The Library

[PatH]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out. Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not). Let the book talk begin here!

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[PatH]

What information do I need about the "Rachels" to complain about this violation?  

You need the phone number of the caller, and the day and approximate time of the call.  Additional identifying information is asked for, such as the company or whatever, and you answer this as best you can from what was said in the call.  There is a space for comments, and for frequent callers I complain about frequency.

[Frybabe]

I should probably check mine again soon. I recently switched from land line to a wireless home system. It is a cell service but works with my regular phones.

Not long ago, I found out that a lot of these scam calls use computer generated phone numbers that essentially belong to no one. Those are hard for the appropriate agencies to track down because these numbers don't exist. Rachel calls me at least once a month. I always hang up so I don't even know if it is from one of my CC companies or not. The other one I've been getting a lot lately are the electric energy companies who want me to switch to them. I thought I had directed PPL not to give out my info to these companies, but maybe I have to do it again.

[CallieOK]

Thanks, Pat.   I have a list of Area Codes and have noticed that most of these calls come from New Jersey or Florida.

I also suspect they are computer-generated.

[PatH]

Rachel didn't use computer-generated numbers, or at least not always; the same numbers would recur a number of times.

[CallieOK]

I'll keep a closer eye on my Caller ID and try to remember to take notes. 

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, I tried to call back a few numbers and they do not exist - I get a bunch from California as well and NY - and yes it is easy to hang up on the rotary cold coller system and now I even hang up on the others - even for the police - I am fed up with it - every day - most days if I can see the phone where the number or name calling shows I just let it ring. My concern would be if they start to call on my cell - that costs me money - I think some of these contacts sell their list of names and that is how we get these strange calls.

[BarbStAubrey]

change subject for a minute - fawn born in backyard today - just a delight as always watching this new born and seeing how it nestles down among leaves up against the fence so that you cannot tell it is there. The doe looks like it may have another that she appears to be getting ready to deliver and just hasn't yet

[CallieOK]

I found a list of Area Codes on-line and learned that I've had calls from Utah and the Dominican Republic.  Also learned that AC 855 is a toll free number that has no specific location and that calls from that AC "may be charged to the person called".  Ouch!

Chiming in on the changing subject:   There is a cardinal nest in a shrub near one of my front windows.  I peeked in and saw one teeny baby bird and one unhatched egg.  Mama scares easily so I'm trying not to go too near.  Daddy is hovering about once in a while.

[mabel1015j]

   

I'm reading Fireweed:a Political Autobiography by Gerda Lerner. Lerner is considered to be the "mother of women's studies" in academia in the last half of the 20th century. She's a terrific writer. She was born in Austria, her Father was a pharmacist w/ businesses in both Austria and Litchtenstein in the thirties. He was able to escape the Nazis invasion of Austria by being in L at the time and the rest of the family were to join him in L. However, Gerda and her Mother were imprisoned for a short period of time. The mother then went to France and eventually Gerda was able to come to U.S. to her betrothed and his family.

The book only covers the first half of her life, which was a disappointment to me, i would like to read her version of her difficulties in getting into the academic world. Her description of her family's experiences during the holocaust is very informative and not overly depressing and dark. I don't understand how one human being could treat another the way the Nazis did, so i don't generally read about them. But Lerner has done a good job of literary writing, not just an historical summary.
As she writes about being a person without a country and how you then have no rights anywhere, no govt to help you,  i think of all of the refugees of so many countries throughout the world today.

[Steph]

Yes, I am now getting middle of the night calls from someone speaking or yelling actually Spanish... 11:30pm.. I stopped answering last night after repeatedly trying to say they had the wrong number. Nuts..
I must reregister for Do Not call, since I seem to get getting way too many ads or charities that are not really legit.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, I have gotten those also - I need to stop picking up the phone period unless I am next to the phone and can see the number or name - if it is someone I know I can always call back right away.

[JoanK]

BARB: you are so lucky. I've had does sleep in my back yard, but never a fawn.

