Lost and Found

April Cushing is the Adult Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column in the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud. Podcasts are archived on the Voices from the Library page of the library website.

 From the Library - Lost and Found by written by April Cushing and read by Charlotte Canelli

I know someone who claims to have never lost anything.  Is that even humanly possible?  If the name weren’t so fraught with pejorative connotations beyond the inability to keep track of stuff, I’d join Losers Anonymous in a heartbeat.  I’m thinking of two particular incidents. 

I picked up my daughter at the 128 train station recently to take her to the dentist while I waited in the parking lot. After dropping her back at the train en route to the Morrill Memorial Library, where, ironically, I help people find things, I reached for the shoes I’d tossed on the floor of the front seat.

Charmed by the Hike: The Appalachian Trail

Read Charlotte Canelli's column in the April 20 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud. Podcasts are archived on the Voices from the Library page of the library website.
From the Library on April 20, 2012 - Charmed by the Hike: The Appalachian Trail by written and ready by Charlotte Canelli
In the 1998 bestseller, “A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail”, Bill Bryson recounts his experiences, with and without his friend, Stephen, along the 2,184 mile challenge of the Appalachian Trail. Bryson hiked the trail from Georgia to parts of Maine. It doesn’t matter much that Bryson, never completed the hike. Only one-quarter of those who attempt the hike as a “thru-hike” in one season actually complete all of it. His obsession with the trail, his humorous exploits and his discoveries, among them how hard it is to team up with a friend under extenuating circumstances, made for a bestselling memoir.

A Disaster of Titanic Proportions

Read Charlotte Canelli's column in the April 13 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin  or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud.  Podcasts are archived on the Voices from the Library page of the library website. 

From the Library on April 13, 2012- A Disaster of Titanic Proportions by Charlotte Canelli

While both halves the 20th Century saw incredible growth and achievement, Americans endured terrific losses in the first half. It seemed like ancient history to me as I was growing up, but World War II ended less than ten years before my birth. The beginnings of the Holocaust and the meteoric rise of Adolph Hitler occurred only fifteen years before I was born in 1952. The black days of the stock market crash only twenty-three.

Put in that perspective, it isn’t hard to wonder why my parents and grandparents lived such a frugal and conservative lifestyle, always afraid of another world disaster that might strike.
In 1912 my grandparents’ first child was born, my mother’s eldest sister. It was also the year the Titanic sank.

Tonight - Clear and Cold; Tomorrow - Hot and Humid

Margot Sullivan is a reference librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library. Read her column in the Norwood Transcript & Bulletin this week or listen to the podcast on SoundCloud. Podcasts are archived on the Voices from the Library page of the library website.

From the Library on April 6, 2012 - Clear and Cold; - Hot and Humid by written by Margot Sullivan and read Charlotte Canelli

“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance” Jane Austen in a letter.

“If you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a few minutes” Mark Twain

Everyone, and I mean everyone, is talking about the weather. Truthfully there is just nothing we can do about it! For those of you who missed the snow and cold and ice I have some suggestions for you here at the library. Come in and borrow the movie “The Shining” by Stephen King where a caretaker gets marooned in a snowy resort and slowly loses it! “The Day After Tomorrow” is a huge disaster movie with lots of ice bergs breaking up and global warming! How about “Doctor Zhivago” a great movie with winter in Russia! “March of the Penguins” is an entertaining DVD for all ages. Every March in the Antarctic penguins file one by one for hundreds of miles to look for a mate and start a family. For books I just finished a really taut mystery story “The Snowman” by Jo Nesbo. James Michener’s “Alaska” would be a good read if you want cold.

Attributed to Mark Twain was also the quote”the weather is always doing something”. Yes, it is always doing something and we have no control over what it is doing! The First Thursday Book Discussion Group just finished “Isaac’s Storm: a man, a time, and the deadliest hurricane in history” by Erik Larson. Even with some weather forecasting the September 1900 storm in Galveston, Texas was incorrectly analyzed for a variety of reasons – some ignorance, some political, and some ego –driven! We all can remember storms that have been predicted and not arrived or vice versa! The weather has a mind of its own. In keeping with the theme of missing snow and snow shoveling, how about checking out “Blizzard! the great storm of 88” by Judd Caplovich (974.7 Cap). This book has great photos of mostly New York and one can imagine what it might have been like without some of the specialized machinery we have to cope with this kind of a storm. How about the “Blizzard of 78 by Michael Tougias (551.5 Tougias) – those of us around here remember this famous storm in which the snowfall amount was not predicted!

The library has a nice array of weather books I particularly liked “Weather a Visual Guide” by Bruce Buckley et all (551.5 Buckley). This book covers the atmosphere and jet streams (they are always talking about the jet stream in the weather report), ocean currents, humidity (not my favorite), clouds, rain, lightning, dust storms, and history of weather forecasting, …. and so on. Lots of photographs make this a valuable weather resource. Chris Mooney’s book “Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming” (363.738 Mooney) looks intriguing. Finally for you “weather at its worst” fans “Extreme Weather A Guide and Record Book” by Christopher C. Burt (551.5 Burt) presents all kinds of records on blizzards, and floods, and hurricanes and ice storms, droughts, tornadoes, and any other kind of like catastrophe. The book has great photos and is very readable.

Spring has already sprung – in March! It’s April – can summer be far behind? Wonder what July will be like?