Librarian's Rant

Thanks to Michael for the link to this cool conference.

Scholars plan to espouse merits of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'

Conference will focus on TV show's themes of redemption, mortality

Consider these questions:

Why would Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a television show created by a self-avowed ''angry atheist,'' attract legions of Christian fans? Or, on a broader scale, why would such a show attract the attention of serious scholars from several rigorous academic disciplines?

These answers and many more will unfold this weekend as the largest-ever academic conference devoted to a single television program takes place at the Renaissance Nashville Hotel downtown. A total of 190 academic papers from around the globe will be presented at The Slayage Conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Thanks to someone (?) on the Chatty list for this wonderful bunch of Smart Women products. I like the kitchen matches that say "Smart Women Light the Way".

...cuz Amazon just told me they're sending the latest Buffy on DVD release (season 6). Whoop! This is my early birthday prezzie to myself.

Seems there's a new church on the Web. But they've been having a little problem with interlopers and unbelievers:

The Church, sponsored by the Methodist Church but organized by the multi-denominational "Ship of Fools" project, said it had removed a "shout" function where people could speak to the whole congregation. Some were using it to hurl abuse or yell: "Satan loves you."

The pulpit, altar and lectern areas will be closed to the public after some worshippers walked their animated character into those areas during sermons.

But the strongest measure against the unruly will be the online equivalent of damnation: wardens will be able to smite the wicked by instantly logging them out of the church if they misbehave. [emphasis mine]

Seems that folks are so desperate to get a Gmail account, they were resorting to looking on eBay. Someone came up with the idea of a Gmail swap. From the creator of the site:

"For weeks, I had been hearing people complain about their desperate need for Gmail, and I thought it was silly -- and a little sad -- there was no recourse other than eBay," said Sean Michaels, the creator of gmail swap. It "came out of my firm belief that nice people were out there somewhere, ready to answer the pleas of the masses, but that there simply wasn't a conduit for the two groups to get in touch."

Some of the items on offer are intriguing, including:

read a poem on someone's radio-show
master the art of ordering dim-sum
shameless flattery
a pet mouse
advice from a 23-year-old ethicist
one human soul
Jewish mystical knowledge
an hour-long recording of one man's English accent
a gold couch from the 70s
a slide-rule (with instructions)

My views on censorship are pretty clear. I mean, I'm a librarian. This one, though, really burned my chops, not only as a librarian, but as a woman and a citizen. Seems BushCo. has deemed it necessary to simply disappear information pertinent to women's lives. The link is to Salon.com, where you have to register to read the whole article (they have a free one-day 'pass'). Here's an excerpt:

If you'd logged onto the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau Web site in 1999, you would have found a list of more than 25 fact sheets and statistical reports on topics ranging from "Earning Differences Between Men and Women" to "Facts About Asian American and Pacific Islander Women" to "Women's Earnings as Percent of Men's 1979-1997."

Not anymore. Those fact sheets no longer exist on the Women's Bureau Web site, and have instead been replaced with a handful of peppier titles, like "Hot Jobs for the 21st Century" and "20 Leading Occupations for Women." It's just one example of the ways in which the Bush administration is dismantling or distorting information on women's issues, from pay equity to reproductive healthcare, according to "Missing: Information About Women's Lives," a new report released Wednesday by the National Council for Research on Women.

We MUST stand up to this nonsense. The Web has made the dissemination of the huge amount of useful government information so easy and accessible. We can't let them start limiting what will be put out there, based on a religious-based political agenda!

My brother just blogged on this, but I wanted to comment on it. Seems some Unitarian congregations in Texas (of course!) are being denied religious organization tax status. Keep in mind, this is the same state that gave us the Branch Davidians...

"the denials of the Red River Unitarian Universalist Church in Denison and the North Texas Church of Freethought in Carrollton, as well as an earlier denial by Sharp for the Ethical Culture Fellowship of Austin, were ordered because the organizations did not mandate belief in a supreme being."

Um...neither do Buddhists, you idiots! But, of course, Buddhists haven't been marrying lots of gay folks lately, so I don't suppose Texas cares. Asshats.

How do I luck out to have friends like these? My buddy Felix sent me one of those "getting to know you" questionnaire emails. One of the questions was "What is your favorite children's book?". One of my answers (after Hippos Go Berserk, the best board book I know) was my much-loved and well-remembered Miss Twiggley's Tree. I moaned that last I checked it was out of print. So what does Felix do? He finds it for me. A special edition, at that! Such friends I have!

Funny Miss Twiggley
Lived in a tree
With a dog named Puss
And a color TV.

She did what she liked,
And she liked what she did,
But when company came,
Miss Twiggley hid.

UPDATE: Okay, well, now it seems that Amazon has it, too. They didn't when I checked last. The gods are smiling...

Fun and rather challenging grammar quiz. Thanks to Angie on the Chatty list for this one.


You are a GRAMMAR GOD!


If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

No, really. They simply didn't know:

"A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless - they weren't having sex...'a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate.'"

What did they think the church was warning them against? Scrabble?

Thanks to Sara on the Chatty list for that one...I think.

Ooh! Ooh! Wish List! Wish List! A new Thursday Next novel from Jasper Fforde. If only it could get to me by my vacation! This plus a new HP movie. Heaven!

For a year now, he's told it like it is. Now Ref Grunt is logging off. Best of luck!

Thanks to Peter for this rather disturbing set of character meals. I rather like the frog, though. What IS his name again? It's driving me mad...

UPDATE: Thanks, Joy! I knew you'd know. His name is Kerropi

Thanks to Elissa on Chattylibrarians for the newest Swatch watch. May not be safe for work!