Farewell to one of the finest!
Maurice Sendak, Children’s Author, Dies at 83 – NYTimes.com.
Soy: A Cautionary Tale
Before I go any further, let me say this is my opinion only, I do not promote any industry, nor am I condemning anyone, or anything. It’s just a blog, I am putting my thoughts out there for anyone to read or delete. So there, that’s my disclaimer.
Now what I want to point out to everyone is that this is a nation of extremes. If scientific data says “vitamin e is good for …whatever, not one week after it is mentioned on the news, labels are smacked on food product everywhere “CONTAINS VITAMIN E” or “A GOOD SOURCE OF VITAMIN E” . Fast forward a year scientific data says “Uh-oh vitamin e is the cause of ….whatever.”
Well, yes, uh-oh, now what?
Lets take look at soy. The jury is still out, in my opinion, about soy. A few years back a woman I worked with mentioned in a casual conversation that she stayed clear of soy because there was a history of breast cancer in her family, and so this comment stuck in the back of my mind. I started doing my research, consulting databases, journals, books, blogs, websites, reading everything I can get my hands on. My conclusion was: if there is that much question about soy, it is best to stay clear of excess soy, especially as you approach Peri-menopause, menopause and post menopause.
The food industry has changed drastically starting in the 80’s. What has happened to the food we put on our tables and feed our children is the topic of many books and medical journals. I suggest if you have any specific questions go to your library’s online research databases and get up to the moment articles in peer reviewed journals. Its the only way you can come to informed conclusions for yourself. Don’t let the media or anyone else tell you that something is a sure thing, because sooner or later another sure thing is going to prove it wrong.
I will leave you with this thought: my parents always said “eat everything in moderation” and that was what their parents told them. If it was good enough for them, it’s good advice for me.
Do your research, especially when it come to food trends. Talk to professionals, keep up with your annual physicals. Don’t follow news blindly. Libraries have research databases that you can access remotely from your own home, take advantage of your library’s ILL services, you can get information from practically anywhere in multiple formats. You only have one body, make sure you practice preventative maintenance.
Filed under Healthy lifestyles, Library
Dandelions: food for thought
Dandelions. Weed or Salad Green? The answer is: both.
At this time of year, growing up in Queens I would see people walking aside the Long Island Expressway pulling dandelion weeds, which I thought was very neighborly of them to do. There was an abundance of them along the highway and fortunately people would not walk their dogs on the other side of the highway fence. However, even at a young age I questioned their judgement, as I felt that carbon monoxide, that silent killer that we all grew up fearing, was the poison that these very plants were filtering. You may not inhale it, but was it possible that you could ingest it? Not sure, but I never wanted to test that out. To this day, even though they grow wild and unscathed by herbicide in my back yard, I hesitate to throw dandelion greens in the family lunch.
There are many such plants that scattered around backyards, and are there for the snacking. My reluctance to try many of them is the fact that I feel if it were good to eat, the bunnies and deer would have beat me to them.
A few good books we have at the Library that help you distinguish edible from not
Edible : an illustrated guide to the world’s food plants
The forager’s harvest : a guide to identifying, harvesting, and preparing edible wild plants
The Foraging Gourmet: The complete guide to edible wild plants, mushrooms, fruits, and nuts
Filed under Healthy lifestyles, Library, Reader Advisory
Amazon’s knock-off problem (35 Shades of Grey, anyone?) – Fortune Tech
Amazon’s knock-off problem (35 Shades of Grey, anyone?) – Fortune Tech.
If someone had asked a librarian to get this, there would have been no confusion!
Filed under Library, Reader Advisory
Clutter Managment: is that an Oxymoron?
By now this image of the Collyer Brothers clutter-stuffed brownstone is familiar to most people. The fear of being compared to them is incentive enough to call the dumpster company. Another scenario that happens to be my favorite is Fibber McGee’s closet www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9FGC68YcwM I think that is more realistic, don’t you think? All of us tend to have a little “closet slob” in us.
Well, as with most problem issues, there is always someone who can cash in on it, and make a business out of it. As a matter of fact (and a scary one at that) there is even a reality show that has been made of this very same Collyer brother phenomenon. Closet management systems you can do yourself, or closet management companies you can hire to tackle the Fibber McGee closet in your home are available to all who wish. And of course, there are many books that can help guide you to a clutter free, or clutter controlled existence.
If you are curious about the Collyer brothers E.L Doctrow wrote a novel about the duo: Homer and Langley and there is a non-fiction memoir written by a relative of theirs : Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers and My Uncle Arthur, NewYork’s Greatest Hoarders (An Urban Historical)
If yo
u just need a little guidance on how to tackle this yourself here are two titles to get you in the cleanup mood : For Packrats Only by Don Aslett and Shed Your Stuff, Change your Life by Julie Morgenstern.
