h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've read some British accounts of the American Revolution, and there are some differences in interpretation. I wouldn't be surprised if the truth lies somewhere between the two versions.

Marv. Let us know what you find out.

I just had a run in with a very unpleasant patron. She is so bad that I've had staff break into tears when she walks through the door. She showed me a book with several words underlined in blue ink and told me that they weren't fit to be in the library. I told her to complain to the publisher, not to me. And that the next time she defaced a library book, I was going to make her pay for it.

Then she wanted me to let her put a plate of her home-made prune danish on the counter for people to sample. She told me that she wants to enter a cooking contest and needs feedback for her recipe. When I told her that she couldn't, she went ballistic.

She pays taxes and this library belongs to her, and she should be able to give free samples of baked goods if she wants to. I tried to explain that we don't let people eat in the library and that we would be liable to a lawsuit if someone choked or got sick. Well......how dare I say that her food would make someone sick! (You should have seen it! ) Furthermore, her taxes have already paid for the book she defaced and it is a piece of filth. [Danielle Steel]

So, I told her that her language was unacceptable and was just as bad as what was in the book, and that she would have to leave. Now she has decided to complain about me to the board because I'm a hateful person and have no business working with the public.

Matina, bring this hateful person a very large g&t, please.

Hypatia, is there any way you can ban her from the libary? I know that the public libary in Missoula did that to a patron once, a man who went off on a regular basis about how the books were promoting Satanism, etc. As I remember it, he had also defaced books.

Some people suck. Sorry you had to go through that.

Besides, who'd want to eat her stinky old prune danish anyway?

I think the word 'revisionist' gets slinged around when no one likes the new version of whatever history is being presented. That's the wonderful thing about history--it can be just about anything to anyone. Depending on who you listen to, the US Civil War (again, as Courtesy pointed out, the one from 1861 to 1865) was either over the liberation of the slaves or a conflict between industrial and agricultural societies. And I'm sure as I type someone out there is developing a new theory.

Speaking of history, I'm currently re-reading Mark Kurlansky's "Salt: A World History" and enjoying it all over again.

*Recalls the goodies recently wheeled into the library by Hypatia.*

Ahem, you mean the ~patrons~ aren't permitted to eat in the library.

By the way, is that a librarian thing? My 16 year old started a volunteer stint this week in our local library. She said the staff is constantly pushing goodies on the volunteers. She said she must have eaten 25 little Tootsie Rolls today.

It's one of the first things you learn in library school. "Thou shalt feed thy volunteers sweet comestibles in the hope that they willst return for another shift."

Ok, here's the rule. Patrons may not eat or drink on the main floor of the library. They may partake of light refreshments at library sponsored functions on the main floor if the library is closed at teh time. Otherwise all food and drink are to be confined to the basement. Staff eats in the office on the main floor, but not in fromt to patrons. Now, here's the confusing part. We hand out suckers all year long to patrons when they check out their books, then we throw them out if they eat them.

The library director is permitted to eat chocolate-covered nuts at her desk or any place else she darn well pleases. It's good to be the boss.

MR, we have banned this woman for periods up to a month, but have never banned her forever. I'm told by the city attorney that a lifetime ban would be nearly impossible to justify. And everyone knows she's a space cadet, so I'm not worried about what she tells the board.

*Passes on the info to the kid.*

Oh, and can I just say one thing about seafood?

Diverticulitis.

My mother had this and had to have her bowel resected as a result. Hopefully I caught it in time and can make ammends. For the moment I am off of meats, greasy food, milk and milk products. There goes nearly everything I eat .

So for now I just put up with the pain and live through it, take some broad spectrum antibiotics, and drink metamucil

FG, actually there is another interpretation of the Civil War that is at least as old as the industrial/agricultural theory, or the slavery/abolition theory. This theory states that the War was actually a battle for the primacy of state versus federal power. Slavery was just one aspect of the conflict. I personally favor this interpretation, and feel, that, constitutionally, the South was perfectly within it's rights to secede. I also feel that it's good the South failed, however, because the precedent of secession would eventually have led to the breakup of the nation into several smaller ones, and doomed the US to weakness and eventual loss of independence. As for slavery, of course I feel that was deplorable, but it would have withered away within another generation, or two at the most. The last nation with legalized slavery in the Western Hemisphere was Brazil, which finally outlawed it in the 1890s.

