Electronic calculating-machines

Source: tumblr

Today I want to draw attention to a very special (dusty and possibly moldy) old book we have in our collection, a book about electronic calculating-machines. Yep, that hyphen is meant to be there.

Electronic computers : fundamentals, systems, and applications / with the cooperation of Hans W. Gschwind, Martin G. Jaenke, and Robert G. Tantzen. Vienna : Springer ; Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1961.

This book is apparently 235 pages long, has illustrations and diagrams, and has a spine length of 23 cm. It also includes bibliographies. Most importantly, though, it has a subject heading of "electronic calculating-machines". Totally avec hyphen.

I looked up this subject heading on Library of Congress Authorities and found that, unsurprisingly, it's been superseded by a brand spankin' new authority heading:

C o m p u t e r s

A new year...a new office space...and a new whiteboard!

It's that time again - the time when we clear off our wondrous whiteboard full of groovy things and start afresh. Fitting, really, since we're now in our new office space after spending endless weeks in what we called "library camp". The ants are gone, we have running water and we're seated within sight of a window... Yes, fresh air is the name of our game, and if it wasn't ridiculously stinkin' hot (I hate summer) we'd actually be enjoying some of it.

Anyway, the white board needs cleaning off, but some things will remain, for e.g. our time-map for each day:

• 8am - 9am - Breakfast
• 9am - 10am - Brorning Tea
• 10am - 11am - Morning Tea
• 11am - 12pm - Munch
• 12pm - 2pm - Lunch
• 2pm - 5pm - Postmunchitis

Possibly everything else will go, though we might actually keep the lists of items of work we're meant to be doing... I dunno.

Did I mention that Mo-faux Monday occurs every Monday?

I'm looking for slow cooker recipes that take almost zero effort to prepare...

...and one such recipe makes reference to tomatillos! I was like, "What the hell is a tomatillo? A tiny tomato?" and my esteemed colleague said "Tiny armadillos that look like tomatoes?" So now, here is the real question:

Where the hell do I find tiny little armadillos that look like tomatoes to put in my slow cooker?

Edward Joseph Doherty...or "Eddie" to his mates

Image from Amazon.com

I came across this author in the library catalogue today, and thought nothing much of him till Library of Congress Authority Headings informed me his name should be written as "Doherty, Eddie, 1890-1975" instead of "Doherty, Edward Joseph, 1890-1975." Funny how a little bit of informality can change one's perception of a guy. But I still didn't get really intrigued until I checked out his books on our catalogue and found:

1. Splendor of sorrow : for sinners only (1943)
2. Psalms of a sinner (1976)
3. Lambs in wolfskins : the conquering march of don John Bosco (1953)
   
   and my personal favourite:


4. A hermit without a permit (1977)

Seems as if half his books were published posthumously. Seems also like the guy led an interesting life. But really, I just wanna know more about the hermit who has no permit! Especially after I just looked at the Amazon.com product description:

"Meditations fun and frolicsome, by an elderly Irish hermit!"

There's more, too, like what may be chapter titles: "God is a Pushover", "The Most Unmortified Christian Mystic" and "Beware the Divine Pickpocket!"

Sounds to me like this Eddie guy lived a life of great vivacity!

Are you a floor crumber or a bin crumber?

A matter has arisen in the library today - actually, in the library lunch room, to be specific - about people who are floor crumbers (they'll just sweep their crumbs straight onto the floor with blatant disregard for the folks who have to clean it up at 4am or whatever time the cleaners come here each morning ;)) vs. people who are just a little more thoughtful than that. In this particular office we have one Floor Crumber, one Bin Crumber and one person whose crumbing inclinations are currently unknown (we haven't asked her yet).

What kind of crumber are you?

Library tangles and library cats

Last night, in between bouts of lying awake in the pitch black, wondering what would happen to an item that's been flagged for Reserve, put on and then off Reserve before the end of day system process has run, checked out to a borrower, and checked back in, but that also happens to have a request on it - in short, ARGH! - I dreamed at one point that my kitty cat Smog was...wait for it...a library cat!

There are no sleeping bags
in the library.

He was actually a fill-in library cat for the Law Library, because they had apparently had another library cat who had gone missing. My Smoggy had been doing temp library cat duty for a few months. In my dream, the day had finally arrived when somebody came by to announce that the lost library cat had returned, and so Smog's services were no longer needed. A guy who worked at the library (who doesn't work at that library in reality) got so emotional he started crying, 'cause he was going to miss Smoggy. Personally I can understand the pulling power of this kitty, but I also think that realistically, that library guy would also feel a little relief that he would finally stop being pestered at lunch time...and morning tea time...and afternoon tea time...by this naughty, naughty cat.

Anyway, in the dream I gave the crying guy a hug and said, "Don't worry, you can visit Smog at my place!" and he said back, "It's just been a really bad day..."

It's tough being a cat sometimes (and yes,
that is a paw in the bottom right hand corner).

I've only ever read a book about one library cat - Dewey - and of course as a result of that read, I've heard of other library cats. But knowing what I do about my Smoggy boy-o, it'd probably take him a while to warm up to people in the library. Not as long as it'd take my other cat, but she's not a dream library cat so she doesn't count.

"Did you mean...holy mofos batman?"

Google tells us that "holy mofo's" should not have an apostrophe. But what if we're talking about a holy mofo's right to free speech? In that case, a holy mofo certainly has the right to an apostrophe in his or her sentence.

Source

After I commented with "holy mofos" on a colleague's Facebook status (as one does while in the office, when discussing coming wild weather that will send us all home from work early), said colleague commented in response: "...Batman!" After which she set out on a mission to discover whether or not anyone else in the world had ever said "Holy mofos, Batman" before.

She found 5 results with an early search, but then the question came up: do you include that comma or not? Do you include an apostrophe, in which case you're actually talking about a holy mofo's Batman - maybe a Batman figurine in a holy mofo's possession? Oh, the possibilities are endless...but now I must check if she's still Googling holy mofos and Batman.

No, she's not. She's Googling what "kts" means, and it means...not what is in the Wikipedia article, which turned out to be WROOOONNGGGGGG.


See, kids? It's like the librarian told you. Don't trust Wikipedia.

P.S. Does Spiderman have a car?