Short Attention Span Challenge | Knotty Knotty!

Why Knot?  As I looked at the library book, Why Knot?, which inspired this week's blog post, I thought the same thing.  Why should I learn how to knot?  I remember briefly learning knots when I was at camp and trying to earn some sort of generic badge, although I couldn't recall how to tie any of the knots now.  I am not a fisherman or a sailor.  I am fairly sure I invented a new knot when I used two hairbands and a ribbon to straighten up my Christmas tree last year. However, according to Philippe Petit (You might have heard of him, the tightrope walker who illegally walked between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in 1974.), there are many practical uses for knowing specific knots.  Such as, securing items in travel.  So wait, me just tying random twists and pulling the rope into strange convolutions is not the best way to tie that IKEA stuff onto the top of my car?  Who knew?  Another use, he says: rescuing people!  Yeah, I guess that's pretty important.  But the best use (although I'm not sure why this is more important than saving lives), says Petit, is making connections!  Linking pieces of land, creating bridges, and connecting people.  Okay, so knots are pretty important.  In fact, upon reading that, I remembered a  documentary I saw a few years ago about a region in China where people cross a river everyday by sliding across a rope.  So, they probably think effective knots are pretty nice too.

The Challenge:

Learn some useful knots.  I used the book referenced above, which includes a little rope to use while practicing your knots. You can check out the book and the rope at the library, but remember to bring BOTH back!

The Process:

Petit says a good knot has 4 virtues:

1.  It is easy to tie.

2.  It is stable under a load.

3.  It does not reduce the ultimate breaking strength of the rope.

4.  It is easy to untie.

Also it keeps it's shape.  Wait that is five things!  I'm still not sure why there weren't 5 virtues...

And he isn't the only one who thinks knots are important.  In 1933, Clifford Ashley wrote a book with over 7000 drawings and featured 3,854 knots!  I wonder if my double hairband ribbon knot is somewhere in there.  I bet knot! yucka yucka...

The same year, the International Guild of Knot Tyers (IGKT) was established. "Tyer" is intentional; the use of "tier" is ambiguous, they say. 

The IGKT has something called the Six Knot Challenge, where participants must tie six knots as quickly as possible.    The world record is 8.1 seconds.  I will not beat this record, I assure you, but as I am typing this it is 12:58 p.m. on Friday.  My blog is set to run at 2 p.m., so I am giving myself an entire hour.  I know, it is astonishingly fast. To make this more impressive, I will attempt this feat while working on the reference desk (which means I will be happily interrupted several times, for sure).

Sheet Bend Knot

The Result:

The Sheet Bend Knot (Common Bend, Ordinary Bend, Single Bend, Flag Bend, Swab Hitch, and the Barbers' Knot)

Use: This knot has many uses, such as fishing nets.  It can also be doubled and used to tie sheets together and escape out of a window!  Good to know in case I am kidnapped and placed somewhere with excess bedding.

It is now 1:12 p.m....

The Square Knot (Reef Knot, True Knot, Hard Knot, String Tie Knot, Common Knot, Regular Knot, Ordinary Knot, Flat Knot, Hercules Knot)

Use: Close a sack, tie a package, secure a roll, tie scarves, reef or furl sails on a boat.  Petit mentions that there is a Reef Knot in Arizona 9000 years old!  Also, in Ancient Greece brides tied these knots on their belts, and it was supposed to make them fertile.

1:22 p.m....

Square Knot

Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

The Round Turn and Two Half Hitches

Use: to tie something to another object like a pole or mast.  It will not slip up and down on the object it is tied to.

1:36 p.m.

The Bowline (pronounced Bo-lynn or boo-lynn. Like Anne?)

You can tie this knot around yourself if you are about to fall down a cliff.  I'm not sure I ever quite got it right, so I think I'm doomed.

1:53 p.m....

My unsuccessful Bowline

Sheepshank (Dogshank, Catshank)

Use: To repair a damaged rope or shorten a rope.  Petit suggests using the loops to hang stuff when camping.

Sheepshank

1:59 p.m...

Clove Hitch

(Builder's Hitch, Boatman's Hitch, Peg Knot, Double Half Hitch, Steamboat Hitch)

Use: Attach a rope to a post (or water bottle) super fast.

2:03 p.m.!  On no!!!!  In my defense, in this last hour I signed about 20 people up for our summer reading program, Reading is so Delicious! It has my stomach tied up in knots!  Have you signed up yet???

Clove Hitch

The Wanderlust Librarian | (Rules for) Leavin' on a Jetplane

This summer has been unusually high in air travel for me. I usually drive, but this year I have been lucky to snag some great deals at just the right time! Don't get me wrong, driving is great, but the gas prices have made my pocketbook sad. This year, I'll be traveling to 3 locations: Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. All 3 places are within an hour and a half plane ride from my favorite airport, so they're not too far away. I do, though, have some great tips for plane travel that might just save your sanity! 