Ah, see, I prefer the ecclesiastical/royal battles, myself.

[Amy]

Britain was the first country to make slavery illegal, about time too as we had been enslaving our own for hundreds of years, the Romans only carried on a long established 'tradition'.

However it is still happening in Africa where it has been seen as acceptable practise since before the Golden Triangle got underway.

Hypatia, we have a regular nutter who wears a UN blue beret, is convinced that the CIA, FBI and MI6 are after him. Our streets and public buildings would be a lot quieter if they were.

Sorry to hear about the restricted diet, Marv. I hope the symptoms clear up quickly.

So is this a good programme then Caer? I'll have to remember to look it out next week as I think Richard Holmes does seem like a chap who you'd believe if he told you that it was all because one side spilt the others pint or similar.

Hope you're feeling better soon Marv.

And I got some good news today. A letter inviting me to an interview next week at the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) for an IT Technician job. It'll be the first interview I've had in ages

Great news, Phil! Good luck.

Love fish and seafood of all kinds. Not great at cooking it, though.

My husband and I have been engaged in a small historical battle over the roles of Russia/Britain (we are both agreed that America is largely irrelevant ) in the second world war. He's been reading a chap called Victor Suvorov. Who is luckily not terribly available in English, or I'd be dragged furthier in than I am...

That is good news, Phil .

Fish is best cooked in the microwave.

Phil, I enjoyed the programme, but generally I am easily entertained and not very analytical. I wasn't aware of the Proclaimation Line or the edict that the colonies could only trade within the British Empire, so learnt nothing new.

Many of the colonists had fought along side the Redcoats against the war with the French and were consequently well trained and battle hardened. Although the Brits one nearly every battle, they failed to build on their success and develop a cohesive strategy.

Here is a review in today's Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,584-738809,00.html

I suspect later programmes will make more of the commercial reasons for the war and that there was a fair bit of old score settling going on amongst the colonists.

I am now going to make a bacon sarnie for lunch, as it needs eating up. However as a concession to my waistline I shall be using George Foreman's little grill.

That should be 'something new'

I hope you feel better, Marv.
Good news about the interview, Phil, and good luck.
Grilled salmon with a yogurt/mayonaise/gorgonzola sauce!!!
Hypatia, Danielle Steele *should* be banned from the library I once decided to read one of her books, and was absolutely determined to force myself to finish it. It was the only book that ever had me pinning my eylids to my forehead just to keep them open, and the only book I've ever thrown across the room while screaming "stupid stupid stupid".

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I've never read Danielle Steele. Or most of the other popular women's authors. This is my system. If my sister likes a book/author, then I don't read it/him/her. I learned this many years ago when V.C. Andrews first book came out. "Flowers in the Attic" Sis went on and on about how wonderful it was so I bought a copy. It was dreadful. A real waste of time.

In her defense, I will admit that her taste is improving. She's switched from romances and horror and is reading mysteries lately. So there's hope for all of us.

Marv. Are you allowed to eat raw fruits and veggies? I've been reading up on food combining and alkaline/acid foods again. Every couple of years I decide that there is something to it and decide to give it a try. But I never actually do. Well, this time I think I'll take a deep breath and plunge in. Your diet could easily be converted into a food combiniing one. I've been feeling dreadful. It couldn't make me feel any worse.

it is my opinion that if a person picks up a romance fantasy novel and expects it to pass the "christian standard" they should be repeatedly pummeled upside the head with said novel.

I have a friend who loves "Christian Romances"...oh lord, are they bad. I picked one up at her house once while waiting for her, and just about died laughing. They'd make a great extended sketch on Comedy Central.

having an echocardiogram today. hopefully they'll see something, because these episodes are getting really annoying.