Librarianship according to Spock

The cafe is once again open after a short closure. Thanks to Paul for sending this Star Trek clip along.

Postcards from my recent web travels

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read This article talk about Pierre Bayard's latest book. 'Because I teach literature at university level,' he says, regretfully, 'there is, in fact, no way to avoid commenting on books that most of the time I haven't even opened.' 'Non-reading' for Bayard, is 'a genuine activity'. It implies an engagement with literature and is different from mere 'absence of reading'. A 'true reader' is simply 'one who cares about being able to reflect on literature'. With so little time and so many books, he argues, it is better to spread the net wide and settle for a general sense of the multitude.

Panic in Detroit: Bob Stanley on Motown's great groove crisis.In the summer of 1967, Motown was at a creative and commercial peak. . . By the time athletes John Carlos and Tommie Smith gave Black Power salutes at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, Motown's slogan "The Sound of Young America", seemed laughable. What happened?

From the "didn't I see that on Seinfeld" category, a story of a long overdue book: When the book arrived at the Bedford (Mass.) Public Library in a battered cardboard box last November, the return name and address gave a few of the library staff a chuckle. “I. M. Layte” was the delinquent patron’s name. The address was just as humorous: “45 Rueful Way” in Los Angeles. But the mystery of the hardcover book, Du Barry, about the last of French monarch Louis XV’s mistresses, would deepen when Director Richard Callaghan realized the book was 48 years overdue.

Prisoners of Beckett is the meeting of two worlds that never usually converge. One is comprised of poetry and freedom, the other silence and obscurity. It's a true story, which begins in a high security prison in Sweden, where a young actor, Jan Jonson, decides to stage "Waiting for Godot" with a cast of five prisoners.

According to this story, Renowned Princeton writers join together to teach one class, 'Princeton University Reads'. Most universities offer events with the on-campus writers, but it's pretty cool to get so many of them to come to one class.

'Be generous with your diphthongs' Need to learn a Welsh or American accent in a hurry? Stephen Moss dons a Stetson and modulates his 'Oxford-in-the-50s' tones for a crash course that promises just that.

NPR's Top 10 Unknown Artists of 2007.

NYC January 11-13, 2008: "So... What did you do?"

Well, we...
Saw amazing things such as:
--Allen Toussaint's warm and brilliant performance at the Blue Note
--The evocative and provocative Kara Walker Retrospective at the Whitney
--The seemingly endless sea of superlative art at the Met
--The stunning Pierpont Morgan Library that I've read about in the fascinating biography of Belle da Costa Greene that I'm reading now. In addition to the very interesting architectural setting, we saw an actual copy of the Gutenberg bible and the original ms of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and a page of the Ulysses ms.
--The Seafarer which was very very good.

Ate fantastic meals such as:
--Dinner at Jane: Starter: Salmon and avocado tartare with soy wasabi citronette and wonton crisps; Main H: cod with fennel and white asparagus in a truffle oil and blood orange jus: Main D: Seared Diver Scallops with white corn pozole, apple smoked bacon and roasted poblano. Dessert: Cream puffs with pumpkin gelato, pumpkin seed brittle and caramel sauce.
--Lunch at Le Pain Quotidien: Soup, assorted cheeses and Marscapone, Honey and Fig Tartine
--Dinner at Le Madeleine: H: Grilled Atlantic Salmon with Sautéed Napa Cabbage, Potato Purée, Ginger-Soy-Lime Vinaigrette: D: Grilled Berkshire Pork Chop with Creamy Chorizo-Polenta, Broccoli Rabe, New York State Apple Glaze.
--Lunch at Grand Central Station Oyster Bar: New England style clam chowder and assorted east and west coast oysters

Got:
--To walk and walk and walk
--To spend a great few days with sweet babboo.
--To be regenerated, enlivened and inspired
--Reminded why we need go back very very soon...

More photos are on my flickr site

Tres cool. Cool trays.

On the collaborative photo blog, I posted one photo of my latest purchase. While on some errands, I saw these lovely trays with vintage photographs. We ended up with two.
I particularly like the one of the two women; the woman on the left is scribbling something in a notebook; her delightfully impish grin makes me wonder what she's writing. I also love their shoes.

The other tray is pretty nifty too. Both have the seeds of short stories in them me thinks.

A Year in Twelve Photos: December 2007

A detail from the Royal Ontario Museum

November 2007

Detroit Institute of Art Reopening, Member's Preview Weekend

October 2007

New kitty: Gracie

September 2007

Stairwell, Art Institute of Chicago

August 2007

Dusk at the Tigers Game

July 2007

Tigers Game

June 2007

Lavender blooms in my garden

May 2007

Lily of the Valley from my garden

April 2007

Tigers Dugout on Opening Day

March 2007

Art Institute of Chicago

February 2007

Balloon Flowers in my frozen garden

January 2007

Belle Isle Conservatory, Detroit

I'll know the squirrel when I see him or her.

Hmm. So. Today we arrived home in the dark to find a box on our doorstep. I knew instantly it was the box my mum had Fed-Exed yesterday and I also knew that it was full of the baking that makes Christmas Christmas no matter how far away we live. As I brought it inside, I noticed a biggish hole on the top of the box. I tried to imagine how and why Fed Ex would peel back the mailing label and gouge a hole in the box. Then I said to Dale: "Look: it's like it's been chewed!" We peered in even closer and saw a half eaten chocolate marshmallow roll. Squirrels! Gack! I'm glad my mum packed the rest in tins. I peered around outside looking for the squirrel. It was dark but we'll know him or her when we see him or her: it will be the one hepped up on chocolate, sugar, and marshmallows. And, he or she will probably be back tomorrow. With friends. Shockingly, the paperback copy of Mauve that my mother borrowed and returned appears to be untouched!