And a baby cardinal! Spring is wonderful!

[Steph]

Today the new furniture comes.. I need to move everything in sight to get it in and disconnect both internet and tv, since I am getting a new tv stand..Ugh..Oh well. I have made a schematic and will also label each cord.. Paranoia..

[PatH]

That's not paranoia, Steph, it's the only way to be sure you get things back together correctly.

[mabel1015j]

From today's Open Culture newsletter, David Foster Wallace's syllabus for How to Teach Serious Literature w/ Lightweight Books (from U of Texas archives). Thought you might like a look at his reading list......

http://www.openculture.com/2013/02/david_foster_wallaces_1994_syllabus.html

A class handout from DFW on the five most common word usage mistakes, interesting.....

http://www.openculture.com/2013/03/david_foster_wallace_breaks_down_five_common_word_usage_mistakes_in_english.html

[PatH]

That's an interesting approach.

The word usage mistakes--I wouldn't have thought those were the most common.  I'll have to look for them.

[mabel1015j]

I've had a couple glorious months of reading. Most of it has been light stuff, David Foster Wallace could use it in his class (see above) - or maybe not.   i have described the books on the sites of their various categories, so i'll just mention the titles and authors here.

The most serious and most well-written is Gerda Lerner's autobiography of the first half of her life. See "non-fiction" and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerda_Lerner

for info about GL.

The rest have been fiction. See the descriptions in "fiction". Paula Marantz Cohen's Jane Austin in Bocco was so pleasant, i've picked up two more of hers. The other Paula Cohen's Gramercy Park was a Victorian style novel with a lot of suspense set in Victorian NYC. I'll read more of her unless they get too schmaltzy. I just finished The American Heiress about a maid who assumes her wealthy half-sister's identity after the sinking of the Lusitania on which they were passengers. "Would she get caught?" kept me reading, altho it got a little too close to romance fiction for me. I also just finished At Home in Covington, by Jane Medlicott, the fourth Covington book i've read. This was the least satisfying of the four, but i like the characters. i just started The Broken Teaglass which some of you have recommended and it looks like it's going to be a fun read also!

And i've got three more library books waiting on the stack which all look promising, including Uncommon Ground:a History of Coffee by Mark Pendergast. His books are always interesting and fun to read.

Jean

[mabel1015j]

Pat - i agree that those don't come to mind for me as the most common, but i think the use of the comma is a very confusing situation for many, including me - an English minor student.  

[jane]

The word use "mistake"/change in use I found often in popular literature is the absence of the verb "take."  Everything is "bring."  When I learned basic grammar, one said, "I will take you to the store."  Now, many authors say, "I will bring you to the store."   

Has anyone else noticed this?

[maryz]

jane, I thought that was a "southern-ism".   

[MaryPage]

I have never noticed that use of bring.  Never.  And I am a Virginian.  We consider ourselves aristocrats who created the pattern of what it is to be Southern.

So Jean, DID she ever get caught out, or was she able to live happily ever afterward?  Dying to know!

[ginny]

A lot of people here in SC say "carry" for that same word. He carried me to the store. 

[Steph]

Yes, I remember when I lived in South Carolina, but carry was popular as a verb.

[mabel1015j]

Yes, when visiting my in-laws in SC and Ga, i hear both "bring" and "carry" for "take". Regionalisms - is that a word? - are fun.

MARYPAGE! - how can i spoil the story for you?  

I'll say she was slightly caught while she was alive, but it turned out to not be disasterous. How's that? And in the end it was her children who found out after she was dead and they were amused because she was so loved and made a good life for herself and for them.

Jean

[BarbStAubrey]

Here, folks include a lot of quiet humor in our conversation and so we use colloquial dialogue from the past when there was little formal education so we will insert a 'brung' as in 'he brung me to the store' raising our voice up the scale while saying it. I seldom hear the word take in that with 'take' there is a concept of 'taking from' rather than assisting. To take someone to the store would infer they are not able to go to the store on their own - to give dignity they are 'brought' inferring you are doing a kindness - we even bring letters to the post office rather than take them however, if you are asking someone to take a letter to the post office it is a job to the taker who has no emotional connection to the letter.

