April Fools!

April Fools Day is not a national holiday (thankfully) but it is certainly celebrated.  Frequently, radio shows, newspapers, and magazines put in “joke” articles on that date involving topics and situations that can’t possibly be true.  Of course, ultimately, there are people who take it seriously, but hopefully those people are few and far between.  Most people can recognize an April Fools joke and take it for what it is, a cause to laugh.  The more you laugh, the longer you live.  Since I find everything funny, I fully expect to live to be 200 (that’s a joke!).  This year, April Fools is also Easter Monday, so that might impede some jokesters, but keep your eyes peeled just in case.

No one is quite sure when it became popular to play jokes on one another on April 1^st, known as April Fools Day in the United States.  We’re also not the only country to use this day as a day for hoaxes and pranks, either.  Italy, France, and Belgium follow the tradition of sticking paper fish on unsuspecting people’s back and shouting “April Fish!” (Aprilvis! In Dutch, in case you need to know).  A Flemish tradition allows children to lock out their parents and teachers, only letting them in if they promise to give treats.   Don’t share that with your children!

Iran, Poland, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Spain also celebrate joke days.  In Poland, serious activities are so frowned upon that a 1683 treaty signed by Leopold I on April 1^st had to be backdated to March 31^st because it was  too serious to take place on a day of silliness.  In Iran, the joke day falls on the 13^th day of the Persian New Year, which happens to coincide with April 1^st or 2^nd.  The day is called Sizdah Bedar and is the oldest pranking tradition in the world.  In fact, it is entirely possible that their tradition spread throughout the world, beginning the entire holiday.

There have been references to April Fools Day in literature going as far back as the 1390s.  In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chauntecleer the vain rooster is tricked by a fox in the Nun’s Tale, which begins “Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two,” which could very well mean April 1^st, or thirty two days after the beginning of March.  The year 1508 marks the first reference of April Fish, and 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to see someone wash the lions. 

Please remember that if you decide to play a joke, it should be in good fun and not intended to hurt feelings or harm anyone – yes, that’s a disclaimer.  Do NOT try this at home…

For those of you who are Harry Potter fans, April 1^st is George and Fred Weasley’s birthday.  So were Ali McGraw (1939), Debbie Reynolds (1932), Annette O’Toole (1952), and Jon Gosselin (1977). 

You never know when your local librarians may go crazy…there might be a joke just for you!

Your Library Account: If you have an email, register it with your library card by calling the library at 507-825-6714 or by logging in to your account online and requesting a change!  By putting an email on your card, you will automatically get reminders when your books are overdue and you will also get an email the moment a book on hold is checked in for you at the desk!  We do not use your emails for any other purpose and our system is private.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Tonight, March 28^th, we are having another technology night at the library!  Bring any device you need help with and we’ll see what we can do.  6:30 is our start time and we’ll go as long as we need to help everyone!

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  Give us a call to find out the date of the next meeting!

Book Club Reminder: The book club meets the last Thursday of the month.  Their next meeting will be March 28^th at 7:00 in the Meinders Library conference room.  Please don’t hesitate to call the library for a copy of the next book, Quiet by Susan Cain.

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.

Spring is Coming!

Pipestone County Star  - 03-14-13

I can’t wait.  I’m already planning my garden and I won’t be planting for a couple of months yet, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  As I’ve said before, I get to this time of year and I can’t wait for it to get warm enough I can go outside barefoot.  So, since the groundhog says spring is coming, here are some books coming out in the next few months that people are probably waiting for!

APRIL

Whiskey Beach, Nora Roberts (April 16)

Bluff House sits high over the town of Whiskey Beach, guarding secrets.  To a Boston lawyer named Eli Landon, it’s home where he plans to center himself following a year of scrutiny as a suspect in a murder investigation.  At Bluff House, he finds Abra Walsh, a woman of many talents, who helps him gain control of his life again.  As they become entangled with each other, they find themselves also entangled in a net of secrets that could end in destruction.

The Hit, David Baldacci (April 23)

Will Robie is a professional killer and he is very, very good.  Called on by the US Government when they need a hitman, no one can match his talents – except for Jessica Reel.  And when Reel goes rogue and begins killing other agents, Robie is told to end the problem.  But is Reel the problem?  Or is she simply showing him the way to the REAL problem, one that could send shockwaves throughout the civilized world.