Read this book: Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge

I've just, this afternoon, finished Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge by Jean-Noël Jeanneney (president of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France). It's one of the most compelling and engaging books I've read in quite some time. For anyone interested in digital archives, access to information, the rise of ventures like Google Books, globalization, the preservation of all kinds of cultural artifacts, social justice or democracy, this is a must read. Did I miss anyone? I don't think so. Writes Jeanneney, "The plan I call for in these pages, ambitious as it may be, must be placed at the center of a wider duty: that of reducing the growing gap between the privileged and the underprivileged, the users and the unconnected, the rich and the poor of the Web. . . In the long term, our project should ensure a more harmonious balance, to the benefit of the entire planet. We are not merely striving for a better digital library. . . We are dealing, ultimately, with a universal challenge. May we have the courage to respond" (88-89).

Snow and Rick Mercer

As I watched the news this weekend, I was reminded about Rick Mercer's rant about Canadians and weather which you can read right here: "We don't have forecasts anymore - we have weathertainment. And it's all designed to scare the hell out of you." I'm really trying not to laugh at his term "Torontarded." Then again, when you listen to the Detroit news, you'd swear they were being attacked by swarms of tiny frozen locusts; apparently apocalyptic weather knows better than to cross the Detroit River. At any rate, we got snow; it was pretty; it's still here; I've reconnected with my inner Susanna Moodie. It's all good.

Speculation and Memory: Dealing with the Grey

Perhaps it's the grey weather but I've been feeling a wee bit glum. Today, in hopes of feeling a little less glum, I went for a walk and, at the end of it, I found myself doing two things I don't often do: eating a veggie burger (with fries and a Pepsi no less) at Harvey's and watching the sports network. The news of the hour was the Orioles trading Tejada to Houston for 5 players: highlight after highlight showed spectacular plays and I began to crave the roar of a crowd, the heat of the sun, the smudges on my scorecard. On TV today I saw players I didn't realize I had missed over the past few months: "Big Papi! How are you?" "Good afternoon Mr. Jeter..." The longer I looked at the dirt of the infield and the green of the grass, everything seemed less grey and cold around here. Over the past couple of weeks, I notice I keep having surrepticious conversations at work about baseball: talks about batting order in the stairwell even though I know I'm going to be late for a meeting; pontifications about the Maybin trade over the carrot sticks at the Christmas party; and hushed conversations about Granderson at the reference desk. I'm starting to realize that the baseball isn't a game that just happens between April and October. There's the regular season where there are concrete things to talk about: who's doing well, who's in a slump, who has what injury. And then there's the off-season when all you talk about is memory and speculation: remember when...? who do you think is going to... ? I wonder who...? I wonder if....? I'm starting to realize that in the doldrums of winter, there's nothing lovelier than existing in the realm of memory of springs past and and the speculation of springs to come. Spring is, I'm realizing, just around the corner.

Suggestions for K's Mum

K writes (as he does around Christmas and his Mum's birthday): "The time has come for me to think about Christmas presents for my mom and, thus, the time has come for my semi-annual request for suggestions from the two of you. Would either or both of you have any suggestions for books that she might enjoy?"

Well... here are a few I really liked. This year I found the Man Booker shortlist excellent and the Orange Prize list very strong too.

Fiction
The Gathering, Anne Enright,
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Mohsin Hamid
Mr.Pip, Lloyd Jones (which finally inspired me to read Great Expectations for the (gulp!) first time)
Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Laments, George Hagen
The Meaning of Night, Michael Cox (with perhaps one of the best opening lines of all time: "After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper..."
Of course HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, J. K. Rowling.

Nonfiction
The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade that Gave the World Impressionism, Ross King
Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World, Simon Garfield
Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books, Ted Bishop

Here are a few other places to look
The Costa Prize List
Guardian List
Buzzfeed's List of Lists

PS: these are also very good links from frequent visitors to the cafe: short reviews of good books and Pete's Picks

Facebook Haiku: Volume 3

Heidi is singing her own weird version of "Wonderwall" after seeing the "Wonder Wok" restaurant this morning: "Cuz after aaawk, you're my wonder waaawk". 8:47am

Heidi is willing to rid Dale of some of his biscotti... 1:15pm

Heidi is mad at herself for putting Johnny Cash songs into her own head. 12:02pm

Heidi is clarifying that she was in the process of "regifting the wine"; her previous update was not a comment on her morning. 11:08am

Heidi is about to walk through the library with a bottle of Citrus Pear "Vineyard Mist" in a paper bag. 10:17am December 3

Heidi is wondering if Tims will take Canadian Tire money. If so, she could purchase a cruller and three timbits. 10:28pm

Heidi is no longer grumpy about typing up meeting minutes since Dale just brought her a Hello Kitty egg from the machine at Zehrs. She now has a HK cellphone charm. 7:23pm

Heidi is standing in the shadows of lentils. 1:09pm

Heidi is sitting on her front porch sipping mint juleps and eating Red Velvet Cake (or at least she thinks she should be since she's living in Canada's deep south). 9:17am December 2

Heidi is regretting she said 'John John' instead of 'Jackie O' at Trivia tonight: we could have won!. 11:26pm

Heidi is fruit forward with hints of pepper, cherry and chocolate. She is well balanced in her tannins. She goes well with cupcakes and tofu dogs. 6:52pm

Heidi is still walking on a cloud from her DIA visit. 6:09pm November 30

Heidi is thinking that Dale's pretty darn swell for surprising her with tickets to the Lion King tonight :). 11:36pm

Heidi is unable to edit without coffee. And, maybe a cookie... 1:06pm

Heidi is seasonably attired. 9:25am November 29

Heidi is going to be seasonably attired tomorrow. 9:55pm

Heidi is not "Dressed this way for the United Way"; she's dressed this way because she forgot wearing short skirts and tights on a cold day is kind of stupid. 4:18pm

Heidi is tired but it's a dry tired. 12:45pm

Heidi is regretting that she left her warm bed. 9:35am November 28

Heidi is chuffed she got an email from Barack Obama with the subject line "Hey.". 3:06pm

