Let Us Have Music for Christmas

It's now roughly 10 days before Christmas, so I feel ready to pull out the Christmas music.  This might seem a little late, but Christmas music is something I want to enjoy right through New Year's Day.  If I start in listening to it the day after Thanksgiving,  I'll be deleting those playlists on Christmas Eve.  And I do mean playlists.  I currently have 7 Christmas playlists, ranging from Alternative Christmas to Urban Christmas to Traditional Christmas, as well as one labeled Winter Music.  Altogether that is 291 Christmas songs.  And that's not to mention the 5 albums of Christmas music that I inherited from my parents.  I play these on a console stereo that I picked up at an antique store in Duluth.  Listening to old albums on an old stereo takes me right back to Christmases in my parents' home-putting the reflectors behind every bulb on the Christmas tree, bringing up the coat hangar from the basement that held the tinsel we reused from year to year (not the flimsy stuff you can by now, this was almost like liquid metal), searching the box of ornaments for my own special one, the large red and white one with the reflective hole in the middle.

Some favorites of the era include the classic version of The Little Drummer Boy by the Harry Simone Choir, Dean Martin's cheeky 'Baby It's Cold Outside, Kay Starr's jazzy ''(Everybody's Waitin' For) The Man with the Bag", and 'What Are you Doing New Year's Eve?' by Nancy Wilson.  Most of these are actually off of the original  'Christmas Cocktails' CD, which I think is the best of the series.

Music has a special way of taking us back to a certain place and time.  Nostalgia is comforting, but I also don't want to get stuck in a Christmas music rut.  Every year I look for new sources of Christmas music.  This year I found Weezer's 'Christmas with Weezer' ep on Spotify, with some unexpected versions of traditional Christmas tunes.  Another newish fave is the 'Holidays Rule' CD, which includes an acoustic guitar rendition of 'Senor Santa' by Y La Bamba. The CD 'Alternative Rock X-Mas' has a rollicking cover of 'Please Daddy, Don't Get drunk this Christmas' performed by the Decemberists.  'Keegan's Christmas' by Marcy Playground is about a boy waiting up for Santa, and '12.23.95' by Jimmy Eat World is a wistful story of a Christmas break-up.

When I'm in a quiet Winter mood as opposed to a Christmas mood it's time for the Winter Music playlist.  'To Drive the Cold Winter Away' by Loreena McKennitt has some nice atmospheric tunes, as does Anne Dudley's 'Ancient and Modern'.  'Nordic Nights'  by Ely Minnesota raised violinist  Eli Bissonett captures the mood of Winter in the North. This playlist also contains two of my absolute favorite songs by Sting, 'Ghost Story' and 'Gabriel's Message.'

I could literally go on and on.  Please share your own favorites-I'm always open to suggestions for more Christmas music. And be sure to stop in the library and browse our collection of holiday music. As a thank you for following our little blog, I share with you the inimitable Patti Page.  Happy Holidays!

The 3rd Annual Thanksgiving Cookbook Extravaganza! Vegetable Dilemmas

It's hard to believe that this is the third year of the annual Thanksgiving Cookbook Extravaganza! As I contemplate my menu for the meal, the question always comes into my mind of whether or not to include a vegetables other than some type of potato. No one ever eats them but still I feel there should be a token something on the table. This year I turn to food history to help me decide.

To begin at the beginning, I will investigate the "harvest celebration of 1621", as the first Thanksgiving was called by the inhabitants of Plimoth Plantation.  According to Smithsonian.com. the menu would have consisted mainly of poultry, venison, fish and shellfish, nuts, and perhaps corn..  Potatoes, both sweet and white, were not yet known in North America. No cranberry sauce. Wheat for flour was scarce, as was butter (no pumpkin pie).  The turkey or other wild fowl would have been stuffed with onions and herbs.

In a letter of 1779, Juliana Smith describes a New England Thanksgiving dinner to her Cousin Betsey, which includes this description of a vegetable: "one which I do not believe you have yet seen.  It is called Sellery and you eat it without cooking."  The full menu is still pretty meat-centric. I feel the "sellery" is only included as a novelty.

