Just A Dugout That My Dad Built

Lately I have been watching "Let's Plays" on YouTube, videos made by gamers playing their favorite games.

It was the combination of Let's Play Fallout 1 with the 50th anniversary of the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy that got me thinking about our fallout shelter.

My family moved into our new house in Maitland, Florida, ("Dommerich Woods" was the name of the subdivision), in the fall of 1962.  Its Modern design was the work of the architect Manfred Lopatka.

 Unlike the one in the "New Frontier" video, our bomb shelter was built under the house.  An ordinary door in the middle of the house opened onto stairs leading down to a bare, concrete room, about 15' x 20'.  I wish that I had pictures of it.  My father had filled metal trash cans with canned food and medical supplies.  He also had a Family Radiation Measurement Kit.

Thank God, (and JFK too), that the tensions of the Cold War years, brought to a fever pitch by the raising of the Berlin Wall and the  Cuban Missile Crisis, did not erupt in a nuclear war.

We watched a program Friday night presented by Tom Brokaw, "Where Were You:  The Day JFK Died."  They say that everyone remembers where they were, but I can't remember a thing.  I was nine years old.  My wife recalls clearly being sent home from school that day.  My parents were Republicans, and so would not have felt the loss in the way that JFK's supporters did.  I am not even sure that we owned a television.

The fallout shelter became my father's "study", as well as the first place my sister Carol and I could play rock music.  We used my dad's old portable 45 rpm record player to play my first rock single, the Beatles' "I Want To Hold Your Hand", again and again.

Three Little Words

 Anyone remember Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)?  The film's catchy title spawned  a great number of similar titles  and headlines.  I wondered whether Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love might be doing the same when I took a request for Eat, Move, Sleep, a self-help book by Tom Rath.  It hasn't caught fire like SL&V, lacking the salacious appeal of the film title, but I found a few.

Eat, Pray, Love has an improving, new-age sound:  Three Steps to a New You.  So do its imitators, saving the last one, Drink, Play, F@#k, which appears to be a gonzo take on EPL from a "guy's" point of view.

Eat! Move! Play!: A Parent's Guidefor Raising Healthy, Happy Kids by Weight Watchers 

Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes by Tom Rath 

Eat-Taste-Heal: An Ayurvedic Cookbook for Modern Living by Thomas Yarema, et al. 

Work, Love, Pray: Practical Wisdom for Young Professional Christian Women and Those Who Want to Understand Them by Diane Paddison 

Drink, Play, F@#k: One Man's Search for Anything Across Ireland, Las Vegas, and Thailand by Andrew Gottlieb

I'll add more titles if I run across any.
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Interesting post and comments at CHE's Lingua Franca blog on the origin of the word, "dude".

it seems almost certain that “dude” derived from “doodle,” as in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”... For some reason, early in 1883, this inspired someone to call foppish young men of New York City “doods,” with the alternate spelling “dudes” soon becoming the norm.

 I always associated the word with surfers, later with headbangers and stoners.

French Lessons

I was poring over selection lists, (lists of new books on-order), at the reference desk on a Thursday evening, when I saw French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging with Style & Attitude, by Mireille Guiliano.  Here is yet another addition, I thought, to the genre of French Lifestyle books.

Guiliano has been the leading light of this school, beginning with her 2004 bestseller, French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure. But she is not the first, and many others in the last ten years have looked to the French for wisdom on how to live a better life.

The first "French Lifestyle" book I found, (leaving aside more conventional books on French cookery, travel, or interior design), is Will Clower's 2001 book, The Fat Fallacy : Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle.  It is very similar to the Mediterranean Diet.

The trend continued to percolate, picking up noticeably in 2011.  Woody Allen was a bellwether with his 2011 film, Midnight in Paris.

 Pamela Druckerman found a new angle in 2012 with Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, following the controversial Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua's 2011 book about Chinese child-rearing.

2001
The Fat Fallacy : Applying the French Diet to the American Lifestyle - Will Clower (2001)

2002

2003
Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl - Debra Ollivier (2003)

Joie de Vivre: Simple French Style for Everyday Living - Robert Arbor (2003)

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong: Why We Love France but Not the French - Jean-Benoit Nadeau, Julie Barlow (2003)

2004
French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure - Mireille Guiliano (2004)

2005
The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour - Joan DeJean (2005)

The French Diet: Why French Women Don't Get Fat - Michel Montignac (2005)

2006
All You Need to Be Impossibly French: A Witty Investigation into the Lives, Lusts, and Little Secrets of French Women - Helena Frith-Powell (2006)

The French Don't Diet Plan: 10 Simple Steps to Stay Thin for Life - Dr. William Clower (2006)

French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure - Mireille Guiliano (2006)

2007
My French Life - Vicki Archer (2007)

2008

2009
French Women Don't Sleep Alone: Pleasurable Secrets to Finding Love - Jamie Cat Callan (2009)

What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind - Debra Ollivier (2009)

Women, Work & the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense & Sensibility - Mireille Guiliano (2009)

2010
Bon Courage: Rediscovering the Art of Living (In the Heart of France) - Ken McAdams (2010)

Courage and Croissants, Inspiring Joyful Living, A Story and Life Guidebook - Suzanne Saxe-Roux (2010)

