Celebrate National Library Week

by voting on these libraries at National Library Week 2010: America's Most Amazing Libraries:

• New York Public Library
  
• Exeter Academy Library
  
• George Peabody Library
  
• Boston Public Library
  
• Salt Lake City Public Library
  
• Seattle Public Library
  
• Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  
• Library of Congress
  

Each is unique in its own way, and the photos are beautiful. Vote for your top five at the link above.

I am under orders

from Brandon to not think of the additional $930 I owe the state and federal government for 2009 (I did my taxes tonight), but to blog about something interesting for him to read. So first, some humour...

Here's a stupid-criminal story:
Jail me, Elmo? Police: Dad left pot in boy’s bag: He's accused of calling son's school to see if he could retrieve it

Here's a little another odd bit:
Doctor Who regeneration was 'modelled on LSD trips'

"The metaphysical change... is a horrifying experience - an experience in which he relives some of the most unendurable moments of his long life, including the galactic war," it said.

"It is as if he has had the LSD drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect," the memo added.

In the library world, Will Manley is a columnist who is both lauded and reviled for his perspective. In 1992, he lost his position at the Wilson Library Bulletin for running a sex survey of librarians in his column. Finally, the results are made public:

WILL UNWOUND #78: “The 1992 Librarians and Sex Survey Results” by Will Manley

Just for the record, I would not be among the 38% of female respondents who, if PeeWee Herman were the last man on Earth, have sex to repropagate the species. The human race would just die. Sorry.

On to something more serious. To kick off National Library Week, an op-ed piece by Art Brodsky on the decimation that library budgets are undergoing when they're most needed:

Our Public Library Lifeline Is Fraying. We'll Be Sorry When it Snaps

No less an authority than Keith Richards put it best in his forthcoming autobiography: "When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is a great equaliser."

This is sure to cause some strong reactions:

Spanking kids linked to bullying: Report: Physical punishment can lead to aggressive behavior

According to the study, kids who were spanked often were twice as likely as those who weren't spanked to develop aggressive behaviors such as getting into fights, destroying things or being mean to others.

Earlier research had produced similar results, but most had not taken into account how aggressive kids were to begin with, and other factors could have biased the results.

As I don't have kids, I don't feel I can really comment on this too much. I do think that the greater the physical punishment, the more likely the child is to model this behaviour him- or herself.

There's a taste of stuff in my reader, Brandon. Hope you all enjoy.

The very last thing I would have expected to do for National Library Week

would be to stay home in bed with a spring cold that put me into a sort of achy catatonia. I'm at least out of bed, but the fever is still an issue and the mucous is resplendent. If anything, there's more mucous now that I'm awake. A friend called me 'Phlegm Fatale' once he called and found my normal 1st soprano voice had turned bass. I'm still a baritone. It is minutely better than it has been--I was at least able to do the taxes, although I made a mistake with paying the electric bill earlier that means my electric bill will be paid but I have no money for food, so doing such paperwork whilst sick probably isn't the best thing to do. I think unless I'm feeling loads better tomorrow there's nothing to do but break down and go to Dr Nesbitt and see if he can get me on the mend, or at least get me so the least little thing doesn't make me wheeze so badly I reach for my inhaler, before realising it's not my asthma.

At least I'm no longer having dreams of large strings of words (slogans, maybe?) that eat other large strings of words, paring them down to small sayings. (Welcome to the first 48 hours.) A friend was of the opinion that I was having an adman's fevered dreams and that I needed to get some of my own.

Speaking of fevered, you have no idea how much I'm having to use the spell checker and go back and look at the grammar of this post. Thank goodness for ibuprofen, but is there a pill that puts your brain back into place during an illness?