May 15, 2004

Treasure Island

Yo, Ho, Ho ...
Theater artist Ritchie Porter will bring Treasure Island to life at the Library, Thursday May 20th at 7:30 p.m.

Audience participation, physical comedy, suspenseful story-telling.

Swaggering. Derring-do .....

And after you get all enthused again about Treasure Island?

Read the book There are copies in our J room under Stevenson. If you like it you might want to try Black Arrow, The Bottle Imp and certainly The Strange Tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Search the text of treasure island How many times does Silver say "shiver my timbers"?

Read A head full of swirling dreams; Doyle, Brian Atlantic Monthly, The 11-01-2001 eLibrary or come to the library and ask for the actual print magazine. You can even check it out.

Recommended web visit: Robert Louis Stevenson web site. There are also a number of interesting articles about Stevenson and his works accessible via eLibrary or Masterfile.

Read some of Stevenson's wonderful non-fiction. We have a lovely edition of Edinburg: picturesque notes From Library Journal April 01 02 review - "This dandy little travelog is Stevenson 's 1879 paean to his birthplace. He dissects the city by area, discussing the history of each important site. The ten chapters are illustrated with monochrome engravings. A gem." (For the soulless - it is also available as e-text from project Gutenberg)

Or try 828.809 STEVENS An inland voyage; Travels with a donkey; The Silverado squatters. An inland voyage will take you canoeing in Europe in small wooden boats. (e-text) And if you like this sort of thing you must read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome which will lead to Connie Willis' To say nothing of the dog ... and so on.

Want a flick instead? Watch the DVD recording of the 1950 Disney Treasure Island. It is available at the PG Audio-Visual Division, located in the the Hyattsville Library on Adephi Road, just a long block from PG Plaza.

Or watch the great 1934 Wallace Beery/Jackie Cooper/Lionel Barrymore version on tape. You can rent it uptown at Video Americain (301.270.4464) and there is one copy at the Kensington Library.

Posted by library at 10:35 AM

May 10, 2004

Memorial Day 2004

This will be a very special Memorial Day, a nationwide hurrah for those who served in World War II and a history lesson for everyone else.

May 29th: Dedication of the National World War II Memorial Tickets have all been given out, but the memorial will be open to public viewing after the 29th. Where is is located? At the east end of the Reflecting Pool. You can already search the WW II registry and enroll individuals.

May 27th to 30th, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m: The Smithsonian is holding a National WW II Reunion on the Mall for everyone: music, dance, big bands, children's activities, history pavilions. Go dance along to Stardust with the Artie Shaw orchestra. Listen to the Ink Spots.

May 31st: Parade down Independence Avenue

There will also be a summer-long celebration in DC which will last until September 7.

Interesting statistics about the U.S. armed forces in WW II from the Census Bureau. Did you know that 16.1 million served? 73% of those overseas? 11.6% were still working in 2000?

And in your library? We will be closed on the 31st, but on other days you may want to look at our extensive collection of WW II books. A sample:

  1. 940.542 ATKINSO An army at dawn by Rick Atkinson.
  2. 940.5426 Love, war and the 96th engineers (Colored) by Hyman Samualson.
  3. 940.54 The lost ships of Guadalcanal by James Ballard.
  4. 940.54 M936 And no birds sang by Farley Mowat.
  5. and for fiction: FIC B728 Easter Day, 1941 by G. F.Borden.

And are you familiar with Takoma Park's own Memorial Park, just across the road from the library? If you know something about its history, please contact the library staff at 301.891.7259

From the National Archives: Powers of Persuasion: Poster Art of WW II

Posted by library at 09:16 PM

May 01, 2004

Magicicadas Brood X

It is time to go out and look for the cicada chimneys after the rain tomorrow. Remember: cicadas are not only harmless, they are good for our environment. Don't hurt them.

There are 3 species in this brood. The songs differ a bit as does appearance.

  1. Magicicada septendecim (L.) the largest; will have orange stripes on the under abdomen; sing the word "pharoh"
  2. Magicicada cassini (Fisher) smaller; mostly black abdomen; sing tick tick and buzz
  3. Magicicada septendecula (Alexander and Moore) the rarest; about the size of M. cassini but with orange abdomen stripes like M. septendecim, though less dramatic.

How to tell a males from a female? Turn the cicada over and look at the abdomen. The female will have a groove for the ovipositor, the male a square flap at the end.

We have a number of books about insects. Two of the most attractive and interesting are:
595.7051 EVANS Life on a little-known planet by Howard Evans and 595.7051 WALDBAU Insects through the seasons by Gilbert Waldbauer (wonderful cicada drawing on page 28).

Websites:

Cicadamania (Are you reading this web log in XML sydication? You can also subscribe to the Cicadamania RSS feed)

The official cicada site of the College of Mount St. Joseph Help with the brood mapping by reporting your emergence here.

University of Michigan periodic cicada page Great pictures and wav files of the songs. You can see the differences between males and females and among species. The Indiana University cicada page hasn't emerged yet.

National Geographic news story on brood X.

Cicada recipes from the University of Maryland (pdf file)

The prime number periodical cicada problem (pdf) The cicadas aren't the problem. The question as to why the cycles are primes is the problem. Because 17 is not divisible by a parasite's life cycle? You can see an visual demonstration at music of the primes (choose play).

We do see some cicadas in other years. We also get brood II (17 yr, last seen 1996) and brood XIV (17 yr, 1991). And some cicadas just don't follow the rules.

What happens if the tree your cicadas fell from 17 years ago died? Were cicadas more prevalent in the forests when they weren't being mashed by cars? Is brood X splitting up? Read the Economist article.

Still convinced they are dangerous, poisonous and our enemies? Visit Cicadaville

Eating cicadas? Be careful if you have food allergies.

Posted by library at 08:19 PM
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