Library Humor

Word of the Day

boodle
\BOOD-l\
noun
1. the lot, pack, or crowd: Send the whole boodle back to the factory.
2. a large quantity of something, especially money: He's worth a boodle.

Quotes
He would like to have the whole boodle of them…
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858

Origin
Boodle is an Americanism. It may be related to the Dutch word boedel, which means "property."

Dictionary.com

How to Reduce Stress During Finals Week

By Kelci Lynn Lucier, About.com Guide

*While college stress is constant throughout the semester, college stress during finals week takes it to a whole new level. These 6 easy ways to rest and relax during finals week can help you make it through the madness.

1. Get time away/alone. Chances are, everyone you know at school is stressed during finals week, too. Take a few minutes to take a walk off campus, treat yourself to a coffee in a place not full of stressed students, or find some other way/place that you can get yourself out of the finals-week environment, if even just for a few minutes.

2. Spend 3-5 minutes not doing anything. This is often more challenging than it sounds. But take a few minutes to turn off all of your technology and sit and relax -- even meditate, if you can. Those few minutes can calm your mind and your spirit while helping your refocus and recharge.

3. Spend 15-20 minutes doing something purely for fun. The break for your brain will do wonders for its productivity later. Watch silly YouTube videos, read a trashy magazine, play a video game, or Skype with a friend far away.

4. Get exercise in a low-stress situation. Translation: practice with your basketball team doesn't count. Go for a relaxing walk, ride your bike without knowing where you'll end up, or go for a quick jog. And if it's too cold outside, try something new in the gym. You might be surprised by how relaxed -- and energized! -- you feel afterward.

5. Attend a sporting event. If you're studying for finals at the end of the fall semester, chances are you can attend a football or basketball game during finals week. Leave your books in your room and really let yourself relax and enjoy, knowing that the time spent away will help your studying later.

6. Make a list -- and write down everything. For some people, making a list can really help reduce stress because it helps put things in perspective. The best way to get things organized, and to get a feeling of satisfaction, is to write down every single thing you need to do -- like eating breakfast/lunch/dinner, doing laundry, getting some sleep, and going to class. Getting things written down -- and then crossed off! -- can do wonders for your sense of control and accomplishment during a very busy time.

*http://collegelife.about.com/od/academiclife/ht/How-To-Reduce-Stress-During-Finals-Week.htm

This Day In History - April 29

April 29, 1875:
Henry James' Transatlantic Sketches is published

American writer Henry James' collection of travel pieces, Transatlantic Sketches, is published. The same year, James publishes a collection of stories, A Passionate Pilgrim, and a novel, Roderick Hudson. These three works herald the beginning of James' long and influential writing career.

James was born to a wealthy and eccentric philosopher father in 1843 in New York City. His older brother William became the country's first distinguished psychologist and a well-known philosopher. During their teens, the brothers and their younger siblings were taken abroad by their parents for to study European culture. The family roamed England, Switzerland, and France, visiting galleries, museum, theaters, and libraries for four years.

A back injury exempted James from serving in the Civil War, and he briefly attended Harvard Law School. He began writing fiction in his teens, and his first story was published when he was 21. He soon became a regular contributor of essays, reviews, and stories to Atlantic Monthly and other important periodicals.

In 1873, James moved to England and continued publishing reviews while writing many more novels, including The American (1877) and the popular Daisy Miller (1878). In 1881, he published his masterpiece The Portrait of a Lady. Like many of his other works, it deals with naive, young Americans moving in sophisticated European circles. He wrote prolifically, nonfiction as well as fiction, and the prefaces to new editions of his novels have been collected in The Art of the Novel (1834).

History.com

John Updike's Home to Open as Museum

*By William Ecenbarger, For The Inquirer
POSTED: August 08, 2014
 SHILLINGTON, Pa. - With a fresh coat of white paint and a green moat of surgically cropped lawn, the house where John Updike grew into adolescence sits prettily along a busy road in this suburb of Reading.

But inside is the detritus of renovation-in-progress - bare floorboards, stripped walls, paint cans, bent nails, wood splinters, patches of wallpaper - covered in dust.

"These things take time," sighs Maria Mogford, curator of the John Updike Childhood Home. "We wanted it to be ready this fall, but ... it has a way to go."

When it opens, probably next year, the site will join childhood residences-turned-museums of other famed American authors. Mark Twain is forever linked to Hannibal, Mo.; William Faulkner to Oxford, Miss.; Emily Dickinson to Amherst, Mass. But in one respect, the building at 117 Philadelphia Ave. will stand out.

More than any other American writer, Updike made his first home an ongoing setting, in intricate detail, for his 61 volumes of novels, short stories, poems, and essays. The house, where he lived with his parents and a grandparent and where he said his "artistic eggs were hatched," was also where many of his last stories are set.

"He said if he ever had a ghost, it would haunt this house," says Mogford, an English professor at nearby Albright College.

She points to two living-room windows: "He describes in at least three short stories how the family Christmas tree was placed between those two windows."

She steps into the dining room. "Right in the middle was a table," Mogford says, "and he used to curl up under it and read or draw."

Indeed, the 12-year-old Updike hid here on the day the family moved from the house in 1945, at his mother's insistence, to a farm about 11 miles away. For the rest of his life, through his fiction, essays, and poetry, Updike expressed bitterness at his mother's determination to leave the Shillington house.

Through a character in a short story, he called it "the crucial detachment of his life." Fifty years later, in another story, he said he "saw his entire life ... as an errant encircling of this forgotten center."

The John Updike Society, formed a few months after the author died in 2009, bought the house two years ago from an advertising agency that had occupied it. The group paid $180,000 for the property and expects to spend from $250,000 to $300,000 - with help from donors - to refurbish it.

Mogford says the museum won't have an adverse impact on Shillington - a one-square-mile borough, with a population of about 5,300 - because access to the home will be by appointment only on limited hours and days.

Updike drew material from other homes in the United Kingdom, New York City, and Massachusetts, but Shillington remained the richest source of his imagination throughout a half-century of writing that earned him two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Book Award, and many other accolades. His Shillington stories are written in rich, descriptive, lyrical language, and contain precisely remembered details from his childhood.

In his widely praised new biography of the writer, Adam Begley wrote: "For Linda Updike to regain her childhood paradise, her son had to relinquish his. In a letter she sent to him on the fifth anniversary of the move, Updike's mother wrote: 'If I had known then how much you hated to leave that house, I might not have had the courage to go.' My guess is that she would not, in fact, have found that courage."

Mogford points to a stained-glass window above the front door - "that's original" - then her finger drops to the mail slot. "So is that, and in one of his stories, he remembers sitting under the slot and letting the mail hit him as it was delivered by the postman."

Sunlight butters the bare floor of a second-story room that served as a studio for Linda Updike. "My mother dreamed of being a writer, and I used to see her type in the front room," Updike wrote in "The Dogwood Tree," an autobiographical essay published in 1963. "The front room is also where I would go when I was sick, so I would sit there and watch her."

The kitchen is empty save for a modern electric range, but Updike recalled the room "with its linoleum floor and wooden icebox and soap-smelling stone sink. The kitchen smelled of vanilla, cinnamon, and shredded coconut in its glass-fronted cabinets, and of the oilcloth on the little table where we ate, I seated at a corner that prodded me in the stomach."

The kitchen door leads to a side porch where, the author said, "I would play by myself or with others - setting up grocery stores out of orange crates and crayoned paper fruit" and that he described as "one of my favorite places in the world."

In the side yard is a dogwood tree planted by the Updikes in 1933 to commemorate his first birthday - and that he memorialized in the essay title 30 years later.

"We took a seedling from the tree this spring that we can plant and, in a way, keep it alive," says Mogford. "It's now 81 years old, and we don't know how much longer it will last. We also pruned it, and a local artist is making pens and jewelry out of the trimmings that we will sell in the gift shop."