Pre-flight preparations: 

1) Go to your local library: Did you know the library lends e-books? You can bring your Nook or Kindle on your flight and hold tons of books with no weight at all! The library is also a great place to buy books at the Friends of the Library booksale. If you like the feeling of a book in your hand, this is the place for you. The cost is right under $1.00 per item (sometimes less!) and it's also helpful if you accidentally leave the book somewhere.

2) Pack Efficiently: This is much easier than it sounds. I try to plan outfits that can be mixed and matched into other outfits. I recently bought a cotton stretchy dress that can double from casual (with sandals) to fancy (with a colorful necklace and heels). If you're going to be gone for more than 5 days, see if there's a place where you can do laundry. I have these all in one sheets in my suitcase for just that purpose. There are smaller travel packs at your local store! 

3) Have a comfortable shoulder bag: For me, the shoulder bag doubles as my purse on the plane. I can hold my Nook, my wallet, camera, empty water bottle, magazines, cell phone, lip gloss, electronic plugs and chargers and gum all in there for easy access during the flight! (No lie... I carry all of that in my bag).  I keep my nicer purse wrapped up safely in my luggage for use over vacation with way less to carry! 

4) Print out your boarding passes at home: A majority of airlines allow you to print out your travel documents at home. This will save you time so you don's have to stand in line at the airport.

At the airport: 

4) SHOW UP EARLY: It's better to be safe than sorry. It's never easy to gauge if there will be a lot of people in the security line or if you'll breeze right through. Feeling worry about a line or rushing is never a good way to start a trip and if you're early, you have more time to relax at your gate and read!

5) Check the departure boards often: Many times, I have been met by a gate change before I get out of the security line. A lot of airlines will also offer a text message 

6) Find a comfy place with a plug for your electronics: I love knowing I'm not using any juice when I'm fiddling around on my cell phone or reading my Nook! If not for your electronics, then a comfortable spot for you to wait for your flight. 

7) Relax because you're on your way!

Please don't feel like you have to take all of my advice, but being organized and timely will help you to feel less anxiety at the start of your adventure. 

Stress-free adventures in the air are out there! 

:) 

Book Bucket List | Board Books Galore!

In honor of the very new addition to my family, this week I'm going to feature a few of my favorite board books.  Board books are printed on a very thick cardboard, which allow little hands to be a little more rough with them than other books.  I have to admit that I've already started a collection for our family's newest member!

Dear Zoo is a classic children's book and features lots of fun animals for the little ones.

Oops! by David Shannon is one of my favorites.  We get to see the ever energetic David as a baby and all of the trouble he is able to cause.

 W is for Wombat is a very colorful and bright alphabet book.  For each letter, a different Australian word is featured with an illustration.

The Runaway Bunny is one of my favorite books.  Baby bunny is always playing hide and seek, but his mother is able to find him every time!

Learning | Ice Cream!

We have had some hot days recently. Hot weather makes me think about ice cream. But that's not the only thing that made me think about ice cream.

There's a new book with a drawing of a scrumptious ice cream cone on the cover. It's called I Scream Ice Cream: A Book of Wordles.

This children's picture book isn't really about ice cream. It's about playing with words. As the inside flap of the front cover says, "What do 'I Scream' and 'Ice Cream' have in common? Nothing--besides the fact that they sound the same." This book depicts a phrase on one page, then illustrates a phrase that sounds the same on the next page.  The idea is to try to guess what the second set of words is, before you turn the page. I think when they say "wordles," they really mean "puns." Call these groups of words whatever you like, but they do inspire some silly thoughts. 

There are plenty of books that really are about ice cream at SSJCPL.  Some are stories, some tell the history of ice cream, and many of them tell us how ice cream is manufactured, or how to make it at home. 

Photo courtesy of Paul Pehrson's (docguy)

photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

Just Life| Panteha Goes Bird Watching

Every morning I wake up from the songs of a hundred birds singing outside my window. This morning, they were having choir practice around 5:30am.  

Since last week, I have been trying to learn the names of some of these birds.

You see, from 10,000 bird species, I can only name about 20. I think it would be cool to learn the names of a few more. 

When I told my idea to my co-worker a few weeks back, she just went into action and grabbed this book Birds of the Northern California for me to help me jump start my bird watching adventure. Then she started marking pages that contain birds from this region with purple post-it notes. I was sweating as I was looking at the number of these post-it notes.

But as one once said, You can only learn one bird at a time and learning is only a journey not a destination.

Then I told the bird watching idea to my daughter who got excited about it. But nowadays, she just screams my name from the top of her lung as if her hair is on fire and when I rush to see what is the emergency, she just says very nonchalantly "Look mom, there is a bird outside our window". 
 