Heidi is feeling ok despite the egg salad. 2:15pm

Heidi is too late for the tuna and resigned to the egg-salad. 12:38pm

Heidi is cold. And editing. Good times,. 10:27am November 27

Heidi is thinking Dale should listen to "Heidi Tried" to catch some of her complex and nuanced sensibilties. Heidi is also saying 'ahem'. 10:06pm

Heidi is thinking a constant Motown soundtrack is probably less harmful than car rides with Merle Haggard CDs. 9:38pm

Heidi is stopping in the name of love and thinking it o-o-over. 7:33pm

Heidi is feeling like Badly Dressed Girl in her Grover-blue shirt and celery green socks; but she's warm! 5:48pm

Heidi is wondering if Pips would be willing and able to help her with the finer points of the Chicago Manual of Style. 11:47am

Heidi is wondering if Gladys Knight would loan her Pips to Heidi: Heidi would really like some Pips. 7:03pm

Heidi is feeling nostalgic for room temperature. 4:04pm

Heidi is newly enlightened about the history of Troll Dolls. Thanks Mita! 9:45am

Heidi is concerned that Mita is regifting the set of Troll Dolls of the World Heidi gave Mita for her birthday in the name of charity. 9:18am November 25

Heidi is wondering if raking leaves is good enough for Isabelle Eberhardt. 1:49pm

Heidi is googling Isabelle Eberhardt because of Ron Leary. 9:58am

Heidi is wishing Dale hadn't found these chocolate toffee pretzels at the Westborn market and that they weren't soo tasty. 4:00pm

Heidi is crepuscular. 5:42pm

Heidi is, like the office photocopier, in Power Saver Mode. 2:34pm

Heidi is "unfashionably optimistic." 2:40pm

Heidi is still sensibly shod. 9:49am

Heidi is unaware that she's moving to Del Boca Vista. 9:41am

Heidi is sensibly shod. 9:31am November 21

Heidi is amazed what a little Motown will do. 5:28pm

Site o' the Week: The Virtual Museum of Cataloging and Acquisition Artifacts

Looking for a perfect gift for that special cataloguer? What about an electric eraser or some accessories for their electric pencil? This site is pretty neat.

Tell two friends

Last Friday, we went to a wine and cheese benefit for our campus's chapter of Engineers Without Borders. We went knowing very little about this group but left feeling not only impressed with the work they do but inspired by the strong, articulate and hopeful young women who spoke. The final speaker addressed the inevitable question "But what can I do?" and made a few simple but meaningful suggestions including this one: "Tell two people about what you learned tonight" and so I urge you to visit this group's site, read about the work they do, educate yourself, and get involved in any way that moves you. Anyone disillusioned with "the youth these days" should really spend an hour with these remarkable people.

More facebook haikus

Heidi is Badly Drawn Girl. 10:16pm

Heidi is having a hard time deleting her email from Barack Obama though she anticipates she'll be getting many many more of them in the months to come. 3:45pm

Heidi is chuffed that she just got an email from Barack Obama. 1:57pm

Heidi is feeling like Snow White. Only with vermin instead of cute woodland creatures. 1:03pm

Heidi is slightly worried about the pigeons she can hear but cannot see. Will her office soon be home to pigeons and mice? 12:27pm

Heidi is enjoying the peaceful, serene sounds of Dale ironing his shirts: "Wah! Argh! Ironing is not my friend, my friend.". 9:20pm

Heidi is pleased to discover that there IS a secret librarian handshake. Unfortunately, she can't share it with you unless you're a librarian. Because it's secret. 2:21pm

Heidi is trying not to let the Republicans make her say "Grrrrr Argh!!!" out loud. 2:19pm

Heidi is grateful for friends who bring her H&H Bagels from NYC! 10:11am

Heidi is feeling neo Dickensian. 9:39am November 18

Heidi is wondering how such a cute little cupcake can make her feel so very very ill. 7:32pm

Heidi is the happiest girl in the land: she has just returned from the amazing re-opened Detroit Institute of Art AND she has a cupcake. 6:34pm

Heidi is at her Reference desk en plein aire. 1:08pm

Heidi is not wanting to do her to do list... oh, what to do, what to do... 8:53am

Heidi is missing the serenity that filled her workplace at 7:45 am. 8:18am November 13

Heidi is remembering that Elmo also uses third person. Heidi thinks she'd rather sound like Elmo than Bob Dole. 8:39pm

Heidi is about to unleash her teeny tiny bit of celestial wrath: it's best not to ask about it. 7:53pm

Heidi is fond of this book title: How to Worry Friends and Inconvenience People. 4:05pm

Heidi is staking a claim to Antebellum Spice if Leddy does in fact switch over to a Spice Girls inspired nomenclature. 12:04pm

Heidi is only making plans for Nigel. She just wants the best for him. 10:47am

Heidi is wondering what becomes of the broken hearted who had love that's now departed? She knows she's got to find some kind of peace of mind. Maybe. 9:25am November 12

Heidi is practicing random acts of postmodernism. 7:51pm

Heidi is chopping leeks and crying like Tammy Faye: don't send $$; it's just the leeks making her cry. 6:13pm

Heidi is working on her difficult third album. 2:38pm

Heidi is singing little songs about Curtis. 9:12am November 11

Heidi is somewhere between being mortified by the moldy unidentifiable citrus fruit in the fridge and googling "make your own penicillin' on marthstewart.com. 4:03pm

Heidi is excited about having a PO box in Detroit but wonders if Dale's going to start ordering troll dolls or Hummel figurines on eBay with reckless abandon. 11:39pm

Heidi is naively hopeful that the "Opera Talk" she's attending at the Detroit Opera tonight will allude to "What's Opera, Doc?". 10:54am November 9

Heidi is thinking it's about stinkin' time Dale realized he's the Ricky Ricardo to her Lucy. 1:56pm

Heidi is noticing how normal conversations have been affected by facebook-speak: "Dale is waiting for Heidi and suggesting Heidi will be late." "Heidi is hurrying.". 11:33am

Heidi is glad someone finally said to her "Hey, weren't you Rum Tug Tugger in the touring production of Cats??". 10:34am

1. Take at least one picture everyday. Post it to flickr.

My pal Alec and I took Davies' suggestions to heart and began a blog wherein we'll take at least one picture everyday. We've created a blog to host them. Although we've been doing it less than a week, I have to say it's an interesting exercise to make something fun and creative a daily priority. Check it out here.