French Essence: Ambience, Beauty, and Style in Provence - Vicki Archer (2010)

The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook - Mireille Guiliano (2010)

Tout Sweet: Hanging Up My High Heels for a New Life in France - Karen Wheeler (2010)

2011
Bonjour, Happiness! - Jamie Cat Callan (2011)

Chic & Slim: How Those Chic French Women Eat All That Rich Food And Still Stay Slim - Anne Barone (2011)

Chic & Slim Toujours: Aging Beautifully Like Those Chic French Women - Anne Barone (2011)

Chic & Slim Encore: More About How French Women Dress Chic Stay Slim-And How You Can Too - Anne Barone (2011)

The French Cat - Rachael Hale McKenna (2011)

La Seduction: How the French Play the Game of Life - Elaine Sciolino (2011)

Paris Was Ours:  Thirty-Two Writers Reflect On The City Of Light - Penelope Rowlands (2011)

Parisian Chic: A Style Guide by Ines de la Fressange - Ines de la Fressange (2011)

Stuff Parisians Like: Discovering the Quoi in the Je Ne Sais Quoi - Olivier Magny (2011)

Toute Allure: Falling in Love in Rural France - Karen Wheeler (2011)

2012
Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting - Pamela Druckerman (2012)

Doodling in French: How to Draw with Joie de Vivre - Anna Corba (2012)

Dreaming in French: The Paris Years of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Susan Sontag, and Angela Davis - Alice Kaplan (2012)

French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters - Karen Le Billon (2012)

How The French Invented Love:  nine hundred years of passion and romance - Marilyn Yalom (2012)

Le Road Trip: A Traveler's Journal of Love and France - Vivian Swift (2012)

Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris - Jennifer L. Scott (2012)

LIVING LIKE A LOCAL: Stories of Our Life in France - Shelley Row (2012)

Paris in Love: A Memoir - Eloisa James (2012)

The Skinny, Sexy Mind: The Ultimate French Secret - Trish Blackwell (2012)

Tout Soul: The Pursuit of Happiness in Rural France - Karen Wheeler (2012)

2013
Bebe Day by Day: 100 Keys to French Parenting - Pamela Druckerman (2013)

Forever Chic: Frenchwomen's Secrets for Timeless Beauty, Style, and Substance - Tish Jett (2013)

French Twist:  An American Mom's Experiment In Parisian Parenting - Catherine Crawford (2013)

French Women Don't Get Facelifts: The Secret of Aging with Style & Attitude - Mireille Guiliano (2013)

Ooh La La!:  French Women's Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day - Jamie Cat Callan (2013)

The Parisian Diet: How to Reach Your Right Weight and Stay There - Dr. Jean-Michel Cohen (2013)

Parisian Chic Weekly Planner 2014 Calendar - Ines de la Fressange (2014)

"Books Have Their Destinies”

Three years ago I wrote about emptying my parents' house of all their books and other belongings.  Earlier this year I wrote about .a retired colleague weeding his books as he moved from his house to a retirement community, and linked to a column by Stanley Fish written in a similar vein.

Here is a piece by Harry Eyres from the Financial Times that was mentioned in the Anthony Powell List, Goodby, my good companions, in which he reflects on disposing of his parents' library.

I couldn’t help feeling that books were rather like people: some more formal and off-putting, others more racy; some simply for show, others with unpromising outsides but rich interiors. They did more, in fact, than furnish a room; they were companions who could offer insights, good advice, or just reliable escapism, as one went through the stages of life.

Now the books are being dispersed (not all, to be sure, but very many), and I fear for their future, almost as if they were refugees...

As I dispose of the books – many are going to charity shops and I hope they will find good homes – I can’t help wondering if my generation is the last that will oversee such a process.

I don't know.  I don't think so, but time will tell.  The age of ink and paper and printing has been relatively brief:  a few centuries.

Fields Of Gold

I heard this rendition of Fields of Gold, by the St. Olaf Choir and Orchestra, on Prairie Home Companion this weekend.  The song appeared originally on Sting's 1993 album, Ten Summoner's Tales.  I was powerfully moved.

Another Monday At The Public Library

Coming in the door as I unlocked it this morning, a man told me that there were yellow jackets near the entrance there on the second floor.  I told him I would pass it along, and returned to the desk for the opening rush of calls and walk-ups.  I tried calling T., who is normally in charge of getting some men to come and deal with something, but she was not there.  I tried a couple of other people in administration.  No answer.  The week before Labor Day, it seemed a lot of people were off.  I thought I would just see these yellow jackets for myself, and went outside.  There is a large planter there on the landing, and the plants in it had bloomed with little white flowers.  Bees were collecting nectar from the flowers.  Not a yellow jacket in sight.  I was glad I had not reported it.

A lot of requests for Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias by Jane Velez-Mitchell, about a woman whose trial for a shocking murder has been heavily covered on television.