           Haunch of Venison          Roast Chine of Pork                     Roast Goose
              Roast Turkey                     Pigeon Pasties                               Onions in Cream
              Cauliflower                        Squash                                            Potatoes
              Raw Celery                       Mincemeat Pie                               Pumpkin Pie
              Indian Pudding               Plum Pudding                               Apple Pie


So where did our traditional menu come from?  Most likely from the Victorians of the 1800's, which is when Sarah Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book, made a big push for Thanksgiving. According to Smithsonian.com there was a real nostalgia for the Colonial era at this time.  In 1863 Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday.  The Original Boston Cooking-School Cookbook of 1896 offers this menu:

          Oyster Soup                         Crisp Crackers                                 Celery
           Salted Almonds                    Roast Turkey                                   Cranberry Jelly
           Mashed Potatoes                 Onions in Cream                             Squash
           Chicken Pie                           Fruit Pudding                                   Sterling Sauce
           Fancy Cakes                         Neapolitan Ice Cream                   Mince, Apple and Squash
           Nuts and Raisins                Bonbons                                                     Pies
           Crackers                                Cheese     

I have to admit that I like the unabashedly celebratory feel of this menu. Oysters, meats and lots of desserts. Also lots of crackers. Celery is still there though.    

By 1949 the menu was smaller and more manageable for a housewife without extra help. The Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking suggest this holiday  menu:

         Roast Turkey                                     Oyster or Chestnut Dressing             Giblet Gravy
         Mashed Potatoes                              Buttered Onions                                    Cranberry Sauce
        Hot Rolls, Butter                               Head Lettuce, 1000 Island Dressing
        Pumpkin or Apple Pie          

More onions still, buttered this time.  Who would have thought?

Marthastewart.com offers several Thanksgiving menus, many of  which include onions. She suggests Braised Onions, Roasted Pears and Red Onions, or Glazed Pearl Onions.  

Of these menus onions are the only vegetable to appear on all three.  So, in the interest of being historically accurate, I am going to go with the lowly onion as the side dish this year.  I think maybe I'll just throw pearl onions in the pan with the turkey and let them caramelize.  Yum.  

For help with your own menu dilemmas, stop by the library before you start cooking.  Check out the display of holiday cookbooks for menu ideas.  We are open until 6:00 pm on Wednesday the 25th.

A very happy remembrance of the Harvest Celebration of 1621 to you all. 

              
         

Blinded by the Meaning

This past weekend I was sitting outside on a patio, enjoying the lovely weather and my morning cup of coffee.  It was at a hotel in the Twin Cities and they have music piped out there.  Generally I ignore the background music, but this playlist was actually pretty good. And then they played it.  Manfred Mann's Earth Band's 'Blinded by the Light.'  I commented to my husband that I had never liked this song, and we got to discussing it.  First off, what are the lyrics?  And what can they possibly mean?  Some kind of druggy trip?  Or a night in a club?

We found out that the song was written by Bruce Springsteen-who knew? When you look up the lyrics, the words don't mean much at all.  It's just a song. No deep meaning.  Just something to be enjoyed (or not).

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

This year the theme of the library's Halloween trick-or-treat is Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', another piece of art that people are constantly looking for the meaning of.  Some claim Lewis Carroll was under the influence of drugs when he wrote it.  Or that Carroll had a problem with children.  There are all kinds of scholarly papers that may be found online explaining the deep, possibly dark, meaning of Alice and her adventures.

My question is, why?  Why are we looking for deep meanings in something that is a charming children's book? And it's not the only children's book to be dissected for some deeper meaning beyond enjoyment.  J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Lord of the Rings' has been put under a microscope.  So have the Narnia Chronicles by C,S, Lewis. In fact, right now I am reading a book on how the Great War affected both of these men and their writings. Or take  Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials." It is supposedly based on John Milton's "Paradise Lost",  but on his website  Pullman states that when people ask him the meaning of the story his reply is that "I'm not in the message business.  I'm in the 'Once upon a time' business."

My own theory is that as adults we are looking for some more compelling reason why certain stories stick with us from childhood, apart from simple enjoyment.  As adults we must leave that childhood sense of wonder and nonsense behind and find a rationale for our likes and dislikes.  But why?  Why do we need to justify liking this or that story?  As well try to explain why you like 'Blinded by the Light' by Manfred Mann, or why you like chocolate, or anything else that defies descriptions and reasons.  Retaining that childhood sense of wonder and delight is a beautiful thing. And if adults did not retain it, we wouldn't have an Alice in Wonderland, or Frodo or any other beloved characters of fiction, characters so beloved that we carry them along into adulthood.

Yes, perhaps there are deeper meanings to fairy tales and such.  Perhaps they do speak to some deep psychological need in us all.  But that is secondary to the simple enjoyment they give.  I highly recommend re-reading that beloved childhood tale for your own pure enjoyment.  Get reacquainted with your inner child.

I think I'll give Manfred Mann a second listen while I contemplate my Halloween costume.

Take your own trip down the rabbit hole at the Superior Public Library's Halloween Trick-or-Treat! Friday October 30th from 10:00-noon and 2:00-4:00.  Bring along a non-perishable food item for the food shelf.