Too good to be true??

There's a program I have on my Mac at work that enables my computer to pretend it's a Windows machine. Today, while waiting and waiting and waiting for something to open, this screen came up. I have no idea what this means but on the off-off-off-off chance that it's a humane solution to our rodent problem, I clicked inside the single window. It made me feel better anyway. I still won't leave my lunch bag on the floor though. Sorry little mice dudes.

Ruts: easy to get in and not so easy to get out of

Last night I was thinking about a story my mum once told me about traveling with her sister, my Auntie Lynn. After an indecisive conversation about what to do, my Auntie Lynn said "It doesn't matter what we do, just as long as we do something." I think about this story a lot since doing something is always better than doing nothing. I was thinking about this story last night because I believe I'm officially in a creative rut and am officially upset about it. Over the past months, I've stared at blank screens, blank pages, and blank surfaces. I've sharpened pencils, purchased new pens and lovingly smoothed the bristles in my favourite paint brushes. I've organized scraps of fabric, taken stock of paint, and managed a smile or two at a scenario for my dormant novel. I've dusted off my cameras and checked their batteries. I've stared at stunning art, I've read evocative books, I've listened to the most perfect songs. I've felt embers of creativity in me but I've done nothing with them. I've stared at my own creativity as I've stared at my orchid in its window perch these past few months: is that a sign of life? is that a root? a sprout? or just the potting bark? Am I going to get more flowers or just a leaf? All my staring and wondering will not make my orchid bloom: I just need to provide it with the sun and water it needs and then let it do its orchidy magic. After my full acknowledgment last night that I am indeed in a rut, I realized I am not providing creativity with what it needs to thrive. And so, this morning, after turning on the Four Tops at a volume wholly unsuitable for the stillness of the morning, I determined to do something rather than nothing. Very conveniently, my lovely friend sent me the perfect link this morning. He sent me a link to story called "How to Be Interesting" on Russell Davies's blog . In this entry Davies offers the following bits of advice which seem pretty inspiring to me.

1. Take at least one picture everyday. Post it to flickr.
2. Start a blog. Write at least one sentence every week.
3. Keep a scrapbook
4. Every week, read a magazine you’ve never read before
5. Once a month interview someone for 20 minutes, work out how to make them interesting. Podcast it.
6. Collect something
7. Once a week sit in a coffee-shop or cafe for an hour and listen to other people’s conversations. Take notes. Blog about it. (Carefully)
8. Every month write 50 words about one piece of visual art, one piece of writing, one piece of music and one piece of film or TV. Do other art forms if you can. Blog about it
9. Make something
10. Read:Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud, The Mezzanine - Nicholson Baker, The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information - Edward Tufte. All these books are good for their own reasons but they’re also good examples of people who are really interested in stuff that others think of as banal and who explain it in a way that makes you share their passion. That's good.

I'm going to use these ideas as a way to work my way out of my rut and will post various bits of whatever emerges from the above suggestions to this blog. I invite you too to do and share any of the above.

The new genre: perhaps why I have not blogged

Sonnet: a rhyming poem of fourteen lines with ten syllables per line, generally written in iambic pentameter.
Haiku: a poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
Facebook status update: a statement of no more than 160 characters beginning with your name followed by is.

This could be my literary niche. Here are some from the past month.

Heidi is noticing how normal conversations have been affected by facebook-speak: "Dale is waiting for Heidi and suggesting Heidi will be late." "Heidi is hurrying!"

Heidi is to Leddy Library what Gob Bluth is to the Bluth Family. 9:05am
Yesterday

Heidi is happy that Dale has joined the Blue Man Group. 8:35pm

Heidi is dressed like one of the "before" pictures from What Not To Wear but doesn't care since she's warm for the first time in 48 hours. 7:20pm

Heidi is once more wishing she had a walk up song for the reference desk. Dale voted for the I Dream of Jeannie theme. Heidi thinks that would work today. 10:45am

Heidi is looking forward to making dinner out of groceries purchased somewhere other than Shoppers Drug Mart; until then it's a toss up between KD and Campbells Soup. 5:42pm

Heidi is now able to purchase sushi or spinach dip without having to leave the library: a ballpoint pen is another story. 11:36am

Heidi is struck by how much Neil Young looks like Argus Filch in the Harry Potter Movies . 9:35am

Heidi is living proof that Halloween candy does not raise one's core temperature but makes the cold a lot more pleasant. 6:49pm

Heidi is wondering if there are "business casual" snowsuits. 12:07pm

Heidi is hoping to raise her core temperature. 11:00am

Heidi is looking at the bright side of no heat in her office: no mouse in his or her right mind will make her office its home. 9:18am
November 5

Heidi is still, is still Heidi from the block but now she's back on different block. 10:46pm
November 4

Heidi is still Heidi from the block and she's going back to her block today. 9:43am
November 3

Heidi is very sad the Giant Perogy is "way the hell up there.". 11:38pm

Heidi is googling and mapquesting "giant perogy" and is ooh so hopeful Dale is equally intrigued. 10:31am

Heidi is wondering what this statement she overheard yesterday on campus means: "Because if my house burns down, I'm going to have to sell my car.". 8:42am
October 31

Heidi is sad no one noticed she'd dressed up as Sylvia Plath today. 6:44pm

Heidi is agog having noticed the Facebook group: "Curtis Granderson is in Slytherin". 8:40am

Heidi is unaware that she had "an inner Michael Buble" and is moderately concerned that Dale thinks she does. 8:35am

Heidi is hoping she really didn't see people in PJs and bathrobes in the library yesterday morning. 8:32am
October 30