12^th of Never, James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (April 29)

The next installment of the Women’s Murder Club brings a triple threat!  Lindsay has her baby in the midst of two crimes she can’t even imagine, a professor who swears he’s dreaming about a real murder and an NFL player who is prime suspect in a grisly killing.  When a murder is called in that matches the professor’s description, Lindsay is forced to think about his story.  But these two crimes will seem like nothing compared to what’s about to happen next…

MAY

The Pieces of Summer, Wanda Brunstetter (May 1)

This is part of Discovery – A Lancaster County Saga.  In this book, we will join up with Meredith and Luke Stoltzfus, a young Amish couple who are about to be faced with the greatest challenge of their lives.  These stories are heart-warming, inspirational, and fulfilling reads.

The Ophelia Cut, John Lescroart (May 7)

Dismas Hardy returns in this novel to defend his brother-in-law on murder charges for presumably killing the man who raped his daughter, Brittany.  Moses MacGuire, Hardy’s friend and brother-in-law, is the prime suspect with more evidence piling up every day.  And to top it off, he’s gone off the wagon, promising to make things even more interesting for his defender.  Hardy needs to figure out what is more important to him as he struggles to defend family and prevent secrets from coming out that could destroy his career.

The Inferno, Dan Brown (May 14)

If you enjoyed The Lost Symbol and Angels and Demons, then this is for you!  Robert Langdon returns to tackle a new puzzle, Dante’s Inferno, filled with riddle upon riddle that will lead him through secret passageways into futuristic sciences and insane puzzles.  Through it all, he must decide who to trust before the world as we know it changes for the worse.  I LOVED his other books and I am eager to see where this one takes us!

Happy Spring.  I know, it’s early, but humor me.

UPCOMING EVENTS: Saturday, March 16^th, we will have a special reader at the library at 2:00 to read books about St. Patrick’s Day!  Come and enjoy the fun!

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  Give us a call to find out the date of the next meeting!

Book Club Reminder: The book club meets the last Thursday of the month.  Their next meeting will be March 28^th at 7:00 in the Meinders Library conference room.  Please don’t hesitate to call the library for a copy of the next book, Quiet by Susan Cain.

Winter Weather:  If the school closes early, Meinders Library will close a half hour later to allow time for all students to be picked up.  If the school is closed, usually the library is closed as well, though this is not always the case.  Call us if you are wondering.  If a travel advisory is issued by the Department of Transportation, the library will be closed.  All closing announcements are made over KLOH 1050.

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.

How to Love Your Library!

Libraries are private, non-profit organizations that depend on the support of individuals, corporations, and foundations to help ensure that libraries remain free to the millions of people who visit in person or via the web each year.  While government funding supports the basic operations of many of our nation’s libraries, there are still many more libraries that depend on contributions from private sources.

 Contribute at your library                                      

Consider a tax deductible gift to your library.  Many libraries have memorial programs, endowments, and other opportunities to support quality library services.  Some other ways you can contribute to your library are:

o   Donate your time, money and expertise to your library.

o   Nominate your library as your community, school, or corporate organization’s project for the year.

o   Buy your library a subscription to a popular magazine

o   Honor a friend or relative’s birthday with a book for the library.

o   Donate a book, or a whole shelf of books.

o   Remember your library in your estate planning.

o   Write a check to your library’s Foundation/Friends Group.

o   Give to the library through your company’s matching program for charitable giving.

 Be A Friend at your library

Join the Friends of the Library, a support group of volunteers who provide fundraising and other assistance for many libraries.  As a member, you will be kept informed of library funding issues.  If there is no Friends group, start one.  School, academic, and special libraries can all benefit from such groups.

o   Donate your used books for the Friends book sale.

o   Give the gift of membership to a friend or relative.

o   Use your skills to help with programs and fundraising events.

o   Find new resources for the Friends.

o   Develop and publish a Friends “Wish List” for potential donors.

o   Volunteer to work at the Friends Library booksale.

