crumpledpostits

2011-08-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” -Victor Hugo

September is National Literacy Month

Thirty days has September, make them count! From September 1 - September 30, 2011, please join The World Eye Book Shop in supporting The Literacy Project by purchasing any book from the fiction section. Your purchase will allow The World Eye Book Shop to donate 10% of the purchase price to The Literacy Project (exlcuding Best Sellers).

Don't forget to drop your change in The Literacy Project's donation box!!

Support The Literacy Project because everyone deserves access to education.

Sound advice if ever I've heard it.

2011-08-30T16:39:00.001-07:00

The unmoveable bar.

2011-08-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

how am i to manage my emotions and actions when what i think i wanted i've found, but it turns out to be something else entirely?
what if what you want doesn't matter at all? what if it's all about what you do with what you have? all...the way...to the top. to what you were after in the first place? in other words: is what you do with what you have in the interim a guarantor you'll end up getting what you want as you're perpetually contented and working?
are other people responsible for their own actions? if they are: i am. and quite frankly, i'm not taking the heat for some of the bullshit that's gone down. In fact, I'm not so sure I don't want to be responsible for their actions, because isn't there an inherent amount of power that comes with responsibility?
what does it say about having goals when you get what you want and it doesn't turn out to be what you wanted at all? are goals therefore frivolity meant to motivate us, pressure us and stress us to the point where mere relief is mistaken for accomplishment or satisfaction?

Most Common Words In Toy Adverts

2011-06-21T21:49:00.000-07:00

Most Common Words In Toy Adverts: "

Most common words in toy adverts, split by gender. From The Achilles Effect.

Unsurprising results – but still worth tutting over.

See them rendered in Wordle too – boys & girls.

A library is many things

2011-05-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

A library is many things: "Early-1971, in an effort to attract as many youngsters to the premises as possible, Marguerite Hart — children's librarian at the newly-opened public library in Troy, Michigan — wrote to a number of notable people with a request: to reply with a congratulatory letter, addressed to the children of Troy, in which the benefits of visiting such a library were explained in some form. It's heartening to know that an impressive 97 people did exactly that, and below are just four of those replies, all from authors: Isaac Asimov; Hardie Gramatky; Theodore Geisel; and E. B. White.

(Although sadly a common situation these days, it's worth noting that Troy Public Library is currently dodging closure. How long it remains open is a mystery.)

UPDATE: Philip Kwik of Troy Public Library has been in touch. All 97 letters have now been posted to the library website and can be viewed, as PDFs, by following this link. This is an incredible collection of letters from a whole host of names, and makes for amazing reading. Many thanks Philip.

Transcripts follow. All images courtesy of Troy Public Library.

Transcript

16 March 1971

Dear Boys and Girls,

Congratulations on the new library, because it isn't just a library. It is a space ship that will take you to the farthest reaches of the Universe, a time machine that will take you to the far past and the far future, a teacher that knows more than any human being, a friend that will amuse you and console you---and most of all, a gateway, to a better and happier and more useful life.

(Signed, 'Isaac Asimov')

Isaac Asimov

Transcript

Hardie Gramatky

60 Roseville Road

Westport, Conn.

April 26, 1971

To the Young People of

The Troy Public Library

Troy, Michigan.

Dear Boys and Girls:

I have just heard the good news about your having your own Public Library. How can anyone be so lucky. You must be proud and happy, indeed.

You already know, I am sure, of the wonderful new worlds this immediately opens to you. The chance to meet the most interesting people and the chance to make many new friends. What a choice you will have.

And how many of us likes to travel? We all do! The joy of it all is that through reading books we can visit the most exciting far-away places. Then when we actually go there we will have enough knowledge to make that place ten times as interesting.

How I envy you, boys and girls. Your new library brings you more joy than you can have in a life time. Be sure to use it.

All my love,

(Signed, 'Hardie Gramatky')

[Illustration]

AND LOVE FROM LITTLE TOOT

Transcript

Dr. Seuss

7301 Encelia Drive

La Jolla, California 92037

Dear Children of Troy:

Read!

Read!

Read!

Read!

Read!

Read!

That's the advice of your good friend, Dr. Seuss

Transcript

E. B. WHITE

NORTH BROOKLIN, MAINE

April 14, 1971

Dear Children of Troy:

Your librarian has asked me to write, telling you what a library can mean to you.

A library is many things. It's a place to go, to get in out of the rain. It's a place to go if you want to sit and think. But particularly it is a place where books live, and where you can get in touch with other people, and other thoughts, through books. If you want to find out about something, the information is in the reference books---the dictionaries, the encyclopedias, the atlases. If you like to be told a story, the library is the place to go. Books hold most of the secrets of the world, most of the thoughts that men and women have had. And when you are reading a book, you and the author are alone together---just the two of you. A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered or undecided, for there, in a book, you may have your question answered. Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people---people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.

(Signed, 'EB White')

My guys.

2011-01-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

There's something anecdotal about them. There has to be, though the exact words evade me now.

Christmas Turkey

2011-01-31T19:48:00.000-08:00

Track 7 on any given CD is almost always good. I'm sure there's an instance where Barry Manilow tells us I Write the Songs in the seven spot. It's a bad day when Achy Breaky Heart ends up there or someone slipped in 'MacArthur Park' quickly by accident before a road trip. Sometimes, these and other acrid tunes are so bad they're good. Six was afraid of seven for more than it's voracious appetite. You should test the theory. You'll see.
Albums, kids. They're where it's at. Yes, I still use CDs. No, I don't own an iPod. I am now and always have been a believer in the mix.