Heidi is trying to decide on her Reference Desk Walk Up song: Voodoo Child or the "I Dream of Jeannie" theme song. 3:53pm

Heidi is singing "hey la hey la my boyfriend's back" for no particular reason. 10:55am

Heidi is excited that it's cake day at Information Services. 10:24am

Heidi is summoning her inner pioneering jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. 9:05am
October 29

Heidi is surprised at how often she is mistaken for pioneering jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt while taking the Transway 1C. 4:56pm

Heidi is not carrying on the tradition of pioneering jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt in her day to day work. 2:04pm

Heidi is amused to realize you can sing "hey nonny nonny" to the tune of "hey macarena" though she's not sure why one might do it. 8:10am
October 28

Heidi is Converting all your sounds of woe/ Into. Hey, nonny, nonny. 8:34pm

Heidi is leaning toward the Bert side of the Bert-Ernie spectrum today. 9:45am
October 25

Heidi is recovering from laughing very hard at a picture of pug in a Yoda costume. 8:58pm

Heidi is wishing she didn't have a song from Waiting for Guffman running through her head. 5:52pm

Heidi is working on her letter to the Great Pumpkin. 9:54am
October 24

Heidi is miffed that Scrabulous doesn't think "nerdgel" is a word. 10:32pm

Heidi is staring out the window and swinging her feet and humming a song from atop her tall chair. 2:42pm

Heidi is hoping you all enjoyed "Take Your Giant Fern to Work Day" as much as Dale did. 2:00pm

Heidi is wondering if "this guy almost failed me as an undergrad so I won't buy his book" is a solid collection development selection strategy. 4:07pm

Heidi is trying to see the mouse infestation at work in a positive light: "wow! it's just like being on the set of 'Ratatouille'!". 2:25pm
October 22

Heidi is worried that the use of 3rd person in her status updates makes her sound like Bob Dole. 6:19pm

Heidi is feeling nostalgic for the days she spent as an understudy in the touring company of Cats. 9:30am October 21

Heidi is still laughing at Mart's ideas for the SuperLibrarin costume: gold plated index cards you can fling like kung fu stars at people who do misdeeds to books. 5:05pm

Heidi is hoping to get "Listen to the Flower People" out of her head very soon. 9:47am
October 20

Heidi is secure in her walrus-hood. 10:39pm

Heidi is like SO much more the Walrus than Dale. If anyone's the Eggman, it's Dale. 10:15pm

Heidi is the walrus, goo goo g'joob g'goo goo g'joob. 3:29pm

Heidi is wondering about the practicalities of dressing as the Lady of Shalott for Halloween. 3:49pm

Heidi is happy she didn't give into her temptation to yell "Adrienne! Adrienne!" at Adrienne Clarkson's lecture last night: She bets AC gets that ALL the time. 1:01pm

Heidi is happy the kitten who walked into our library is going to a good home. 10:42am

Heidi is regretting she'd even mentioned wardrobe malfunctions. 4:25pm

Heidi is wondering if Super Librarian should wear a cape or a cardigan. Or maybe a cape cardigan hybrid. 1:49pm

Heidi is chuffed she was "facebook friended" by the office mice; thanks guys! 12:49pm

Heidi is happy to have taught her class without a recurrence of this morning's "wardrobe malfunction.". 11:29am

Heidi is really hoping this morning's "wardrobe malfunction" was a fluke and won't repeat itself in her upcoming class and meetings. 9:10am
October 17

Heidi is newly enlightened by a student: "beauty is not in the eye of the beholder: you're ugly or you're not.". 2:13pm

Heidi is wondering if she's been good enough for the Coffee Fairy to come visit her... 1:42pm

Heidi is for some strange reason feeling a teeny tiny bit like a Ramone. 11:22am

Heidi is dancing to Joy Division and celebrating the irony. 10:04am
October 16

Heidi is hoping the office mice got the memo she left them asking if they'd do her photocopying for her. 10:00pm

Heidi is torn between saying "Oh! How cute! The office mice are having babies!" and "Oh. No. They're having babies...". 4:36pm

Heidi is finally recovering from the egg salad. 4:33pm

Heidi is wondering why it's so hard for her to remember to avoid the egg salad on campus. 1:13pm

Heidi is Listening to What the Flower People Say. 10:17am

Heidi is pleased to see A Critical Companion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer next to Beowulf on a shelving cart this morning. 8:22am
October 14

Heidi is multislacking. 10:43pm

Heidi is thinking about shushing someone...alas she is without her super-librarian cardigan. 1:13pm October 12

Heidi is in possession of $1.10 in Canadian Tire money. 4:19pm

This week's Cool Beans

Cool beans that, according to this Detroit Free Press story, "Southwest Solutions is working with the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit to create 32 affordable units in the abandoned, 80-year-old apartment building -- a cool city effort that really is cool. The project is certain to attract the so-called millennial generation of under-30s who are critical to any city's economic growth."

Cool beans abound at the Turner Prize exhibit. Here are some good stories about it.

A Goth Raggedy Ann and Andy: goth beans!

Cool beans that Liberal finance critic John McCallum referred to Stephen Harper as "the dark Lord Voldemort, sitting on his throne in the PMO" and that Jim Flaherty responded "as the member opposite knows, I am, at best, a mere elf." It is at times that this that I am fiercly proud to be Canadian.

Cool beans that there's going to be a "dark" new TV comedy in Australia called The Librarians. Says one of the co-stars: "You mention a library and everyone has a giggle," Butler says. "Everyone remembers a time when they had a reason for going there. There's something intrinsically funny about them." Hmm. Yes. Watch a promo clip here.

Cool bean that there are people who troll the web and compile lists like this. "Mashable has put together hundreds of lists—useful lists of links, carefully chosen to make you significantly more productive; so many resources, they’re hard to sort through (unless you’ve been through library school). Marketing guru Seth Godin lists them here." There are some very cool tools and resources in here. It's worth checking out.

