Artifacts from my camera

Locked out of the parish fallout shelter....


NOOO!!!! Why did the Iranians have to bomb the Mcdonald's in Toledo?



The Catholic Church in Toledo


Belle Isle, Detroit

The meat market in Detroit...oh, the tortures poor Emma suffered.


The Carmen Miranda Frog at the Erie Street Market (remember pushing me around there, Brianna?)

Emma's Coming!

And I fully intend to try every vegetarian restaurant in Ann Arbor, but especially the Earthen Jar.

Do the Phishers think I'm STOOOPID?

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New Technology

OK...so this may not be historically accurate...but haven't we all felt like the poor helpdesk guy when trying to teach someone how to search a database?

The emperor has no clothes?

Does THIS sound like an executive order from an administration that is not ashamed of its actions?

Just a short summary (in case you don't like reading this sort of thing)...this order "allows incumbent or former presidents and their heirs to withhold the release of presidential papers that would otherwise be made public after 12 years, even if national security matters are not involved" (American Libraries Direct, 2/14/2007). A segment of the faculty at Southern Methodist University, backed by the Society of American Archivists, are resisting the construction of the Bush Library until he backs down on this.

In related news, one of my colleagues at the Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor uncovered some documents that revealed Dick Cheney's actions back in the Ford administration in a fairly unfavorable light. PBS and The New York Times cover it. No big surprise, really.

Slaughterhouse 5 and Toni Morrison Book Challenged in Michigan School

Conservative values group challenges five books in advanced English class because of sex and violence content.

Questions:

1. At what age should kids be exposed to "real" events like slavery and war? Is there a way to satisfactorily portray these historical events without including explicit material like swearing and sex?

2. Does it matter that these books are in an optional class? Does it matter that this is a public vs. private school?

3. Does it matter that these are books with literary merit as opposed to movies, rock music, etc.?

March of the Librarians

Let's go Krogering!

How often do you think about grocery stores? I would argue that they are an important symbol of a civilization's mode of existence. Have you noticed that virtually every escape- from- communism- into- democracy story features a first trip to a western grocery store? I think we should all write brief histories of shopping. They would be illuminative of our socio-economic backgrounds.

My first grocery memories are of Pueblo and Pueblo Xtra. While they didn't carry North American staples like chocolate chips or whole wheat flour or raspberries, they were a step above my grandmother's situation -- she used to have to drive to San Juan to procure anything more than rice and beans.

I was always marveled at Meijer when I would visit the States. The rows upon rows of bulk candy, the free samples, the sanitized shininess and lack of aroma in the meat and fruit departments. Finally, we got a Walmart in Puerto Rico and it seemed that we had arrived.

But after moving to the States I became more picky. I always left Walmart (i.e. "Mecca" in Leesburg) smelling slightly of fried chicken and Chinese labor camps. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, of course, leave one feeling much more enlightened and middle-class. But for everyday shopping without connotations, there is always Kroger in the midwest.

Wait...there ARE heroes in Iraq!

Director of Iraq's National Library and Archive blogs. Reason #3,657 why war is bad: it destroys cultural repositories (cf. Dresden in WWII).

My Day

1. "How are you?" "Functional, thank you."

2. What is a nonexample?

3. Pharmacies are confusing.

4. I am more depressed than 90% 0f my peers (perhaps this is a nonexample of things that should be posted on a blog).

5. You know those objective statements at the beginning of syllabuses? Those things we always assumed the professors pulled out of their . . . hats? Well, there are actually books about them. They're called "taxonomies of educational objectives." Who would have thought?

6. Harry Potter (well, the actor) is starring in a play about a teenager who finds horses erotic (Equus). There is a nude scene. There are promo pictures, but I'm not posting them here. I just thought you should know.