Phoning it In

For years and years and years, in the olden days when you picked up the phone to call someone an actual person said "Number please".  Is that a hoot?  But it all came to an end for Des Moines in July of 1929.  Northwest Bell made the big switch early on Sunday July 28th and it apparently involved a cast of thousands!  One and one-half years in the making!  The unheard-of budget reaching $4,000,000!  Thenceforth when one picked up the phone in Des Moines, one heard a dial tone.  Welcome to the world of automated services.  The future was then.

Source: Des Moines Tribune, 7/28/1929 p. 1-2
Available on microfilm at the Central Library, 1000 Grand Ave.
Graphic Source:  Old Picture of the Day

Be the Boss of You

Are you interested in starting your own home-based business?  I know there's nothing like being your own boss!  Think of all the authority you'd have over you.  Sheer power! The East Side Library has added a nifty set of books to their collection, just for you.  They're targeted to specific businesses and will be more helpful than a general guide. 
How to start a home-based handyman business /
How to start a home-based housecleaning business /
How to start a home-based interior design business.
How to start a home-based jewelry making business /
How to start a home-based senior care business /

Book Sale at the East Side Library

Yay!  It's time for the Friends of the East Side Library's much-anticipated annual book sale.  It runs through Saturday March 27 and you can buy:  books, DVD's, videos, magazines, records! What are "records"?   Actually they're becoming collector's items rather than functioning as musical recordings. If you pick up some records at the sale you can check their value with this nifty item: Records & prices / edited by Peter Lindblad.  Now run along and have fun shopping for incredible, colossal  deals!

Friday Fun - Words Words and did I mention Words?

Remember Reader's Digest's 'Increase Your Vocabulary' feature?  Old much?  For all I know they still have it, but this is a more entertaining method of increasing your vocabulary.  "Why would I want to learn new words?" I hear you ask.  It's a game.  It's fun. As a bonus, when you get words right the folks who run the site will donate a certain number of grains of rice to the World Food Programme.  There, you've learned something already.  Program can be spelled with two m's.  If you're British. Maybe if you're lucky you'll play on a day when 'spline' is one of the words!  Spline!  Where else do you get that kind of quality edification?
FREE Rice

Late Late Craig

But he's still alive!  Remember when Craig Ferguson got the job as host of the Late Late Show?  We were all like, what's up with the guy from Drew Carey ? Where'd he come from? Turns out he came from interesting places.  He was born and raised on the mean streets of Glasgow, Scotland and they were really mean.  Gangs and lots of fighting and Ferguson in the thick of it.   Then there's the usual addiction and alcoholism, relationships ruined by the aforementioned; next the cleaning up and the finding true love as a reformed older guy.  The man fairly twinkles now.  Ferguson is very funny and candid which makes for a peppy biography.  You gotta love the cover!

American on purpose : the improbable adventures of an unlikely patriot / Craig Ferguson.

St. Patrick's Day!

Oh, the festivities!  If you remember to do one thing today, here it is:  teach your friends to say "Iocfaidh mise don gach rud!"  It's pronounced "uck-igg misha dun gock rud"  and it means "I will pay for everything!"  This is from The Information about Ireland Site and I'm sure they would not lead us astray.  Just don't say it yourself.  Maybe write it down for your vict - I mean, friends!  For more fun with words like eibhrionnach (a gelded goat) and and tapaidheachd (See tapachd) we have for you the Gaelic Dictionaries.  You'll love 'em.

Taxi!

Ah, the fine art of taxidermy.  I know you don't hear about it as much as you used to. We can fix that with this. "Martha Dartt Maxwell (born 1831, died 1881) was one of the first American women field naturalists and among the first American women to collect and display her own animal specimens."  Let me translate that for you.  Maxwell, a lifelong vegetarian, shot the animals and mounted her own catches.  Just incidentally, she was 5 feet tall. "Maxwell is credited as the first taxidermist to pose specimens in a natural position, thus ensuring that natural history displays in museums had authenticity."  So this wee deadly vegetarian changed the course of taxidermical history.  Now that I have your attention, feast your eyes on our taxidermy books.  If for no other reason than to answer the eternal question, 'huh?'.
Still life : adventures in taxidermy
Other Delightful Taxidermy Books
Source:  Biography Resource Center
Suggested by Marci Behm

Marched Reading

Ah, the WPA.  What couldn't they do?  Here's a gorgeous poster from the talented hands of some nameless artist in the employ of the Works Progress Administration.  It was produced for an Illinois reading promotion, circa 1941.  And rightly depicts books we all mean to read.  Your Tolstoy, your Dumas, your Thackeray.  But there's so much fun reading material stacked on your nightstand.  So it's not a bad idea to set aside one month a year for books that take some effort.  Start with Thackeray.  He's only got one blockbuster, so knock off Vanity Fair and you're done!

Tolstoy, Leo
Dumas, Alexandre
Thackeray, William Makepeace

Source:  Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division WPA

Friday Fun Name that Candy Bar

I thought this would be totally easy because I eat Lots of Candy.  But there are certain candy bars I don't like and some I've never heard of and some that look too much like the other ones.  They lure you in with easy selections then suddenly hit you with Take Five! Fast Break!  It's madness!  It gives you the munchies too, but I kind of like that part.

Guess the Candy

A good book to read whilst eating chocolaty treats:

The emperors of chocolate : inside the secret world of Hershey and Mars