Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Carytown

Not long ago, on a walk all the way to Kroger -- or maybe Mary Angela's -- I noticed new bike racks on the sidewalks of C'town. Wonderful, I thought. How nice of the city (or the Carytown merchants group?) to get this done. They are an interesting, low-slung design. Imagine taking a piece of paper, cutting out some vertical slots, then arching the paper, and holding it up with two upside-down Us. Phusband and I walked by them again the other day and we realized that it's a design fail: except for the two end bikes, there's no way to lock one's bike to these new racks. Bummer.

At the Byrd: "Twilight"

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Suhweet!

While my coworkers talked to a cranky fellow, I helped a small girl look up James and the Giant Peach. I walked with her to the shelves - "Okay, here's the beginning of the alphabet: Cs, D-A . . . oh, there he is, on the bottom shelf. Do you see James?" She reached out a hand, "No one more over. But all those books are by the same man."

- What's this one?!

With no dust jacket the cover was worn, but I could tell it was The BFG and said so.

- SWEET!

Monday, February 09, 2009

Full Moon

In an hour and twenty minutes:

- 3 people need help printing resumes
- A senior calls about needing tax help. He told me Big Lib told him Not here, but when I called Big Lib to say "what gives," the librarian said, Of course we are doing it, here are the hours.
- photocopy tax form -- hold this little button down and hit print, and oh, yes ma'am, you're right, you can't print from PC while she copies
- Coworker gave patron scissors: "I need to cut the filter off my cigarette"
- book on leadership
- books on presidents
- Coworker deals with patron who wants to spread the word about the dangers of drinking battery acid. She hands coworker a piece of paper and asks if the words are spelled right; coworker replies, "Uh-hunh, that's close: just add a "y" to battery and spell acid A-C-I-D." She seems to do it with a straight face.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Most Unusual Book

This blogger has initiated conversation on unusual books, asking what's the strangest thing on your shelves.

Unusual is of course in the eye of the beholder. I'll treat the books in my Girl Scout collection as usual - even the ones from the 60s on sports, horse stories, and "beauty" (which includes party manners and making friends as I recall). Surely Googie and other books on popular culture and architectural history and material culture aren't that odd.

How about Henrico: A Photographic Celebration (1989). The Industrial Development Authority of Henrico County put it out. It's a boosterism kind of item, written in English, German, and Japanese, and full of pictures of fire trucks, libraries, homes, highways and smiling people with the goal of luring business to the county.

What's on your shelf that's odd?

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Newspaper

I'm a little embarrassed that the first stories I read in today's Washington Post were about the first family -- Mother Robinson must make arrangements with security to take a walk beyond White House ground, Sasha went to a children's show with a school friend and security (who briefly seemed nervous when the magician on stage made her "disappear") -- not the economy. Though I did find 8 Questions on the Stimulus Package informative. When I got to it.