Cool beans that profs like Michael Wesch are doing creative, visionary and engaging work with their students. Make sure to watch the video. This one's pretty interesting too.

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This just in: "an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing"

Visitors to Heidi's Cafe will be dismayed to learn that the man known as the "Willy Wonka" of Britain's chocolatiers has resigned after engaging in an "act of truffle-squishing" in a rival store. According to a story from the Telegraph,
Barry Colenso, the master chocolatier at Thorntons, was "watched by baffled staff as he roamed the Hotel Chocolat store in Nottingham, handling various truffles. When they inspected his handiwork after he left, it was discovered that he had mutilated £63.50's worth of chocolates." A statement issued from Hotel Chocolat declares: "This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it." Indeed.

Cool beans from Heidi's Cafe

Inspired by Paul who was inspired by his colleague to pull together some of the things he'd been meaning to blog on for the last week or so., I offer you some cool beans that have been in the cafe's in-box for the past few weeks.


--Cool beans that you can make your own ransom note using random letters from Flickr. Perhaps this is something we could use at our bibliotheque.



--Cool beans that there is a band like Zoltan Kodaly School For Girls who do versions of Kate Bush's "Hounds of Love" and the Kaiser Chief's "I Predict a Riot" on recorders.

--Cool beans that there are sites like this one: "Listen: Making Sense of Sound." It allows us to think about sound in a range of interesting ways. Do check it out.

-- Cool Beans that, inspired by the above site, YouTube lets me watch Spinal Tap's's Listen To the Flower People over and over.


--Cool beans that there are amazing books like Mauve
and An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege.

--Cool beans that there are amazing tools like Google News and Google News Archives. Ever wonder what was happening a hundred years ago? Google News Archives offers a quick and free overview.

--Cool beans that my friend has an 8 year old who acts out various scenes from the BBC version of Brideshead Revisited.

--Cool beans that the cosmic powers that be invented snuggly cats and kittens like Lily and Gracie and that there are places like this one and this one where you can either adopt one of your very own or contribute to their well-being.

--Cool beans that there are people in this world who make and post things like the Gnarls Barkley Crazy Theremin Jam, crocheted Harry Potter characters, and stylish sweaters for bugs.

-- Cool beans that, in case you were thinking about becoming a pirate, 826 Valencia has a pirate supply shop (of which David Byrne says 'Definitely one of the top five pirate stores I've been to recently') and a Gallery of Signs including signs that would befit any workplace (especially those of the biblio persuasion) such as "Goals for the Voyage," "Have you Got Scurvey" "Guidelines for New Shipmates" ("Bring your own citrus) and "Uses for Lard' (Lard fights, salad dressing ['seasonal'], gift wrap).

--Cool beans too that you can also watch lots of funny videos of "Karl the Puffer Fish." Some cafe patrons might find Karl the Puffer Fish more amusing than others.

--Cool beans that some Chicago Cubs fans remind us that "every team can have a bad century."

--Cool beans that there are cupcakes like these.

--Cool beans that Shoppers Drug Mart gave me 10x the usual Optimum points to purchase a Terry's Chocolate Orange.





--Cool beans that there are great sites like iLike which are "happy to be part of the industry of human happiness." Cool beans too that I am blessed with lovely friends like the one who told me about this site.

Levi Stubbs in Maple Creek, Saskatchewan

Between my iPod and my iTunes at work, it appears that I have about 14 days worth of music: conceivably, between these two devices, I could listen to music nonstop for 14 days and never hear the same song twice. Realistically, with overlap of content on my iTunes and my iPod, it would probably be 10 days of continuous music. Last night I was sitting in my living room in the near dark listening intently to one of the 4 CDs in my fabulous new Motown Box set. I put it on repeat for a few times. It's been a long time since I listened to music this way. I remember losing whole afternoons and evenings listening to one side of a LP over and over again or putting a tape on my walkman on a repeat loop until the batteries wore out. Perhaps I listened to music this way because "repeat" was the path of least resistance. Or, perhaps, because I realized then that there is something incredible to be gained by listening carefully to every note, every tiny drop of sound, and every word of an album. I remember approaching music studiously and working systematically through whole discographies of various bands the way I would eventually work my way through the Heath Anthology of American Literature as I prepared for my PhD candidacy exams. Last night, I found myself summoning that studious frame of mind as I listened to my box set. I began thinking about the Four Tops and remembering the first time I'd ever heard about Levi Stubbs. It was Christmas and my entire family was in a fairly small house in the middle of a wintery prairie expanse. I was in a small room in the basement with family members (who shalll remain nameless) snoring up a storm. In fact, every room in the house was fillled with snoring sleeping people and I was wide awake with nowhere to go and nothing to do. All I could do was lie in my droopy bed and listen to the one tape I'd brought in my walkman: Billy Bragg's 3 song EP with Levi Stubbs's Tears. Perhaps my career in literary scholarship was forged right there as I attempted to figure out exactly what Levi Stubbs' tears had to do with the sad tale Bragg describes. Several decades of literary training later, I have to admit I'm still not sure about the connections. I'd all but forgotten about Levi Stubbs and his tears until last night, when sitting in my living room listening to the Four Tops, I found myself transported back to that little bed in a basement in a house on a frozen prairie thinking about Levi Stubbs and his tears. At the time, I did not know who Levi Stubbs was but it made a sufficient enough impression on me that I looked it up in an actual book when I got back to Edmonton. At the time, I could not have found Detroit on a map unassisted. Nor could I have guessed that one day I would see the Detroit skyline every single day or that I'd cross into Detroit so many times in a month that some US Border Guards would start to say "ballgame?" instead of "citizenships?" the second we pulled up to the US Customs window or that one day I'd not only adore the Four Tops, but I'd stand in Studio A, where Levi Stubbs also stood or that I'd be able to peer into that echo chamber that created that magical Motown sound. I think though that I'd probably be comforted to know that one night 20 years later, I'd also be sitting in the dark, sleepless, listening to music and thinking about Christmas and frozen prairies and Levi Stubbs and his tears.

