Paper View

Look at paper a new way!  As stuff you can easily fashion into presents.   I know you're out there.  You have scrapbook paper stuffed under beds, stashed in closets, peeking out of drawers.  And it's all so beautiful, perhaps you don't want to let go.  Buck up!  Here's your chance to haul it out and use your paper for good! 
Paper it! : 50 home decor and gift ideas using scrapbook papers.    
Handmade gifts : stylish ideas for journals, stationery, and more      
Paper : beautiful ideas for gifts and home decorations     
Papercrafts : 50 extraordinary gifts and projects, step-by-step

Make It Easy

The holidays are coming and I can feel parts of the city panic, tiny screams bouncing off the sidewalks.  My job to ease your anxiety: find quick and easy craft projects for gift-giving!  I'm like that.  First up:  potholders! Handmade ones just seem to say "Welcome to my home.  Have some pie."  If you know how to crochet, how quick is a potholder?  Easy to Crochet Potholders includes fun designs like ducks and cows, and one that is a little dress!  Too cute? If you want to branch out and still keep it small, check out the Big Book of Dishcloths, Potholders and Scrubbies. They've got kitchen textiles covered. But these babies aren't quite as easy; you have to know your needlework.   Then when you are ready to leave the kitchen One Skein provides instructions for some other little projects.  Don't you feel better now?

The Skinny

You can literally have thick skin. According to Good Housekeeping, skin can vary from 1/32nd to 1/8th of an inch thick.  Both numbers are small but there's a big difference between the two.  Good Housekeeping continues:  If you are an average-sized human your skin weighs between 6 and 7.5 pounds.  Do weight loss plans take this into consideration?  I think they should.  That is totally innocent poundage, folks. Also skin is very elastic and will snap back to its original shape after being stretched 10 to 50 percent.  Really.  They don't mention the age of the skin used to determine this.  Plus ow.  I'd say we take our integument (new word points!) for granted if I didn't see about 3500 ads for skin products every day.  Do I have thick skin?  Since I can see my veins I'm guessing no.  Hey, if you try that stretching thing let me know how it works out.  Maybe I'll hear the 'snap' all the way across town.
Source: Good Housekeeping June, 1978 p. 75

Still Verbing After All These Years

As a culture I'd say Americans like action - coffee, pizza and language to go.  One example of this national characteristic:  verbing. Verbing is the act of using a noun as a verb.  Not a new phenomenon by any means, as demonstrated by the following words that were only nouns in the Concise Oxford Dictionary c. 1964, and are now verbs verbs verbs. 
Host - throw the party at your house
Access - get that info
Leverage - use your assets with all your might
Parent - actively raise those young 'uns
Transition - make that move
Our personal favorite:  geek!  From the 'Geek the Library' operation, get.geekthelibrary.org :  "The awareness campaign introduces the word ‘geek’ as a verb and illustrates the fact that everyone is passionate about something—everyone ‘geeks’ something—and that the public library supports it all".  That is verbing with a purpose.  The public libraries not only support your interests, now we provide you with a lively new word to describe how you feel about them.  In the grand tradition of those who've kept the English language zippy!

Skip the Jump

I'm reading Packing for Mars, and in the entire chapter devoted to ralphing the author has this handy tip.  When trapped in a plummeting elevator, lie down.  That goofy business about jumping in the air just before you land is not useful.  Because you are going to hit the floor.  According to author Mary Roach, who researched the heck out of this book, the body is best engineered to handle pressure in the supine position. NASA knows this due to years of studying the effect of buckets 'o gravity on humans.  One of the many offshoots of NASA research that can be applied to everyday life, ladies and gentlemen!  Bonus fact:  some motion sickness is caused by calcium deposits in your inner ear.  They're supposed to be there, but don't like it when you move your head too quickly.  I always thought of calcium as being more relaxed.
Packing for Mars : the curious science of life in the void / Mary Roach

Replay - Who is Sanborn and Why do we have his Maps?

As far back as 1867 the Sanborn Map Company employees were busily dashing through municipalities large and small, scribbling out the street names, building use, construction details, property boundaries, house and block numbers, street and sidewalk widths and more!!!!  I checked my home town in 1909 and found out that the garage at 700 Lake Avenue had 75 gallons of 'gasolene' on hand. Whew! These people were bus-y. And it was all for the insurance companies. "The maps allowed underwriters to more accurately access the risks of a business, even if they were unable to inspect the property in person".* They are so cool. We bought the Iowa maps and you can go back in time to a small town and find out where the horse stables were. For example, in 1885 Algona Iowa had a Roller Skating Rink at 559 State Street. So everything was up to date in Algona. Candy for historians and genealogists.

*Source: A Brief History of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and the Sanborn Map Company

Digital Sanborn Maps of Iowa (use outside the library) You will need your Des Moines Public Library card and PIN to access this from outside our libraries.

Open Today and Cyberish

The earliest reference I can find to 'Cyber Monday' is from 2005.  You know, the Monday after Thanksgiving when online sales explode!  Cyborg Monday would be cooler but we're low on the 'borgs right now. Beaucoup shoppers purchase online, more every year!  "Number of Americans who shopped on Cyber Monday neared 100 Million"- a headline from the Hudson Valley Business Journal, 12/7/2009, pages 23-24.  An online plus:  you know what the mall is like after Thanksgiving.  Minus:  you have to pay shipping.  A problem with both traditional and online commerce:  shoppers' brain fog.  You see something that is so close to what you want that you know your heart's desire is out there and you just keep looking and looking ... will I ever find the perfect boots?  We should do what my friend does when she 'shops in her closet'.  But I know there aren't any boots in there.
If you feel the fog settling in already, check out:
Overcoming Overspending

Source:  Christian Science Monitor, 12/7/2005, p18
as accessed through EbscoHost

Closed Today and Bela Lugosi

I don't know when 'Black Friday' first came to mean the Friday after Thanksgiving.   Until that happened Black Friday meant only one thing to me - a scary movie!!!!  Scary if you're like, 10, anyway. In the 1960's.  Black Friday is part of our Bela Lugosi collection and features a fabulous cast:  Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Anne Nagel, (of Man Made Monster fame) and Anne Gwynne, from House of Frankenstein.  In Black Friday a partial brain transplant changes the patient's personality!  Classic! Not as good as a possessed transplanted hand perhaps, but it has its charms. If you want to take your mind off shopping there's nothing like an old horror movie.  It may not be the best way to take your mind off shopping, but there's nothing like it.
Old Horror Movies
All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library are closed today.

Closed Today and Gratitude

Thanksgiving.  It literally doesn't sound like being grateful, it sounds like turkey.  So I need to wake up and smell the happy. Gratitude as an emotional concept has been getting some attention in the last few years.  We have two, not one, but two books that claim to examine the science of gratitude.  Could be these books owe their existence to the publication of  Simple abundance : a daybook of comfort and joy, Sarah Ban Breathnach's  juggernaut of gladness.  Not that that's a bad thing.

Books all about the art of  Appreciation
All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library are closed today and tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday.