It seems like everything in our lives will be divided by covid — pre and post. The lockdown, the case counts, the death counts. Quarantining our groceries. Masks. Vaccines. Hand…
For the last couple of weeks, it’s been my privilege to witness some exciting progress for our community, plus have a really interesting experience. Literacy first As a librarian and…
* The best-of page has been updated to 2021. * The links on that page are working again. * Internal links on multi-part posts are also working again — i.e.…
For a very long time, old links on this blog have not worked. This has always bothered me. It’s bad enough that I lost many thousands of comments (2006 through…
Many years ago, at one of our wmtc parties, I was chatting with a new guest, the spouse of a friend. We had never met before, and they didn’t know…
It starts with a trip to the dentist. Ruth Keller swears she brushes her teeth and flosses daily, yet the cavities are piling up. The dentist lectures, her mom scolds.…
Basketball legend Bill Russell died this month at the age of 88. Although I remember his playing days, it’s not Russell’s incredible and indelible sports record that leads me to…
A girl wants to play football. That’s all. Well, not quite all. Mara wants to be herself. And that self wants to play football, among other things. Mara isn’t trying…
I’m sure many of you have read Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. It’s an award-winning bestseller that garnered…
Add the Great Canadian Sox Shop to the list of companies I’m happy to have found. I am so, so, so tired of buying things that instantly fall apart. I’ll…
Back in December of last year, I blogged about starting a game night at home, rotating every-other week between games and music. I was super happy about it. Seven months…
I highly recommend The Unscented Company! Here’s why. Looking for a pump-bottle liquid soap, I was very surprised to find a total absence of unscented soap where I live. In…
This is a follow-up post to getting home: horrific customer service from pacific coastal airlines. Tl;dr: Those are the rules. Too bad for you. Next time buy travel insurance. Good…
After reading a review of Paul Greenberg’s Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food when it was published in 2010, I added the title to The List. When…
Revolutionary thought of the day: Feminism is an endeavor to change something very old, widespread, and deeply rooted in many, perhaps most, cultures around the world, innumerable institutions, and most…
A customer said this. I tell my daughter I love her every day. I told my mother on her death bed, I’m not going to do what you did. I’m…
As I sat down to write this, I searched for the last “things i heard at the library” post, to get the number. Amazingly, today’s post turns out to be…
Last year, while attempting to get a parking pass during our vacation — without a phone, my phone having been fried by an update — I got caught in a…
Canada’s 2021 federal election made the case for proportional representation very plain. While Canada’s electoral system isn’t as insanely nondemocratic as the US’s winner-take-all (or “first-past-the-post”) by state, with the…
In our last episode of Laura’s Reading Plan, I posted a very long list for 2022. On that 2022 reading plan post, I wrote: This year’s plan is much longer.…