Though it's currently unoccupied and no longer part of the Updike property, the two-story chicken coop is still there. Updike used the image of a chicken house dozens of times in his writing. His grandmother used to behead the birds, and Updike wrote of "the bloody stump" and "the frightened and stupid chickens, the vegetable garden that always needed weeding."

The society is seeking donations to restore the house to the way it would have looked during the Updikes' ownership.

As a national literary landmark, the Updike home, built around 1900, will attract scholars from around the world, but Mogford adds: "There are a lot of Updike fans out there - regular people who have read all his books several times. They'll be coming for sure."

Some may have already been. The society has held a biennial conference since forming and expects more than 200 when it meets again in October in Reading. Begley, Updike's biographer, is scheduled to speak, as is David Updike, the author's son, who is a fiction writer. The event will also include a picnic at the Philadelphia Avenue house and a walking tour of Shillington.

The town may already be a magnet because Updike insistently translated his own family and the geography of his youth into his literature. In his early novels, The Centaur, Of the Farm, and Poorhouse Fair, and in dozens of short stories, Updike has made himself, through different voices and physiognomies, his own chief character.

He has made his readers intimately familiar with his parents and his two boyhood homes. Shillington is Olinger in Updike's fiction; Plowville, Pa., where he moved when he was 12, is Firetown; and Reading, the closest city, is Alton or Brewer.

But Shillington was the most powerful influence on his writing. In one of his last poems, written a few weeks before he died and when he knew he was terminally ill, he thanks his childhood friends "for providing a / sufficiency of human types: beauty / bully, hanger-on, natural / twin and fatso - all a writer needs, / all there in Shillington."

william.ecenbarger@gmail.com

*http://articles.philly.com/2014-08-08/news/52560943_1_shillington-stories-advertising-agency

Scheduled Classes for Computers, Tuesday, April 28

9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. Reserved—Mr. Reimenschneider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. Jerry Reimenschneider COM121 (13) NO INSTRUCTION; reserve 12
computers.

Elizabeth Taylor DVDs and VHS' in the Yocum Library Collection

DVD - "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? "
Lehman, Ernest,, Nichols, Mike., North, Alex., Taylor, Elizabeth,, Burton, Richard,, Segal, George., Dennis, Sandy., Barr, Richard., Wilder, Clinton., Albee, Edward,, Warner Bros. Pictures (1923-1967), Warner Home Video (Firm) Film - Drama PN1995.9 .S87 W467 2006

DVD -"That's entertainment"
Haley, Jack,, Sinatra, Frank,, Astaire, Fred., Taylor, Elizabeth,, Warner Home Video (Firm), Turner Entertainment Co. MGM celebrates its 50th anniversary with this musical collection of dazzling show-stoppers. Film - Musical Video cassette Father of the bride Taylor, Elizabeth,, Tracy, Spencer,, Bennett, Joan,, Loew's Incorporated., MGM/UA Home Video (Firm) Film - Comedy

DVD - "Cat on a hot tin roof"
Williams, Tennessee,, Poe, James,, Brooks, Richard,, Weingarten, Lawrence,, Taylor, Elizabeth,, Newman, Paul,, Ives, Burl. Film - Drama

DVD "Doctor Faustus"
Burton, Richard,, McWhorter, Richard., Coghill, Nevill,, Taylor, Elizabeth,, Pogány, Gábor., Shirley, John., Nascimbene, Mario., Marlowe, Christopher, Call number:PR2664.A21 C64 2004

DVD- "The last time I saw Paris"
Brooks, Richard,, Cummings, Jack,, Epstein, Julius J.,, Epstein, Philip G., Taylor, Elizabeth,, Johnson, Van,, Pidgeon, Walter,, Reed, Donna,, Gábor, Eva,, Kasznar, Kurt,, Dolenz, George., Moore, Roger, Call number:Film - Drama

Word of the Day

diddle
\DID-l\
verb
1. Informal. to cheat; swindle; hoax.

Quotes
"There's only so much even Parliament can do about the Viceroyalty of the Cape, much less the throne. The way they diddle the franchise laws over there — " He shrugged.
-- S. M. Stirling, The Peshawar Lancers, 2003

Origin
Diddle is of unknown origin. It entered English in the early 1800s.

Dictionary.com

Scheduled Classes for Computers - Monday, April 27

12:20 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. Reserved--Mr. Fidler
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. John Fidler COM121 (18) Reserve 12 computers -- no instruction.

Quotes From Authors About The Tragedy of Book Banning

“Books won’t stay banned. They won’t burn. Ideas won’t go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost.” — Alfred Whitney Griswold

Library Humor

Word of the Day

malarkey
\muh-LAHR-kee\
noun
1. Informal. speech or writing designed to obscure, mislead, or impress; bunkum: The claims were just a lot of malarkey.

Quotes
Underneath all that free and easy hippie malarkey she is actually the most awful prig…
-- Zoë Heller, What Was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal, 2003

Origin
Malarkey is an Americanism that arose in the 1920s. It is of unknown origin.

Dictionary.com

Daily Writing Tips

*Some Thoughts on Dashes
By Maeve Maddox

A reader wonders about the use of dashes to replace colons:

More and more I see dashes (of various sorts) used to do the work you say that the colon should do: introduce a word, phrase, clause, list, or quotation after a complete sentence. Is either acceptable?

I can’t find an example of a dash used to introduce a quotation, but its use in place of a colon to introduce a word, phrase, clause, or list is common:

“Nonetheless,” he added, “just having these recordings is not going to be sufficient” to make any definitive conclusions about the cause of the crash—a process that could take weeks, if not months.”

Now students’ needs are anticipated by a small army of service professionals—mental health counselors, student-life deans and the like.

Coming at the end of a sentence in this way, the use of a dash is not as jarring to me as its increasingly popular use to replace commas or parentheses within a sentence:

The study’s authors hypothesized that material gains made through early agricultural success—a proxy for wealth—gave smaller groups of related men the reproductive upper hand for generations.

Boko Haram has widened its efforts from capturing foreigners—who can be ransomed off for big bucks—to targeting mass numbers of young women and children who can be put to other uses.

Commas or parentheses would do just fine in each example.

The choice to replace commas or parentheses with a dash should be made with a clear understanding of the effect desired.

Explanatory information meant for readers who may need help with a concept can go in parenthesis:

The study’s authors hypothesized that material gains made through early agricultural success (a proxy for wealth) gave smaller groups of related men the reproductive upper hand for generations.

Information relevant to the sentence, but of secondary importance can go between commas:

Boko Haram has widened its efforts from capturing foreigners, who can be ransomed off for big bucks, to targeting mass numbers of young women and children who can be put to other uses.

Dashes are appropriate when the purpose is to startle the reader with an unexpected interruption that provides a peripheral thought:

His chisel was one of the weapons used—not that he could help that, poor fellow—and no doubt you will want to ask him questions.

The dash is an attention-getting punctuation mark that can be used to change the tone of a sentence. Dashes are like the unexpected chords in The Surprise Symphony: they jerk the reader into wakefulness. They are most effective when not overused.

*http://www.dailywritingtips.com/some-thoughts-on-dashes/

Library Humor

Word of the Day

funambulist
\fyoo-NAM-byuh-list\
noun
1. a tightrope walker.

Quotes
…after a week there had been an office crisis. The cabaret editor died on the job, in an incident involving a French funambulist and seven live eels (one of which was in flames).
-- Will Self, Cock and Bull, 1992

Origin
Funambulist came to English in the late 1700s from the Latin fūnambulus meaning "ropedancer."

Dictionary.com

This Day In History - April 25

April 25, 1719:
* Robinson Crusoe is published

Daniel Defoe's fictional work The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is published. The book, about a shipwrecked sailor who spends 28 years on a deserted island, is based on the experiences of shipwreck victims and of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who spent four years on a small island off the coast of South America in the early 1700s.