 Volunteer at your library

Volunteer your time.  Opportunities might include delivering reading materials to shut-ins, helping kids with homework after school, or being a “grandparent” reader to preschool children.  Other ways to volunteer include:

o   Offer a committed helping hand to your library’s staff.

o   Shelve books or nurture plants.

o   Clean up after emergencies.

o   Present an adult program.

o   Read stories to children or help with class visits.

o   Mend materials.

o   Help out Friends of the Library.

 Promote at your library

Research has shown that everyone loves libraries, but no one thinks about them very much.  That’s where you come in.  You don’t have to be a public relations expert to promote your library.  You just have to talk about your library.  Here are some ways to do it:

o   Attend local government meetings to urge city and county legislators to invest in libraries as a vital community resource, on that will save substantial tax dollars in helping people of all ages to be more literate and productive.

o   Support library referenda in elections.

o   Write to your state and federal legislators and demand that library service be viewed (and funded) as essential public services.

o   Urge school and college administrators for make library funding a high priority.

o   Write a letter to the editor of your newspapers or call in to a radio talk show to express your concern.  Share your concern with friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.  Many people are not aware of the funding problems libraries are experiencing nationally – on in their own communities.  Encourage others to get involved.

o   If you are a writer or have contacts with the media, suggest a story about the many ways libraries serve their communities and the need for support.

o   Speak up for libraries at campus or community groups that your belong to, the PTA, Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, League of Women Voters, faculty groups, etc.  Invite your librarian to talk about services and needs.

o   Participate in Library Legislative Day activities.

Saint Valentine

Pipestone County Star 02-14-13

Valentine’s Day is the bane of men everywhere.  We all know that on February 14^th, we are supposed to shower our loved one with gifts, either flowers, chocolates, jewelry, or other appropriate things to show how much they mean to us.  But why?  And why February 14^th?

There are three possible Valentines that the Saint’s day is honoring.  One is Valentine of Rome, who was martyred around AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14^th.  His relics are in the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome and the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland.  The second possible Valentine is Valentine of Terni, who was a bishop said to be martyred under Emperor Aurelian around AD 197.  His remains are also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location from the other Valentine.  His relics were placed in the Basilica di San Valentino in Terni.  The third Valentine that was possibly honored by the Saint’s day is a Valentine who was martyred in Africa with several companions, but nothing else is known about him.  None of these three Valentines was associated with romance, but there are popular legends.

The best legend of all, and the possible reason for the day itself, was that Emperor Claudius II had made a decree that no young men could get married.  Supposedly, this was to swell his armies, since married men made terrible soldiers (keep in mind, this is the story, not the reality).  Saint Valentine, going against the wishes of the Emperor, performed marriages in secret, thus landing himself in jail when he was caught.  The night before he was to be executed, Valentine wrote a note to the girl who held his heart, signing it “From your Valentine.”  A good story, isn’t it?

Whatever the actual story or cause, Valentine’s Day has been around for centuries.  A High Court of Love was established in Paris in AD 1400, on Valentine’s Day, which dealt with love contracts, betrayals, and violence against women.  Valentine’s Day is referred to in Hamlet, written about by John Donne, and the earliest surviving valentine was written by a Duke imprisoned in the Tower of London following the Battle of Agincourt in AD 1415.  The traditional poem “Roses are red” can be traced back to Edmund Spencer’s “The Faerie Queene” (AD 1590) though the classic verse itself was not written until 1784, where it is found in a collection of English nursery rhymes.

The rose is red, the violet's blue
The honey's sweet, and so are you
Thou are my love and I am thine
I drew thee to my Valentine
The lot was cast and then I drew
And Fortune said it shou'd be you.

And here’s a numbers breakdown for you, for the more modern Valentine’s Day.   220,000 proposals occurred on Valentine’s Day in 2012 – 10% of the annual total.  65% of all gifts on Valentine’s Day come in the form of a greeting card.  72 million cards were purchased by parents last year, presumably to give to their children.  8 billion conversation hearts are manufactured each year and 15% of women will send flowers to themselves for the holiday.  And last, but not least, Americans spent $367 million dollars on their pets for Valentine’s Day.  I wonder if Fido appreciated that?

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Don’t eat too much chocolate.

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  Give us a call to find out the date of the next meeting!

