"How many centimeters are a poodle?"

This was my favorite reference question tonight, asked by a six-year-old boy.

And yes, the answer is in the World Book. (Almost everything's in the World Book.)

Toy poodle = 25 cm
Miniature poodle = 25 to 38 cm
Standard poodle = 45+ cm

By the way, that wasn't really what he needed to know. His homework asked, "If a poodle is 1 meter long, how many centimeters is the poodle?" We looked up centimeters. When it dawned on him that the poodle would be 100 centimeters, he exclaimed, "Man! That's big! I'm glad I don't have a poodle!"

Hee.

Sometimes I feel old...

The adorable teen who is our Super Page in Youth Services was just telling us a story which she prefaced with the statement, "The Who made this musical called Tommy..."

In that moment, she just sounded so young and earnest and cute... I had to interrupt her to mock her.

Luckily she has a sense of humor.

Linkage

Thanks to the Ranger, for mentioning this 'blog at The Lost Blogs' Home. He was so kind, he's making me blush!

By the way, while no car can replace Odysseus, I am bonding with the new ride, a 2000 Silver Ford Focus named Santiago (yes, after Hem's Old Man). So, there. You can all sleep a little easier tonight.

Kingdom Hospital not faring well

BBC News reports that Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital is ailing in the ratings. That's a shame; it looked good.

Then again, I am probably fairly representative of the reason it ain't doing so well. I am rarely home on Wednesday evenings, so I decided to tape it. (Possibly unneccessary digression: I love Stephen King. Yes, I confess. I think he's highly underrated and that time will vindicate him. There. I said it, and I'm glad.)

ANYway... I taped it the first week, and then couldn't find time to watch it. The next week, I worked late and forgot to set the VCR. Rats! At that point, I figured, Well, what the heck? No doubt it'll be on DVD some time soon...

Sigh. The BBC reports, "Despite a promising debut, the show steadily lost viewers and pulled in an audience of 5.6 million last week."

Mea culpa. I hope he doesn't just drop it... I'm still wondering how The Plant ends. (For the record, I paid for that every installment -- 2 copies, in fact, one for me and one for my library.)

I've never seen the original...

...but maybe I don't have to, now that I have seen The Exorcist in 30 Seconds (and re-enacted by bunnies). (And tomorrow, when I'm not at the Reference desk, I plan to watch The Meatrix...)

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...

John Updike is the winner of the 2004 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his short story collection, "The Early Stories." Yay. I had a professor who used to tell us that Updike would be our next American author to win a Nobel Prize. I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

I *hate* when they screw with my books!

Salon has a fascinating article (and a fabulous picture) on the abridgement of children's books, although this author is altogether more (ahem) adaptable, and probably more reasonable, than I am on the topic...

Sometimes sadness blindsides me...

Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean fame, died Friday. He was 62 years old.

When I was a little girl, my brothers and I had a Jan and Dean cassette we played incessently. In fact, we probably wore it out! (I am gonna look when I get home tonight to see if it survived our childhood.)

I loved them and thought that they should be way more popular than the Beach Boys! (At the same time, I felt like they were our little secret, which made them extra special.) Today, I am a little bit surprised by how sad I was at this news... and at how swiftly their music came back into my head and heart.

Sigh.

Duck for President!

USA Today has a nice article about one of my favorite picture books. (Well, Hell... If W can do it, I reckon Duck could, too...)

"Libraries Use Internet to Entice Readers"

It's nice to see a story about libraries make it to Yahoo's front page, even if for but a moment...

Is there anything he *can't* do?

I'm looking way forward to reading Elvis Costello's books, the first of which is due out in Fall 2005.

R.I.P. Odysseus

Today, the great big heart of my beloved purple car gave out for good.

Sigh.

Actually, not to make too big a deal out of, what was, after all, a car, for cryin' out loud, I was pretty darned sad when I realized that I would have to buy a new car. NOT just because of the strain on my checkbook, but...

Odysseus and I have had some adventures together. 152,000+ miles worth of adventure, which is what led to today's sudden demise. The engine just wore out.

Yeah, I could have had him fixed for a mere $3000, but when would the trans go? Better to let go as gracefully as I could.

Still, it sucks. :'-(

No 'blogging from me for a few days. Tomorrow, I am heading to Starved Rock for the first in a series of programs for Synergy, which is why a new car was imperative. By the time I get home, I guess I'll know the new car well enough to have named him.

from sad cats to big dogs

A nice profile of the lovely Norman Bridwell at the Boston Globe, wherein he reveals the secret of Clifford's color: "It was red because I happened to have red paint on the drawing table that night."

More on That's Disgusting!

On the publisher's website, they describe the book thusly:

This irresistibly icky book will appeal to kids' love of all things nasty—while charming parents with its wit and energy. Adorable artwork on every spread accompanies simple text. Swallowing a worm, smelling a sock, playing in the cat litter....That's Disgusting!

"Adorable artwork on every spread..." Huh. To me, VIOLATING A CAT is not "Adorable!"

I am definitely planning to write and see what justification they have for marketing this to pre-schoolers. The contact info for the publisher is:

Workman Publishing Company
708 Broadway
New York, NY 10003-9555
212-254-5900 phone
212-254-8098 fax

info@workman.com

'Lit Idol'

Britain's 'Lit Idol' Borrows a Page From TV

Quote o' the moment

"The best slogan I can think of to leave with the U.S.A. would be: 'We can do and we've got to do better than this..'" (Dr. Seuss)

Is it just me?

A colleague of mine told me that the picture I was upset about (see post below) was not as bad as she thought it would be. So... I scanned it so y'all can judge for yourselves. Am I over-reacting?

(Since our ultra-efficient tech staff processed the book before I could send it back, I am stuck with it. I am leaning toward adding it to our office collection, where patrons could have it, but no one would find it by accident...)

Don't forget to vote!

The primary elections are being held in Illinois today. I cast a baleful eye at the alarm clock when it sounded at 5:30 this morning, then remembered and got up to walk to the polling place. Luckily, going so early meant that not many flyer-peddlars were there yet...

Besides the chance to express our individual preferences for the presidential candidates, there are a number of school and library referendums on the ballot in many communities in Illinois. (This always puts me in mind of Barbara Kingsolver. In an essay in her book, High Tide in Tuscon, she talks about how sometimes people without children say they won't vote yes for school or library issues since they have no kids. She reminds us that somebody else's kids will be our doctors, lawyers, mechanics, etc. Knowing that, shouldn't we give them all thes best start we can?)

Whatever your political views, go VOTE today!

And what country are you?

This made me pretty happy: I'm the United Nations, bay-bee!

You're the United Nations!
Most people think you're ineffective, but you are trying to completely save the world from itself, so there's always going to be a long way to go. You're always the one trying to get friends to talk to each other, enemies to talk to each other, anyone who can to just talk instead of beating each other about the head and torso. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, and you get very schizophrenic as a result. But your heart is in the right place, and sometimes also in New York.
Take the Country Quiz at the Blue Pyramid

Dust and Daemons

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is the subject of a thoughtful article in the March 25, 2004 New York Review of Books.