Like his hero Crusoe, Daniel Defoe was an ordinary, middle-class Englishman, not an educated member of the nobility like most writers at the time. Defoe established himself as a small merchant but went bankrupt in 1692 and turned to political pamphleteering to support himself. A pamphlet he published in 1702 satirizing members of the High Church led to his arrest and trial for seditious libel in 1703.

He appealed to powerful politician Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford, who had him freed from Newgate prison and who hired him as a political writer and spy to support his own views. To this end, Defoe set up the Review, which he edited and wrote from 1704 to 1713. It wasn't until he was nearly 60 that he began writing fiction. His other works include Moll Flanders (1722) and Roxana (1724). He died in London in 1731, one day before the 12th anniversary of Robinson Crusoe's publication.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/robinson-crusoe-is-published

Library Humor

Daily Writing Tips - Inning, Innings, and the Seventh-Inning Stretch

Inning, Innings, and the Seventh-Inning Stretch
By Maeve Maddox

In the games of baseball and cricket, opposing teams take turns batting a ball.

A baseball game is divided into nine innings during which each team has a turn at bat. Each half of an inning ends with the third out. (An out occurs when a player strikes out or is tagged between bases.)

I’ll let Merriam-Webster explain the cricket term innings:

innings (noun): plural but singular or plural in construction :  a division of a cricket match in which one side continues batting until ten players are retired or the side declares; also : the time a player stays as a batsman until he is out, until ten teammates are out, or until his side declares.

Both terms have given rise to figurative expressions.

In reference to cricket, the term “to have one’s innings” can mean simply, “to have one’s turn at something.” Spoken of someone who dies at an advanced age, “to have a good innings,” means, “to have a long and successful life.” Here are some examples of the figurative use of innings:

The men had their innings in a revival of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell, performed as a staged reading in the style designed by Charles Laughton in 1952.

Berry told the Radio Times: “I have no desire to be a centenarian. I think 90 is a great time. You’ve had a good innings.”

From baseball comes the expression “the seventh-inning stretch.”

The ritual of the seventh-inning stretch is described in a letter dated 1869:

The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and sometimes walk about. In so doing they enjoy the relief afforded by relaxation from a long posture upon hard benches.

Chicago Cubs fans have been singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the seventh-inning stretch since 1982. It’s often referred to as “the seventh-inning song.”

In researching this post, I discovered that some baseball fans are a bit confused about what to call this traditional interlude:

Incorrect: The seventh ending stretch came and to our surprise an announcement was being made over the loud speakers and a message appeared on the scoreboard.
Correct : The seventh-inning stretch came and to our surprise an announcement was being made over the loud speakers and a message appeared on the scoreboard.

Incorrect: In typical fashion, the third quarter seemed like a seventh ending stretch. Bear and I both took several catnaps due to the lackluster performance of both teams.

Correct : In typical fashion, the third quarter seemed like a seventh-inning stretch. Bear and I both took several catnaps due to the lackluster performance of both teams.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/inning-innings-and-the-seventh-inning-stretch/

Scheduled Classes for Computers -Thursday, April 23

9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. Reserved—Mr. Reimenschneider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. Jerry Reimenschneider COM121 (13) NO INSTRUCTION; reserve 12 computers.

2 p.m. - 3 p.m. Reserved--Ms. Moyer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Lois Moyer ORI102 (28) Introduction to The Yocum Library presented by Ms. Patricia Nouhra.

Quotes From Authors About The Tragedy of Book Banning

“The crime of book purging is that it involves a rejection of the word. For the word is never absolute truth, but only man’s frail and human effort to approach the truth. To reject the word is to reject the human search. ” — Max Lerner

This Day In History - April 23

April 23, 1564:
Birth and death of William Shakespeare celebrated

Historians believe Shakespeare was born on this day in 1564, the same day he died in 1616.

Although the plays of William Shakespeare may be the most widely read works in the English language, little is known for certain about the playwright himself. Some scholars even believe the plays were not written by William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon but by some other well-educated, aristocratic writer who wished to remain anonymous.

Shakespeare's father was probably a common tradesman. He became an alderman and bailiff in Stratford-upon-Avon, and Shakespeare was baptized in the town on April 26, 1564. At age 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, and the couple had a daughter in 1583 and twins in 1585. Sometime later, Shakespeare set off for London to become an actor and by 1592 was well established in London's theatrical world as both a performer and a playwright. His earliest plays, including The Comedy of Errors and The Taming of the Shrew, were written in the early 1590s. Later in the decade, he wrote tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet (1594-1595) and comedies including The Merchant of Venice (1596-1597). His greatest tragedies were written after 1600, including Hamlet (1600-01), Othello (1604-05), King Lear (1605-06), and Macbeth (1605-1606).

He became a member of the popular theater group the Lord Chamberlain's Men, who later became the King's Men. The group built and operated the famous Globe Theater in 1599. Shakespeare ultimately became a major shareholder in the troupe and earned enough money to buy a large house in Stratford in 1597. He retired to Stratford in 1610, where he wrote his last plays, including The Tempest (1611) and The Winter's Tale (1610-11). Meanwhile, he had written more than 100 sonnets, which were published in 1609. Although pirated versions of Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet and some other plays were published during Shakespeare's lifetime, no definitive collection of his works was published until after his death. In 1623, two members of Shakespeare's troupe collected the plays and printed what is now called the First Folio (1623).

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/birth-and-death-of-william-shakespeare-celebrated?catId=8

Scheduled Classes for Computers -Wednesday, April 22

6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Reserved—Ms. DeLong
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dina Delong COM131 (8) NO INSTRUCTION; reserve 12 instruction area computers.

7 Homophone Mistakes to Avoid

*by Allison VanNest • March 27, 2015    

When you’re speaking out loud, homophones sound alike, but when you’re writing them out, it’s a different story. Though they have the same pronunciation, homophones have slightly different spellings and totally different definitions. Since using the wrong one can completely change the meaning of your statement, it’s important to make sure you have the right word in mind. Here are seven homophone mistakes to avoid.

Than vs. Then
Despite their single letter of difference, misusing “than” and “then” can change a statement completely. “Than” is the word to use in a comparative statement, like “You’re a better writer today than you were yesterday.” Use “then” when describing a sequence of events, like “Write a good sentence, and then compose a great paragraph.”

To vs. Too
While “to” and “too” sound the same, remember that the former is a preposition, while the latter is an adverb. “To” typically means “toward,” while “too” can either mean “excessively” or “also.” For example, you could say, “When you go to the beach, take me too.”

Your vs. You’re
Though it’s a common mistake, using the wrong version of this word can make your writing look sloppy. “Your” is always a possessive pronoun, so when you use this word, be sure you’re declaring ownership. For instance, you could say, “your book” or “your professional writing sample.” “You’re,” on the other hand, is a contraction of the words “you” and “are.” When using this word, check yourself by reading it with the words “you are” in place of the contraction to make sure it makes sense.

Threw vs. Through
“Threw” and “through” may be different parts of speech, but they can be tough to keep straight. The first work in this homophone pair is the past tense of the verb “throw,” or the act of tossing something in the air. “Through,” however, is an adverb that implies movement through space or time. You could say, for instance, “The pitcher threw the baseball through the air like a pro.”

Stationary vs. Stationery
Many writers confuse these homophones, since the only spelling difference is a single vowel towards the end of the word. “Stationary” and “stationery,” however, have very different meanings. “Stationary” refers to standing still, while “stationery” refers to cards, paper, or other writing materials. Your stationery may be stationary, but never the other way around.

Seas vs. Sees vs. Seize
As if two homophones weren’t enough, you will find three spellings of this sound-alike. “Seas” is a noun that describes oceans and other large bodies of water, while the verb “sees” refers to looking or observing. Finally, “seize” means to take control. “She sees the opposing forces seize the seas” demonstrates the unique meaning of all three.

