Totalitarian Librarians, Obnoxious dialogue, and what the Hell is Going on in Minnesota

Like the random capitalization in the title? DFTBA!

This blog comes to you in three semi-distinct parts! (and perhaps more if I think of something else when I get to the end. It will be a surprise, I suppose!)

1. Totalitarian Librarians
This was inspired by a post in my friend Kat's blog mentioning how her school has totalitarian librarians, and I felt the need to relate some of my stories from 9th and 10th grade involving librarians. Actually, I think I need to go back a bit further. As I'm sure is no surprise to most of the people actually reading this blog, I was sort of an uber-nerd in middle school...to that point that I was horribly, painfully shy and didn't talk to anyone my age, so I ended up in the library during every lunch period for 7th and 8th grade, and the librarians knew me by name and what kind of book I liked, and would often recommend things to me or discuss things we both had read. It was a wonderful little haven for me. And then I hit high school. Our HS is divided into two buildings, South and North. South is generally for grade 9 and 10, and North is 11 and 12 (although there is some crossover) so in grades 9 and 10 I mostly used the South library. The librarians there were horribly strict. If you came in a minute late, even if you had a note from a teacher, they wouldn't let you in for study hall. One time, my friend and I were sitting across from eachother, not talking at all, and the librarian made us move so our backs were to eachother because she insisted we would make too much noise. She then proceeded to talk loudly on the phone.

I feel like I'm going to need to enter a witness protection program now...anyway, the good news is that the North librarians are much nicer...and I now I in the library every morning to read the New York Times. Like old times again!

2. Has anyone ever read the Grapes of Wrath? As in, the entire, cover-to-cover thing? If you've done so without repeatedly hitting your head against a hard object, you're a stronger man (or woman) than I am. Honestly. It is a wonderful narrative about the corruptive power of industry, the strength and resiliance of the human spirit, and a testament to kindness even in the darkest of hours....but the entire thing is written in phonetic dialogue. Example:

"I don' feel good. I wisht Connie would come. I don't feel like doin' nothin' 'thout Connie"
"Rosasharn, you git upright. You jus' been mopin' enough. They's a ladies' committee a-comin', an' the fambly ain't gonna be frawny when they get here"
"But I don' feel good."
"Git! They's times when you how you feel got to be kep' to yourself"

Approximately 600 pages of this. Sing joy.

3. Minnesota
And the results of the 2008 election are....really? We don't know yet? Come on ,that's a little bit embarrassing...it's been 5 months...you do know that the new Senators are in office already, right?

Yes. That's right. As of now, Minnesota has only one Senator. It was an exceptionally close race, generally decided by about 200 votes on each side, a ridiculously small amount in a Senate race. Now the two contestants, Al Franken and Norm Colman, are engaged in a legal death match. It would be ridiculous, not to mention funny, if it weren't that Minnesota sort of deserves equal representation in the Senate. Maybe we should settle this Solomon-style. You know the story, the one where two mothers claim that a baby is theirs, and Solomon says "OK, just cut the baby in half" and the mother that said "No, I don't care if I get the baby, I just want him to be safe" was the real mother? How about that. Since they seem to be tearing Minnesota apart in their process.

Well, look on the bright side. At least they aren't running for a House of Representatives seat. Theyd be up for reelection before either of them even took office at this rate!

I'm supposed to get my SAT results tomorrow....and I'm nervous.

Peace. Love. Happiness
~Cody