Speaking of which, J., a regular caller, retired native of the Bronx, ("but don't tell anyone!"), and dedicated watcher of "court TV", phoned to find out the opening day for the new Tallahassee location of Whole Foods Market.  I would not have heard of Jodi Arias had not J. filled me in.  J. makes the rounds of natural foods stores, and often calls for more information on new construction in Tallahassee.  There are a lot of new chain restaurants being built here now.

A woman came in from Americorps, directed here by the Tallahassee Democrat.  She was looking for an employment ad they had run in August 2010 in the classifieds.  Unfortunately, our ProQuest archive of the Democrat does not include advertisements.  I set her up with the microfilm viewer.  After lunch she came back and said she had looked at August and July 2010, with no luck.  She had hoped to use the ad as a model for a new one, and was not sure what she wanted to do now.

Mr. L., the church and school supplies dealer, wanted a contact for the Tallahassee chapter of Woodmen of the World.  He had read that they were donating a U.S. flag and pole for the opening of a new city facility, and thought he might sell them a flag and pole.

Blind Man Who Cooks called, wanting a simple recipe for rice pudding, which I supplied from The Joy of Cooking.  I could hear his Braille machine clacking as I read it to him.  The basic recipe didn't include eggs, which he thought he remembered, so I gave him the "Swedish" variant, which did include eggs.

And so it goes, world without end, amen.

The Mental Traveler

In 1981 I bought a drum in Santa Fe at the crafts market.  It was a ceramic, doumbek drum with a goatskin head, made by hippies from Bisbee, Arizona.  I kept the drum for years, eventually selling it to a young woman who saw my notice on the community board at our food coop.

I wondered about those drummers from Bisbee.  What sort of place was Bisbee, that they would call it home?

I never heard of Bisbee again until I discovered Betsy Thornton's Chloe Newcombe mysteries.  They caught my attention because the second book in the series, High Lonesome Road, is about the murder of a bookmobile driver, and has a wonderful dust jacket illustration.  They are set in the fictional town of "Dudley", but it's obvious that it's really Bisbee.  Chloe Newcombe is a Victim Advocate for the Cochise County Attorney's Office, a position held in real life by the author.

In A Song For You, Thornton goes much deeper into the life of Bisbee than before:  its recent past as a haven for hippies and artists, and its makeover as an arty tourist destination.  You finish the book feeling you've lived there yourself for a little while.

I spent some time "Google Street-Viewing" around Bisbee, as I often do with books.  I found several murals near the Circle-K on Tombstone Canyon Road.  You can find better pictures of them by searching "Bisbee murals", but here are my Street-View snaps.

The Prisoner

My co-worker MK got a question on Ask-a-Librarian, our state-wide virtual reference service, about some photographs from the Florida Memory archive.  They were of a political rally in the black, Frenchtown section of Tallahassee in 1971, in support of Bill Johnson

"Free Bill Johnson, Political Prisoner" read the bumper stickers being handed out and displayed in some of the pictures, which were taken on July 31, 1971.  "Who was Bill Johnson?", MK's querent wanted to know.

MK asked me if it rang any bells  No, I had not come up to Tallahassee until 1974, and though I was somewhat politically active here then, I'd never heard of Bill Johnson.  But I had a feeling, which proved to be correct, that these photos might have been from the John Buckley Collection.

I can't say that John was a friend, but I knew him as I knew some other local leftists from the civil rights/anti-war days.  I remember listening to him hold forth at The Alley, a downtown watering hole.  I liked him because he thirsted for justice, but did not hew to any party line.

MK looked at our microfilm of the Tallahassee Democrat around the date, and I did too, but there was no coverage.  It is possible that the FSU student paper, The Florida Flambeau, covered the rally, but we don't have microfilm for it.

The Reverend C. K. Steele, who played a large part in the Tallahassee Bus Boycott, spoke.

The band, "Daddy Twofoot", performed.  

That looks like the old Red Bird Cafe on the left.  Not a great success, apparently.  But John Buckley was there.  And whatever happened to Bill Johnson?

New Circulation Desk

The Circulation Department is getting a new service desk.  Here is the old one, cleared off and ready for removal.

The counter-top at this check-out station has been worn through by years of use.

A temporary service desk has been set up over to the side during construction.  This is where the original desk was when the library opened in 1991.  It was replaced by the current desk a few years later.  I had left Circulation by then to run the bookmobile.

Here I am at that original desk, circa 1991-2, stamping due dates in books.  Note the Wyse text-mode terminals!  No Web, no GUI, no point & click.

Country Comforts

One of the things I enjoy about Google Earth and Google Maps is when I discover photographers who systematically catalog sets of geographical features in an area.

I found "Leaflet" in West Texas, where he has photographed grain elevators, silos, and other farm structures.  "Pylodet" specializes in Nebraska churches.

I found the above photograph, by "wmr36104", while grazing the photos in Google Maps on the highway, from Dothan Alabama to Birmingham, looking for a restored pioneer village I remembered seeing years ago.  (I am pretty sure it was the Pioneer Museum of Alabama near Troy.)

I love this sign!.  Only in The South...these are my people.  Anyway, wmr36104 has put up a fine collection of photos of little Alabama churches, country stores, barns, courthouses and other structures.  They remind me of William Christenberry.