Camel Identification Please

"Are you a camel, a flip-floppy camel

without any starch in your spine?

Do you sit at the table as well as you're able or

do you sit there and slump slump slump slump.... 
Are you a camel, a flip-floppy camel
without any starch in your spine?
Because if you are a camel, a flip-floppy camel,

please go somewhere else to dine."

Ah, the songs of childhood.  I thought I'd share this one since it's 'rare'.  Which means you're missing out!  We have a book with lots of classic (read: old) children's songs, but alas this one does not appear to be included.  Here are some of the beauties we do have:  Funiculi, funicula!    Looby loo!  (I always thought it was loopy. Go figure.)   Itiskit, itasket!    O sole mio!   All in:  Standard children's songs : containing more than one-hundred and fifty songs suitable for young folks of all ages.

Not Pi

Bishops Chocolate French Silk Pie.  Never had the pleasure myself, but I understand it was a delicious treat.  Did you know it was invented by a guy who lived in Iowa?  Lester R. Hendrickson was not Iowa-born but he lived here for 40 years.  Not only is the Chocolate French Silk Pie to his credit, he also worked in one of the state's most famous bakeries.  Barbara's Bake Shop!  Can you believe it?  He died in West Des Moines in 1989, having made the world a better place.  Thank you, Lester.

Source: Des Moines Register October 8, 1989 p. 5B

Biiiiig Holiday Coming Up - Closed Friday through Monday

Yes, all 6 locations of your Des Moines Public Library will be closed 4 days for the 4th of July.  Of course Friday the 2nd is a furlough day and part of the budget cut, so staff will not be paid for that day.  And we're not open Sundays in the summer anyway. I'm not sure where I was going with that,  but I guess I'm there!  And now an important factor of our holiday closing:  the book returns will be closed.  Locked!  Unavailable! The good news is that we will not be charging fines for those days we are closed.  Whoohoo!   If you're headed out of town for vacation you'll want to return your stuff before 8 PM on Thursday July 1st. (6 PM at Central)  Last chance until we open back up on the 6th!  Our web site will remain accesssible, but we're all gone so no support for the web site.  You'll be on you're own.  You can do it!

We're Surrounded! Art Fest

The Central Library will be opening our usual hours this Friday and Saturday during the Art Fest. (9-6 Friday, 9-5 Saturday). You can get at all our entrances and the drive-up windows.  I know, Grand Avenue looks closed but there is a big sign that says it's open for library traffic.  If this means you, come on in! Glorious art is everywhere, but your library staff remains ready to serve, undistracted and steadfast. 

Summer Blockbusters II

You didn't think I was done, did you?  Here are more outstanding summer movies from the vault for you!

Jurassic Park!  I still get goosebumps when the water in the glass ripples.

Ghostbusters! Aim for the flattop! Don't cross the streams! Dogs and cats living together!

Men in Black! Vincent D'onfrio is a bug in a man suit. You will believe. 

Star Wars! Oh, that first shot of the never-ending spaceship. The crowd cheers. Your world has changed.

Raiders of the Lost Ark!  Feisty 40's dame! She can knock a guy out with her fist or a fabulous dress!  And is that really Alfred Moline in the opening scene?

Close Encounters of the Third Kind!  Goosebumps again, this time when the little UFO's whiz around the road at midnight.  Can you ever see Devil's Mountain and not think of mashed potatoes?  Me neither.

The Human Caterpillar

Actually they called themselves The Ames Sisters, but really.  That's a butterfly waiting to happen if ever I saw one.  Next stop: Synchronized Swimming.  Assuming the sisters can swim.  Oh, and they don't have anything to do with Iowa, Ames is just their name.  They were a sister act that got a start just as vaudeville was coughing out its last breath.  We actually have books on synchronized swimming if you happen to come from a large family and like to swim.  Knock yourselves out.  But not really.
The Five Ames Sisters. Left to Right: Barbara, Mary Eloise, Marjorie, Alice and Dorothy.1929.

Synchro intro : a guide to coaching recreational synchronized swimming
Sport training manual for synchronized swimming
 
Graphic Source: flickr Vintage Photo Sharing

Ngaio Marsh

She was a mystery writer.  Bet you can't pronounce her name!  Not Marsh, the other one.  It's pronounced nye-oh. Wait, I just found out her real first name was Edith. I guess that was too pronounceable for her.  She was born in New Zealand and "ngaio" is the Maori word for, take your pick, a flowering tree; clever; light on the water;  a small insect.  She wrote 32 mysteries featuring DCI Roderick Alleyn, publishing from 1934 to 1982.   And managed to keep the later ones from seeming dated. Give her a go.

Ngaio Marsh Mysteries

Inspector Alleyn Mysteries on DVD

Source: Biography Resource Center as accessed through Ebscohost

Fragment, a Favorite Book From 2009

Nothing I like better than a Mysterious Island Adventure.  Ooooooh.  In Fragment a ship full of the cast and crew from a 'sea life' reality show wind up at Henders Island.  Mayhem ensues.  The Henders'  inhabitants are all vicious species that want to eat you!  Now!  First there's the wheelie nasty on the beach. This innocuous-looking beast hurls itself  like a live Frisbee and when it hits you the zillions of babies on its exterior jump off  and eat you.  Well that's weird.  Turns out millions and millions of years ago evolution on Henders jogged on over to a different track and the island was isolated enough that it just kept perking along in an entirely new direction. Oh, and salt water kills them.  So no leaving the island! If you make it past the wheelies to the interior there are flying nasties, huge spidery nasties, ratty nasties, all really fast!  They will only stop trying to eat you if one of their own stumbles. Then they're all over that poor sucker.  And they reproduce like crazy so they have enough progeny to eat each other! The author actually backs up all this crazy with lots and lots of science. Lots. But not so much that it ruins the fabulous world he's constructed.   For extra value, toward the end there's one more creature that is totally unbelievable but buckets of fun.  You can read it in the comfort of your lawn chair, safe in the knowledge that you won't be eaten.  Except maybe by mosquitoes.

Fragment by Warren Fahy

Time Marches On

June 18, 1885.  The first "local library society" was organized. The New York Library Club had a mission. To gather librarians for, well, networking, and to "advance the interests of the libraries of New York".  The initial president was Richard Bowker, one of the founders of Library Journal!  Doesn't that just make your toes curl in excitement?  You can read more about Bowker, a genuinely remarkable man, in the Biography Resource Center.  Did I mention he was the first vice-president of the Edison Company?  Yup, that Edison. 

Source:  Biography Resource Center
Source: Famous First Facts