Aug

31

Jellyfishing!

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 31, 2007 | 2 Comments

I’ve always had a fascination with jellyfish. These strange, brainless, spineless bells that swim through the ocean trailing deadly tentacles, sometimes reaching one-hundred feet long, are beautiful and strange, and beautiful because they’re so strange. I recently ran across an article detailing myths about dealing with jellyfish stings and actual remedies. (The article is from […]

Aug

27

Dog Days: It’s A Dog’s Life.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 27, 2007 | 1 Comment

The Call Of The Wild by Jack London
The other day I saw a pack of dogs scavenging in a vacant lot. There was something depressing, even tragic about it. For humans the veneer of civilization is thin; for our best friends, dogs, it’s even thinner. When it’s scratched away only a complete retreat into the […]

Aug

24

Thank You For Not Smoking.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 24, 2007 | 4 Comments

I have a confession to make: I used to be a smoker. I gave up several years of smoking first cheap cigars, then even cheaper cigarettes, then back to cheap cigars, then quit, then, one night, picked up a cheap cigar, lit up, sputtered and said, “Oh yeah, now I remember why I quit.” And, […]

Aug

20

Dog Days: Whose Leash Is It, Anyway?

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

The Other End Of The Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
Dogs do funny things. Anyone who’s ever lived with and loved a dog probably has numerous stories of times their dogs did something strange, funny, or even even seemingly supernaturally intelligent. For anyone who’s thinking of getting a […]

Aug

17

Show And Smell.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”
–William Shakespeare, Romeo And Juliet, Act II, Scene 2
It may seem almost too painfully obvious to link Shakespeare’s overly quoted line to a fragrance produced by CB I Hate Perfume called In The Library, but, hey, can you think […]

Aug

15

The Eyes Have It.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment

An exhibit currently on display through October 7th, 2007, at the Frist Center For The Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee, features the work of ceramic artist and Nashville resident Sylvia Hyman. This is also the year Hyman turns ninety, but she’s still going strong, producing new work, and has, for several years, been producing extraordinary […]

Aug

13

Dog Days: Dog Star.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Dogsbody by Dianna Wynn Jones
What if strange, supernatural beings inhabited each star, overseeing the destinies not only of the planets that orbit them but the individual creatures on each of those planets? And what if one of those beings were exiled, as punishment for a terrible crime, to life as a creature on one […]

Aug

10

Library Hero.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 10, 2007 | 1 Comment

One of the tough questions for librarians is, how do you get kids to come in, let alone read? As the Fort Dodge(Iowa) Messenger reports, the Humboldt Public Library is luring kids in with an offer to play Guitar Hero. Once there they’ll be approached by fellow teens who are part of the library’s Teen […]

Aug

8

The New Laureate.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 8, 2007 | 2 Comments

This strange thing must have crept
Right out of hell.
-from “Fork” by Charles Simic
Charles Simic has been named the fifteenth Poet Laureate of the United States. Simic was born in Belgrade on May 9, 1938. With his parents he moved several times (he’s said “Hitler and Stalin were my travel agents”) before coming to the United […]

Aug

6

Dog Days: Saving Gracie.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 6, 2007 | 1 Comment

Amazing Gracie by Dan Dye and Mark Beckloff 
Shortly before he turned thirty, three major things happened in Dan Dye’s life: the dog he’d grown up with, who’d shared most of his childhood, died; he and his roommate Mark Beckloff purchased a decaying mansion in Kansas City with a plan to refurbish it and sell it for […]

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