There vs. Their vs. They’re
You’ll also find three of these tricky homophones. “There” refers to a general location or distance. When describing where you parked your car, for instance, you might say, “My car is in the parking lot over there.” “Their” serves as a possessive form for more than one person. When referring to the vehicles belonging to a group of people, for example, you would say, “their cars.”

Finally, “they’re” is a contraction of the words “they” and “are.” Whenever you use this term, make sure that what you really mean is “they are.” For instance, you could say, “They’re parking.” If you’re really ready to show off your knowledge of homophones, try out the statement, “They’re parking their car in that lot over there.”
Homophones may sound the same, but their meanings are very different when you use them in writing. Study up on which words you need to use, and when, as many spelling and grammar checkers cannot correct for words that are spelled correctly but used wrong. (Lucky for you Grammarly can!)

What’s your biggest homophone mistake?

*http://www.grammarly.com/blog/2015/7-homophone-mistakes-to-avoid/?preview=true&preview_id=12431&preview_nonce=eccd29efa4

Word of the Day

paramnesia
\par-am-NEE-zhuh\
noun
1. Psychiatry. a distortion of memory in which fact and fantasy are confused.
2. the inability to recall the correct meaning of a word.

Quotes
The subtle, recurring confusion between illusion and reality that was characteristic of paramnesia fascinated the chaplain, and he knew a number of things about it.
-- Joseph Heller, Catch-22, 1961

Origin
Paramnesia is a New Latin construction that entered English in the late 1800s. It derives from the Greek roots pará meaning "beside; beyond" and amnēstía meaning "oblivion."

Dictionary.com

Scheduled Classes for Computers -Tuesday, April 21

9 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Reserved—Ms. Hoerr
Where: IN CLASSROOM TTC 214
Description: Ms. Dorothy Hoerr COM050 (20) Using ProQuest databases presented by Ms.Kim Stahler.

9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. Reserved—Mr. Reimenschneider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. Jerry Reimenschneider COM121 (13) NO INSTRUCTION; reserve 12 computers.

11 Books That Were Banned for Completely Ridiculous Reasons

*Posted by Chrissie Gruebel × September 24, 2014

Happy Banned Books Week! In honor of this glorious celebration of our freedom to read what we want, let’s pause for a sec and remember there are people out there still trying to take this freedom away for dumb reasons like not wanting their kids to read the word “nipple.”

Actually, now that we think of it…it’s kinda quaint that people still think they can ban books at all, right? It’s the most ineffective power trip in the world! The U.S. government can’t even keep their top-secret spy stuff from the public—how does anyone expect to keep The Adventures of Captain Underpants away from a kid who is basically made out of internet?

So let’s all get together and laugh in the face of censorship. Here’s a list of books that were banned and/or challenged based on…well, based on basically nothing.

Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh
Why: Because she SPIES (and lies and curses and sets a bad example for kids or whatever)—basically, because she does exactly what Louise Fitzhugh promises in the title. If anything, this is a lesson in honesty and truth in advertising. She could’ve called it Harriet, the Perfect Child but she didn’t, did she? Plus, show us an 11-year-old who isn’t lying and spying and making mischief from time to time, and we’ll show you that this 11-year-old is a cyborg in human skin.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, by Judy Blume
Why: They called it “sexually offensive,” “immoral,” and “profane,” but let’s be honest here: the real answer is “TOO MUCH PERIOD.” Hey, tween gals on the cusp of lady-dom? Don’t panic! Don’t panic even though you live in a world where no one likes to acknowledge that this happens to you! Forget Judy Blume and turn your attention toward these tampon commercials where women do nothing but turn cartwheels on a beach. Yeah. Thiiiiis is reality. Shhh.

Where’s Waldo, by Martin Handford
Why: Side boob. Seriously. Yes. In this hot mess of a book that’s supposed to make it difficult for you to find anything, someone managed to pick out an errant side boob in the beach scene of the 1987 version. Because, per usual, women’s bodies—even the cartoon ones—ruin everything and start wars and stuff. Avert your eyes forever.

Little Red Riding Hood, by Brothers Grimm
Why: In the 1987 version, which was adapted from the original fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood was shown carrying a bottle of wine in her basket. But, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we ask you this: What’s honestly the most disturbing thing about Little Red Riding Hood? Is it the fact that there’s a sentient wolf in her grandma’s pajamas? The fact that said wolf probably mauled said grandma to death? Oh, it’s the WINE? Really? Not the fact that the Brothers Grimm were always setting up scenarios where children might get eaten? Ok, as long as you’re sure. Glad everyone has their priorities straight.

Where the Sidewalk Ends, by Shel Silverstein
Why: The only reason there could possibly be: promoting cannibalism, which is something we all remember from our childhoods, right? Shel Silverstein wanted us to eat other humans. Oh, and some people who really care about their plates also got mad because Shel told kids to break dishes instead of washing them, and we have to keep our little indentured servants in line, right? We can’t have a bunch of whimsical poetry giving them any ideas.

The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
Why: Vulgar language—but we kinda understand this one because, as all historical documents indicate, the Great Depression was named in jest.
In reality, it was a time of widespread singing and dancing and feasts. Everyone had a really great time. So Steinbeck got it wrong with all that tenant farming and unemployment and hardship. It’s just not accurate. Why would anyone need vulgar language when the world was so awesome?

Other good ones:
• The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger: Pornographic.
• My Friend Flicka, by Mary O’Hara: Uses the word “bitch” to describe a female dog when we ALL KNOW what the word “bitch” is really for.
• The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank: “Too depressing” in one case, and in another case, she talked about genitals for a second and people got mad.
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding: Implies that man is nothing more than an animal (as in, the point of the whole book).
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin Jr.: Banned because an author with the same name as this book’s author (Bill Martin, no relation)—who, to be clear,  is an entirely different person—was a Marxist who wrote a different book about Marxism and people don’t know how to check their facts.

What books do you love that were banned for silly reasons?

*http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/11-books-that-were-banned-for-completely-ridiculous-reasons/

Scheduled Classes for Computers - Monday, April 20

7:30 p.m. - 8:50 p.m. Reserved--Mr. Uhrich
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. William Uhrich COM121 (20) Reserve 12 computers w/o staff instruction.

Creative Writing Camp

Reading Area Community College to Hold First Summer Camps
for Young Teen Writers and Environmentalists
Contact: Jodi Corbett, Director of Academic Partnerships, 610-607-6219
Reading, Pa. – Reading Area Community College will hold its first summer camps, one in the Arts and the other in STEM, for teens, ages 13 – 15. Cost is $200 for each session. Maximum class size: 20; Minimum class size: 12. Deadline to register is June 8.
The Schuylkill River: Forces and Facets Connecting Campus to Conservation
Session I: June 23 - 26, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZSCI-957-401
Session II: July 20 - 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZSCI-957-402
The Creative Writing Camp
Session I: June 23 - 26, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZWRI-932-401
Session II: July 20 - 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZWRI-932-402
June 8 is the deadline to register.
Camp Facilitators
Professor Joey Flamm Costello, MFA, teaches creative writing courses, Fiction Writing I and II and Introduction to Fiction at RACC. During the academic school year, Joey taught creative writing workshops to seventh to ninth grade students at Schuylkill Valley Middle School and Muhlenberg Middle School. She has taught creative writing for nearly twenty years at colleges and universities. Teens will have one of their works created during the 4-day camp published in RACC’s first Legacy for Teens.
Professor and Master Naturist Patricia Rhine-Catucci, MS, has taught Environment at the College for years. She is advisor to RACC’s Environment Club and is an active environmentalist in the region. A certified public school teacher in a previous lifetime, Professor Rhine-Catucci brings her lifetime of conservation work to this camp.

Daily Writing Tips - Waxing and Waning

Waxing and Waning
By Maeve Maddox

The most familiar use of the verbs wax and wane is in reference to the states of the moon.

