Geeking on Blogs

Speaking of geeking out, one of my favorite ways to "geek" is to read blogs. I have my favorites, which generally coincide with my interests, and then I have my fancies, which don't completely coincide with my interests but which do vaguely remind me of things that I'm interested in.

Here's a couple favorites and a couple fancies:

Neatorama includes a mish-mash of information; recent posts include titles like "The Dark Side of Disney" and "Words That Changed Their Meanings." http://www.neatorama.com/

Dark Roasted Blend posts about "weird and wonderful things." Enough said. http://www.darkroastedblend.com/

Envirovore: Eat Your Greens is a blog created by Missoula locals that discusses local and international food issues. http://envirovore.com/

Then, of course, I like to check up some of the library related blogs listed in MPL's blogroll. (See links on the right.)

And what about you, Missoula? What blogs do you read? Please tell. I'm always on the lookout for interesting new reads.

Geeks of the World Unite and Take Over!

What do you geek?

That’s what the folks at geekthelibrary.org are asking and the answers are diverse. This online project has spearheaded a community-based public awareness campaign aimed at spreading the good word about the vital role of public libraries. The project organizers believe that “no matter who you are, there are things you are passionate about—things you geek. Maybe you geek engineering or hip hop. Maybe you are passionate about composting, schooners or vampires. Or maybe you just geek the weather. Whatever you geek, serious or fun, the public library supports you!”

I discovered GeektheLibrary today via a BooklistOnline blog. I enjoyed learning what other library lovers across the country are passionate about and how they use libraries to pursue their interests and hobbies. The ‘Get Your Geek On’ section invites participants to talk about what they geek and you can also find some great tips on how you can turn your library love into a little social activism. Take a minute to explore the site and don’t forget to post a comment here and tell us what it is that you geek!

p.s.

I geek the Missoula River Market!

nincompoop? balderdash? scuttlebutt?

Did you know that ...

Red tape originally referred to the red colored tape used to secure legal documents or other official correspondence.

Versions of the word yo originated in the early fifteenth century as a warning or call to attention.

To jump on the bandwagon was first popularized in political campaigns.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weird Word Origins by Paul McFedries has made a pit stop at my desk before wending its way to the "NEW" shelf in the young adult department. I was surprised to find an entry for the word book -- I mean, it doesn't seem like such a weird word, but the origin is interesting! Here is the listing I found:

"Authors sometimes jokingly refer to themselves as 'tree-killers' because of the great numbers of trees that go into the making of their books. However, from a historical point of view, they could also get away with calling themselves 'tree-makers.' That's because the word book can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times when scribblers used to scribble on chunks of bark from the beech tree. Their name for this tree was boc, and eventually that also became their name for the slabs of beech bark-based writings that they would bind together. That word eventually changed to book and stuck around even when the beech-bark slabs were replaced by printed pages." (p. 18, 2008)

Celebrating the Fourth

I can hardly believe it's already the Fourth of July. Did it sneak up on you too? Don't panic if you're expecting a bunch of guests and haven't figured out what to do with them yet, the library is here for you.

Take a stroll through our cookbook section to find some funky new ways to fire up the grill. Then sidestep over to our selections on outdoor entertaining - you're sure to find something that will wow them (we won't tell that you didn't think it up on your own!).

Hope everybody has a safe and happy Fourth of July!

"Fire and Brimstone"

The Frenchtown Branch (of Missoula Public Library) Book Discussion Group just finished discussing the book we read over the course of the month of May. The book, called Fire and Brimstone, was, we all agreed, a page turner. It was written by local writer/scholar Michael Punke and is a non-fiction account of the Butte mining disaster of 1917. Fire and Brimstone also discusses in a broader sense the social/economical/political climate of Butte around the time of the disaster.

Although I had some knowledge of Butte's tumultuous history before reading the book, I hadn't realized just how dramatic the events that took place in Butte during that time period were and how much they affected the nation at large. According to Punke, "...everything about Butte looms larger than life, magnified, exaggerated, like some gross caricature of itself. Butte's villain are more villainous, its heroes more heroic, its wealth more extravagant, its poverty more grinding. Butte's triumphs are the stuff of legends. Butte's tragedies are almost too painful to bear" (273-274). Here's' some especially interesting snippets I learned from Punke's book:

--In the late 1800's-early 1900's, William Clark, one of Butte's infamous "Copper Kings," spent 7 million dollars building a mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York with money he'd made in Butte (41).

--Former Montana Senator B.K. Wheeler, a man who "settled in Butte as a result of a losing poker hand" and who started his political career there as the federal district attorney for Montana, turned down the opportunity to run for Vice President on the same ticket as FDR in 1944 (73). Had he been FDR's running mate, it's likely that he would have ended up as the first and only president from Montana after the president died in 1945 (263-264).

--To establish the Berkeley Pit in 1955, 6,000 Butte homes were destroyed. Additionally, the Pit swallowed churches, cemeteries, and Columbia Gardens, a local amusement park. Today the inoperative Pit is filled with toxic turquoise water, water so poisonous that when a flock of snow geese made the mistake of landing there, they died. And, the scariest part about the Pit is that the level of that poisonous water is rising. If nothing is done about the rising water, analysts speculate that it will spill over the edge of the Pit around 2025 and flood the town and valley below. Drag. (269).

If the book sounds interesting to you, you can, of course, find copies at the Library. And if you're interested in checking out the Fire and Brimstone book club kit or another one of our book club kits, follow the MORE RESOURCES link on our home page to reach a link to a list of our available kits.

*Punke, Michael. Fire and Brimstone. New York: Hyperion, 2006.