Oh, those serious librarians

My South African friend Raspby, who is visiting the States for two months as a Fellow at the Mortenson Center for International Library Programs, came by the Uni Library a couple of days ago. I grabbed her for a quick photo:



At last, solid proof that there is someone in this world who is shorter than I am. But mighty things come in small packages, as they say. I can barely keep up with the one library I have. Raspby is in charge of 174!

Here's a photo of Raspby and Mortenson Fellow Rhandzu hard at work, despite all appearances to the contrary (mmm, yumm, Tootsie Pops):

A flying squirrel and a talking moose

Yes, before the Rocky and Bullwinkle movie, there was the cartoon show.



It ran as Rocky and His Friends, then later as The Bullwinkle Show from 1959 until 1964, then after a hiatus, again until 1974. Though kids were the target audience, the program was laced with political humor and social satire that drew (and continues to draw) plenty of adults. Luckily for us, many episodes are still available for viewing at That's Rentertainment. But if you thirst for more knowledge, you'll find it in The Moose That Roared by Keith Scott, 791.4572Sco84m. Scott is himself a veteran voice artist and animation historian who became friends with his childhood idols Jay Ward and Bill Scott, creators of the Rocky and Bullwinkle legacy. So he's got a special insight into this jewel from the golden age of television.

Boy meets boy

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (813L57922b) is the type of teen novel that has been a long time in coming. It's written to be a teen novel with a gay theme, not a Gay Teen Novel. The main character, Paul, has parents who are understanding and supportive. He goes to a high school where the captain of the football team is a cross-dresser named Infinite Darlene. He lives in a town where he can hold hands publicly with his boyfriend and where the local Boy Scouts have renamed themselves the "Joy Scouts" after renouncing the national organization's gay-unfriendly policies. On his website, Levithan says he is "often asked if the book is a work of fantasy or a work of reality, and the answer is right down the middle - it's about where we're going, and where we should be." He also says he wanted to write "a book about gay teens that doesn't conform to the old norms about gay teens in literature (i.e. it has to be about a gay uncle, or a teen who gets beaten up for being gay, or about outcasts who come out and find they're still outcasts, albeit outcasts with their outcastedness in common.)"

So, what you've got here is a great story line, filled with all the usual teen angst, but peppered with enough humor, sarcasm, and over-the-top situations to keep it from taking itself too seriously. And who can resist a well-told tale about new love, the inevitable complications and misunderstandings that follow, and then (SPOILER ALERT!) the sweetness of getting back together?

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

There are lots of things about this book that make it unusual. Like the fact that the chapter numbers march along thusly: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19...

Or that to the the main character, Christopher John Francis Boone, the signs in the train station at first look like this:



But then they start to look like this:



This "mystery" story is told in first person by a guy who, let's say, is not your average teenager. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon in the paperback collection: PB HAD.

Follicle mites as standup comics. Bees too.

It sucks not to have eyes. Or butts. Biologist Jay Hosler, "doodler from birth," has produced a couple of graphic "novels" (oh, here I go again, on one of those fact vs. fiction rants) that gives voice to what many arthropods might say if only they could.

Here's a complaint from Nyuki, a bee larva, while she's being "capped" in the hive:



And here's a couple of hair follicle mites, trying to work up the nerve to ask Charles Darwin (upon whose left eyebrow they reside) why they don't have butts:



btw, "tuchis" is Yiddish for "butt."

Check out these gems in the graphic novel section:
Clan Apis and Sandwalk Adventures, both by Jay Hosler

How do these authors find the time?

I was looking at J.K. Rowling's site this afternoon, until I realized I didn't have nearly enough time in my life to plumb its depths. If I can't even find time to explore it, how did she have time to write it? Granted, she's got web designers and such folks to help her out. But, still, there's a lot of content there. Be sure to check out the "Extra Stuff" link and the "Scrapbook" link.

But, J.K. has NOTHING on the content Orson Scott Card delivers. The man is an industry, a force of nature, a steamroller of steamrollers. I'm sure there are other authors who manage similar output (on work that isn't even their "real" work). But it would be phenomenally hard to beat OSC.

From fiction to fact

Anybody read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (813 C342a)? It's a fantastic novel (i.e., of the fiction genre) about two young men who create a superhero comic book series called The Escapist. Now Chabon, in collaboration with a number of talented artists, has produced The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist, volume 1 (shelved in our graphic novel collection). The book is structured like a documentary history (i.e. of the nonfiction genre). It claims to include lost episodes and episodes that had been held from publication due to litigation. A chapter called "Escapism 101," written by a "Malachi B. Cohen" covers each epoch of the series, from 1940 up to today.

Here's one of the early portrayals of the Escapist:



But I confess to having a special fondness for this image of Luna Moth, Librarian of Unwanted Volumes, before her transformation:

Magazine covers, redux

OK, Mad Magazine is back in my good graces (see my complaint of September 24th):



btw, our commenting has been broken for awhile. Now it's fixed and those poor souls who tried repeatedly to comment are now WELL represented...

Fact or fiction?

Sometimes books can be both. Yesterday, I stumbled across two factual spins on the Star Trek theme: The Physics of Start Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss (791.4572K868p) and To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek by Athena Andreadis (791.4572St284a). Read these books if you want to find out whether or not it's actually possible to beam up, to wield a laser scalpel in the Holodeck, to do a Vulcan mind-meld, or to travel at warp-10. If you've already taken the leap of faith, check out the Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual, "researched" and compiled by Franz Joseph (791.4572St281991).

The fun doesn't stop there. What do Bruce Lee, Bart Simpson, and Winnie-the-Pooh all have in common? Easy. They are all philosophers. Take a look at The Tao of Bruce Lee: A Martial Arts Memoir by Davis Miller (791.43028092L51m), The Simpsons and Philosophy: The D'oh! of Homer edited by William Irwin, Mark T. Conard, and Aeon J. Skoble (791.4501Si587), and my favorite, Pooh and the Philosophers, In Which It Is Shown That All of Western Philosophy Is Merely a Preamble to Winnie-the-Pooh by John Tyerman Williams (823M63wYw).

Finally, there is Reel vs. Real: How Hollywood Turns Fact into Fiction by Frank Sanello (791.43658Sa575r). Find out how well Hollywood captured the events at Pearl Harbor, Bonnie and Clyde's adventures, Gandhi's (and a bunch of other people's) lives, the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, etc.

Magazine titles to ponder

After today's session in Computer Literacy 2, I am inspired to begin a log, a contest, a SOMETHING, in which to keep track of out-of-the-ordinary (to me) magazine titles. We were doing database searches and came up with some good ones. No, Chain Store Age is not about stores that sell chains. Let's see, what else? There was Computer Shopper, The Australian PC User (as opposed to the lonely American one), Asiamoney (as opposed to Americamoney?), and Telephony (Tele-what???). I'll keep you posted.

Female troubles

Why wasn't this book around when I was a teenager? Don't Cramp My Style: Stories About that Time of the Month, edited by Lisa Rowe Fraustino, 813.08D7192, is now on our New Book Shelf. These stories explore "everything from boyfriends buying tampons, to embarrassing encounters in white, to heart-wrenching pregnancy scares." Here's a quote from the poor sucker who has been asked by his girlfriend to buy tampons:

"I scanned the aisles. There they were. A couple small boxes. I stared at them, trying to decipher the meanings of the words and compare them against the phrases Tracy had spoken. Light, medium, heavy, super, extra, carefree, fancy, and on and on like sacred words from the chanted mantra of a foreign cult."