O frabjous day!

The first of July carries a lot of significance. It’s the 144^th Canada Day—celebrating nationhood for our neighbors to the north. Hurrah for the Canadians, eh?

It’s also marks the 95^th anniversary of first day of the Somme—the monstrous battle that cost the attacking British 60,000 casualties before sundown. And it’s been 148 years since the battle of Gettysburg opened.

George Sand was born on 1^st July in 1804, which Frédéric Chopin probably appreciated a whole lot.

But what makes today—1 July 2011—absolutely the finest kind day of this or many another year is that my BFF’s tumor markers have been so good for so long that this is her final chemotherapy treatment.

This is marvelous—not only because she’s doing so well against the cancer, but because it means an end to the god-awful nausea she’s been suffering for more than six months.

Champagne glasses at the ready, people: this is the best possible reason to celebrate the day.

Go, Terps!

The Big Apple just can’t seem to retain its reptiles. A few months ago it was the Egyptian cobra that went slither-about from the Bronx Zoo. Now it’s turtles running rampant at JFK airport.

Well, trudging rampant.

The airport closed one of its runways because of the annual inundation by diamondback terrapins headed for a nice sandy spot to lay their eggs. This year, however, in addition to trudging the turtles are tweeting.

Well, of course they are.

They’re not nearly as witty as BronxZoosCobra, but then she’s footloose (well, she is) & fancy free, & they’re focused on procreation.

So I cut them some slack.In fact, I give both serpent & terrapins major props for going digital without, you know, real digits.

A new kind of freakonomics

Following on my dismay at the local library systems cutting back on hours & charging fees, the NY Times reports that school districts around the country are choosing to close libraries they can’t afford to staff.

We are living in sad, sad times when administrators have to decide between offering kindergarten or libraries, while legislators at every level are falling all over themselves giving businesses & billionaires big tax breaks.

All on account of economy

I suppose this shouldn’t come as a surprise, what with governments cutting back every way they can (except for salaries and benefits of elected officials) these days. But on the 19^th I received an email from Santa Clara County Library informing me that, starting 1 July, I’m going to have to pay $80 a year for the privilege of checking out books from their system.

This is because I don’t live in unincorporated county areas or nine specific cities (the ones that have county library branches). I’m still “welcome to visit our libraries, attend programs, and use resources inside the library.  However, a card is required to check out materials, use the full service computers, and have remote access to online databases.”

(In a related story, the San Jose city library system announced that their branches are only going to be open four days a week. This is also a cost-saving measure.)

I understand the necessity, although I think there’s something really, really wrong about an economic system in which global businesses (lured to states and cities with all sorts of financial incentives) rake in billions and billions annually without paying corporate taxes while working stiffs have to pay $80 per year for access to information that’s been part of the social contract for a long time. An informed electorate is the sine qua non of any democracy, and information institutions are moving beyond the reach of the common folk. 


Yeah, yeah, yeah--you can get all the data you want over the Internet. But what if your only Web access was via the local library?

Anyway, what gets me is that SCCL sent out the notification less than two weeks before I have to fork over the money. They couldn’t have eased us into this?

Potty mouth

It’s not often that this happens, but words just fail me: The Smoking Gun reports that police in Boulder, Colo., arrested a man who was hiding in the tank of a port-a-potty at a yoga festival.

There are further reports that Luke Chrisco has made a habit of this sort of thing for quite some time.

“It takes all kinds” just doesn’t seem to cover this.