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Iron & Steel – Part I
- THERE is a glamor about the making of steel. (Fitch, The Steelworkers. 1910.) It’s an inevitable word association. It doesn’t matter that 30 – 40 years have passed since the collapse of the...
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Iron & Steel – Part II
For three and a half years I have had the pleasure and privilege of working with many dedicated individuals in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh as we’ve assembled and created the Pittsburgh Iron...
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Iron & Steel: Epilogue
As someone not born or raised here, I’ve always been struck by the split in opinions regarding Andrew Carnegie and his legacy. Was he an innovative industrialist and role-model philanthropist, or a...
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Who’s Your Tough Guy?
Public domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Have you ever just latched on to a performer, and they never seem to fail you? Maybe a Springsteen or Stevie Wonder? I’m that way with films and...
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A Tradition is Born
What does the American Declaration of Independence have in common with a village in Russia? I’m going to run on the assumption that the Declaration doesn’t need an explanation. If I’m wrong, then it’s...
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My Own Little Myopia
I’m sure all of you are familiar with the parable of the three blind men and the elephant. Asked to describe the animal all three gave widely disparate explanations, informed by the limited sensory...
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Guys, I have a proposal for you…
Trek. Afrikaans, from Dutch trecken to pull, haul, migrate; akin to Old High German trechan to pull First Known Use: 1835 : to travel by ox wagon : to migrate by ox wagon or in a train of such : to...
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Heroes and Politicians
…11 ALIVE NEED SMALL BOAT KENNEDY Sometime during election week we watched an episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show; Rob, Laura, Mel, Sally, and Buddy. Whatever the episode was, there was a stand-up comic...
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I Mean to Kill You in One Minute Ned!
In a passing conversation one of my colleagues had an observation about a not so contemporary screen actor – the late John Wayne. I forget the wording but the observation and concurrent opinion...
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Indelible Notes
If I were to ask you about composers named Bernstein and what their most memorable works are, I’ll forgive you if come back at me with West Side Story, On the Town or Candide – all three truly...
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What, it’s not on the Internet?
Generally when we talk about the Digital Divide, we’re talking about the disparities in use and access to the Internet and other digital resources – primarily due to income, education, and/or...
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How I Spent the Morning
Every so often it takes something a little out of the ordinary to recharge the Reference skills. I’ve been filling in this week answering the E-mail reference questions for Tom, who’s on vacation....
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We Got us a Ball Game
“The Pittsburgh Pirates have the best record in baseball” - USA Today 06/27/2013 I was brought back to my early adolescent years last week. It was Sunday and I was watching our number 5 batter in the...
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Behold: Our Bêtes Noires
bête noire. Noun. Something that is particularly disliked. A person or thing that one particularly dislikes or dreads. Collins English Dictionary Admit it: somewhere out there, there’s a book you...
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Words Not Needed
“But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more...
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Oh, The Places You’ll Go
Most of us have seen or heard comments about books and reading; their ability to transport us away from the here and now to the wherever and whenever. It could be Berlin in the Cold War and you’ve...
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What Your Dad Used to Read
“I am tall, and I gangle. I look like a loose-jointed, clumsy hundred and eighty. The man who takes a better look at the size of my wrists can make a more accurate guess. When I get up to two twelve I...
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“Air raid, Pearl Harbor. This is not a drill!”
USS West Virginia, Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941 Tomorrow marks the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. The next day President...
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The Last Word For 2013
A group of us got together and decided that the last blog post of 2013 should be a shared effort, with each of us offering a notable quote from something he or she read during the 2013 calendar year....
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You Can do That
With the arrival of the Vortex I decided to check on an attic window I replaced last year. All things considered it seems to be doing what it was designed to do: keep out the elements. I know it...
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