Book Club Reminder: The book club meets the last Thursday of the month, though they do not meet in December.  Their next meeting will be February 28^th at 7:00 in the Meinders Library conference room.  Please don’t hesitate to call the library for a copy of the next book, Defending Jacob by William Landay.

Winter Weather:  If the school closes early, Meinders Library will close a half hour later to allow time for all students to be picked up.  If the school is closed, usually the library is closed as well, though this is not always the case.  Call us if you are wondering.  If a travel advisory is issued by the Department of Transportation, the library will be closed.  All closing announcements are made over KLOH 1050.

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.

Winter Reading Program!

Pipestone County Star January 31, 2013

It gets to this time of the winter and I’m already tired of the cold.  No matter how much I complain about how I hate the heat in the summer time and how much I’m looking forward to winter, inevitably it gets too long, even for me.  I’d rather just sit on my couch and read until the plants start to grow again and I can go outside without wrapping a scarf fifty times around my head.

The Winter Reading Program! Hot Reads for Cold Nights started on January 1^st and will continue until the end of March.  You still have plenty of time!  The next time you stop in to check out a book, make sure the circulation librarian gives you a punch card a bookmark!  Twelve books will fill up your card and you can receive a prize when you turn it in.  We’ve got coffee mugs, magnet clips, chocolate bars, post-it books, and a few other sundries.  Only one prize per person, but that shouldn’t stop you from filling as many cards as you can.  At the end of March, we will have a grand prize drawing from all the punch cards we have received – the more punch cards you fill, the more chances you have of winning!

To keep you going, here are some ideas for books that will put a little more thrill into your chill and a few plans we have to shake things up around here!

Agenda 21, by Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke

What was once America is now under the control of the UN, a program called Agenda 21.  Citizens live in identical concrete quarters and are required to do two things: create clean energy and create new humans.  A young woman named Emmeline is caught in this world, the only thing she’s ever known, walking her energy board every day and accepting the male partners that the Authorities instruct her to.  And then one day, they come for her mother, who can no longer help with energy or babies and is of no more use.  And Emmeline discovers that saving her mother is more important than anything else.

The Third Bullet, by Stephen Hunter

Bob Lee Swagger is involved in searching for answers to a conspiracy that has captivated the nation since November 22, 1963.  Why did the third bullet explode?  Why did Oswald return to his rooms after the assassination?  How could a conspiracy be created in only the two days between the announcement of the route and the actual day of the parade?  This thrilled brings Swagger and Hugh Meachum into direct opposition, Marine Sniper versus CIA Veteran.  This book will have you on the edge of your seat.

Blood Gospel, by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell

An earthquake in Masada kills hundreds and reveals a tomb of a mummified girl, a puzzle that proves to be undeniable for a trio of investigators: a forensic expert, a priest, and an archaeologist.  A brutal attack on the site sends the trio running in a race to preserve the treasures of the tomb: a book supposedly written in Christ's own hand.  This book is well-written and, while fiction, will have you trembling with revelation.

Just a reminder – you can add an email address to your account in order to receive notices when a book you are waiting for becomes available.  The library system will also send an automatic email when a book is overdue.  The Library will NOT use your email for any other purpose.

February is BookLovers Month and we’ve got a plan!  We’ll be having a “Blind Date with a Book” event all month and we’ll have a selection of juvenile, young adult, and adult fiction WRAPPED so the covers and titles can’t be seen.  Interested patrons can pick a package and check out the item inside for a change of pace.

March is Read Across America and we will be displaying books that took place in different states so patrons can “travel” around the country if they feel the urge.

Book Club Reminder: Book Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM in the Meinders Library conference room.  The next meeting is February 28^th and the book is Defending Jacob by William Landay.  Everyone is welcome and if you need a copy of the book, please let us know and we can order you one!

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.

What's Up With the Mayans?

Pipestone County Star – 01-10-13

So the world didn’t end on Friday, December 21^st like the Mayans supposedly told us it would.  Or perhaps I should say various crazy people told us it would.  Personally, I was almost hoping for it, since the end of the world would mean no more car payments, but we would have missed Christmas…

I wanted to know just how this prediction came to pass, so I thought it might make a good column – hope you enjoy it!

