Mythical

I don't know. It was on the street alongside the Nelson.

Spencer Museum of Art, KU

This was on the wall next to the mirror in the women's restroom at the museum. I hope it posts large enough to read it, but you may have to click on it. I took several pictures there today.

A Forest of Christmas Trees

When I was a kid, my dad always made a really big deal out of getting the Christmas tree. Being from the Northwest and having hiked Mt. Rainier countless times and having worked in the woods, he really loved the smells of the forest. Kansas was hard on him. He really missed the evergreen smells that he had grown up and worked with all his life. So going to the Christmas tree lot was an experience of smelling that wonderful aroma. It was always something we all had to participate in, and we took our time choosing the perfect tree. He would often say he wished he could have a whole forest of Christmas trees.
Well, back in the day (I wonder if anyone reading this blog will identify with this) we had Christmas parties at school, and every classroom had a real decorated tree in it. We had drawn names and put presents for everyone in the class around the tree, and as I recall, the teacher always seemed to get something really special from the class as well. But after the party on the last day of school all the trees ended up on the curb waiting to be picked up by the trash truck.
The year I was 7, my brothers took our Ford station wagon to school to pick me up. They saw the trees on the curb and a light bulb went off. "Let's give Dad a forest of Christmas trees!" So we loaded up what seemed to me to be at least a couple of dozen trees and drove home. My mom was teaching piano lessons in the family room and didn't see us come in. We circled the living room with all the trees we had brought in and waited. When my mom came out, she started laughing, but we still had to wait for my dad to come home from work. He was shocked, but he got a good laugh out of it, too. For me, that was something so crazy, so weird, that I never forgot it. It's probably my best Christmas memory.

another opinion on teen night at the library

I said I'd help out for five hours tomorrow night when they have the library open to teens for various games and a movie and free pizza. I figured I need the hours, and they'll probably let me have some pizza. I know almost nothing about their games, although I have in fact seen real people playing DDR and guitar hero, or whatever it's called.
I asked my daughter if she wanted to go, since all she plays is Counterstrike, and she doesn't have access to a Wii or xbox360 (you see, I don't even know how to punctuate these things, that's how blissfully out of the loop I am).
She said she wouldn't go to it no matter what, because she thinks it's extremely stupid for libraries to encourage teens to play that way at the library. She thinks libraries should encourage teens to read more instead of catering to their stupid game-playing addictions, and she thinks it brings libraries down to the level of those Christian "clubs" where they are only trying to be nice to teens to get them to stay off the streets.
She's 15.

Distractions

In trying not to think about my $700 car repair bill and the fact that I can't leave town over break now, I found these sites:

http://yourshelves.com/

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

http://www.kimbooktu.com/

quote of the day: "Don't let that cd skip, or you'll scratch it."

No, really, we ARE all doomed

Just overheard the librarian explaining, to a child who had checked out So Many Dynamos! and other Palindromes by Jon Agee, that they read the same way forwards and backwards, and that "if you hold them up to a mirror you can read them."

We Are All Doomed

Twice in 24 hours I have seen stuff sent from school teachers that referred to the little rubber items used to correct mistakes as "erasures".

Bellwether, by Connie Willis

If you're not already into Connie Willis, I highly recommend her books. Bellwether is hilarious, but so are some of the others, and I really liked "To Say Nothing of the Dog", although it took me three tries to get into it. I think if you read Bellwether or one of her other shorter ones first, you'll be hooked.
Bellwether is about fads, among other things. It's quite a parody, and the main character keeps tabs on what's popular partly by going to the library to see what's on the hold list. She also takes pains to regularly check out the classics so they won't be withdrawn from the shelves, which made me smile. I've never seen that in a book before.
But when I see really dumb fads (maybe they all are?) I always think of that book. Right now, I'm seeing kids' clothing with writing across the butt. For some reason, there are a lot of pre-teen girls with the word "JUSTICE" written across their butts. Not quite as interesting as that girl I saw in Pratt with the word "CHEER" across her butt, though. Class, can we think of more words to write across our butts? Now I'm reminded of Shel Silverstein's ABZ book.
I did find another blog that addresses this phenomenon:
http://creativetypes.blogspot.com/2006/06/shortspants-with-words.html

Shelf tree

For you cheapskates who don't want the trouble of a tree... you probably have one already.

http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/2007/11/who-needs-a-chr.html