Diwali / Divali / Dewali / Deepavali / Bandi Chhor Divas
rows of lights, sweets, presents and a fresh new year
A short description
More detail
Holiday memories
Hindu, Sikh and Jain festival dates 2005-2007 (2061-2063)
Recipes and more and more
Send a card and more and more and more
Diwali Aarti
Diwali in Jaipur
Diwali in Takoma Park
Diwali in Trinidad and Tobago
Diwali in Calcutta
This year Diwali begins on November 1st.
A prayer and other poems by Rabindranath Tagore
And in the library: Look for How to be a perfect stranger : a guide to etiquette in other people's religious ceremonies. We have copies you can check out as well as copies in the reference room.
Montgomery County will have three flu vaccination clinics for county residents.
This one is nearby, accessible by public transportation:
Monday, November 14, 2005
9 a.m. to 12 noon
Silver Spring Health Center
8630 Fenton Street, 10th floor
Silver Spring, MD
And this is close enough if you drive:
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
9 to 12 noon
Dennis Avenue Health Center
2000 Dennis Avenue
Silver Spring, MD
Safeway lists no clinics in this area. Rite-Aid is sponsoring a few clinics, but nowhere near here.
CVS has one scheduled near Takoma Park. Tomorrow, October 25th at the Langley Park store, 10-2, minimum age 9.
Giant will have local immunization clinics at:
Arliss Street on Nov. 3rd 12-6, Nov. 9th 2-8
Blair Park on Oct 31st 12-6, Nov. 7th 2-8
Apparently there is again this year a vaccine shortage or distribution problem, so any of these may be cancelled. Immunization of City staff has been cancelled because the vaccine is not available at this time.
A message from the City Manager -
Dear Friends:
The City of Takoma Park has postponed the Grand Opening of its new
Community Center, which was scheduled to take place on October 22nd. A
series of inspections necessary to obtain a Certificate of Occupancy
took longer than anticipated. The City Council will discuss the
establishment of a new date for the event on Monday, October 24th.
We are very excited about the opening of the Community Center and look
forward to sharing our excitement about the new facility with you in the
near future.
Sincerely,
The City of Takoma Park
A reminder. A City election will be held Tuesday November 8th. Polls will be open 7 AM to 8 PM and absentee ballots must be received by the City Clerk prior to the official closing of the polls on election day or postmarked on or before November 7.
Absentee ballots are issued by Jessie Carpenter, the City Clerk. First you need to pick up an application at the library or print it from this pdf file. Submit the application to the Clerk who will mail you the ballot. As you need to allow time for the mailing, please do this as soon as possible - the Clerk need to have your application in hand by November 1st.
Voter registration is over, it ended Monday, October 10th. Of course you can always register now so that you are ready for future elections.
Two offices are contested:
Mayor: Rudy Arredondo; Seth Grimes; Kathy Porter
Ward 2: Colleen Clay; Eileen Sobeck
Updated 11/16/09
The City is no longer hosting electronics recycling events in the library parking lot. Please go the the main City pages for information on weekday electronic equipment drop-off at the Public Works offices.
Several people have asked when the City will hold again a computer recycling event. As most of you know, this equipment contains materials that should not go in the trash. The next one is scheduled for Saturday November 12th, probably from 10 to 2 at the Municipal Building, though that could change. You can bring your old computers, monitors, scanners and so on.
If the equipment is relatively new and working, you may instead wish to donate it directly to the Montgomery Blair High School program to provide working computer systems to students. But you must first confirm that your equipment is what they need and arrange drop-off. Call Anne Wisniewski at 301.649.2899 (An EPA story about the program).
Candace Wolf, storyteller presents
Haunted Stories for Holloween
Lost Souls, Unsafe Places
Deliciously Frightful Tales.
This is the real stuff. For adults (you don't need to be accompanied by offspring) and school-age children, parental discretion, not for preschoolers.
October 27th, 2005 7:30 PM at the Library.
Thanks to the Friends of the Takoma Park Maryland Library
Also upcoming:
Going to College series October 20 and 27th.
In response to a spate of recent bear questions, particularly concerning the taxonomies of pandas and grizzlies:
Did you grow up hearing "A panda isn't really a bear, that it is more closely related to raccoons"? In the past the giant panda was often classified as belonging to a unique family, the Ailuropodiae (as the only member or sometimes with the red panda) or as a member of the raccoon family Procyonidae. It is now usually considered a bear in the family Ursidae (though perhaps a distinct subfamily) - a decision based on DNA, but nonetheless very reassuring to everyone who thought giant pandas sure did look like bears.
Class Mammalia; order Carnivora; family Ursidae now includes eight species of bear:
brown bears Ursus arctos Europe, Asia, North America (includes grizzlies)
black bears Ursus americanus North America (Smokey)
sun bears Ursus malayanus Southeast Asia
polar bears Ursus maritimus Artic
Asiatic black bears Selenarctos thibetanus Asia
sloth bears Melursus ursinus Asia
giant pandas Ailuropoda melanoleuca (visit the National Zoo downtown or the cams)
spectacled bears Tremarctos ornatus South America
Essential reading: 599.78 CRAIGHE Bears of the world by Lance Craighead and 599.78 MONTGOM Search for the golden moon bear : science and adventure in Southeast Asia, a book by Sy Montgomery with a children's adaptation located at J 599.78 MONTGOM. (She also wrote 599.538 MONTGOM Journey of the pink dolphins : an Amazon quest.)
See also: previous post on zoo pandas
Basic bear information: North American Bear Center. For children, the Portsmouth N.H. school bear project.
Charming power point presentation on both fictional and real bears for children. If you are using open source software, be sure to have ppt files set to open automatically in Impress (the slideshow component of openoffice.org) or something similar.
THE LIBRARY IS A DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF TAKOMA PARK
