A Timely Book for 2012 (kind of repeated from a previous post)

Twilight of the A-Pooh-Calypse-Oh!

A Story of the End of the World and Latin Dancing For the Very Young-----------------by Timothy Sparrow, 1998.

I was reminded of this because of the recent comic New Adventures of Queen Victoria:

And because I expect to be as disappointed by December 21 this year as I was during the (non) arrival of the Jupiter effect--the alignment of a bunch of the planets in the solar system-- on or near March 10, 1982.

Happy New Year

This is posted from my phone. How cool is that? In other news, I helped 4 patrons with their new e-readers, showing them how to download borrowed (free) books to their devices. In my recent experience, Android devices are the most painless machines for borrowing and loading books.

None of the patrons who needed help had Android devices.

This post-blank I'm typing in won't let me insert a picture. I'll have to edit one in when I get to a desktop computer.

My new year's resolution is to pay better attention to details.
Edit: Dell Streak7 uploaded a pic for me. This is a cat in the ruins of Ephesis.

Like the blonde girl used to say at the end of Hee Haw: That's All!

A book review after a long time missing

Small Steps by Louis Sachar
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
*Look ma, no spoilers!*

This is a well-written book. After I read Holes which I thought was amazing and practically perfect, I couldn't dare to read anything else that Sachar had written for fear of disappointment. How could he write anything as perfect as Holes?
Then this book came out, and since it was some of the same characters from Holes, I read it. First of all, it's good; it's worth your time to read. And if it happens that you don't like the magical realism of Holes, this is straight realistic fiction. It does have a plot line that you probably have seen before: well-meaning protagonist gets into trouble and misunderstanding because of a too-clever, shady friend.

It also has elements of striving to meet and be friends with someone normally considered "out of their league."

Again, I enjoyed reading the book, and it didn't feel like a wound for being so much less than Holes as I was afraid some of Sachar's previous books would have been. The conflicts and obstacles faced by the protagonist keep the reader turning the pages. But Small Steps does weigh in as a lesser book than Holes.
View all my reviews

Overheard

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Where are you going?" she asked back.

"Ummm, I'm following you," he replied.

Quite understandable. She was definitely followable, and he had those puppy, round following eyes.

Snack and writing

I was thinking of a Beatles song, "I've got a feeling." I guess I was hungry, because I started thinking of a parody involving a large amount of pizza.


I need a pizza, a pizza deep and wide
Oh yeah, Oh yeah
I need a pizza, a pizza I can’t hide
Oh no. no. Oh no! oh No.
Yeah! Yeah! I need a pizza. Yeah!

Oh please believe me, pineapple and the ham
Oh yeah, yeah, oh yeah.
And if you leave me, no anchovy again
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
Yeah Yeah I need a pizza, yeah.
I need a pizza.

All these years I’ve been wandering ‘round,
Wondering how come nobody told me
Anchovy, ham and garlic is a bit of
an over do

I need a pizza, with sauce of tomatoes
Oh Yeah, Oh yeah.
I need a pizza with prawns and cilantro
Oh yeah, Oh yeah, Oh yeah.
Yeah! Yeah! I need a pizza. Yeah!

Ev’rybody had a bread stick
Ev’vrybody had a red wine
Ev’vrybody had a salad
Ev’vrybody had the Key Lime
Oh yeah, Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Ev’rybody had a good beer
Ev’rybody let their belt out
Ev’rybody wiped their spill up
Ev’rybody put their tips down
Oh yeah. Yeah Wooooo Hooooo


It's not as funny nor quite as inventive as a Weird Al Yankovic composition, but it pretty much fits the syllable count and stress. :-)

It's all about making odd connections

I almost feel like this needs an idea tree or something to show when things occurred simultaneously.

While de-selecting outdated consumer guides [weeding],

I was reminded that my dad had said (as part of my instruction for pulling weeds from the yard), “A weed is any plant someone doesn’t want growing there.”

Then I thought how weeding items from the shelves (particularly books) is like pulling unwanted flowers.

That made me think I’d like to write an haiku about “filing away unwanted flowers”

I decide that the syllable count is closer to 7 than to 5 on that phrase, so I plan to write around it.

I’m counting the syllables and changing things around, when I try “file.” “File” looks like one syllable, but as I say the word, it seems to me I say it in two syllables-[fye-ul]. I can’t believe that’s right so I look it up in two different dictionaries (New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd ed., and American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed). Both indeed claim that “file” is one syllable. (So why does it come out as two when I say it, albeit a very fragile 2nd syllable?)

While I looked down in the dictionaries, I noticed next the word “file’” which is described as “powdered sassafras leaves used to thicken soup, stew, or gumbo.” Ha! You may be aware in the Hank Williams’ song, “Jambalaya (On The Bayou)” has the line mentioning “fillet gumbo.” I thought it was a gumbo with fish fillets in it. But no! It was file’ gumbo, which doubtless any of you southern, not to say Louisiana types, already knew.

But now I’ve forgotten how I wanted to arrange my haiku, except that it had the line
Filing unwanted flowers
In the middle.

Still. I think it is an apt metaphor for librarian de-selecting items.

Hmmmmmm. I’ll try this:

Books sent, shelf to bin
Filing unwanted flowers
past lost tomorrow.

10CffeeSries_3146

10CffeeSries_3146
Originally uploaded by YorickWell. I saw a photographer's show the other day. Several of the pictures were of the people's feet--bare or in shoes.

It made me think of my "Mug Shots" series. I told the photographer that perhaps a series called "Foot Prints" would be cool.