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Stuff

While packing for an upcoming vacation I was reminded of George Carlin's classic routine about stuff.  Do you remember it?  You can easily find it on YouTube (be forewarned, it's George Carlin so there's some language).  It's hilarious and so true. What to bring on the journey and what to leave behind?

The last vacation I took I planned for sunny skies and little rain and packed accordingly.  When it rained the WHOLE TIME I ended up wearing the same clothes for 4 days in a row.  Why on earth did I worry about packing a different outfit for every day?  I am keeping this in mind as I pack my suitcase. Who cares if I wear the same thing for days?  I'm never going to see these people again, or even be in the same city for more than 2 days.

Anyone moving into student housing or a first apartment has to figure out what stuff to bring and what stuff to leave, too.  Sometimes Mom and Dad give you the stuff they were saving for you, but maybe you don't like that stuff.  Or maybe your roommates don't like your stuff.  They have their own stuff.  Stuff gets to be a problem.

We all know Americans are the largest consumers on the planet.  According to internationalbusinessguide.org,  the American consumer market is 29% of the world market, followed distantly by Japan with 8.51%.  There are 300,000 items in the average American home (LA Times), and 25% of people with a two car garage can't fit two cars inside of it! (US Department of Energy).  The average American woman owns 30 outfits (that sounds about right for me, and I got rid of a lot of clothes this summer).  In 1930, she owned 9 (Forbes). I found these fun facts on http://www.becomingminimalist.com/clutter-stats/ and I must say I was astounded by some of them. 300,000?  Surely not I.

But then I figured all my silverware (2 sets at least), dishes (ditto), pens, cooking utensils, shoes, books (of course!), the kids' stuff that I'm "saving" for them, inherited pieces that I feel too guilty to give away but never use or even like, and what exactly is stored in my two cedar chests? 300,000 is totally possible.

One thing I have noticed is that a lot of librarians like to keep stuff.  I look around the library and I see we all have a lot of stuff.  Perhaps it's just that people who like to keep stuff tend to go into the Library Science field, which after all involves cataloging and organizing stuff- mostly books, but other stuff too.

                          Librarian Stuff

Anyway, sometimes we can feel overwhelmed with stuff. If you need help paring down or organizing your stuff we can help.  Whether you want to build some shelves, organize a closet, or pare down,  the library has materials to help you get started.  And when you are done you will feel a new lightness.  And have room for more stuff.

Babs and Chip in "Terror on the Mountain!"

The following is based upon a true story.

They drove the truck up the last few miles of dirt road, the serpentine switchbacks taking them higher and higher until they were finally up above the treeline.  The drive up the mountain had taken them past little rivers and gentle waterfalls.  The sunshine had even peeked out a couple of times.  Now the mist shrouded everything. Earlier in the day Chip and Babs had spoken to an old timer that warned them of snow up on the mountain, but they were doubtful.  Snow in the middle of July?  Rain was much more likely.

Reaching a level spot at the end of the dirt road, they parked their sturdy 4-wheel drive and got out. The trail over the mountains was clearly laid out, a straight line traversing the side of the mountain just down from the top of the ridge until it bent out of sight around some boulders.

"Well, what do you think?  Still want to go on this adventure?" asked Babs, her eyes on the grey clouds looming.

"That's why we came all this way, isn't it?  We have no choice at this point.  If we wanted to back out we should have done it in Superior, or Denver even.  It's too late now.  We're here and we're going to proceed on."

"Proceed on?" she repeated with a smile.  "Those are the words Captain Clark used on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  'We proceeded on'."

Chip smiled back.  "I knew that would get you motivated."

 Babs donned her foul weather gear-wool sweater, sweat pants, buff and scarf, and over all the thin green raincoat, As they headed down the trail all seemed well.  The wind blowing across the high moor was refreshing.  A family of marmots playing in the boulders drew her attention.  As they came to the bend in the path, they saw that it proceeded on ahead around another bend.  "We'll stop up there and see what there is to see", said Chip.

What there was to see was a steep  downward plunge into a deep chasm.  And more clouds.  Soon the wind began to whip up, the light faded, and the rain came lashing down.  Babs pulled up her hood and wished for warmer shoes.  Stopping to catch her breath she noticed the sky light up with a sharp fork of lightening.  The tremendous crash of thunder startled her so much she lost her footing on the now slippery slope and teetered on the edge of the chasm.  Chip, coming up from behind, grabbed her hand as she slipped over and pulled her back up.  But the rain was coming down so fast and hard that the path beneath their feet was beginning to wash down the mountainside.  If they didn't move fast, they would go with it.  Too late.  Even as the thought occurred, she felt the ground beneath her feet slip and slide.  Her tenners lost their grip.  "Chip!" she screamed, and she felt her hand slipping through his.

