Craft Week - Knit One

Want to make gifts for the holidays? Aauugh!!!! It's too late!!!! You should have started in May!! Sorry about the panic, it's just that I've already seen stuff in the stores. Stuff. Shudder. Anyway, we'll be having Craft Week here at the Blog du Randomness. So you can all panic! Or if you'd like to knit a present you might want to try out the Knitting Club. It used to be restricted to the youngsters, but it's just been opened to adults! Bring your own needles and yarn, and there will be a staff member there to assist, so come even if you are a beginner. Plus it's always extra fun to knit in a group. So I've heard. The Club meets once a month at the Central Library and here are the upcoming dates.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Thursday, November 20, 2008 at 3:30 PM

Click here for a list of knitting books in the Des Moines Public Library system.

Brand New Bird

Don't you just love it when a newly-discovered species is cute as a bug. Way cuter than a bug. Especially while so many species are endangered there are actually animals out there we have never seen before. 'We' being Western scientists, not the people who actually live next door to the bird. From Gabon Africa, we bring you the olive-backed forest robin. I had no idea there were robins of any kind in Africa. Shows you what I know. And this is not a case of wishful thinking on the part of the scientst's part, they actually did DNA testing to make sure the species was new.

New Bird Species Discovered In Gabon, Africa
Science Daily August 16, 2008

Invented the Snopes

Today is William Faulkner's birthday. Yippee! Whoohoo! Happy Birthday to... Oh wait. I suspect he wasn't a 'yippee kind of guy'. However I would not have guessed he was the kind of guy to be a cadet pilot in the R.A.F. in 1918 in Canada. While he is identified as a Southern writer, the gentleman was obviously a man of the world. Plus he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

Statuesque Ladies Vocalize

You've been dying to know this:
QUOTATION: The opera ain’t over till the fat lady sings.

Here goes: April 1978. The first basketball playoff game between The San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets. After the game Dan Cook, sports broadcaster and writer for the San Antonio (Texas) Express-News, announced that 'The opera isn't over until the fat lady sings'. Meaning, while the Spurs had won once, the series wasn't over yet. Bullets coach Dick Motta borrowed the phrase later when the Bulls made it to the championships. Then the quote became widely known and was often mistakenly attributed to Motta. He may have been the one who substituted 'ain't' for 'isn't'. Might as well take all the credit.

The Washington Post, June 11, 1978, p. D6. as referenced in:
Source: Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. Entry NUMBER: 1817
Photo Source: George Eastman House

Banned Books Week

Once a year, the American Library Association asks us to be aware that all across the country people are demanding certain books be removed from library shelves. This is called a 'challenge' and ALA keeps track of many of them. I poked around through some of their lists, and here's what surprised me right off: the Captain Underpants series of children's books is often challenged. Hey, the title alone makes me laugh. I haven't read these books, but apparently I should. I'm obviously missing out! How did he become the Captain, and whose underpants are being worn? Ah, the age-old questions posed by books that are apparently found offensive.

American Library Association Banned Books Week

Let your Chalkboard do the Talking

Another fun graphics generator found by noodling around the web. Noodling is actually a highly profitable activity and now you, our public, will benefit. Not in a life-changing way perhaps, but ain't we got fun.

Just pop in to GlassGiant.com and make your own! Taunting allowed. There's lots of advertising, but that's why it's free.

Auto Repair Database - Classy

Did you know that the East Side Library is Car Repair Headquarters? They've had a wide selection of automobile repair books for years, but now they are tackling the wonderful online world of carburetors. Because not everyone who fixes cars knows all about computer searching. (For that matter not everyone who breathes does. You see where I'm going with this. Not picking on car repairers).
So the East Side Library is offering classes on the use of our Auto Repair Reference Center database. This source has tons of information and once you've got the hang of it, by using your Des Moines Public Library card number and PIN you can access it from any computer that has internet. The PIN is generally the last 4 numbers of your telephone number. Classes last about an hour and here are the currently scheduled dates:

09-18-2008 11:00 AM
10-16-2008 4:00 PM
10-23-2008 4:00 PM
10-30-2008 4:00 pm
11-20-2008 4:00 PM

To sign up for a class, just call 283-4152 and press 3. Then get your brain chockful of wiring diagrams. What could be more fun?

You Named Me What?

Apple, Tallulah, Fifi Trixibell - yes, we're looking at you Bob Geldolf. Feed the world and call your child Fifi. Tsk. Believe it or not, celebrities don't have the exclusive on ... well, interesting names for their progeny.
Want to out-do them? You probably don't need it, but here's some help:
The worst baby name book ever / David Narter

What not to name your baby / by Joe Borgenicht



Bertha Venation : and hundreds of other funny names of real people / Larry Ashmead

Here are some actual names found on Reference USA by our crack name-research guy:
Eileen Dover
Soda Popp
Paige Turner
Mike Easter
Calvin Hobbes
Crystal Ball.
Some of these need to be said aloud to get the full effect. Then you can say, as I did, oh, right.

Even-more-dysfunctional-than-usual private eye

Ken Bruen's Jack Taylor series. If you like your protagonists self-destructive, occasionally sober, alcoholic, and drug addicted, miserable in relationships and smart enough to be aware of all this, have I got a series for you! Could it be more light-hearted? One of the attractions is that the books take place in Galway, Ireland and you get plenty of local flavor. Man, you can almost taste the Guinness and chips. The mysteries are pretty good, the side characters interesting, and the books are fast reads. As usual, I started with the most recent book in the series. That worked out OK, but I wish I would have read them in order. Here's a list so you can avoid my fate.
Book 1 The guards
Book 2 The killing of the tinkers
Book 3 The Magdalen martyrs
Book 4 The dramatist
Book 5 Priest
Book 6 Cross