Holy Cannoli: Who Let the Information Literacy Librarians Out Again?

It started off innocently enough. "How are the cannoli?" I asked N and J at a campus function tonight. As it turns out, the cannoli were pretty tasty but my simple question began a conversation about what exactly cannoli are. Are they that dessert thing filled with lemon or marscapone or ricotta? Or are they a pasta (pronounced, for the record, either pass-ta or pah-sta) filled with cheese or spinach. Or are they both? And, why, in the Godfather did Pete Clemenza say "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli"? Although I said "huh." outloud what I really meant was "I must google cannoli." And so, here I sit, having googled cannoli and finding myself longing to share my new found knowledge with someone. Here's what I learned.

• Cannoli (or the singular cannolo) means “little tube”
• The pasta we were thinking of is cannelloni which means "big pipes." Cannelloni are often called manicotti. However, as Wikipedia notes, "an article in Better Homes and Gardens magazine distinguishes them, using manicotti for noodles rolled diagonally and cannelloni for noodles rolled rectilinearly."
• They originated in Sicily and are associated with the Carnevale
• An anonymous 17th century poet wrote, "Beautiful are the Cannoli of Carnevale,/ No tastier morsel in the world:/Blessed is the money used to buy them"
• Recipes for cannoli are here or you can mail order them from here. You can order the necessary canoli making forms here
• If you live in my fair city, the Italia Bakery makes beauteous little cannoli. They're like little works of art.

I'm still not sure why Pete Clemenza said, "Leave the gun. Take the cannoli." But, given the choice, I'd leave the gun and take the cannoli every time, especially the lemon-filled ones. Capisce?

Information Literacy Librarians on the Loose

Today, I was forced to overhear a long conversation wherein one man described how he was once on a plane and exchanged pleasantries with the man next to him. The man whose voice carried a bit too far asked the man on the plane "So, what do you do?" and the man on the plane said, "well, I invented Velcro." "No way!" said the loud man, "I wear Velcro everyday!" "Indeed," said the man on the plane. "Hmm," thought I. So, tonight I was reading this amazing book _Mauve_ and I stumbled upon a paragraph describing how, in 1956, George de Mestral invented VELCRO (a combination of velour--French for velvet--and crochet-- French for hook). "Hmm," I thought once more.
I resisted but found myself googling "inventor of velcro." Here's what I learned. Velcro came about when George de Mestral went on a walk with his dog and found that his dog's coat and his pants (M de Mestral's pants, not the dog's) were covered with cockleburrs. A microscope revealed the hook like structure which inspired Velcro. Voila and zut alors! Moreover, "Did you know," Velcro.com asks, that "Velcro is the name of our companies and is a registered trademark for our products. It is not the generic name of the product that fastens shoes, pockets, and hundreds of other things. That product is generically known as "hook and loop" or "touch fasteners."" Or that "you can't buy a piece of "velcro." But you can purchase all of the VELCRO® brand hook and loop fasteners you need. In fact, we encourage it!
All very interesting. My research also revealed that M. de Mestral was born June 19, 1907 and died February 8, 1990. So, if a 40 year old man met him on a plane, M de Mestral would have to have been pretty old or the man pretty young. I'm still iffy about the whole "I met the inventor of Velcro on the plane' line. Still, it raises some interesting things to think about: was he really sitting next to the inventor of Velcro? Or, is there someone somewhere telling a story about how once he was on a flight and wanted to see if he could convince his neighbour that he was the inventor of Velcro? Finally, does the loud man really wear Velcro everyday? These are mysteries we'll never solve. It does remind me of another time when I was at this same place and a very very drunk man was trying to woo a group of teachers. His story was that he was both a millionaire and the mayor of a small Michigan town (that he named). When the man stumbled away, all three of the teachers said "We are SO going to google that when we get home." I have to admit I did google it too when I got home. He might have been a millionaire but mayor of that small Michigan town, he was not. This is what happens when Information Literacy librarians are at large. Be careful out there. Google might not be your friend after all.

Baseball Bug

I was walking along in Comerica Park yesterday and a woman said "Watch out for the praying mantis!!" I must have looked confused and alarmed (as well one might) because she said, 'No, really. Look!" Sure enough, there was a praying mantis at Comerica Park. I got some photos before a park employee scooped him/ her up and sent him/ her on his/ her merry way. I've never seen a praying mantis before, except for Zorak on Space Ghost. More photos of it on Ye Olde Flickr Site.

8 days, 4 ballgames, 3 parks.

I am indeed behind in my baseball blogs and I'm not sure I'm going to get caught up. But,
baseball wise, it's been a pretty interesting week. On Saturday, D, our friend SI, and I went to see the Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee. Miller Park is a very new park that is far from most things and surrounded by expressways. I'm not sure if it was the park, the blowout game, the partly covered ballpark or that S and I hadn't seen each other for 4 years but I found myself becoming less interested in the game and more intrigued by Bernie Brewer and his giant slide, the giant sausage race and the tofu dogs. I left feeling a little underwhelmed. I started wondering if, perhaps, it was not baseball I enjoyed but my Tigers. Can one love a team but not a sport? I was a little worried. By the time D and I arrived at our second game at Wrigley Field, I'd forgotten all about the previous night's game and realized how much the aesthetics of a park can affect the experience of a game . If one believes in the Church of Baseball, Wrigley Field is a veritable temple. There were no mascots or giant slides or racing sausages. Just baseball in its quintessence. It was one of the most perfect afternoons I've ever had.
Two evenings later, we were back in Comerica watching our Tigers. Early last week, the Detroit Free Press ran a story with the headline "Comerica Park's attendance dwindling like Tigers playoff hopes." The story begins, "Comerica Park on Tuesday night reflected a growing sentiment through town that the race was over before it even began. The Tigers' Den had the feel of a mausoleum. The massive pockets of empty seats were more an expression of postseason surrender than kids returning to school." I won't say anything about the playoff hopes since nothing's over until it's over. But I will say that I've been saddened the number of empty seats and by the number of fans who leave part way through. I've not seen so many empty seats since 2005. Yesterday, it was pretty thrilling to see Curtis get the final stolen base he needed to make him the second player in Major League history to collect at least 30 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a single season. Other than that, yesterday's game was particularly unpleasant. The park was almost deserted by the eighth inning. Still, there were those who stayed despite the 14-7 score. In the final inning, a kid a few rows back cheered on Carlos Guillen and Marcus Thames like we were one hit away from winning the World Series. Then the guy I wrote about before and his friends put on their rally caps and stood and cheered: one of them hopped up and down like the ten-year-old behind us. And then, slowly, we all stood and cheered. We cheered because it is September and because nothing is over until it's over and because they are our Tigers.
Postscript: just after I finished that last sentence, the Tigers were down 4-3 with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth. Magglio hit a lovely little pop into right field and then Curtis and Placido scored runs to give them a 5-4 victory. See, it's never over til its over.

