Superior Reading

It seems like I have been reading Nevada Barr's Winter Study for a long time now. This is the second book she's set in Isle Royal National Park. I picked it up because it incorporates information about Rolf Peterson's ongoing study of the wolves on the island and as a Yooper, I've read many newspaper accounts of the wolf study in the Houghton Daily Mining Gazette over the years. While the book is as good a story as her others, I guess I'm not really wanting to be reminded of the winter conditions at the end of summer. It's all too soon that the landscape will resemble frozen tundra and we'll all be exhausted just getting bundled up in our winter wear before we can head outside. I have strong recollections of reading another of her books during an outbreak of temperatures ranging down to forty below zero. Her all to vivid descriptions of spelunking in narrow passageways below ground gripped me with a panicky claustrophobia. The tiny house where we stay in Minnesota suddenly seemed the size of a matchbox and I needed space and air. I don't recommend standing outdoors in pj's and robe at midnight when it's forty below..but I had to gulp in huge breaths of fresh cold air and not feel so confined. Now that's GOOD writing!

Labor Day 2008 in Ontonagon

The 51st annual Labor Day celebration in Ontonagon will not soon be forgotten. Early Sunday morning a fire of yet undetermined origin broke out taking with it almost an entire block of buildings. Strong south winds carried embers across the street, gutting another business, and damaging several others. The embers carried for blocks, raining down on tinder dry grass in yards of homes east of the river from River Street back as far as Amygdaloid Street. (It brought back to me disquieting memories of the blaze which burned the Elk Hotel in the sixties where the old jail in which we resided two blocks from that fire was cascaded with large chunks of pine embers still blazing as they landed on the roof.)

In a strange twist of fate, author Henry Kisor had only several days earlier taken some striking photographs of the block which burned, showing the false fronts of the buildings, popular when they were built. You can view the before the fire pictures on one of his blogs, The Whodunit Photographer. His other blog, The Reluctant Blogger, has some wonderful photos and commentary on the aftermath of the fire.

My father tells me that Joan Volek Gersten, coloratura soprano, lived upstairs in the pink building on the left growing up. My great-grandfather, Ira Dowd, had his shop in the Connie's Place building (ice cream shop), and Uncle Walter Scott's barbershop was next door (video store) according to local genealogist (and cousin) Andy Lockhart.

My Virtual Greenhouse

Perhaps it's the thought of the recent frost warning and impending Minnesota winter that made this little web application seem attractive. After enjoying the green and growing things this summer, the thought of the drab, long winter without color seems too much to bear; so I signed up for a virtual greenhouse where I'll be notified of new bouquets and when to water the flowers in my greenhouse. I can also send bouquets. And the embed code is supplied for blogs or web pages. I put the fresh flowers delivered daily code in my blog sidebar just to see what happens. You don't have to register for that particular feature.

This should be a little glimpse of hope during the long winter that's coming early by all signs from Mother Nature.

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Pam has The Book of Answers!

NCLC's administrative assistant, Pam, checks out The Book of Answers by Carol Bolt, borrowed from Jennifer, to find the answer to any question.

The idea was such fun that I thought I'd blog about it and in the process found the Original Book of Answers website where you can find out the answers to your burning questions too.

The book or any of its successors would make a fun gift for any hard to buy for person or any librarian you know. (We all know librarians know where to find all the answers.)

23 Things on a Stick Postcard Cat

With about one month left of Round 2 of 23 Things on a Stick, NCLC had 30 signed up for this round. Seven of those 30 have either finished the 23 things, or consider that they have completed the 23 things.

Those completing all 23 to date are: Dolce Libro, Inkdrinker, Laura's 23 Things on a Stick, Library Landing,
Sarahs23StickThings, and The German Experience. Rangegurl53 considers herself done; you'll have to read the blog and see what you think. Did she do the 23 Things or not? You be the judge and let me know what you think.

Quite a few others are about at the halfway mark, so I hope they are motivated to complete the program. The average completion rate has been about one-third. Perhaps this group will be above average at the rate they are going so far. It's been fun and educational to read all the blogs.

Congratulations to those who have completed the 23 Things on a Stick so far. I like the one word summary expressed by Dolce Libro on the experience: Empowerment.

Finally ALA on the Image Generation Bandwagon

As I've been playing with easy to use image generators online, not to mention free, the thought had often crossed my mind that ALA was missing out on a great opportunity by only offering their READ cd for sale. Since it also required some expensive Photoshop software to create the READ posters in addition to the READ cd , which was not inexpensive itself, the average librarian, operating on a shoestring library budget, would have to think twice about making a major investment for PR.

Imagine my surprise when I came back from vacation to find that they had finally hopped on the bandwagon and placed the ability to generate READ mini-posters online.

If you'd like to try it out for yourself, you can do it here.