BibliophileBullpen

That’s the name of the spay/neuter clinic with the rescue group sponsors. We only pull it off one Monday out of every two, but it’s quite ‘busy’ and our generous vet takes only a fraction of what she could make elsewhere. Lacking any medical knowledge, I show up to herd cats and wash floors. Just a hint at what my day was like yesterday, and that was after I took my mother for a routine cat scan. Not that I mind doing it, I’d just wish I hadn’t been called into pinch drive, 10 minutes before the appointment, when the truck was still inconveniently loaded with 15 cages… Well that’s a lie, I do mind, as my mother still combines the memory of a gold fish with the temperament of a billy goat. I am trying to find it charming, and respond with equal nonsense if only to the amuse bystanders – every corridor and elevator presenting a new opportunity for performance art.

NYC 08 NY Public Library
Originally uploaded by kate.kansas.

NYC 08 NY Public Library
If you click through to Flickr you can see the larger size

Here’s a little Bush doctrine landmine we conveniently forgot about.

well worth reading • In an obscenity first, a U.S. comic book collector has pleaded guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex abuse and bestiality. The 39-year-old office worker was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.”

I am kinda on the fence here, whereas child sex and bestiality don’t add much to the argument. It seems a rather large loopy hole where the powers that be can basically hold you accountable for just about anything in your collection they don’t like. I mean we aren’t talking actual photos here of REAL children and sheep, we are talking comic books, which are as realistic as professional wrestling.

Personally instead of busting comic book geeks, they should go after those Toddler’s and Tiara’s broads who over-sexualize children who should be wearing Grranimals and playing with tea sets.

Is it just me? or have the postal delays become ridiculous?

worth reading • Lincoln letter returned to government hands.
“An Arizona collector handed over to the federal government Thursday a rare handwritten letter from Lincoln to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. The letter, dated four days before Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863, had been missing for more than 60 years.”

This is a real post over at Yahoo Answers : Is it OK to run an illegal library from my locker at school?

“I go to a private school that is rather strict. Recently, the principal and school teacher council released a (very long) list of books we’re not allowed to read. I was absolutely appalled, because a large number of the books were classics and others that are my favorites. One of my personal favorites, The Catcher in the Rye, was on the list, so I decided to bring it to school to see if I would really get in trouble. Well… I did but not too much. Then (surprise!) a boy in my English class asked if he could borrow the book, because he heard it was very good AND it was banned! This happened a lot and my locker got to overflowing with the banned books, so I decided to put the unoccupied locker next to me to a good use. I now have 62 books in that locker, about half of what was on the list. I took care only to bring the books with literary quality. Some of these books are:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
His Dark Materials trilogy
Sabriel
The Canterbury Tales
Candide
The Divine Comedy
Paradise Lost
The Godfather
Mort
Interview with the Vampire
The Hunger Games
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Animal Farm
The Witches
Shade’s Children
The Evolution of Man
the Holy Qu’ran

Anyway, I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it’s the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I’m doing a good thing, right? Oh, and since you’re probably wondering “Why can’t you just go to a local library and check out the books?” most of the kids are too chicken or their parents won’t let them but the books. I think that people should have open minds. Most of the books were banned because they contained information that opposed Catholisism. I limit my ‘library’ to only the sophmores, juniors and seniors just in case so you can’t say I’m exposing young people to materiel they’re not mature enough for. But is what I’m doing wrong because parents and teachers don’t know about it and might not like it, or is it a good thing because I am starting appreciation of the classics and truly good novels (Not just fad novels like Twilight) in my generation?

(CONTINUE READING)

This actually smells like a set up (a kid this well read can’t spell ‘sophomore’ and ‘material’?) …..but part of me would like to think it’s real, that somewhere in middle minded usa – some kid is still fighting the good fight.

My choices are as always limited, with my room-mates insisting on being feed every so often . . . I did manage to craigslist six old bikes that i had been cleaning and tuning and raised just enough money for a new truck starter. . . but alas not yet enough for a new radiator, though I do have someone willing to install a new radiator in exchange for another of my bikes. Until that and a string of other things gets paid off, me go no where really fastly.

So instead of toiling away at my PC like a good do-bee, I try to take my camera for a walk (or a ride) everyday. I photographed all the National Registered Historic Places in my town and loaded them to Wikimedia. I have also scoped out the Registered places, state parks and civic buildings in the surrounding communities. Kinda of a dopey way to ‘reconnect’ with the world right outside my front door, but it keeps me from climbing the walls and wallowing in self pity, but allows plenty of room for PWA: “personal work avoidance.”

WTF• and in the category of things that piss me off…..War On Photography blog reports that one particular department of our federal government is delusional…ok well several are delusional but this is just plain silly….the Department of Transportation thinks that photographing federal buildings that our tax dollars have paid for and are ostensibly a tourist attraction is . . . wait for it . . . illegal.

This idea is NOT limited to the federal government, apparently it has spread like wildfire through uncivil servants across the land. As this image of the fire station got me rousted by the local gendarme. The cop kept telling me that it was a matter of public safety. . . somehow chubby middle aged white women are endangering public safety by photographing 100 year old public buildings in pissant towns like mine – kinda makes me proud to be taken as a threat at this point of my life.

twitter • Some authors only plug their books or related products in their tweets, but some writers actually carry on a conversation or share interesting topics. This is a good chance to try Tweet following Literary Tweets: 100+ of the Best Authors on Twitter

and don’t forget Sockington, who is a cat with a twitter account, he has over a half million followers…no shit, i am not making that up. I once trued to set dave up with a twitter acct. He got bored with it after a few days and just napped all the time……….

wtf? • a headsup from Boing Boing “Apple has rejected Eucalyptus, an ebook reader that facilitates downloading public domain books from Project Gutenberg, because some Victorian books mention sex” (read more)

Why is there a t-shirt here?—>

Because it’s the #1 piece of apparel on Amazon.com (remember when they only sold books?) WHY? who they hell knows…but apparently the newest internet communal activity is to leave reviews for this t-shirt that are well.., completely absurd. The over 400 reviews have accrued so much attention that the BBC took a moment to notice. “Sales of the kitsch Three Wolf Moon T-shirt shot up 2,300% after a spate of ironic reviews went viral. “

site to see – Trustees of Edith Wharton‘s Massachusetts estate, have restructured the site’s finances to reduce its multimillion-dollar debt. Measures include adding Mount-hosted festivals, writing workshops, and lecture series.

worth reading • Marty Weil has an interview with A Journey Round My Skull blogger - Will Schofield is a Philadelphia-based editor and book collector.

worth hearing • from NPR Did Shakespeare Want To Suppress His Sonnets? by Lynn Neary

having a moment..dave was sleeping in the parking lot and one of the tenants ran him over.

Here’s some better stuff to read

• Coelacanthbks.com has started blogging again • Republic of One has reviews some really good books they have been carrying: The Middle Parts of Fortune – Manning, and Glory – Nabokov.

from Britannica Blog by Robert McHenry • Was Shakespeare Really Shakespeare and Cervantes Cervantes?

and the new trail for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes film with Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.

stupid human tricks - a New Jersey principle decided to expurgate 2 pages from Paint Me like I am a poetry book for teens…apparently one of the poems had the F-word in it and We all know that word is hardly ever used in the teen lexicon.