Dewey and the Kitchen Companion

Read Charlotte Canelli's entire column in the Norwood Bulletin and Transcript this week.

Excerpt:

Today I would never have to cook if I didn’t want to and for the past few years I’ve spent very little time doing that. However, our kitchen renovation was completed this past December and you might say I’ve been reborn and have been rediscovering the joy. Long-forgotten recipes and specialty pans and utensils have come out of retirement and some interesting ingredients have been filling our pantry and refrigerator.
Part of the fun of a newly designed kitchen is having the space to cook together and that’s just what we’ve done. My household chef and husband was happily helping me chop various vegetables for a seafood bisque last weekend. Imagine my surprise, then, when I curiously inspected the cutting board and found tough, crunchy and bitter leek tops in with the tender dicings of onions and garlic. What could he have been thinking?

Let the Library Be Your Lifeline

Read Jenna Hecker's entire column in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin this week.

Excerpt:

"I am not a person who flourishes in an environment of uncertainty. I am not good at being unemployed. I went from having a hectic schedule to no schedule at all. I spent my first few days camping, traveling, and visiting historical homes, but soon panic set in, and obsessive job searching began.
In order to cope with the loneliness and frustration of job searching, I vowed to get out of the house every day. I packed up my laptop and headed to the library to work on job searching for a few hours each morning. I set up a professional email address (myname@gmail.com), I signed up for e-mail updates from professional associations, and I started following library job tweeters on twitter."

You Say You Want a Resolution

Read Charlotte Canelli's entire column in the Norwood Bulletin and Transcript this week.

Excerpt:

I’ve never really been one for New Year resolutions. Oh, there have been years when I’ve made one or two and then merely forgotten about it within hours, days, or weeks. I actually believe more in what I might call the “gradual process resolution” or one that slowly transforms over the year from a good intention to something that might be called change for the better.
My own resolve seems to be in the form of change in a more spontaneous way. Bridget Jones (in Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding) more aptly states “I think it would be much more sensible if resolutions began generally on January the second.” My sentiments exactly.

Most studies prove that merely 12 percent of New Year resolutions actually become habit over the course of the year … and that number is lower in the course of actual change over many years. Oscar Wilde wrote, “A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.”

Yet, it is the trying that is the heart of this matter. And studies also prove that sharing your resolution with others gets better results.

The ABCs of DVDs

Read April Cushing's entire article in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Excerpt:

"After a grueling day on the Reference Desk my ideal evening goes something like this. Duffy and I trot down to the park for our daily constitutional, then I hunker down in front of my new flat screen TV and indulge in the ultimate R&R: D&D, aka dinner and a DVD, with my significant other, Brad.

We’re closing in on 175 movies since we started keeping track in 2006. There are the classics like Rear Window, The African Queen, On the Waterfront, Casablanca, The Sting, Schindler’s List, and the Hangover. Ok, so maybe that last one isn’t technically a classic.

I put an asterisk next to Citizen Kane since I fell asleep before the end. There seem to be several starred titles on the list. If you’re really serious about seeing the credits, I wouldn’t recommend getting horizontal on a comfy couch, especially not after 9 p.m.

Then there are the feel-good films, besides the one renowned for the line “I’ll have what she’s having.” Love Actually, On Golden Pond, Hoosiers, Something’s Gotta Give, and Young at Heart come to mind. Oh, and Chocolat, with Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, which my 21-year-old daughter and I watched last night, a bottle of wine and a box of truffles between us."