Snake Oil

It's getting so hard to find decent snake oil these days.

And don't get me started on dehydrated water. Not one local retailer. Not one.

Overheard

Overheard* Monday morning at 8:30 in the central stairwell of Lamont Library, spoken by a young woman into her cell phone:

"Hello, yes. Can I get something in writing that states that I do not have a restraining order against you?"

How does that work? If you are the party who would otherwise have issued a restraining order, wouldn't it be logical to supply your own written statement to that fact? Otherwise, we had all better start writting out statements for all the people we don't mind having within 500' of me. I'm going to start with Rachel Ray. ;-)

And how would you like to be the person on the other end of the line, dealing with this early morning non-sequitur?

blink blink "Do you need this before I have my first cup of coffee?"

*Based on the number of times I overhear bizarre things people declaim into their cell phones in public spaces, this might become a new running feature.

Electric Lighting

Is lightning enlightening?
Or can only lighting
enlighten?

Lightning will lighten,
as lightning's lighting lights,
but is this lightening
enlightening?

Even so, is it
the lightning that
enlightens or
just the lightning's
lightening that
enlightens?

Luminous luminaries of
voluminous illumination
will illuminate
what shocking shocks
this shocking shock
may shake.

Hallowe'en Train

We asked Harry what he wanted to be for Hallowe'en this year.

"I want to be a train."

Do you mean, you want to be an engineer? He got a nifty new engineer uniform for his birthday in August.

"No, I want to be a train."

So Gretchen cobbled together this costume: Harry the Train.

It's Thomas, of course.

Good thing we saved all those boxes, huh?

Nicky dressed as a vampire and Gilly as a pumpkin.

Pretty good, huh?

Coffee for the Uninformed

A new cafe is opening in my library tomorrow.

I hate it.

Sure, it's nice looking. This time, the architects and designers succeeded in making the addition look like the rest of the building. And I love coffee.

So what's the problem? The new cafe has completely replaced our reference collection and services.

Awful, huh? You don't know the half of it.

Boring Lunch

Poor tired Gilly.

Oh, well. Not every meal can be exciting.

James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones came to speak and read at our local library yesterday. While I couldn't go, Gretchen and the kids went. The Providence Journal was on hand to take pictures.


If you look in the bottom left corner, you can see Gretchen with most of her brood.