Closed Today, Open Tomorrow
All six locations of the Des Moines Public Library are closed today. Normal library hours will resume tomorrow, Saturday November 26.The movie Black Friday appears on the DVD The Bela Lugosi...
View ArticleSharp as a Dorothy Parker Poem
Sharpening! "Honing a Skew Blade with a Veritas Jig" Where to begin? Such a delicious string of words, ending with two you would ordinarily never think of pairing. I would tell you what it all...
View ArticleToothbrush Re-Purposing
Ah, The Old Farmer's Almanac. You can always count on it to scare you right out of your socks. Has your toothbrush lost its minty-freshness? Use it to clean between the teeth of your chainsaw. Hang...
View ArticleMy First Mistake - Grammar
My first mistake was opening up the grammar book. Now I know how bad I am. Here are the differences between using parentheses, commas and dashes to isolate words in a sentence.You use parentheses to...
View ArticlePut Up With It
Have you done all your 'putting up'? Canning? Preserving? Some folks still do this, and I salute you. You folks. My grandmother made what she called stewed tomatoes and as far as I was concerned it...
View ArticleHelp with Holiday Stress
So far you've survived Black Friday and... Nothing else? Too much stuff to do to contemplate without hurting the synapses? Here's help: Simplify your Christmas :100 ways to reduce the stress and...
View ArticleThe Novelty of It
I'm a Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch. No, I am not kidding. As a child that was one of my favorite songs. We loved the novelty songs back in the day. Oooh! Oooh! The Hut-Sut Song! Hut Sut...
View ArticleHoliday 'Baking'
I don't do much cooking for the holidays, but I do like to make sweets. Imagine that! Today we are going to learn about ... sigh. I really don't have a good name for these things. They have a...
View ArticlePearl Harbor 70th Anniversary
There were eight battleships attacked at Pearl Harbor.USS Arizona, sunk, total loss. USS Oklahoma, capsized, total loss.USS West Virginia, later raised, repaired and rejoined fleet July 1944.USS...
View ArticleWeta Minute!
I'm a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies and I've been fascinated by the special effects. These effects were concocted by New Zealand's own Weta Workshop. I had some vague idea that the company...
View ArticleChapeaux Spéciaux
I love little kids' hats these days. My favorites are the ones that look like baby animal heads. When I was a little girl - wait! don't run! it's interesting, really! I had a hat with a face on the...
View ArticleReading - It's Complicated
Lately I've been reading amazing books that are very hard to describe. I have a Library Thing account to help me keep track of what I've read, because even though the books are memorable I read alot...
View ArticleSupery-Duper Element
Krypton is a noble gas. Why are we not surprised? The planet Krypton is good, kryptonite is bad. Which came first, Action Comics #1 or the element? Earthly krypton was discovered in 1898 by Sir...
View ArticleCrash Test
John Stapp was an Air Force Colonel. In the mid-1950's he talked automakers into using his airplane safety dummies to test cars. The term 'dummies' is used loosely here, since these consisted of...
View ArticleCountdown: 5...4...3...2...Nap!
Two weeks from today will be my last day ever as a Librarian with the Des Moines Public Library. I'm retiring! And shy! Ah, the old jokes are the best. After 30 years in the field I am ready to hang...
View ArticleRussell Hoban's Gone
I recently finished Blood Red Road (fabulous!) and was telling a friend how reviews of the book mention that the novel can be a bit of a challenge to read due to the use of dialect. Hah! I said. Try...
View ArticleLeftover Gift Wrap
I finally ran across an idea for leftover gift wrap that's actually useful. Make envelopes out of it! Won't they be gorgeous? You'll probably have to add a white label to write the address on, but...
View Article500 What?
500 is a card game and my family is mad for it. Mad, I tell you! Is it popular outside my immediate DNA group? Well, I guess so, since it's the national card game of Australia! There are 4...
View ArticleFresh!
I am the lucky recipient of several bouquets of lovely fresh flowers. Something to do with the fact I'm retiring? (Did I mention I'm retiring? whoohoo.) How do I keep these delightful arrangements...
View ArticleScary. Just a Little.
Have you been watching American Horror Story? Not me, man. I couldn't get through the first episode and I like horror. Wouldst care to try really old horror movies? They are almost genteel. Take...
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