Voter Info at Central Library

Our DanskaBeaver reports, regarding the November 4th election:

The Central Library will have official voter guides from the State of California on the First, Second and Third Floor Service Desks. Easy Voter Guides in English will also be located at the Service Desks on the First, Second and Third Floors. Easy Voter Guides for Spanish, Chinese, and Vietnamese will be in the World Languages Section. Guides in other languages are also available.

An audio version of the Official State Voter Guide will be behind the Information Desk on the Third Floor. It is only for in-library use. Please be prepared to leave an ID if you use it. We are also cataloging audio versions for circulating and in-library use.

Voter registration cards will be available on the First, Second, Third and Fourth floors. The last day to register for the election is October 20th. Registration applications must be postmarked no later than this date.

RINCON LATINO : "LA PALABRA DEL DíA"

milonga

"Es sabido que la música popular rioplatense suele expresar quejas, lamentos, sufrimientos, penas de amor y de nostalgia. Tal vez esto pueda explicar el nombre de la milonga, uno de los ritmos típicos platenses, que fue tomado de milonga, palabra que en la lengua africana quimbundo, traída a América por los esclavos, significaba ‘queja’, ‘lamento’, ‘calumnia’ o ‘demanda’. Se cree que tanto la milonga como el tango se derivan, en última instancia, de ritmos africanos que llegaron al continente con los esclavos."

Teen Reality Checks (a check you can cash!)

Going through the teen section I spotted the Au Pair series by Melissa de la Cruz. The premise is that instead of paying fully trained English nannies totting degrees in early childhood education to watch their kids fulltime, the wealthy would much rather pay the same amount to have their children watched by teens who party like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, and Britney Spears. Fine, the teens aren’t that ill behaved. But when School Library Journal described how the au pairs take care of “four over privileged, under supervised kids,” I cringed. Under supervised???? Excuse me, but as au pairs isn’t it their jobs to supervise the kids?

Or maybe not.

Check out these books’ covers. One would mistake the world of childcare as one of glamour and fun, a place where young babysitters watch their charges for ten minutes a day before spending the rest of their time scantily clad in the sand. Because what married, middle-aged mother wouldn’t want a bikini-wearing teen with all of her original parts in their original places frolicking in front of her husband? Why it must be high on her wish list, sandwiched between botched Botox injections and male pattern baldness. Note to authors: stop making teens believe they’ll get paid for rolling around on a beach as if they were taking photos for the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition.

Do you know what teen girls should really be reading? I mean besides He’s Just Not That Into You (which an unnamed co-worker feels should be mandatory 8th grade reading).

The Nanny Diaries.

It’s hilarious, and a lot closer to reality to than the Au Pair series. By the third page you can’t put it down as the narrator describes The Interview: “I answer with as much filigree and insouciance as I can muster, trying to slightly cock my head like Snow White listening to the animals. She, in turn, is aiming for more of a Diane Sawyer-pose, looking for answers which will confirm that I am not there to steal her husband, jewelry, friends, or child. In that order.”

And that about sums it up.

Sure, we (meaning teens) would like to think folks will pay untrained individuals tons of money to stay in fabulous homes. The truth of the matter is, if I were married to some rich, handsome, great, rich guy who is rich (it will happen!) and I believed in in-house childcare, we’d either get a manny, or the woman would look like Nanny McPhee and dress like Laura Ingalls.

Annual In-Service Day for Library Staff

School Districts do it. Companies do it. And Sacramento Public Library does it, too.

All libraries are closed Wednesday, October 8, for annual staff in-service development and training. Why Wednesday? Ah ... well, you see, the library is a 7-day operation. No, not at all branches, but some libraries are open evenings, weekends and Sundays, and Wednesday is one of the few days of the week all staff are working. Telephone services are available seven days a week, except for holidays ... and the annual in-service training day.

Online self-service will still be available: look for books in the catalog, renew items online or by phone at 916-264-2952 or 916-264-2953, research homework topics using our licensed magazine indexes and e-research tools - and we'll see you again in person on Thursday, October 9, during regular hours.

Smeerch's photo used with permission.

RINCON LATINO : "LA PALABRA DEL DíA"

epónimo

"En la Atenas del período preclásico, los principales magistrados eran los arcontes: el arconte rey; el polemarco, jefe del ejército; y el arconte epónimo, jefe de gobierno y magistrado principal. Este último daba su nombre al año en que desempeñaba su gestión. En la actualidad, epónimo se aplica al ‘nombre de una persona o de un lugar que designa un pueblo, una época, una enfermedad, una unidad’.Así, el nombre de Napoleón designa la era napoleónica, el apellido del médico británico James Parkinson es epónimo de la enfermedad de Parkinson, y el del ingeniero escocés James Watt, del vatio o watt.Epónimo proviene del griego eponymos ‘el que da su nombre a algo’, formado por epi ‘sobre’ y onymos ‘nombre’. Esta última voz griega también está presente en palabras castellanas como anónimo, homónimo, sinónimo, seudónimo y otras."

Bring Your Cameras---The Sacramento Ballet is Coming!

Aren't Sundays fabulous?
You don't have to work (unless you're like me, and you actually do have to work), parking is free on the street, and the Central Library offers one great program after another for your viewing pleasure! Last week ArtWorks told folktales, the previous week we enjoyed my storytelling, but while all of these programs were great, there was just something missing from those events...
Costumes.
On Sunday, October 5 th at 2 pm, come to the library to meet characters from The Sacramento Ballet's Alice in Wonderland. Cast members will share the story of their adventures, sign autographs, and pose for pictures. So bring your cameras and don't forget your memory cards!

Walt Disney Drove an Ambulance in the Great War and Timothy Leary was a West Point Cadet...

Really. It happened. Dashiell Hammett, Ernest Hemingway, and Somerset Maugham were also ambulance drivers. The godfather of American Gothic horror, Edgar Allen Poe also walked the long, grey line at West Point. Thomas Ayres' collection of military trivia entitled "Military Miscellany" is a look at war-making through a different lense, one that runs from the heady days of the American Revolution to the dusty allyways of Falluja. Rarely too serious and just plain fascinating, the anecdotes are true insight.

Near the beginning of the American Civil War, Union and Confederate units shared a hospital at Chatanooga. Because the space was behind Union lines, all of the medicine - low in supply - went to the Yankees. For bad wounds, this usually consisted of chloroform and lint, the latter used to keep maggots out of cuts.

On the other hand, the Rebels, were left with nothing. Maggots were left to feed on wounds. Eureka. Curiously enough, Confederate wounds were healing faster than those of the Union. Although far from experts on bacterial infection, the Rebel doctors knew that the maggots were making a considerable difference.

When Union physicians were informed of the find, they remained steadfast, staying with traditional medicines.

Then there's the ghost fleet of July 26, 1942. A fleet of U.S. warships were operated near the Aleutians when their radar picked up large imagery, the inference being that this was a force of Japanese warships heading for the Japanese outpost on Kiska Island. For the next thirty minutes, the U.S. ships fired at the wouldbe enemy. When scout ships were sent out, they found nothing. There was no resolution. Radar officers speculated that it may have been the U.S. radar impulses reflecting off of Alaskan mountain peaks. If this is true, the fleet was actually firing on a reflected image of itself.

Oh, in the class of 1861 at West Point, finishing last in a class of 34 was George A. Custer. Not such a surprise when we look at the history of the Western U.S.

A young Walt Disney as a Red Cross volunteer in France, 1918.