To wax is to grow. To wane is to diminish.

The moon has four phases, also called quarters. During the first two quarters, the moon is said “to wax” as its light increases. During the third and fourth quarters, as its light decreases, the moon is said “to wane.”

The verbs wax and wane are often used to describe the growing and lessening of interest in a subject:

My interest in Shakespeare has always waxed and waned.

Sadly, as my interest waxed, the interest of my sponsor appeared to wane.

My interest in cars began to wane in direct relationship to the run-up in prices.

In writing and speech, the verb wax may be followed by an adjective to describe the manner in which something is being said.

“To wax poetic” is to speak with enthusiasm and hyperbole on a favorite subject:

A grizzled New Orleans bartender waxing poetic on his favorite drink, the Mint Julip, as he makes his last one.

Apple brilliantly waxes poetic in new iPad Air ad
Prabal Gurung Waxed Poetic About His Militant Women

Similar in meaning is the expression “to wax lyrical”:

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger talks up Jackson Martinez transfer after waxing lyrical about the Porto forward

Like Spengler, they waxed lyrical about war and violence “as the superior form of human existence.”

Feelings of angry disdain are expressed by the phrase “to wax indignant”:

General Grant waxed indignant at his father’s crass attempt to profit from his son’s military [success].

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.—Baruch Spinoza

House Speaker Robert DeLeo waxed indignant Wednesday, forcefully denying claims by federal prosecutors that he let fellow legislators fill jobs in the Probation Department in exchange for their votes for the speakership.

Wax is also used in reference to less passionate states of feeling. For example, one can wax silent or sentimental:

Agnes waxed silent, pleased most with “the joy of her own thoughts.”

Anárion waxed silent as a couple strolled beside them, waiting until they had walked a safe distance away before asking, “Have you ever heard of Eregion?”

Justice Thomas waxed sentimental about the good old days when “teachers managed classrooms with an iron hand.”

Cobos waxed sentimental about being a “country boy” and announced that this was why he and his wife moved to the Upper Valley themselves.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/waxing-and-waning/

Quotes From Authors About The Tragedy of Book Banning

"It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers." -- Judy Blume

Daily Writing Tips - Verb Mistakes

*Verb Mistakes #6: Mixed Errors
By Maeve Maddox

1.
Incorrect: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Tuesday urged the European Union (EU) to arm Iraqi Kurds to fight Islamist militants who have overran the country’s northern areas and triggered security crisis for its inhabitants. (Business Standard)
Correct : French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Tuesday urged the European Union (EU) to arm Iraqi Kurds to fight Islamist militants who have overrun the country’s northern areas and triggered security crisis for its inhabitants.

The verb “to overrun” is conjugated the same as the verb “to run”: run, ran, (have) run; overrun, overran, (have) overrun.

2.
Incorrect: Earlier, one group of over 100 protesters lapped Columbus Circle, and then walked to the Apple store on Fifth Avenue. They laid on the store’s floor for a few minutes as a symbolic die-in. (New York CBS Local)
Correct : Earlier, one group of over 100 protesters lapped Columbus Circle, and then walked to the Apple store on Fifth Avenue. They lay on the store’s floor for a few minutes as a symbolic die-in.

The distinction between the verbs lie and lay are still observed in formal English. The principal parts of “to lie” in the sense of “to recline” are lie, lay, (have) lain.

3.
Incorrect: But New Mexico authorities let him to walk out of Sandoval County Jail two months ago. (WSB-TV)
Correct : But New Mexico authorities let him walk out of Sandoval County Jail two months ago.

When certain verbs are completed by an infinitive, the bare form (without the to) is used. Among these verbs are hear, see, make, and let.

4.
Incorrect: If you would have studied literature in college, you would know the writing devices you’re complaining about are amazingly well done. (Comment critical of a Cormac McCarthy book review)
Correct : If you had studied literature in college, you would know the writing devices you’re complaining about are amazingly well done.

Ordinarily, will or would appears only in the main clause and not in the if clause.

5.
Incorrect: If I had of known this at the beginning of my degree I would have dropped out and gone elsewhere. (Comment on graphic design site)
Correct : If I had known this at the beginning of my degree I would have dropped out and gone elsewhere.

This conditional sentence contains two errors: 1. “Had of” is a miswriting for “had have.” 2. The addition of a have in the if clause is not needed.

*http://www.dailywritingtips.com/verb-mistakes-6-mixed-errors/

Word of the Day

pepper-upper
\PEP-er-UHP-er\
noun
1. Informal. something, as a food, beverage, or pill, that provides a quick but temporary period of energy and alertness.
2. Informal. something added to food to relieve blandness.

Quotes
Good for a little pepper-upper, that's all. Fourteen, you got maybe a little flash of color.
-- Ken Goddard, The Alchemist, 1997

Origin
Pepper-upper entered English in the 1930s from the expression pep up, an Americanism from the early 1900s.

Dictionary.com

10 Things Mark Twain Didn't Really Say

*Samuel Langhorne Clemens provided us with some of the best quips ever. But he's also one of the most misquoted men of all time. Here are 10 quotes Mark Twain likely never uttered, despite popular belief.

1. “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” It has also been attributed to Agatha Christie. Neither source can be verified.
He DID say: “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”

2. “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.”
He DID say: “A successful book is not made of what is in it, but of what is left out of it.”

3. “Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.”

He DID say: “When a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me.”

4. “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”

He DID say: “I reverently believe that the Maker who made us all makes everything in New England but the weather. I don't know who makes that, but I think it must be raw apprentices in the weather-clerk's factory who experiment and learn how, in New England, for board and clothes, and then are promoted to make weather for countries that require a good article, and will take their custom elsewhere if they don't get it.”

5. “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.” This was actually written by Blaise Pascal.

He DID say: “We write frankly and fearlessly but then we "modify" before we print.”

6. “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

He DID say: “Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd all have frozen to death.”

7. “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” Twain himself denied inventing this quote, and claimed Benjamin Disraeli was the one who created it. It is thanks to Twain, however, that the saying became popular in the U.S.

He DID say: “Yes, even I am dishonest. Not in many ways, but in some. Forty-one, I think it is.”

8. “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”

He DID say: “[He] was endowed with a stupidity which by the least little stretch would go around the globe four times and tie.”

9. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.”

He DID say: “One cannot have everything the way he would like it. A man has no business to be depressed by a disappointment, anyway; he ought to make up his mind to get even.”

10. “Whiskey is for drinking. Water is for fighting over.”

He DID say: “Water is an individual, an animal, and is alive, remove the hydrogen and it is an animal and is alive; the remaining oxygen is also an individual, an animal, and is alive. Recapitulation: the two individuals combined, constitute a third individual--and yet each continues to be an individual....here was mute Nature explaining the sublime mystery of the Trinity so luminously that even the commonest understanding could comprehend it, whereas many a trained master of words had labored to do it with speech and failed.”

Thanks to TwainQuotes for many of these. Do you have any favorite Twain quotes (or misquotes) to add?

*http://mentalfloss.com/article/29372/10-things-mark-twain-didnt-really-say

Library Humor

Scheduled Classes for Computers

9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. Reserved—Mr. Reimenschneider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. Jerry Reimenschneider COM121(17) NO INSTRUCTION; reserve 12 computers.

5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Tabor Where: Yocum Instruction Area Description: Ms. Jennifer Tabor COM050 (6) Evaluating Internet Sources presented by Ms. Patricia Nouhra.

Emancipation Day 2015

Emancipation Day is a public holiday on 16 April each year that, in recent history, has been celebrated only since 2005. If the date falls on a weekend, the holiday is the nearest weekday, either Friday or Monday.

Emancipation Day celebrates when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipaton Act in 1862. By doing so, he freed over 3000 slaves in the District of Columbia. Nine months later, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed over three million slaves across a large number of states.