I know I’m ready to get started, I think my work gloves are in the closet….
Filed under Library, Reader Advisory
Shades of Grey Ad Nauseam
A few months back I was asked about placing a hold on the title pictured to the left. I couldn’t find it in the Library system, nor was it to be found in any academic library to be order inter-library loan. Oh well, wait, or borrow it from a friend, or buy it.
A public library fulfills the needs of the community it services. We get a budget, and although in these economic times slashed as it may be, it must be used to stock the shelves with books and media that circulates in our service area. When more than 3 people put a written request in for a title, we buy it, because that’s what is requested.
There are presently over 700 patron requests for this title system wide. Tax payer dollars are being spent to put this book on the shelf. Now, this book is not The Help, Cutting For Stone, or The DaVinci Code. It’s a fan-fiction take off of the Twilight series, it has extreme sexual behavior and it has a very specific reader group, and believe me when I tell you it is by NO means “like any other love story we have on the shelves” (as one adamant patron said to me when she was disappointed that we didn’t have a copy to lend). It’s gotten to the point that when I fill a hold for any title that has the words “shades” or “grey” in it I inwardly hope the requester is not expecting this book and they just didn’t want to ask for help. By the way it is a series, there are two more to the trilogy.
Why doesn’t anyone donate their trilogy to the Library? That way the needs of the few does not spend the tax dollars of the many. I’ll take your donation, just put it in a brown paper bag please.
Grafedie
Filed under Book Clubs, Library
Oprah Said So
It’s funny how life is cumulative.
For instance, my career, prior to my present career as a librarian, was as a Graphic Designer. It was my job to create images, along with a copywriter with a clever tag line, to move product. I did it everyday and loved every moment of it, and no, I am not going into why I changed my career, at least not now, that’s another topic. What my point is here is that I still am doing basically the same thing, in a different realm: the library
When someone asks me what’s a good book to read, I can launch into what I have read, what is popular, what the latest book the book club is reading, I consult Novelist (no, sorry I wasn’t able to skim our entire fiction, and non fiction collection in order to give first hand reader-advisory) but all I need to do is walk past the Oprah reading selections and my job is done.
If I were to tell you that Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina was not on the shelf for months after I stuck it on Oprah’s display, you would never believe me. You can’t make this stuff up. 836 pages. Circle of life: I’m still in the marketing business.
A couple of good books that I found interesting, and dealt with just this phenomena of popularity and trends are:
Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Chip Heath’s Made to Stick.
But when it comes to getting a book to move off the shelf, or at least to get someone to notice it, Oprah says it all with just a little book mark sticking out of the top.
Filed under Book Clubs, Library, Reader Advisory
Yoga-Shmoga
This is my son Jordy.
What?
Yes, I know he is a different species, but, what the hey, no one asked ANY questions about Stuart Little.
But getting back to Jordy, he has taught me a lot. How you ask? Well first without going into all the unconditional love, devotion etc. qualities that sons have, (daughters have that as well I may add) I learned a few very practical healthy lifestyle things:
- Stretch first thing in the morning
- Drink water-lots of water all day long
- Play whenever you get a chance.
It’s not really that I learned it from him, rather, made note of those very simple habits that seem to be a very practical carry over to my life. Which brings me to the original topic: Yoga. I do like Yoga, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not something I can completely devote my time to.
So, what I do instead is read books that use Yoga in a sort of Medicinal way. Two books that we have at the library are: Prescriptive Stretching and Yoga Anatomy. The reason I like these books, rather than books about different styles of Yoga is that they actually show you what muscle, or section of body that you are trying to stretch without having to chant OOHHmm. I think that chanting is the part I get stuck on.
Grafedie
Filed under Healthy lifestyles
Dewey Decimal
Working in the Library for close to 14 years now, I continue to be amazed at the folks that come back to the library after many years absence and say ” I used to know the Dewey Decimal system”
There are some school libraries that actually have kids memorize the classifications! How crazy is that! And they wonder why kids are turned off to libraries!
My response is usually “Well, Dewey didn’t go anywhere, he just had to adapt to the computer age by adding the 000’s computer/software/technology category”.
In my opinion, it STILL works, and it’s not a power trip kind of thing people are afraid to ask, like they should be embarrassed that they don’t KNOW where to find that book on the History of Salt. By all means, ask the librarian, but ask also if you can get a refresher course on how to use the new catalog (which has turned into the incriminating kiosk standing off by itself)
Nothing is an open field. Ask, learn, use the catalog and by all means, make lists.
The Dewey Decimal System was, and still is the best way of navigation through the stacks
Filed under Library
Grafedie in the Library 