This New Year, Y not 2K

What were we doing 10 years ago?  Some of us were freaking out about Y2K.  Why?  OK, when computers were just babies memory was scarce and programmers were trying to save every byte they could.  So they only used the last two numbers of the year, because everyone knew all the years started with 19.  Now the 19 was going away.  Computers would go completely nuts! You'd lose all your stuff!  No one would know how to fix it!  Actually not everyone reached those particular conclusions. But those conclusions were pushing our freak-out buttons like the guy who wants the elevator NOW.   
What we thought would happen:  
Catastrophic economic crash. 
Civilization in chaos.
And everyone's favorite, nuclear holocaust.
But the whole she-bang passed without, well, a bang.  So we've got that going for us.  Happy New Year!

Source:  Countryside and Small Stock Journal, Sep/Oct98, Vol. 82 Issue 5, p16, 6p.

as accessed through EBSCOHost

All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed on Thursday, December 30, Friday, December 31 and Saturday, January 1. Thursday is unpaid leave for the staff.

We Are Closed for a Few Days and Fun Facts

Today is a furlough day so we're not getting paid.  We're closed Friday and Saturday too, but we just get paid for Friday.   Have I confused you enough yet?  Bottom line, all six locations are closed and the next time one will open is Central Library from 1-5 Sunday.  All other buildings will open their regular hours on Monday.  Nothing is due on the days we are closed.  You can still access our Web Page.  Just the facts. Speaking of which, (segue!) have you played around with the Fun Facts lately?  We are adding information from our Tough Question File, like "where was the first brick house built in Des Moines?"  Not even The Commodores knew the answer to that one.  But they're not from Des Moines.

More Fun Facts.    Minus the comedy. 
Type 'house' in the keyword box for the answer to today's Tough Question.

Do Something New

Don't you think now would be a good time to take up a fresh hobby?  Sure you do! Make the world more colorful.  One popular purveyor of painting techniques is ... the alliteration is a clue ... Donna Dewberry!  Donna knows you don't want to paint the Sistine Chapel.  You want to put some color on a brush, lay it down and have it look good.  Get ready for one-stroke painting!  It reminds me of tole painting but with softer shading and mixing of colors.  Apparently one loads different hues of paint onto one's brush in a side-by-side manner, then applies the paint with particular movements. Looks really easy.  Our selection of DD books includes instructions on painting fabric and furniture too.  That chair's not getting any prettier on its own.

Donna Dewberry Books. 

Too Much Stuff

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things.  I'll admit I am something of a packrat.  I come by it naturally - my paternal grandmother had small boxes lining the stairway up to the second floor.  I don't mean they were sitting there waiting to go upstairs the next time she made a trip.  No siree.  This was permanent storage, and I'm not at that point.  Yet.  The people in this book zoomed light years past Grandma. The infamous Collyer brothers, who lived in a cave of newspapers they'd stacked in their home, are covered.  I'd forgotten they'd set booby traps. Golly. Most of the people profiled aren't paranoid recluses which makes their cases all the sadder.  But fascinating.

Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things by Randy O. Frost and Gail Steketee

Radio City

Look at them.  So proud in their shiny bathing suits.  And womanly thighs.  Now you know this is not a contemporary photo, no no , get out of here with your 1958 thighs, says Radio City 2010.  Radio City Musical Hall opened on this day in 1932.  And the Rockettes were there!  According to Saturday Evening Post, Rockettes needed to be between 5'5" and 5'8" tall in 1958. Now the height range is 5’6” to 5’10".  But to be truthful I did not find a thigh requirement.  Sometimes I exaggerate.   And apparently I am obsessed with size. Happy Anniversary, Music Hall!

The Music Hall. By Morris, Joe Alex
Saturday Evening Post, 1/11/1958, Vol. 230 Issue 28, p34-92, 5p
as accessed through EBSCO Host

Holiday Blips Five - LBD

So how does a sophisticated urbanite like Rhoda Janzen wind up in her Mennonite parents' home after more than a decade gone?  Sudden divorce, overwhelming mortgage, and one heck of a car crash.  Janzen's story of acquainting her adult self with the world of her childhood is hi-larious and honest.  She discovers a kindred spirit in her mother Mary, a nurse who is more wordly than I'd expected. While Janzen obviously disagrees with much of Mennonite life she treats it with respect and is quick to point out her personal absurdities.  So. You've got your fun and relatable main character, a dandy portrait of her family plus a glimpse into a life generally unseen by the public at large. (I am not small).  I laughed, I sighed, I learned a lot.
Mennonite in a little black dress : a memoir of going home / Rhoda Janzen

Holiday Blips IV - Sweeter than Pie

Cowboy and Wills: a Love Story.  Doesn't it just sound like the sugariest, gooiest book ever?  And I haven't even told you that Wills is a puppy!  (OK, maybe the cover gave it away).   Well compared to Marley and Me this is positively gritty.  Because Wills is a little boy with autistic spectrum disorder, and his case is pretty profound.  Soap bubbles hurt his skin.  How on earth could he ever cope with a world full of stones?  Cue the puppy.  People struggling with forms of autism often respond well to animals, and it turns out Cowboy was the key to Wills.  Sounds intolerably cute but the book is contains sharp observations of the hard facts about mainstreaming.  Plus a happy ending!  Yay, puppy!

Cowboy and Wills: a Love Story by Monica Holloway.

Holiday Week Blips III - The Science of Angels

Oh man, this was fun!  'Angels' walk among us and they are just as vain and cruel and venal as the humans they despise.  There's a convent where the nuns know all about these angels and are holding the fort against them.  The obligatory curious novice digs around and helps set the ensuing chaos in motion.  How do you solve a problem like the apocalypse?  Killer fight towards the end, and this is high praise from me because fight scenes generally bore me comatose. (I'm taking to you, Peter Jackson.  Helm's Deep took up, like, 2 pages in the book!)  This attack is riveting. Can't wait for the next book. 
Angelology Danielle Trussoni

All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed for the holidays: Wednesday*, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, December 22*, 23, 24, 25, 26. Wednesday is an unpaid furlough day.

Holiday Week Blips II - Kraken Up

Ready for a big fat juicy book about squid worshippers?  I know!  Where has it been all my life?  Another slow starter, but as soon as Wati shows up things start hopping.  Wati is the spirit of an ancient Egyptian slave and he can communicate with humans only when he is inhabiting statues, dolls, anything inanimate that has a head.  He's really riled up and you know it's always fun when a Barbie-like doll rants about union busters.  See, the familiars of magical people - your cats, pigeons, squirrels - are working in terrible conditions with lousy benefits and they're on strike.  So wacky!  And yet not cutesy. Hard to swallow? Maybe, but hang on for the ride.  If you like steampunk this is right up your London back alley.

Kraken by China Miéville

All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library will be closed for the holidays: Wednesday*, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, December 22*, 23, 24, 25, 26.  Wednesday is an unpaid furlough day.