Compensated Emancipation put money into the hands of the slaveholders. Slavery was then abolished in the District and the government paid nine hundred slaveholders approximately $300 for each slave they had previously owned. The act only covered the District of Columbia because Lincoln was unable to convince many of the states of its virtues. The federal government only had control of the District and that was where slavery began its end.

Emancipation celebrates the freedom of slaves, and particularly President Lincoln’s efforts, and eventual success, to end slavery. The holiday celebration was recognised from 1866 to 1901 then was somehow forgotten. In recent years, after many years research by a lady named Loretta Carter-Hanes, the holiday was ‘rediscovered’ and re-established.

On Emancipation Day, Pennsylvania Avenue comes alive with a parade of military, students and bands, followed by a fun-filled festival. Public school children have the day off and many government offices are closed so the parade draws large crowds along its route. At the end of the day and after the festival, the sky comes alight with a fireworks show.

This Day In History - April 16

April 16, 1922:
Kingsley Amis is born

*British author Kingsley Amis is born to a lower-middle-class clerk and his wife.

Amis' mother encouraged him to write at an early age, and he later attended Oxford, where he was known as an outspoken radical. In World War II, he served with the Royal Corps of Signals and later joined the faculty of Swansea University in South Wales. He married in 1949, the same year his son, Martin Amis, was born. Martin would grow up to become a famous novelist in his own right.

Amis' experiences as a professor helped inspire his first and most popular novel, "Lucky Jim" (1954). The book marked him as part of England's Angry Young Man movement, consisting of upwardly mobile, lower-class writers condemning England's class system. The book, a comic masterpiece satirizing academic life, made Amis a household name during the 1950s. The book was made into a movie in 1957.

Although his first novel remains his best-known work, Amis wrote more than 40 books during his career, including about 20 novels and six volumes of poetry. He spent a year teaching at Princeton University in New Jersey and later became a fellow at Cambridge. His 1986 book, The Old Devils, won the coveted Booker Prize. Known for his curmudgeonly manner, Amis was knighted in 1990 and published his caustic autobiography, Memoirs, in 1991. Amis died in 1995.

*http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kingsley-amis-is-born

Scheduled Classes for Computers

6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Reserved—Ms. DeLong
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dina Delong COM131 (8) Using lit databases presented by Ms. Mary Ellen Heckman.

This Day In History - April 15

April 15, 1865:
President Lincoln dies

*President Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, dies from an assassin’s bullet. Shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater in Washington the night before, Lincoln lived for nine hours before succumbing to the severe head wound he sustained.

Lincoln’s death came just after the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. Lincoln had just served the most difficult presidency in history, successfully leading the country through civil war. His job was exhausting and overwhelming at times. He had to manage a tremendous military effort, deal with diverse opinions in his own Republican party, counter his Democratic critics, maintain morale on the northern home front, and keep foreign countries such as France and Great Britain from recognizing the Confederacy. He did all of this, and changed American history when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, converting the war goal from reunion of the nation to a crusade to end slavery.

Now, the great man was dead.  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton said, “Now, he belongs to the ages.” Word spread quickly across the nation, stunning a people who were still celebrating the Union victory. Troops in the field wept, as did General Ulysses S. Grant, the overall Union commander. Perhaps no group was more grief stricken than the freed slaves. Although abolitionists considered Lincoln slow in moving against slavery, many freedmen saw “Father Abraham” as their savior. They faced an uncertain world, and now had lost their most powerful proponent.

Lincoln’s funeral was held on April 19, before a funeral train carried his body back to his hometown of Springfield, Illinois. During the two-week journey, hundreds of thousands gathered along the railroad tracks to pay their respects, and the casket was unloaded for public viewing at several stops. He and his son, Willie, who died in the White House of typhoid fever in 1862, were interred on May 4.

*http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lincoln-dies-from-an-assassins-bullet

Writing Tips - 15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Verbs

*15 Frequently Confused Pairs of Verbs
by Mark Nichol

These similar-looking words below have dissimilar meanings. Make sure you’re using the write one in each pair.
1. Amused/bemused: To be amused is to be entertained; to be bemused is to be confused.
2. Appraise/apprise: To appraise is to evaluate; to apprise is to inform.
3. Ascribe/subscribe: To ascribe is to attach an idea to a source; to subscribe is to hold belief in an idea.
4. Attain/obtain: To attain is to reach; to obtain is to acquire.
5. Barter/haggle: To barter is to trade; to haggle is to negotiate.
6. Born/borne: To be born is to be brought forth; to be borne is to be carried along.
7. Borrow/loan: To borrow is to receive something for temporary use; to loan is to provide something on those terms.
8. Careen/career: To careen is to lean over to one side or to sway; to career is to hurry carelessly. (And to carom is to ricochet.)
9. Censor/censure: To censor is to ban; to censure is to reprimand.
10. Criticize/critique: To criticize is to judge harshly or in a negative manner; to critique is to evaluate.
11. Denigrate/deprecate: To denigrate is to defame or belittle; to deprecate is to disapprove or deemphasize (but can also, like denigrate, mean to disparage).
12. Differ/vary: To differ is to disagree or to be distinct from; to vary is to change (although differ can also refer to variation).
13. Espouse/expound: To espouse is to support; to expound means to state, explain, or defend (which is also distinct from the phrase “expand on,” which means to provide additional or digressive details).
14. Rebut/refute: To rebut is to argue in response to another argument; to refute is to deny an argument.
15. Wangle/wrangle: To wangle is to obtain by underhanded means; to wrangle is to wrestle.

*http://www.dailywritingtips.com/15-frequently-confused-pairs-of-verbs/

Scheduled Classes for Computers

9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. Reserved—Mr. Reimenschneider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. Jerry Reimenschneider COM121(17) NO INSTRUCTION; reserve 12 computers.

This Day In History - April 14

April 14, 1818:
Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language is printed.

*Noah Webster, a Yale-educated lawyer with an avid interest in language and education, publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language.

Webster's dictionary was one of the first lexicons to include distinctly American words. The dictionary, which took him more than two decades to complete, introduced more than 10,000 "Americanisms." The introduction of a standard American dictionary helped standardize English spelling, a process that had started as early as 1473, when printer William Caxton published the first book printed in English.

The rapid proliferation of printing and the development of dictionaries resulted in increasingly standardized spellings by the mid-17th century. Coincidentally, Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was published almost exactly 63 years earlier, on April 15, 1755.

*http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/websters-american-dictionary-of-the-english-language-is-printed

Library Quotes

Five Famous Authors and Their Strange Writing Rituals

Five Famous Authors and Their Strange Writing Rituals
By Stephanie Ostroff

Routines keep us focused when we start drifting off course. They snap us back to reality and remind us that yes, we can do this. The words will come to us. Turning to a familiar writing ritual can help us find balance. Most authors have that one thing they do, even subconsciously, that sets the tone for a solid writing session.

Sometimes it’s as simple as creating the right lighting in a room or hearing songs from a favorite album. It’s the difference between churning out pages of your best work and wasting an afternoon staring at a blinking cursor.

At times, these rituals are taken to an extreme. Some of history’s most celebrated authors swore by unusual and bizarre rituals. It’s possible we owe many great pieces of literature to the fact that they were so meticulous in maintaining these strange habits.

In honor of the writers who embrace their quirky routines, the Writer’s Circle is highlighting a few of the oddest rituals practiced by famous authors:

1. James Joyce
Crayons, a white coat, and a comfy horizontal surface. These were Joyce’s essentials. The author of Ulysses found his words flowed better while lying flat on his stomach in bed. Since he was severely myopic, crayons enabled Joyce to see his own handwriting more clearly, and the white coat served as a reflector for light onto the pages.

2. Maya Angelou
Most writers can’t afford to check into a hotel when the urge to scribble hits, but for Angelou, it’s the key to great writing. In the wee hours of the morning she’ll book herself a room with a special request: all distracting wall décor must vanish. Armed with a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards, some legal pads, a thesaurus and the Bible, she’s spent hours crafting prose in this carefully constructed environment stripped of almost all inspiration.

