Killin' time being lazy

31.5.20

Digital Detritus

Life right now is... interesting. There's good news, in that I'm feeling healthier than I have in a while. And there's bad news, in that we have this COVID-19 thing that has led to death and an abrupt end to life as we've known it. The paradox is that the social distancing of the latter has helped move the former in ways I don't think would have happened had I been going into that germ factor we call a school library and I call MPOW.

It's been over two years since I last did one of these posts and do I have links for you! So without further ado...

When my niece was born, my sister's college computer lab friends created a website for her. I worried then, and I worry now. But this author thinks that "My Kids Will Thank Me For Oversharing Online" (WSJ paywall)
We all need an escape right now, and Atlas Obscura doesn't disappoint. And while this was written last year, Vox has a great defense of reading, rereading and rerereading.
Thing One worked across the street from the World Trade Center for years, and on Sept 11 he saw things that no one should see. He's developed some health issues, but like Marya Columbia, he isn't included with the first responders in various programs. How many others have problems but don't officially count?
Speaking of health, Chuck has a good idea for anyone on medications, allergies, etc..
Can we please stop with the gender reveal parties? The originator of the trend regrets it, and it feels like what my mother would call "gift grubbing."
A well-needed smile, thanks to Moose Allain.
If you like Speculative Fiction and want to explore new books, here are two flowcharts: books written by POC and books written by women. Yes, there's overlap. And then there's this list of true crime books (I've read waaay too many!)
Those movies you thought were shot on location? Maybe not.
NYPL has some lovely cards and coloring books to download.
I've always loved words and etymology, so these maps of words that moved along the trade routes and a world language tree were 💖 And speaking of maps, ever wonder where in Great Britain Manderlay, Wuthering Heights or Downton Abbey are? There's a map for that!

28.5.20

Imponderables (Sunday morning edition)

Today's New York Times has this story: G.E., Which Traces Its Roots to Thomas Edison, Sells Its Lighting Business and a part of my past died. Sunday mornings used to be filled with commercials like this one for BASF:

For years, I joked the BASF made adjectives and adverbs. I'm still not sure they don't.

And GE used to have customer support for everything, including MRIs and nuclear plants:

Can someone tell me: who will now be bringing good things to light?

26.5.20

Not my Herd!

(@HorribleSanity)

20.5.20

Everything Old, etc.

I'm old enough to remember the Automat. My grandfather and father took me in NYC, and it was So Cool that the food just appeared behind the little window! And I got to pay for it, just by putting coins in the slot!

You can imagine how excited I was to see something similar when I visited Amsterdam:

Eater just had an article saying that a dumpling shop was considering an automat-like model, given that we're in the Age of COVID. Please — please! — more restaurants and bakeries, do this. And not just because of COVID, but because it's So Cool.

18.5.20

You can't even get there...

45 years ago, movie goers saw this trailer

And five years later, in 1980....

The best part (or so my college BFFs and I thought) was the tag line:

We changed it slightly and would frequently say things (in a creepy voice) like, "Just when you thought it was safe to go to breakfast... you can't even get there"

Good times.

This past February, which feels as though it was about as long ago as the early 80s, the parents association had it's annual appreciation brunch/lunch for the Upper School faculty. One of the things they do is have -- in addition to amazing food -- is a raffle set up. There are a number of tables with different prizes, and in front of each is a glass vase into which we put our tickets (each faculty member gets five). My first year I won Trader Joes gift cards, and this year I won a $200 gift certificate to a local day spa.

Given my various health issues, I haven't been feeling spa-y but I knew that in March I'd be going off most of the medications (turns out I went off even more, but that's a whole other weird medical story) and maybe, just maybe, I'd be feeling up to it. Reader, I am.

But COVID-19.

Just when I thought it was safe to get a facial and massage... I can't even get there.

12.5.20

I can relate to the fear

(@awad)

I guess it's good that Mt. Bookpile is still close to 300 and I have access to BPL's ebooks!

10.5.20

A Quick Mother's Day Story

People over on Twitter are talking about the ways their mother was a fighter - like not insisting that their daughter's wear longer skirts because boys would get the wrong idea, etc. Maybe it's me, but I get the feeling that those are younger women and these events happened relatively recently.

Me, I want to celebrate my mother the fighter back in the 70s. The school district for SmallTown had two K-6 schools and then one K-3 and a 4-6 school in SmallVillage. Even though we were just over the border of the Village, we were districted into those two schools. The 4-6 school was, to put it mildly, old and decrepit.

How old and decrepit? My BFF K remembers getting burned by the hot piping in the basement music room.

I attended that school for two years, and then we moved to Switzerland for Daddy's First Sabbatical. When we returned, it was up the very steep hill to the Junior High, big enough for all of the elementary school students and a much newer building. But my sister, being five years behind me, was then in second grade and nearing the time when she, too, would be going to the old and decrepit 4-6 school.

Mom, and her friends, agitated and protested so much that they got that school closed down and my sister got to go to the newest of the K-6 schools, the one furthest away from our house. K's younger sister, luckily, had moved (with K's family) to another city or she would have gone to the expanded K-3 school, even though they lived further from the Village boundaries. A very famous Children's/Young Adult author's family bought K's house and that's the K-6 school she attended.

My mother was many things, including a fighter. And I miss her.

7.5.20

Thrice Imponderable

In 2004 I wondered why this word was so popular.

In 2018 it was on the endangered list.

And now, in 2020, I have to wonder whether I should learn the Russian word for defenestration.

4.5.20

Notable Quotes

"For a brief spell, we share a stage. Others are coming to kick us off. But while you're here, write yourself a good part. Act it well." He looks around the bar. "Act it well. There's nothing else to say because there's nothing more to say. Wisdom is platitudes gussied up."

David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue

3.5.20

Notes from Mt. Bookpile

Given the strangeness of the first third of the year, you'd think I'd either be way behind or way ahead of this year's goal. Nope. I'm right on track. I am reading more eARCs than usual, probably because with conferences being cancelled it's the best way for publishers to get their books into pre-readers hands; the problem is that I can't then pass them along to teachers and students for a second opinion or selection. Sigh. Anyway, on with the list:

Middle Grade/Young Adult Fiction