National Roast Leg of Lamb Day

National Teacher Appreciation Day -- US

Nones of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Primary Day:  Live from Delaware Street -- Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, Indianapolis, IN, US (hear conversations of the day and time of President Harrison, and speak to re-enactors who play the parts of his family and staff to see what life was like in 1898)

Radio Day -- Bulgaria; Russia

St. Domitian of Huy's Day (Patron of Huy Liege, Belgium; against fever)

World Asthma Day -- International



Anniversaries Today:

Founding of Univerzita Karlova in Prague, the first university in Central Europe, 1348


Birthdays Today:

Owen Hart, 1965
Tim Russert, 1950
Johnny Unitas, 1933
Teresa Brewer, 1931
Darren McGavin, 1922
Eva Peron, 1919
Gary Cooper, 1901
Archibald Macleish, 1892
Gabby Hayes, 1885
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1840
Johannes Brahms, 1833
Robert Browning, 1812
Francis Beaufort, 1774


Today in History:

The dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople collapses, 558
Joan of Arc leads the final charge in the Battle of Orleans, 1429
Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles, 1664
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, 1718
Jews are expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia, 1727
Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit, 1763
The world premier of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, 1824
The independence of Greece is recognized by the Treaty of London, 1832
George Eastman patents the "Kodak Box Camera," 1888
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning  detector — a primitive radio receiver, 1895
German  submarine  SM U-20  sinks RMS Lusitania, 1915
England lowers age of women voters from 30 to 21, 1928
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees, 1946
The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress, 1948
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer, 1952
Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits, 1986
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, 1992
Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history, 1998
The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered, 2007