The Mayans were a very advanced culture that inhabited southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador.  They flourished from around 1800 BCE (Before Common Era) until 900 CE (Common Era) with their golden age occurring right around the end of that time.  For some reason, around 900 CE, they abandoned their fantastic villages, temples, and pyramids, scattering to the four winds.  Mayan is still spoken as a language in the area, but the ruins are just that – ruins.  Their architectural prowess was on par with the Romans, including irrigation systems, sophisticated mathematics and astronomical calculations, and yes, even the calendar.

This is what all the fuss is about – a stone tablet found in southern Mexico in the 1960s.  According to this tablet, called Monument Six, something is going to happen in the year 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, their god of creation and war.  It doesn’t say what is going to happen, nor does it give an exact date – that part of the carving was damaged.  So how did they come up with the date December 21^st, 2012?

According to Mayan scholars, the civilization used three different calendar methods simultaneously with one another: The Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar) and the Haab (civil calendar).  To go into detail about all of these would be terribly painful, but it is interesting to note that their civil calendar also had 365 days, just like our Julian calendar. 

The Long Count consists of 5 Great Cycles, each of which are 1,872,000 days long.  According to those same scholars, the last Great Cycle began on the 11^th of August in 3114 BCE, meaning that the last day of that Great Cycle was December 11, 2012.  Astronomically speaking, there was also a close conjunction of the winter solstice sun with the galactic equator (the midline for our galaxy) at 11:00 pm Greenwich mean time on that date as well, something that would have last happened 26,000 years ago with the beginning of the first Great Cycle. 

So the question is, were the Mayans tracking this conjunction or did they simply need to go to the store to buy a new calendar?  I’m not being facetious (well, maybe a little), but if an archaeologist unearthed the calendar from my house, would he think that we thought the world would end on December 31^st of that year simply because I had not purchased a new one?  An interesting thought.

So, since we’re all still here to read this, obviously the scholars were right and the world wasn’t set to end.  We can hope, however, for a time of change that will lead us in a better direction and possibly bring more positive energy to the planet and all its inhabitants.   Hope you had a great holiday and welcome to 2013!!

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  For more information, please contact the library!

Book Club Reminder:  Book Club meets the fourth Thursday of each month (except December) in the Meinders Library conference room.  The next meeting is January 24^th at 7:00 PM and the book is The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  Everyone is welcome. 

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.

Winter Reading Program 2013

Pipestone County Star – 12-20-12

“Hot Reads for Cold Nights: Connecting Minnesota Writers and Minnesota Readers” Winter Reading program begins on January 1^st, 2013!!

Your public library and the Plum Creek Library System have teamed up once again for a chance for you to win great prizes just by reading, which everyone wants to do in the winter anyway, right?  The more you read, the greater your chances for these HOT prizes.  Simply keep a reading log and punch card and when the card is full, turn it in at the circulation desk for an awesome prize. Prizes this year include the fabulous mugs for hot tea while reading (they are dark blue and white this year), really nice post-it note sets that are great in library bags or purses, and chocolate bars.  How can you go wrong with chocolate!?

Meinders Library has never won the participation trophy which is awarded for the library with the most participating readers.  We should try for it this year!!  Tell all your friends to come and get signed up and let’s make this the best Winter Reading Program we’ve ever had!  The program doesn’t end until march 31^st, so there is a lot of time to participate.

This winter reading program is funded in part or in whole with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, which dedicated funding to preserve Minnesota’s arts and cultural heritage.

PAFL Update:  Pipestone Area Friends of the Library is looking for members – anyone who is a friend to Meinders Library is welcome to join!  The Friends group works hard to promote the library, raise money for projects, and organize their yearly book sale, in addition to the HUGE amount of support they provide throughout the year.  For more information, please contact the library! The Book Sale is THIS COMING WEEK from December 26 until December 28!!  Stop in and find some good deals today!!

Book Club Reminder:  Book Club meets the fourth Thursday of each month (except December) in the Meinders Library conference room.  The next meeting is January 24^th at 7:00 PM and the book is The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman.  Everyone is welcome. 

If you have questions or have a book you’d like to reserve or renew, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at (507) 825-6714.  The hours for Meinders Library are Monday through Thursday from 10 AM – 8 PM, and Friday and Saturday from 10 AM – 5 PM.  Meinders Community Library is located at 1401 7^th Street SW, on the south side of the high school.