Librarian's Rant

I was having another in a string of what I call 'bad librarian days', when my energy level and my patience are both at low ebb, when the link to this blog came across my statewide list: Feel-good Librarian.

I have seen more heart-breaking, hopeless-looking situations at this desk than I could find in the newspaper. I have seen more joy and helpfulness standing before me than I knew existed. All at the Reference desk.

Think of yourself. Pretty complex little being, aren’t you? All your likes and dislikes, fears and phobias, secret fantasies and fetishes, must haves and can’t stands, all the things you are proud of and ashamed of; everything that makes up who you are: and there are six billion of us walking around the planet, all equally complex.

At the library, a piece of that world walks up to my desk every day. That’s what this blog is about.

Call her Pollyanna if you like, but she reminds us of why some of us work with the public by choice. Brava!

Dragons are coming! (to Animal Planet in March)

Thanks, Natalie.

Okay, so I admit--I watch Desperate Housewives. I find it a clever send-up of suburban mores. Example--this little exchange from a recent episode:

Bree: We're WASPs, Dr. Goldfein. Not acknowledging the elephant in the room is what we do best.

Dr. F: Is that what you want? A life of denial and repression?

B: And dinner parties. Don't forget the dinner parties.

Sorry, folks, but I've had to turn off the Comments function for a bit to ward off some online casino spammers. Bloody bastard spammers!

I'll let you know when it's back on.

Okay, I was deeply amused by this review by Roger Ebert of the movie Constantine--a movie I never had any intention of seeing, but Ebert's review gave me a laugh. An excerpt:

There is a priest in the film, the alcoholic Father Hennessy (Pruitt Taylor Vince), whose name, I guess, is product placement. Strange that there is a priest, since that opens the door to Catholicism and therefore to the news that Constantine is not doomed unless he wages a lifelong war against demons, but need merely go to confession; three Our Fathers, three Hail Marys, and he's outta there. Strange, that movies about Satan always require Catholics. You never see your Presbyterians or Episcopalians hurling down demons.

The forces of hell manifest themselves in many ways. One victim is eaten by flies. A young girl is possessed by a devil, and Constantine shouts, "I need a mirror! Now! At least three feet high!" He can capture the demon in the mirror and throw it out the window, see, although you wonder why supernatural beings would have such low-tech security holes.

Reeves has a deliberately morose energy level in the movie, as befits one who has seen hell, walks among half-demons, and is dying. He keeps on smoking. Eventually he confronts Satan (Peter Stormare), who wears a white suit. (Satan to tailor: "I want a suit just like God's.") Oh, and the plot also involves the Spear of Destiny, which is the spear that killed Christ, and which has been missing since World War II, which seems to open a window to the possibility of Nazi villains, but no. [emphasis mine]

Thanks, Alison, for the chuckle.

According to this calculator from Senate Democrats [bias noted], under the Bush plan for privatization, I'll make $5326 less per year than under traditional Social Security. And that's with a decent, if modest annual income (I used 50K, which might even have been a high 'average', as they don't clearly explain if that's an average over a lifetime of work, or what).

I notice Greenspan this week gave tacit approval to the privatization scheme, assuming the money was 'well-managed'. Um, yeah, well anyone with a brain knows that BushCo. already has in mind which of their financial services cronies will get the 'job' of managing our monies! Probably the same ones who manipulated the stock market to hurt small investors. Whatever...

I agree that Social Security in its current form is not an efficient or long-term stable system. But I can't imagine that privatization, which as it is currently described would increase the possibility for loss, is the answer. Or at least not the whole answer. Those who have disposable income already have private retirement accounts (not enough, granted, as we're not a country of savers, but still). Despite the calculator above, Social Security is not for me--I'm educated, white, and relatively well-off despite my choice to work in public service. Social Security is (IMO) a social contract that says I won't let my fellow countrymen and women starve when they get old and/or disabled.

And why is no one paying attention to the fact that Medicare is in much worse shape, and will fail much sooner, than Social Security?? Oh, right, cuz BushCo already 'took care of that' with their little drug card deal. Um, NO!

This is just too cute. He has his own Babar!

Thanks, Tracey.

Interesting blog entry from earlier this month from Buzzmachine, sent to me by Tracey.

The problem I have with the Eeyores is that for all intents and purposes, they refused to see the positive in the election and the start of a new democracy; they refused to think first of the human rights of the Iraqi people and instead thought of their own political agenda and political anti's. That's Eeyoreism.

...Reasonable people can agree. Reasonable people should agree that the exercise of freedom and democracy in Iraq is good for the Iraqi people. Reasonable people should agree that we must be cautious about intervening in nations but should also take steps to defend the human rights of our fellow man when we can. Reasonable people can disagree about this war and its aftermath and its duration.

Reasonable people.

They're not Eeyores. I prefer to think of them as Poohs.

Original Fawlty Towers goes for £1.5m

Cleese, who stayed at the hotel with the Monty Python team in 1971, described [the hotel's former owner] Sinclair as "the most wonderfully rude man I have ever met".

My favorite library comic strip, Unshelved, is celebrating its 3rd birthday. Bill and Gene have, consistently and with increasing skill, brightened my email and my day with their charming, quirky and occasionally snarky viewpoint on working in a public library. More than once, I've thought they were following me around at my job, detailing my day!

Congrats, guys. All the best from one of your biggest fans!

An interesting online test: Moral Politics

Your Score

Your scored -2 on the Moral Order axis and 0.5 on the Moral Rules axis.

Matches

The following items best match your score:

System: Socialism
Variation: Moderate Socialism
Ideologies: Social Democratism
US Parties: Democratic Party
Presidents: Jimmy Carter (90.89%)
2004 Election Candidates: John Kerry (88.10%), Ralph Nader (82.18%), George W. Bush (60.66%)

Statistics

Of the 34923 people who took the test:

1.7% had the same score as you.
29.9% were above you on the chart.
58.1% were below you on the chart.
47.8% were to your right on the chart.
28.1% were to your left on the chart.
Others

For President and Candidates, the percentage measures the distance between you and them where 100% is a perfect overlap and 0% is the longest possible distance.
If you overlap two regions, they are both listed. So if you see both Liberalism and Conservatism, you are a "perfect" Centrist.

Slight variations in my answers brought me to different points on the axes. Also, I like that you can mark if a question was 'confusing'.

Thanks to Todd K.

For the library geeks among us: watch Worldcat grow!

Thanks to Todd K.

Some new gear, including buttons and other non-wearable stuff.

Stupid NHL. Stupid players. It's now official--no hockey this year [note: PDF file].

Seems that Mary Kay Letourneau is marrying her underage beau. They even have a wedding registry. Ick.