Man Booker Short List Announced

This year's Booker Short List has just been announced:

Nicola Barker - Darkmans
Anne Enright - The Gathering
*Mohsin Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
*Lloyd Jones - Mister Pip
*Ian McEwan - On Chesil Beach
Indra Sinha - Animal's People

Read about them here. So far I've only read _On Chesil Beach_ which is nearly note perfect. I'll try to work my way through the list before October 16.

Smocks and Cardies: Biblio Style Wars

The library world's a-buzz with this story out of New Zealand. According to news reports, "style queen Paula Ryan will run a workshop at the national library conference this month, offering tips on how to transform their "conservative and dated image.'" Promotional material for the workshop reads as follows: "Librarians as a profession have a very conservative and dated image: if we want to transform our profession then surely we must start by transforming ourselves."
As a backlash, librarians in Christchurch, NZ have taken to wearing floral smocks. These smocks , which one librarian said made them look like "a comfy, covered armchair", were standard uniform for Canterbury staff in the 1960s.
Ryan responded to the charges of being patronizing by noting "I have never patronised librarians in my entire life." Further, she notes "There is obviously some sensitivity in the profession about stereotypes." "I would expect today many librarians are quirky and left of centre. I suspect that image has long gone," she said.

Baseball Blogs: Catching up, slooowly.

It's been a bad month here at the Cafe for writing. I've been carrying around baseball scorecards with blog notes for several weeks thinking somewhere, somehow I'd find the time to turn notes into blogs. They've been to Algonquin Park, London twice, Chicago and Milwaukee. I think I finally need to admit that a blog for each missed game is probably not in the cards. If I were Don Cherry, I'd say, "let this be a lesson to all you kids out there-- always type up your notes into proper blogs when you get home. Otherwise you've got all these sunscreen smudged notes and no recollection of what they mean." If I were Don Cherry, I'd illustrate my point with a telestrator. And, in so doing, I would have made a very good point about writing and procrastination. But, I am not Don Cherry.

Baseball Blog: Rally Caps

August 8, 2007
Game Time Temperature: 79o
Attendance: 37,777
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Biggie Bagel
Final Score: Tampa Bay: 7 Detroit: 1

Leaving the park tonight, I found myself rethinking and unthinking my previous blogs. In a matter of days, I'd seen a stunning victory and a crushing defeat. Last night, we were reminded of the Tigers of last summer: perfect, elegant, and sharp. Tonight, as the park emptied around the 6th inning, we chatted with our fellow season ticket holders and we commented that tonight felt a lot like the Tigers of a few years ago. The exception, I said, was that a few years ago, we would have paid 11.00 for tickets way up there and then migrated down here. By the time the 9th inning rolled around, the sky was dark and the park practically empty. As my father often says (and has proven himself correct many times), it's not over until it's over. It's sobering to look around a dark and empty park to see exactly how few people seem to believe that too. When our section cleared out, I recognized almost everyone who remained. And, though I'd never talked to many of them, I felt like I knew a little something about them from the way they watch baseball. All season, I'd noticed a guy one row up and a bit down from us. He's always there, he watches the game carefully and with an eye for detail. I learn a lot about the game from watching him. Unbeknownst to him I am sure, he has helped me see a great pitch or be alert to an upcoming play. Over the season, I've grown to respect him. At the end of the 8th inning, I was feeling a little disheartened about the team and pretty disappointed in its fans. Sure they were down by six runs but if they load the bases and someone hits one out of the park, they're only down two. At the height of my disillusionment, my accidental baseball tutor in the row ahead of me stood up and my heart sank. "Please, not you too," I thought, "Surely you can't be leaving." And then, he did the most remarkable thing: he took off his ballcap, turned into a rally cap and started to cheer his team on. Suddenly, the park didn't seem that empty anymore.

Baseball Blogs: Who's Your Tiger?

August 7, 2007
Game Time Temperature: 79o
Attendance: 35,288
Winner of the Dunkin' Donuts Race: Cuppie Coffee
Final Score: Detroit 9 Tampa Bay: 6

For some reason, we had exchanged seats for this game and we found ourselves in our former haunts in sections 325-330. As I've noted before, it's a different game up here and I was happy to be back up here and watch the sunset. Up here, I could see a greater swath of fans and I was struck by how many more people were wearing players' shirts. When we first started going, there were a few Youngs and Higginsons. In more recent years, there have been a lot of Rodriguez and Inge shirts but lately there are many more Granderson, Zumaya, Verlander, Sheffield, Ordonez, Rogers and Polanco. I wonder if this is the result of the "who's your Tiger promotion" or just that people are getting really attached to particular players. Lately, the affection people have for players has made it a really energetic place to watch baseball. On Sunday, I had written about how losing might have its own under-rated aesthetic. By the time this game was over and we'd watched the Tigers blow a 4 run lead in the 8th inning and then come back to score three runs to win it, I started rethinking my previous blog. It is a lot more fun to watch a team win. Am I bad person for thinking that?