3. Truman Capote
The creative genius behind In Cold Blood, Capote was a superstitious man. His writing rituals often involved avoiding particular things. Namely, hotel rooms with phone numbers including “13,” starting or ending a piece of work on a Friday, and tossing more than three cigarette butts in one ashtray.

4. Ernest Hemingway
In stark contrast to James Joyce, Hemingway was a firm believer in standing while writing.While working on The Old Man and The Sea,he followed a strict regimen: “done by noon, drunk by three.” This entailed waking up at dawn, writing furiously while standing at the typewriter, and eventually making his way to the local bar to get inebriated.

5. Joan Didion
Didion holds her books close to her heart—literally.  When she’s close to finishing one, she’ll sleep beside it in the same room. “Somehow the book doesn’t leave you when you’re asleep right next to it,” she said in a 1968 interview with The Paris Review.

http://writerscircle.com/2014/04/five-famous-authors-and-their-strange-writing-rituals.html

Scheduled Classes for Computers

12:20 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. Reserved--Mr. Fidler
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. John Fidler COM121 (18) Reserve 12 computers--no instruction.

5 p.m. - 6 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Neider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Brandy Neider ORI102 (20) Intro to Library PowerPoint presented by Ms. Patricia Nouhra.

6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Neider
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Brandy Neider ORI102 (12) Intro to Library PowerPoint presented by Ms. Patricia Nouhra.

7:30 p.m. - 8:50 p.m. Reserved--Mr. Uhrich
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Mr. William Uhrich COM121 (20) Reserve 12 computers w/o staff instruction.

April - National Poetry Month - Types of Rhyme

*The poet who wishes to write a rhyming poem has several different sorts of rhyme from which to choose. Some are strong, some more subtle, and all can be employed as the poet sees fit. The following are some of the main types : 


End Rhymes
Rhyming of the final words of lines in a poem. The following, for example, is from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” :

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground 


Internal Rhymes
Rhyming of two words within the same line of poetry. The following, for example, is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” :

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, 


Slant Rhymes (sometimes called imperfect, partial, near, oblique, off etc.)
Rhyme in which two words share just a vowel sound (assonance – e.g. “heart” and “star”) or in which they share just a consonant sound (consonance – e.g. “milk” and “walk”). Slant rhyme is a technique perhaps more in tune with the uncertainties of the modern age than strong rhyme. The following example is also from Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” :

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun 


Rich Rhymes
Rhyme using two different words that happen to sound the same (i.e. homonyms) – for example “raise” and “raze”. The following example – a triple rich rhyme – is from Thomas Hood’s” A First Attempt in Rhyme” :

Partake the fire divine that burns,
In Milton, Pope, and Scottish Burns,
Who sang his native braes and burns. 


Eye Rhymes
Rhyme on words that look the same but which are actually pronounced differently – for example “bough” and “rough”. The opening four lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, for example, go :

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Here, “temperate” and “date” look as though they rhyme, but few readers would pronounce “temperate” so that they did. Beware that pronunciations can drift over time and that rhymes can end up as eye rhymes when they were originally full (and vice versa). 


Identical Rhymes
Simply using the same word twice. An example is in (some versions of) Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could not Stop for Death” :

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground— 


It’s clear there is often a certain amount of overlap between rhyme and other poetical devices such as assonance – subjects to be covered in future poetry writing tips.

*http://www.dailywritingtips.com/types-of-rhyme/

5 Ancestry.com Power Tips

SEARCH WITH WILDCARDS. Ancestry.com lets you use a ? to stand in for one letter or a * to stand in for zero to five letters in a name. You can use a wildcard as the first or last character, but not both, and the name must have at least three non-wildcard characters.

GET AUTOMATIC HINTS. Ancestry.com can automatically search its vast collections of records and family trees for your ancestors. Just keep your family tree in Family Tree Maker software for Windows or Mac or create a free Ancestry Member Tree online. Working in the background, Ancestry.com searches its records and family trees for matches to people in your tree. A waving leaf by a name in your tree indicates a potential match. Just click to view the hint. You can review the record to make sure it pertains to your ancestor and then attach it to your tree.

EDIT YOUR TREE ON THE GO. Use Ancestry.com's free mobile app for Apple or Android to create and edit your Ancestry Member Tree on your phone or tablet. You can add records you find in Ancestry.com, as well as those uploaded from your device. Changes will automatically sync to all your devices.

FIND IT FREE. Search the Ancestry.com card catalog on the keyword free, and many of the results will be free databases. You can access almost all of Ancestry.com's records free from a library that offers Ancestry Library Edition on its computers. Check the website or ask your librarian to see if your library offers this service.

DON'T LOSE ACCESS TO YOUR RECORDS. Anyone can create an Ancestry Member Tree for free and as a paying subscriber, you can attach records from Ancestry to people in your tree. But if you let your subscription lapse, you could be in for an unpleasant surprise: You'll be able to access your tree and any records uploaded from your computer, but not the records attached to it from Ancestry.com.

To avoid this, when you attach a record to someone in your Member Tree, save a copy to your computer with a descriptive name so you can easily find it. You also could use Family Tree Maker software so you'll have a copy of your family tree on your computer that automatically syncs with your online tree.

www.familytreeuniversity.com/

Word of the Day

forsooth
\fawr-SOOTH\
adverb
1. Archaic. (now used in derision or to express disbelief) in truth; in fact; indeed.

Quotes
…but he is a gentleman forsooth, though he had not cloths on his back when he came hither first.
-- Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, 1749

Origin
Forsooth has existed in English since before 900, and derives from the Old English forsōth.

Dictionary.com

Quotes From Authors About The Tragedy of Book Banning

“Censorship is telling a man he can’t have a steak just because a baby can’t chew it.” — Mark Twain

Word of the Day

schlemiel
\shluh-MEEL\
noun
1. Slang. an awkward and unlucky person for whom things never turn out right.

Quotes
All he could say was "I can't figure it out How could I be such a schlemiel?"
-- Patrick Dennis, Little Me, 1961

Origin
Schlemiel entered English in the late 1800s from the Yiddish word shlemil. It originates from a Biblical and Talmudic figure named Shelumiel.

Dictionary.com

Creative Writing Camp

Reading Area Community College to Hold First Summer Camps
for Young Teen Writers and Environmentalists

Contact: Jodi Corbett, Director of Academic Partnerships, 610-607-6219

Reading, Pa. – Reading Area Community College will hold its first summer camps, one in the Arts and the other in STEM, for teens, ages 13 – 15. Cost is $200 for each session. Maximum class size: 20; Minimum class size: 12. Deadline to register is June 8.

The Schuylkill River: Forces and Facets Connecting Campus to Conservation

Session I: June 23 - 26, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZSCI-957-401
Session II: July 20 - 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZSCI-957-402

The Creative Writing Camp

Session I: June 23 - 26, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZWRI-932-401
Session II: July 20 - 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZWRI-932-402

June 8 is the deadline to register.

Camp Facilitators
Professor Joey Flamm Costello, MFA, teaches creative writing courses, Fiction Writing I and II and Introduction to Fiction at RACC. During the academic school year, Joey taught creative writing workshops to seventh to ninth grade students at Schuylkill Valley Middle School and Muhlenberg Middle School. She has taught creative writing for nearly twenty years at colleges and universities. Teens will have one of their works created during the 4-day camp published in RACC’s first Legacy for Teens.

Professor and Master Naturist Patricia Rhine-Catucci, MS, has taught Environment at the College for years. She is advisor to RACC’s Environment Club and is an active environmentalist in the region. A certified public school teacher in a previous lifetime, Professor Rhine-Catucci brings her lifetime of conservation work to this camp.