Well, that's how I like to tell the story.  It did rain while we were hiking.  Everyone needs a little adventure.

Want some adventure in your life?  A good start would be our display of Adventure books. And remember,

"It's not the years, honey, it's the mileage."
                                         

Beginner's Luck?

Last weekend I took the Basic Rider Course at WITC to get my class M Motorcycle Operator’s license.  I was somewhat nervous, having never been on a motorcycle before.  But I can ride a bike, so hey, it can’t be that different, right?  Within in my first half hour on the bike I fell over on it.  I now have the bruises and scuffed boots and a great story to tell about the time I wiped out on my cycle.

Perhaps I should have consulted the ‘Everything Motorcycle Book’, wherein I would have learned that you should not apply the brakes while making a sharp turn on your motorcycle.  Had I done some preliminary prep work, I may have earned my Class M Operator license.

How many times have you jumped into a project without the proper prep work?  Most of us find the preparatory work the boring part.  We want to get to it, make things happen, be finished, and succeed.  But a big part of success is being prepared for success.   

Being an absolute beginner at anything can be very intimidating.  You don’t know the terminology.  How should you hold the knitting needles, or the baseball, or the clutch?  What does knit 1 purl 2 really mean?  How much water is involved in painting with watercolors? Why is it called canning when I am using a jar?

Years ago, people often learned a skill from someone else in the home.  Maybe grandma taught you how to knit or crochet.  Dad threw the ball around with you after dinner, or Mom taught you how to back bread or can.  Today with two parents working and grandma and grandpa living in their own homes longer, many of these skills are no longer passed along and we are on our own if we want to learn them.

Before you go to a class, pick up the paint brush, or throw the ball, check out the library.  We have some great resources for absolute beginners.  The 'for Dummies' series is geared toward the absolute beginner, as are the 'Everything ________' books. The Children's Room is an often overlooked resource for the adult beginner.  You can find books in the Children's Room that explain things in a clear, concise manner.

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I will be retaking that class M license test.  But first I will review all I learned and practice, practice, practice.  Maybe on a scooter.

What's In a Name?

Lettice.  Cale.  Or, if you want to be more traditional, Kale. Maybe Romaine is more to your taste. A recipe for a salad, you ask?  That would be a good guess, but no.  These are actually trending baby names.  Yes,  Baby Lettice.

We have babies on the brain at the library lately since one of our own is due any minute now.  We're always excited to get new patrons, and the youngest patrons are the library's future.

Did you know that you can get your child of any age a library card?  Just have your own card in good standing, and you can get each of your children their own cards, too.  I still remember the day I got my first library card. I remember how excited and privileged I felt.  Having attained the great age of 5, I was now ready for the responsibilities and rights associated with a library card.  I would walk down 12th Street to the Carnegie Library on Hammond Avenue at least once a week.  I was a quiet child and I enjoyed the quiet pursuits of watching the fish in the aquarium, looking at the stereopticon, and of course, choosing and reading books. The Boxcar Children?  The Fannie Farmer Cookbook? Maybe be daring and get both? My choices were ceremoniously brought up to the desk beneath the Mother Goose painting and the nice librarian would look up my card and check them out to me.  I have very warm memories of that Children's Room.

Circa 1975 Children's Ro

Circa 2015 

You can build your own happy memories with your child in our Children's Room, too. The aquarium is gone, but the painting of all the Mother Goose rhymes is still there as well as the nice librarian.

Any child from newborn on up can get their own library card.  And studies show that when you read to your baby, you build important connections in the brain's language, social, and emotional areas.  Holding baby close while you read to him/her fosters feelings of safety and happiness for both of you, and helps baby learn to connect reading with those good feelings.

How about trying out the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program?  Sound daunting?  If you read only one book to your child each night for 3 years you will have read well over 1,000 books!  You may include ANY books your child listens to, whether read by you, a grandparent, sibling, teacher, Kindle, computer-you get the idea.  So long as your child listens to the entire story, even if it's the same one over and over, it counts towards the 1,000 total.

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten is just one of many activities in our Children's Room.  There's Story Hour every Tuesday at 10:30, LEGO Club the first Monday of every month, a new craft every month, movies, Summer Reading Program-check out the newsletter at superiorlibrary.org and then stop by the Children's Room to start building your own memories.

Be sure to bring in baby Cale so we can meet him (or her?).

