Sunday, July 24, 2005

At the risk of unoriginality...

...it's Too. Darn. Hot.

I probably wouldn't even have left the air-conditioned house today had I not had to dash next door and feed the neighbor's parakeets while she was out of town. It was even too hot to get in the car and take myself out for ice cream, and believe me, anything that keeps me from ice cream is extreme.

I did get some writing done today, though -- managed to take some disquieting dreams I've had lately and stuff them into a poem, which feels like a bit of a relief. (If something's going to nag at me like that, I may as well get some use out of it!)

Two fun library-related links for you:

Library Career Romances - From the 40s through the 60s, a popular trend in young adult fiction was the "career romance" in which young women pursued various professional careers and also (it's a shocker, I know) managed to find True Love. This page features library-related career romances, with titles like "Kitsy Babcock, Library Assistant," "Nancy Runs the Bookmobile," and "Books and Beaux." I am quite amused.

Banned Books Bracelets - These bracelets have links that are designed to look like the covers of various frequently-banned books, like Go Ask Alice and Annie on my Mind and Howl. Proceeds go to the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom. They come in both adult and kid sizes (featuring adult and kid books respectively). I think I'm going to have to order one of these, especially since I've actually read all the books featured on the adult one. (I know, I'm such a show-off. *grin*)

Stay cool, y'all.

14 comments:

early hours of sky said...

I am so getting this for my birthday and I've read both bracelets so there;)

Trista said...

Anne: you have my sympathies. I think it's hot here (in Salt Lake) at 105, especially since we've got, oh I don't know, 50% humidity this week and I'M DYING. Our cooling method relies on evaporating water and when there's any humidity in the air at all it stops working for us and joins the enemy. This weather puts the swamp back into the swamp cooler. But this is unusual for us. I can only have nightmares about places where it's hot and humid on a regular basis. I'm sure that's a special circle of hell.

On another note, The poem is beautiful (and very evocative of my own garden, btw) and I love the new picture.

Emily Lloyd said...

Wow, Anne, great links. I'm thrilled they chose to include Annie on My Mind--one of my all-time favorites. I've actually bought copies of it and donated them (or added them, when I worked there) to libraries in VA and DE so they'd have it on the damn shelves for them what needs it.

Emily Lloyd said...

PS--I didn't know Captain Underpants had been banned! Sacrebleu!

Emily Lloyd said...

PS Again (sorry; I should just read everything first before commenting)--Molly Qualifies as a Librarian has got to be the worst book titles ever. "Qualifies." What an action verb.

Also, great new photo.

Unknown said...

Here in San Francisco, or my part of it, anyway, we're socked in with summer fog. It was "hot" and sunny here on Saturday--that is, it was around 80, warm enough to wear shorts and go to the beach. But yesterday, the fog was back by noon. Sigh. If I were to go downtown, I'd see some sun there. I can't say I miss that heat (I used to live Back East), but another month of this is going to get to me.

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

We actually fried an egg on the sidewalk!

BTW, loved the librarian romances. I so want to be a "Space Secretary" if I ever grow up.

Pamela Johnson Parker said...
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Patty said...

Thanks for the links.

Check out this site. It's truly frightening:

http://www.pabbis.org/

Click on Books to see what books have been deemed "bad." So sad....

Emily Lloyd said...

PABBIS is based in Fairfax County, the library system I worked in for 7 years. They're awful, awful. As a result, I spent a heck of a lot of time when I lived there writing letters to the editor and speaking at town meetings. Then again, I spend a heck of a lot of time doing that in DE, too. [grin]

Trista said...

One book that isn't on that librarian romance list but could be is "A Rose Garden Husband" by Margaret Widdemer. It's a bit earlier (1916) but is about a woman who becomes a children's librarian ("liberry teacher") who yearns for the country and agrees to take a job as "wife" to an invalid (he's only a depressed paraplegic, but I guess that's enough in 1916) in order to get access to his rose garden... well, maybe it doesn't belong on that list since by the time the book opens the heroine is already an accomplished librarian and is tired of the independent city-life of a career-girl. Still, it is kinda sweet.

Anne Haines said...

The whole book-banning thing just boggles my mind. I mean, my parents let me read pretty much whatever I wanted, and look how I turned ... oh. Maybe that's what they're afraid of. *grin*

Trista, that book sounds kind of cute. Wait, you can HIRE a wife? Jeez... one more reason I need to win the lottery! (KIDDING... I'm kidding... though I wouldn't mind being able to kick back and holler "WOMAN! Bring me mah beer!" once in a while. The cats are no help whatsoever.)

Those of you who commented on the photo -- did you notice I have an ARM growing out of my EAR? I'm a mutant! Must be the heat...

Trista said...

OMG, Anne, you're right, you look just like my squash! Which I will, btw, post a picture of as soon as I find the little cord thingie that connects the camera to the computer...

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