River Conservation Program

Reading Area Community College to Hold First Summer Camps
for Young Teen Writers and Environmentalists

Contact: Jodi Corbett, Director of Academic Partnerships, 610-607-6219

Reading, Pa. – Reading Area Community College will hold its first summer camps, one in the Arts and the other in STEM, for teens, ages 13 – 15. Cost is $200 for each session. Maximum class size: 20; Minimum class size: 12. Deadline to register is June 8.

The Schuylkill River: Forces and Facets Connecting Campus to Conservation

Session I: June 23 - 26, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZSCI-957-401
Session II: July 20 - 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZSCI-957-402

The Creative Writing Camp

Session I: June 23 - 26, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZWRI-932-401
Session II: July 20 - 23, 2015 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. Course Number: ZWRI-932-402

June 8 is the deadline to register.

Camp Facilitators
Professor Joey Flamm Costello, MFA, teaches creative writing courses, Fiction Writing I and II and Introduction to Fiction at RACC. During the academic school year, Joey taught creative writing workshops to seventh to ninth grade students at Schuylkill Valley Middle School and Muhlenberg Middle School. She has taught creative writing for nearly twenty years at colleges and universities. Teens will have one of their works created during the 4-day camp published in RACC’s first Legacy for Teens.

Professor and Master Naturist Patricia Rhine-Catucci, MS, has taught Environment at the College for years. She is advisor to RACC’s Environment Club and is an active environmentalist in the region. A certified public school teacher in a previous lifetime, Professor Rhine-Catucci brings her lifetime of conservation work to this camp.

Word of the Day

nonevent
\non-i-VENT\
noun
1. an occurrence of only superficial interest or content; a dull or insignificant occasion.
2. an event or situation that is anticipated but does not occur or occurs with much less than the expected impact, especially one that has been widely publicized; anticlimax.

Quotes
A non-event, says Phil, is better to write about than an event, because with a non-event you can make up the meaning yourself, it means whatever you say it means.
-- Margaret Atwood, Bluebeard's Egg, 1983

Origin
Nonevent came to English in the mid-1900s as a combination of non- and event.

Dictionary.com

Scheduled Classes for Computers

9:30 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. Reserved—Ms. Gieringer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dawn Gieringer COM051 (20) NO INSTRUCTION, reserve 12 instruction area computers.

11 a.m. - 12:20 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Velez
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Cristina Velez COM 050 (19) Evaluating Internet sources presented by Ms.Kim Stahler.

7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Reserved—Ms. Gieringer
Where: Yocum Instruction Area
Description: Ms. Dawn Gieringer COM051 (20) NO INSTRUCTION, reserve 12 instruction area computers.

Quotes From Authors About The Tragedy of Book Banning

"If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed." — BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Genealogy

5 Ways To Tell If Your Genealogy Research Is Accurate

There is a lot of guesswork and uncertainty in genealogy. People in the past may have put the wrong information on old records, either from genuinely not knowing, or from having something they wanted to hide. Mistakes can be made in transcriptions of documents from one location to another; even tombstones are known to sometimes have mistakes on them from the stone cutter. Census takers make mistakes in the spellings of names (and even dates and places of birth of the householders they enumerate). Those who published family genealogies back in the 19th century, when this was a popular thing to do, often relied on legend, gossip, and the erroneous family stories other people gave them.

There is a lot of room for human error in genealogy research, and you are undoubtedly going to come across it, either in the work of others, or through mistakes you make in your own work. Even the best genealogists will once in a while discover they got an entire line wrong based on one incorrect assumption, misinterpretation of a record, or by obtaining a faulty record. With so much room for making mistakes, how do you know you’ve gotten it right? How do you know if your genealogy research is successful?

The fact is, except for mother/child relationships (and even these might be non-biological without you knowing it, if there was a secret adoption), genealogy is never a 100 percent sure thing. Even the best, most carefully carried out research can still potentially be proven wrong by a future researcher who discovers a clue no one ever noticed or that has just come to light.

However, there are a few ways to be as sure as you can ever possibly be that your research reveals the correct family relationships and information. Here are five ways you can tell if your genealogy research is most likely correct.

1. You Have Found the Same Information in More Than One Set of Records
The more often a family relationship, name, birth or death date, marriage date, or other important piece of family information is repeated through various record sets, the more likely it is to be correct. This is especially true if the records are primary records (records generated at the time of the event they mention).

For example, if you find the same names of parents or birth date or any other type of information for an ancestor in:

Birth and death certificates
Old newspaper birth and death announcements or other articles
Wills
Military records
the more reason you have to trust that the information is correct. Unless you find something drastic later that makes you question this information, or that refutes it entirely, you can be reasonably sure your research into this person is successful.

2. Your Research Matches the Research of Other People
In the online age, you are bound to come across people who are distant cousins or relatives by marriage who are working on your line. They may have been working on it for a while, possibly just as long as you or longer. It is important to compare research with these people.

If you find that your research matches up, including the sources you both used to arrive at your conclusions, you can have a great deal of confidence that your research is correct. If there are discrepancies in your research, then one of you is wrong, and you both need to look at your work again.

If you can find other people who have worked on the same line, try matching up your research with theirs. In fact, the more people you find who have done the same research and whose research is identical to yours, the more sure you can be that your research is correct.

3. You Can Reverse Engineer Someone Else’s Work
Those big genealogy books of the 19th century, though notorious for containing mistakes, also contain many correct things. Most of them come with annotations in the form of footnotes and/or endnotes as to where the author got the information used to write the genealogy.

Use these sources and find them yourself. It is always good genealogical practice to look at the original record in any case. You may find information on it the original researcher missed. If you can go through all the sources the author used and still come to the same conclusions as him or her, then you can be as sure as you can be that your research is successful.

4. Look for Confirmation for Your Wild Assumptions
Sometimes, in genealogy research, we have to take a leap of faith in our conclusions due to a lack of solid evidence. Even the well-respected genealogical journals often contain articles where the author made their conclusion based on an assumption. However, those assumptions are always backed up with ample amounts of secondary evidence (evidence where the record doesn’t outright state a family relationship or date, but one can be inferred from the information that is there).

If you have made a large assumption in your research, look for secondary evidence to back it up. The more secondary evidence you can find, the better. Once you’ve accumulated enough of it, you are at a point of being as sure as you can be about the accuracy of this line.

Of course, the best thing is if you one day discover a primary record that confirms all of this secondary evidence. Keep looking for a primary source, even if you have a lot of secondary evidence. Just because you haven’t found one yet doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It may be out there waiting for you to find it.

5. Get DNA Evidence
While still relatively new to the world of genealogy, DNA has a remarkable ability to prove and disprove family relationships that would once have been impossible to confirm. While DNA may not be able to tell you the exact names of your particular ancestors, it can definitely put you in a suspected ancestor’s family (or take you out of it) without a doubt.

If you have a person in your family tree with whom you have a suspected but unconfirmed direct relationship, DNA can confirm or deny it for you. You just need to get at least one (but the more the better) modern descendant of that person to compare their DNA with yours. The various DNA testing companies online can then tell you if the two of you are genetically related within a certain number of generations.

The more people you can get to take the test, the more accurate your results will be, especially if one person doesn’t match up with all of the rest of the people who tested into the family. DNA offers about the surest way to confirm the success of your genealogy research, as there is no room for human error in DNA results.

Conclusion
Genealogy is imprecise and uncertain by nature. There is always a chance a relationship or information about an ancestor’s birth, death, marriage, or anything else is wrong. This is more true the farther back into the past you go. People weren’t always as careful about accurate record keeping as they are now, and making up noble lines of descent to make a family seem more prestigious was common. While you can never get around these things entirely, you can make sure your genealogy research is as accurate and successful as it can be by using the five tips above. Being as sure as you can be is the same as declaring victory in genealogy.

http://www.ancestralfindings.com/5-ways-tell-genealogy-research-accurate/