Do you have fond memories of the library?  I would love to hear them! 

March Madness

"O, that way madness lies; let me shun that;
no more of that."
                                         King Lear


March Madness starts this Sunday. If you want to know more about it, check out http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/march-madness.htm. 65 (or is it 64?-so confusing) teams vying for the National Championship? I'm with King Lear on this one. May the best team win.

Merriam-Webster defines madness as: the quality or state of being mad: as

                                                           a. rage;
                                                           b.insanity;
                                                           c.extreme folly;
                                                           d. ecstasy, enthusiasm

Talk about extremes-from ecstasy to rage. We have all felt these feelings at one time or another. They are part of being a human being, and because we can identify with them they can make for a great story. In William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' all of the above named emotions show up.  No wonder it is the most produced of Shakespeare's plays.

  Talk to the skull 'cause the face ain't listening.





 Love and madness seem to go hand in hand (see d above).  One of my own personal favorite books about madness and love is Susan Fromberg Schaeffer's 'The Madness of a Seduced Woman'. The protagonist is Agnes Dempster, a high strung young girl in 1890's Vermont, who leaves her family home in the country to begin a new life in the city.  Here she meets and falls in love with a young man, becoming more and more emotionally attached to the point of obsession.

Another favorite by the same author with some of the same themes is  'Time in its Flight'. This novel also takes place in Vermont in the mid-1800s.  Although it is a touching story of a marriage, a big part of the story is how the family deals with the madness of a daughter after the death of her husband and baby girl in a diphtheria epidemic.  I find this story fascinating because people really did go through this-whole families did die in epidemics, and still do today in some parts of the world. How do families deal with such heartache and pain?

For a different take on the them of madness read Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. Or watch the movie. Jack Nicholson's portrayal of Randle McMurphy as the criminal who ends up in Nurse Ratched's psychiatric ward is a good example of be careful what you wish for. Also see Jack in 'The Shining' as he spirals out of control in that lodge in the mountains.  Here's Johnny!

The last on my short list of madness books is 'A Beautiful Mind'.  "The true story of John Nash, mathematical genius who was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness, and who-thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community-emerged after decades of ghost-like existence to win a Nobel Prize and world acclaim."  (from the book jacket).  I confess, I didn't read the book, but I did watch the movie.  A really wonderful, inspiring story of this man's triumph over  mental illness.

For more on madness check out the back counter display at the library.  Now I have to go fill out my bracket sheet. Happy March everybody!

Relationship Blues

Ah, love.  Amour.  You have finally found the One.  In the first throes of love, everything is new.  You can't get enough.  How did you live without this?  You give friends the brush off, wanting to spend the evening or weekend with your new love.  You forget to eat, forget to sleep, the new love is so fascinating.

But after a while things start to get stale. Slowly but surely, the newness wears off.  It's the same old same old.   Yet you persevere.  Maybe this is just a phase.  Don't all relationships go through this? Things become too comfortable, like an old pair of shoes. Predictable. Dare I say, boring?

Let the library set you up on a blind date. Through the month of February, the Superior Public Library will give readers a chance to go on a blind date with a book.  We select the books, wrap them up, and you check them out.  When you get home, rip off the cover to discover something new.

What's beneath the covers?

It is very easy today for a person to stay in their own comfort zone.  Only enjoy classical music?  or country? or hip-hop?  iHeart radio, Spotify, Sirius-XM will all give you more of the same.  Want to watch sports all day, or game shows, or only listen to a certain slant on the news?  Very easy to do with so many channels available.  Gone are the days of 3 major networks, when, because of limited offerings, a person was exposed to so much.  Ed Sullivan had the Beatles and Elvis Presley on his stage, but he also had the Russian Moiseyev Dance Troupe, an interview with Fidel Castro,and Topo Gigio.  If you wanted to see one of these, you were exposed to all of them. Talk about broadening your horizons.

Yes, you can go to Goodreads or Amazon to find the next thing to read.  Computer algorithms are very good at giving us more of what we already like. And sometimes we all go on a binge, reading every book ever written by M.C. Beaton or whoever.  But a steady diet of the same old same old gets dull. Blind Date with a Book is a low-stress way to get out of your reading comfort zone.

 But really, the whole library is a low-stress way to get out of your comfort zone.  If you only watch the new release movies, wander down the documentaries aisle.  Check out a few jazz CDs.  Walk past the new fiction to the non-fiction.  Or just head over to your usual aisle, close your eyes, and put out your hand.  Check out whatever you happen upon.  It's all there for free. You won't be out anything except a little time.  And you just might find a new love.