So far, we have been able to identify the birds listed below. We have seen quite a few birds since the beginning of our adventure, but since we don't know the names of most of them, I am proud to say that we have encountered quite a few UFOs in our bird watching adventures thus far.

So the following are the birds that we have identified so far: 

Bird #1 identified: American Robin. Have you seen this bird in your backyard yet? This bird lays tiny blue eggs.

Bird #2 identified: Western Scrub Jay.

Bird #3 identified: Mourning dove. This one has been cooing in our backyard for the past two days.

Also, the other day, me and my daughter went to our backyard and we saw a Hummingbird and what appeared to be a mockingbird. 

It is so hard to identify these birds. They fly so fast and so high and I don't want to use our binoculars in our tiny backyard to give our neighbors the wrong idea.  

After a while, my daughter got bored and started watering the whole backyard including me...that was the end of our bird watching for that day.

Time will tell what the future holds in our bird watching adventures. I will keep you posted as we discover names of these UFOs.

Signing off until next Monday- Panteha

Teens Only | I'll Take Extra Chocolate With That, Please

I enjoy being able to point out unusual trivia to you, my dear readers. So it is with pleasure that I announce today -- June 22 -- is National Chocolate Eclair Day. And I'm letting you know that I will be celebrating this "holiday" by enjoying one of those wonderful delicacies today. 

And it's fitting to celebrate something chocolate during the summer reading program, the theme of which is "Reading Is So Delicious." It is delicious, wouldn't you agree?

If you're reading this, then surely you know the benefits of reading. Reading informs us, entertains us, and just helps us succeed in life! 

But chocolate. Could there be benefits of chocolate?

I did a little reading and found out that yes, indeed, there are benefits to eating chocolate.

Allow me to share.

Regular chocolate eaters welcome a host of benefits for their hearts, including lower blood pressure, lower "bad" LDL cholesterol, and a  lower risk of heart disease. 

The type of antioxidants called flavonoids found in dark chocolate offer some protection from UV damage from the sun. So in addition to packing that all-important sunscreen, put a little dark chocolate in your bag before you hit the beach!

I don't how scientific the next one is, but I'm going to go with it: Chocolate eaters also report feeling less stressed. 

That boost of blood flow to the brain created by cocoa's flavanols seems to make people feel more awake and alert, and, in a small British study, perform better on counting tasks.

Hello chocolate eclair! Hello chocolate anything.

By the way, I found this information in an article on the Huffington Post. You can read the full article here. 

And if you're feeling inspired to do a little baking with chocolate, I've found a great book in the SSJCPL collection that will give you a ton of recipes to indulge your sweet tooth. Check out Magnus Johansson's Cooking With Chocolate: The Best Recipes and Tips from a Master Pastry Chef.This book is a must-see because it gives really great instructions on the various techniques for working with chocolate. If you can't find it at the library branch near you, ask a staff member to help you place a request on it!

So celebration National Chocolate Eclair Day....and remember to pick up a reading log so you can be part of SSJCPL's 2013 Summer Reading program! 

Happy reading....and eating!

Learning | Portmanteaus and Morphemes

I suspect only the nerdiest of us word nerds know the definition of morpheme. I happen to think it's a useful word, for anybody who ponders the meaning of words. A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that conveys meaning, without being able to be divided further. For instance, consider the word suitcase. It is made of two morphemes: suit and case. Morphemes are like the atoms of words; taking them apart further leaves you with letters, that don't particularly mean anything by themselves.

Photo courtesy of mattbuck4950's photostream on Flickr.com. Some rights reserved.

Lately, I've thought about the multiple meanings of the word portmanteau.  I am most familiar with its meaning as a literary device.  A word that is made from the morphemes of other words is called a portmanteau (for example, the term bureaucrazy, to emphasize the madness of bureaucracy.) I wondered why the term portmanteau is used for this device.

I always turn to a dictionary when I have a question like this. The Concise Oxford English dictionary is available at several of our library branches.  It tells me the word portmanteau came from two French words: porter, meaning carry, plus manteau, meaning mantle.

The orginal definition of portmanteau is a big piece of luggage. As time went on, the term was applied more specifically, to a piece of luggage that opens into two equal parts. 

The word portmanteau  has also become a metaphor for anything that divides into two parts. (It's interesting to note that meanings can continue to expand beyond the morphemes they contain; neither porter nor manteau have anything to do with division into two parts.)

So, it appears that the "two part" concept is the reason the literary device is called a portmanteau.  Whatever you call them, portmanteaus are fun. Yesterday, I laughed when my son described the last slice of cheese in our refrigerator as "provalonely."

What examples of portmanteaus have you heard?  Do you have any favorites? 

P.S.  Since I brought up the subject of luggage in this post, I can't resist mentioning the walking luggage character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. This is no ordinary luggage, and I'm not even talking about its ability to walk.