Schooled: Teaching Yourself the Science and Art of Cooking

Read Kate Tigue's column in the September 29, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin. Kate is a Children's Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.

If you’ve been reading this column for any length of time, especially in the past few weeks, you might have noticed the library staff are a little obsessed with food. Okay, we’re extremely obsessed with food. Need a restaurant recommendation? Call the library. One of us is bound to have a detailed review of a place that features the cuisine you desire. But many of us are accomplished home cooks and/or bakers and much of our non-work related conversation revolves around dishes we’ve made or are hoping to make. Many staff events have been catered in-house by our talented colleagues.

Boxer: A Woman's Best Friend

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the September 22, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Chuisle Canelli

In 2005, I worked as a library director by day and renovated a haunted Victorian home by night and on the weekends. I was single, lived alone and craved a companion – the four-legged kind. On Labor Day weekend, eleven years ago, an adorable 3-1/2 month old Boxer came to live with me.

I was a bit naïve about the Boxer breed, I admit. I didn’t realize that this cute puppy with her uplifted nose and chronic under bite possessed an inbred desire to protect me above all else. Boxers are considered a personal-protection breed in the AKC working dog category. And she took her work very seriously. Any two or four-legged creature coming within sight of our car or our home was simply there to kill us. Or so she instinctively believed.

Mastering the Art

Diane Phillips is the Technical Services Librarian at the Morrill Memorial Library.  Read Diane's  column in the September 15, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I recently reacquainted myself with one of my favorite cookbooks, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", by Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. I added this book to my personal collection back in the late ‘80s when I was working at the Morrill Memorial Library as a page.  This particular edition of this classic was being withdrawn from the collection.  Even at my young age, I knew this was a deal I shouldn’t pass up, even if I wasn’t cooking for myself yet, as I was still in high school. At home, we ate the usual American fare, mostly meat and potatoes.  Occasionally, I’d have a taste of traditional dishes from Lithuania, as both sides of my family emigrated from the Baltics.  Why I decided to bring this selection home at that time was a bit of a mystery.

Serial: Life After the Podcast

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte's column in the September 8, 2016 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

The story of two young star-crossed lovers could have remained a small story. In fact, it did for about fifteen years. Two high school seniors – one murdered and the other convicted of the crime. 

It was 1999 in Baltimore, Maryland. There was an ice storm that closed school for two days. There was hockey and wrestling. There were cars, and jobs, and friends, and teachers. There were two devastated families of two good kids - one Korean-American and the other Pakistani-American.

Rhode Island: Not Just Family Guy

Sam Simas is a Technology Assistant at the Morrill Memorial Library this winter and spring. Read Sam's column in the September 1, 2016 issue of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

I give directions by referencing where things used-to-be; I drink cabinets from Newport Creamery, and I drank coffee milk and Del’s Lemonade growing up (I still do, but that’s our secret).  And like most people believe themselves to be, I am a questionably qualified driver--although I’ve been told Massachusetts-people (Massachusettites?  Massachusettans?  You all really need to work on that...) don’t agree. I’m used to telling people, “No, Quahog is not an actual town,” when I am asked about the television show Family Guy.  I may be a stereotypical Rhode Islander.