I’m old enough to remember when some members of the younger generation thought Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party were pretty cool. You’d see people wearing t-shirts with Warholesque portraits of Chairman Mao (and of Che Guevara, too, but that’s another story), talking about the radical reforms that the brave Chinese Communists were attempting, [...]
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
Chairman Mao’s Little Red Bore
Posted in Books, World, tagged Books, Che Guevara, China, Little Red Book, Mao Zedong, Quotations From Chairman MaoTse-Tung, World on May 27, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Help! What Is This Thing?
Posted in Books, tagged Antiques, Books, Candles, Reading, Unknown Items, Votive Candles on May 19, 2012 | 2 Comments »
We recently came into possession of some antique items of all shapes and sizes. The purposes of most of them are obvious, but some of them are stumpers. Consider this item, for example. It’s made of tin, and in the shape of a book with a handle configured like a human ear. When you open [...]
Let The Festival Begin!
Posted in Books, Ohio, tagged Books, Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, Ohio, Ohioana Book Festival on May 12, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
C’mon, readers — it’s time to head out for the Ohioana Book Festival! The doors open at 9:45, and the programs begin at 10 a.m. at the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in downtown Columbus. There will be interesting readings, enlightening discussions, and lots of friendly book-lovers browsing through reading options, hobnobbing with authors, and [...]
Into The Festive Mood
Posted in Books, Ohio, tagged Books, Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center, Ohio, Ohioana Book Festival on May 11, 2012 | 2 Comments »
It’s time to get festive about books. The Ohioana Book Festival is tomorrow, at the beautiful and historic Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus. It’s supposed to be a lovely day, weather-wise, with temperatures in the 70s — perfect conditions for walking the Fort Hayes campus as you go from program to program. You [...]
Mein Kampf, And Combating Speech With Speech
Posted in Books, World, tagged Adolf Hitler, Books, Germany, Mein Kampf, Nazi Germany, Nazis, World on May 10, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler’s feverish biography and racist Nazi manifesto, has not been published in German since 1945. That will change soon, when an annotated edition will be published for students to read. The book has not been banned in Germany. However, the state of Bavaria controls the copyright, and it has not consented to [...]
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams At Home
Posted in Books, Food, Ohio, tagged Books, Cookbooks, Food, Ice Cream, Jeni Britton Bauer, Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream, Ohio, Ohioana Book Festival, Ohioana Library Association on May 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
If you live in Columbus, you’ve undoubtedly heard someone rave about Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams — or, even better, you’ve experienced them yourself. If you don’t live in Columbus, you really need to stop by just to try some of Jeni’s stunningly good ice cream. Jeni Britton Bauer will be one of the featured authors [...]
Time To Satisfy Your Summer Reading Jones
Posted in Books, Ohio, tagged Books, Ohioana Book Festival, Ohioana Library Association, Outdoor reading, Reading, spring, summer on May 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Sure, summer is great for activities — but it’s also great for reading. Get a good book, stretch out on your patio furniture with a cool beverage, and read a little in the bright sunshine. Or take your current paperback to a nearby park, sprawl on the cool grass under the leafy spread of a [...]
On A Rocker-Filled Front Porch
Posted in Books, Photography, Travel, tagged Books, Charles Dickens, Dozing, Front Porches, Oliver Twist, Photography, Rockers, The Homestead, Travel on March 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
One final point about the Homestead: it has a fabulous front porch full of high-backed white rocking chairs. If, like Kish and me, you are an avid reader, there’s nothing like a rocking chair on a bright afternoon. We drank tea and read our books as the sun moved slowly across the sky; I was [...]
Wonderful Book – Wonderful Story
Posted in Books, tagged Paulo Coelho, Santiago, terrific book, The Alchemist on March 20, 2012 | 3 Comments »
I just loved a wonderful little book called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho that my friend Dana let me borrow. Thanks Dana. It is a story about a young shepherd boy named Santiago who has a recurring dream about treasure near the pyramids so he decides to follow his dream and go to Egypt, but [...]
Amor Deliria Nervosa aka Love
Posted in Books, tagged Delirium, Lauren Oliver on March 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I thought this might be a good time to read Lauren Oliver’s book Delirium, during a time when our state governments are poking their noses into the area of women’s health and women’s reproductive rights with vaginal probes, oral contraceptives, and personhood amendments one which may appear on the Ohio ballot in November 2012 to [...]
Doonesbury And The Dispatch
Posted in Columbus, Comics, tagged Columbus, Columbus Dispatch, Comics, Doonesbury, newspapers on March 19, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Recently Doonesbury featured a series of strips that addressed a Texas abortion law. Our local newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, decided not to carry the strips. That decision caused some controversy, and the Dispatch‘s editor wrote a column explaining the reasoning for his decision. In essence, his argument was that the Doonesbury strips in question really [...]
The Field of Print Encyclopedias, Sadly Down To One
Posted in Books, Growing Up, tagged Books, Encyclopedia Brittanica, encyclopedias, Growing Up, Reading, World Book on March 14, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Encyclopedia Brittanica has announced that, after 244 years, it will no longer print its multi-volume edition. Its president says that sales of the print edition have dwindled to negligible levels over the past few years because people prefer to get their encyclopedia information electronically. The decision leaves World Book as the only publisher of [...]
The Ritter Public Library
Posted in Books, Ohio, tagged Andrew Carnegie, Books, George Ritter, Libraries, Ohio, Philanthropy, Ritter Public Library, Vermilion Ohio on February 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Ohio is blessed with many great libraries. Most of the small towns in the Buckeye state can boast of a library that has plenty of books, internet terminals, free wi-fi, and helpful, enthusiastic librarians who don’t even shush you. Many libraries in small-town Ohio are Carnegie libraries, built through the generosity of one of history’s [...]
Lessons Of The Lunar Nazis
Posted in Books, Movies, TV, World, tagged Books, Fatherland, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Inglourious Basterds, Iron Sky, Movies, Nazi Germany, Nazis, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Star Trek, TV, World, World War II on February 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The hottest ticket at this year’s Berlin Film Festival is a self-proclaimed “B Movie” called Iron Sky. Its consciously over-the-top plot features Nazis trying to conquer Earth from a swastika-shaped base on the far side of the moon. I doubt Iron Sky will ever make it to our local multiplex cinema, but the movie’s popularity [...]
