Joke of the Week

Art Supply

"I used to work in an art supply store. We sold artists' canvas by the yard, and you could get it in either of two widths: 36 inches or 48 inches. Customer: 'Can you please cut some canvas for me?' Me: 'Certainly, what width?' Customer: (confused and slightly annoyed) 'Scissors?'"

http://kcbx.net/~tellswor/artsuppl.htm

Is Martin Luther King still relevant?

You may have had Monday off and not really thought about what the Martin Luther King holiday is about. Don't feel guilty: it happens with all holidays. Anyway, within the lifetimes of a lot of Americans, things have changed a lot. Before Martin Luther King came along, racial segregation was enforced by something called Jim Crow laws.

Anyway, I know you don't want a long lecture, so I'll get to the point.

Martin Luther King was a controversial person in his day and not only controversial with white people. Some African Americans criticized him harshly and thought he was naive to think that segregation and racial discrimination could be gotten rid of without violence. But at a very deep level Dr. King believed in America. He knew that the founding fathers had set up a structure of government that could improve upon itself.

And that is what happened. Dr. King's nonviolent methods ultimately showed the United States what it needed to change back then.

So Martin Luther King is relevant because marches and other protests in the 1950's and 60's brought about profound changes to the United States?

Partly, but isn't he even more relevant than that? How about Occupy Wall Street and the other Occupy protests that are going on right now? All those protesters are doing things the King way.

The non-violent "Occupy" protests seem to me like a more effective way of making your point than flying a small airplane into an IRS office building (better also than flying large jets into large buildings, but I won't go there.)

Anyway, I only have one more thing to say:

LET FREEDOM RING!!!!!

Socks

"When I was working as a clerk at a sporting-goods store, a woman came up to my register with a package of white athletic socks. 'Will you open this up so I can see how the socks feel?' she asked. Reluctantly I tore open the package, and she scrutinized the merchandise. She handed me the package, saying, 'I'll take them.' Relieved, I started to ring up the sale, until she interrupted me. 'Can I have another pack? This one's been opened.' "

http://kcbx.net/~tellswor/socks.htm

Christmas Creep and the Book of Days

The Book of Days first came out in 1869. (We have the edition that was republished in 1967 at MPTC's Fond du Lac campus.)




I suppose that the print is too small for you to read the page above, but it is about the 12th day of Christmas, January 6th.



That is right. January 6th is the 12th day of Christmas. And the second paragraph tells us that "primitive Christians celebrated the Feast of the Nativity for twelve days."


You aren't a primitive Christian, maybe not a Christian at all, but if you're an American, I bet you still celebrate Christmas.

In case you didn't know, Christmas creep is the ongoing movement of Americans' observance of the end-of-year "holidays" towards an earlier and earlier point in time. Our retail stores have been desperately putting out their Christmas /New Year/ Kwanzaa /Hannukah/etc merchandise earlier and earlier, hoping to increase their sales. In my opinion, it is unfortunate that many of us have taken the bait.

Matt Bors knows what I'm talking about (maybe we should call this "Thanksgiving creep").

I suppose that it doesn't really matter when you celebrate something. But I hear a lot of people complain that they don't like the high stress of preparing for the holidays..... then it seems those same people are relieved to take down their decorations on December 26th.

Maybe part of the problem - for a lot of us - is that we aren't comfortable spending time with various family members and other people in our lives that "the holidays" bring out of the woodwork. Or maybe by the time they've celebrated their chosen holiday, a lot of people realize that they've gained weight and need to take it easy on the partying. These problems that will probably always be with us are no excuse to sabotage your celebrations.


There is something meaningful about Christmas [or another holiday] for you, isn't there?

Make the holidays be about their true meaning as much as you possibly can. You won't be able to get rid of the stress entirely, but some of it might just be pressure that you're putting on yourself.

Happy Holidays from the MPTC Libraries!!!

With and Without You: Video about a Father's Suicide

The main characters of a 90+ minute film I just saw comprise a normal French-Canadian middle class family. In fact, they seem like real nice people, the kind you'd like to have living next door.


The Beaudry family managed to take a year out of their busy lives to see the world. They used the time to get away from industrial civilization and the "rat race." All five members of the family enjoyed the trip - that is part of what the film is about.




A year after returning from the trip, Samuel Beaudry, the father, killed himself. How do we reconcile all the scenes of a life-loving man who loved his family with the event that ended his life?





With and Without You: A Father's Suicide, A Family's Journey is ostensibly about the Beaudry family and Samuel Beaudry's suicide, but, thanks to interviews with a variety of experts as well as with people close to the family, the film illustrates a number of concepts and harsh realities that are not well understood. They include the stress of our modern lives, the way that depression in males is normally masked, and, especially, the idea that just because a life ended in suicide doesn't necessarily mean that we can make other assumptions about the person who died.





One common reaction to suicide is that it is a selfish act. (That reaction, of course, is based in reality because loved ones are left behind.) But in With and Without You we see that Samuel was not a selfish person but his depression led him to believe that he had become a burden to his wife Maryse.



Maryse's narration of the film reveals her own gradual understanding and acceptance of what happened. Her remarkable insights, as well as the remarkable footage shot by her and Samuel of the family's good times on their trip around the world, make this an excellent film.


With and Without You won a Gold Ribbon Award from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters.

It is part of the Films on Demand database of streaming videos. Moraine Park students, staff, and faculty can access Films on Demand videos via the MPTC online catalog.

As always, contact a librarian if you need help.

Joke of the Week

Since Thursday is Turkey Day, I thought this would be appropriate for this week's "Joke of the Week". Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Themed Movies


The Top 15 Thanksgiving-Themed Movies
15. To Kill A Walking Bird
14. My Best Friend's Dressing
13. Thighs Wide Shut
12. The Texas Coleslaw Massacre
11. Casserolablanca
10. The Fabulous Baster Boys
9. 12 Hungry Men
8. Silence of the Yams
7. For Love of The Game Hen
6. I Know What You Ate Last Winter
5. All the President's Menu
4. White Meat Can't Jump
3. When Harry Met Salad
2. The Story of U.S.
and the Number 1 Upcoming Thanksgiving-Themed Movie...
1. The Wing and I
Have a great holiday!

Taken from http://kcbx.net/~tellswor/thxmovie.htm

Galetiva Asks "Whose Job is it Anyway?":

The Association for the Study of Peak Oil, more commonly known as ASPO, had their Truth in Energy Conference earlier this month. One of the speakers was Angelina Galetiva, the founder of Renewables 100, a renewable energy policy institute. Her talk was summarized in a post on the highly esteemed Oil Drum.


As recounted in The Oil Drum, Galetiva ended her talk with a poem of sorts, or maybe we should call it a little fable:


This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done.
Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it.
But Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody
When Nobody did what Anybody could have done.



The fable speaks for itself, of course.

I've been reducing my consumption of energy, I ride my bicycle to work, heat my home with a pellet stove and now I'm in the process of going solar on a relatively small scale. What are you doing to help with the transition away from fossil fuels?