Another we do is mis-use the word 'good' as in 'Ya did Gooood' - the o's are stretched out - 'Ya did good' is the best compliment you can receive. Alabamans use 'roll tide' for everything from a greeting to again, complimenting although, I have only seen this expression used in light reading that usually takes place in Mobile.

[Tomereader1]

I think "carry" has connotations that fit the time prior to, say 1900's.  When I was a child, I had a next door neighbor, who was in her 80's but not Southern, who said "carry me to the store" or she carried me to the doctor's office.  Being a kid, I had a nice private giggle about that, picturing someone carrying or toting her to the store!

[Tomereader1]

Jane, I am still getting a message from my antivirus that your avatar contains a malicious URL
(iowatel).  Phishing URL.

[JeanneP]

"I will bring you to the store". That doesnt even make sense does it?  I thought that "I will carry you" used by some people use to make me laugh also.  Now what I don't like is.
"Now I don't have nothing". and I am amazed at how many, even people on the TV will use that expression.  I suppose we all use some terms that are not correct., but will notice when we hear or read them as to how wrong they sound.

[JeanneP]

Just Google this book. "The Immortal LIfe of Henrietta Lacks". See if you would be interested in Reading what it is about.  Not the usual reading. I just ordered it and most libraries have it. Fact my has in in Large Print.

[jane]

Thanks, Tomereader.  I'll change the location of it.

Interesting about the nonuse of "take" in the south. It's when it's used by northern writers...ie., those living in Seattle, Idaho, etc. that throws me, I guess.  

The difference between bring and take was something that was drilled into me in elementary school in Ohio so old habits die hard.     I don't think there was ever any meaning/inference of the person not being  "able" to do anything, any more than saying you're "bringing" someone someplace would/could infer inability to do it alone.

 It was the difference in direction.  "Take" meant something/someone moved from here to there. "Bring" meant it was brought from a distance place to this location.

I knew of the use of "carry" in the south.  I had a professor from Mississippi who would tell tales of working at an airbase in AL, I believe it was, and the "carrying" of this person or that somewhere.    

[maryz]

Jeanne, I liked Henrietta Lacks - it's an interesting story, and reads quickly.

[JoanP]

Then there's - "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny..."  I never understood until now what this meant!

[JeanneP]

Yes, I think that Henrietta Lacks could be a interesting read.  Should get it tomorrow.

[rosemarykaye]

I always imagined cowboys 'carrying' their women over their shoulders.....

Rosemary

[Steph]

Rosemary, Possibly cowboys may have done that many many years ago. Mostly now cowboys are men or women earning their living with livestock or working on a ranch .. When we were in the rv out west, I was always amused with the fact that for roundups... they drove up with horse trailers, parked the trucks, and then back the horses out, all saddled up already. Interesting.. We got caught in the middle of a catle drive moving a large herd up from the meadows to the mountains in the spring one time..They asked us to sit quietly inside the car with the engine off. The cows milled all around with some of the younger ones peering in the front windshielf. It was magical to an easterner.

[PatH]

Then there's - "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny..."  I never understood until now what this meant!

I never did either.  Duh.

[MaryPage]

Thank you, Jean.  I would have never known otherwise, as I do not expect to achieve the reading of all that I have on hand, much less add that book.  I do so love happily ever afterward endings, especially when the happilys are deserved.  You have put a broad smile in me this day.

[Steph]

Hooray. I am getting children and grandchildren today and tomorrow since my Mothers Day wish was lots of help hanging large and complicated object in the new house.. So soon I will have mirrors up..The large stained glass pieces hung in the atrium,etc. Very excited.

[JoanP]

Sounds like a great housewarming party, Steph!  Take pictures!

Happy Mothers' Day, everyone!