3 Reasons why Chelsea Handler is a trash-bag.

2011-01-31T19:34:00.000-08:00

1.She treats perfectly respectable people like they're morons while she sounds like an insecure 13 year-old. Hint: speaking intelligently and respectfully gets you places that shaking like a leaf while trash talking never thought of.
2.She's kindofa who-err.
3.You're not 20, Chels. Time to become a lady.

At the end of the day 7-21-10

2011-01-31T19:33:00.000-08:00

At the end of the lifelong day, I want to be able to say I had many like today. I had what I feel like is a real and true grown-up good day. We begin with waking up in a house I'm sitting. Shower (major plus here as the clawfoot tub and I are on the hate end of our relationship). Breakfast and good coffee in a to-go mug. 20 minute commute where I thought deeply about news stories and the state of things. Work. Work where I taught a class at the Community College and got along with my primary co-worker. Work where I got some stuff done and left early. I changed some to-dos into to-dones.

The world is full of boys, be a man.

2011-01-31T18:44:00.000-08:00

I'm 30. I'm looking for my last first kiss.
Eons away from days spent pouring over the details and discussing it wildly with chitteringly gleeful hopefuls playing with little girl toys, talking big girl dreams. Well past the age where I'm taken to distant places by the idea of my first kiss. Or, for that matter, a first kiss. Any. Her first kiss, they kissed, would you kiss...blank? Fill in the name and pass it back to me. Top secret.
Mine was outside during a school dance with a boy and attended by no less than twelve people. It was so easy! So...planned. And it could be: the date, the time, the place compiled by a group of young people and brought to fruition by a pair as unmatched as the lost sock under your dryer to mine. You weren't sure what to do about on-lookers, but you sure knew what you had to do to keep your eye on the prize. You had to do M.A.S.H. The outcome of which you could bet a friendship, a 'totally awesome' cool thing was spoiled by trend possibly days later or even cross-your-heart-and-hope-to-die about. Fate had been decided, no doubt, at the lunch table, then all you had to do was show up.
Any first kiss, at it's inception is full of promise.
Times have changed, yet I haven't learned much. I still get whisked off to a place where things and people and timing is just right where nobody worries about why and everyone knows what is. Kisses? Sure, they're in there. And there's still a committee that decides or at least reviews these things in my life. We don't convene at recess (lie) or at sleepovers (lie) or play with toys (lie) or swoon over videos, but we YouTube the shit out of them. Remember that? Me, too. When the committee's on recess, there's a fair amount of movies to fill my head with deceptively simple romance in case I forget about it or try to ignore it. This means you, Cameron Crowe. Why you gotta go making movies that make me consider these things are possible?
And when it isn't? I mean, if there aren't any on-lookers or rooters or fortune-telling pages from a notebook involved. When we're one boombox and one trench coat short of Lloyd Dobbler. What then? What now?
Now we wait.

With respect to the Beats:

2010-08-04T19:51:00.000-07:00

“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!” -Jack Kerouac

Embezzling Jerome.

2010-07-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

I heard a bit of advice today from the MOST unlikely source: Jerry Seinfeld (on Oprah, no less). If you know me, you know just how cataclysmic this whole scenario truly is. That said, he gave such a decent and honest tidbit of advice that I'm sure he didn't make it up. He said, "Don't be such a good accountant."
In my life, while the Seinfeld credits are not offset by the Jerry debits, I feel I've learned a little from him. With others, like ourselves, we shouldn't be keeping such good score. Being forgetful could do a lot of us a lot of good. Is it really all that big a deal who eats the last whobobber or owes whom umpteen dollars? It makes us more impatient and synical. Hearing the adage made me appreciate the leniency of the good people who are unaware of my stats (you know who you are). In the future, I hope not to be so irritated when the scales tip, but don't topple. Forgiveness is the name of the game.
But don't tell anyone I heard it from Jerry. Besides, who's counting?

Who Has Seen the Wind?

2010-07-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

And we all shine on. Like the moon and the stars and the sun.
John Lennon

Instant Karma is one of those songs I crank out of respect. For me, for John Lennon, for all of us. I don't have a recording of it in any form, so hearing on the radio is still the treat that was intended from the Isle of Wight. I rock out to this song and it speaks to me like a really good, long-lost friend. I connect to it instanly, however briefly and think 'Yeah.' while I nod to the beat.
Last night, in a particularly low place, it reached into my head and pulled me out. I looked up and knew my place right away when, like the needle touching down, Instant Karma scratched, hi-fi, into my mind's ear. Heard it clear as, well, night. It was all the perspective I needed.
We're so small and so fleeting as creatures...we're so insignificant in the grand scheme of all this. Do you think the stars give a damn? I don't think so. When faced by the Atlantic, a favorite of mine wondered aloud: "Who the hell do we think we are?" That's how I felt when I spotted them last night - and what a comfort! It really isn't all complicated. In fact, it's clearer to me now than it has been: we are here to help each other through this. On and on and on...

Sliding in to home...

2010-07-09T23:53:00.000-07:00

For the love of whatever you believe in at 2:53 a.m., I have arrived in the blogosphere at last. I'm pretty sure I missed the tag, time to brush of some infield and tip my cap. Nuh night.