I’m taking a day off between two hectic weeks.
See you next time!
                                       Be curious! (and kind)

…over the fence, in a patch
Of dirt and concrete, grew
Short green weeds and leaves.

A place of Lala’s own.

“Hello, hello, friends.”
Lala whispered.
                                                From Lala’s Words
                        written and illustrated by Gracey Zhang
                                 Orchard Books/Scholastic, 2021

    My son-in-law is a science teacher whose first love (besides my daughter and my granddaughters) is botany. So I asked him for his recommendation on an app that does plant identification and uses non-toxic solutions for plants in trouble. I love the app he recommended and use it almost every day! 
    I took a picture of the little wild flower hugging the ground next to the sweet woodruff I planted several years ago. I asked for its ID, and it answered common yellow woodsorrel. Along with that dispassionate answer, I also discovered that it’s “mildly toxic to humans and pets if ingested.” It’s native to my area. It’s a pollinator magnet. And “considered a weed by gardeners.” Really?
    Now I wondered, what IS the difference between a flower and a weed?
    I searched many different sources that gave a variety of definitions for “weed,” “plant,”  “flower” and “garden.” I agreed with some and disagreed with others. 
    The question Who gets to decide, anyway? led me to Iowa State University Extension and Outreach webpage. Their bottom line summed it up for me. “No one species of plant is always considered a weed in all settings, and no species of plant is never considered a weed, although some species are more often growing where we don't want them than others!”
    A large variety of plants have thrived and died in the raised bed that my husband built for me several years ago behind our house. I’ve come to some conclusions from all that trial and error. Cucumbers won’t grow any bigger than my pinky finger no matter what. Oregano is only allowed in the garden if it lives in a pot. Black-eyed Susans like the side yard, not the raised bed. 
    Milkweed. Even though I know milkweed’s aggressive nature, I’ve tried several times to grow it. My local extension center gave away seeds a few years ago. They did not germinate for me. I bought a plant from a local nursery, but it was not really milkweed. True fact. My son-in-law gave me some starts one year. They did not thrive or attract monarchs. Monarchs love milkweed. It’s the only food source for the caterpillars. 
    I want to help them, but alas! Milkweed is not a plant for me. Then, the other day, I saw a monarch on my purple Liatris (Dense Blazing Star). They bloom right in time to provide adult monarchs the nectar they need to fuel their upcoming migration south. I forgave myself for my milkweed failure.
    Morning glories. They can overrun a garden. They’d engulf my whole yard if I let them. Then climb up my house and garage and probably my neighbors’ with their beautiful and bountiful royal purple blooms and their lush mass of leaves. They need to learn their boundaries. 
    Each year when the first twin-lobed leaves appear, I remind them to stay in their space. It’s a generous space with a built-in trellis at one end and plenty of room on the ground. I remind them to leave room for their neighbors, parsley and thyme. Even though they agree, sprouts appear as far away as the liatris. They try to hug the thorny rose bush, too.
    I apologize as I gently tug each stem. They apologize by readily releasing their tenuous hold on the earth. They know better; they just can’t help themselves. Even though they sprout up wherever they want to and constantly over-run their boundary, I would never call them weeds. 
    Now invasive species are a whole other issue. The Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) maintains two lists. One is a list of invasives banned from commercial sale and distribution. The other is a list of Ohio’s Prohibited Noxious Weeds. Both of the lists are long. 
    According to the ODA, invasive plants “are not native to Ohio and whose introduction may cause harm.” My multiflora rose is on that list! Although I only discovered it (with my new app) this summer, it hasn’t bloomed. I thought I’d let it stay until I found out that birds eat the hips. That sounded good until I learned that they disperse the seeds as far as 20 miles away. The plants are aggressive. Very. Guess it needs to go. 
    We all know about kudzu. It’s what envelopes the shrubs, trees, and countryside along the highway and suffocates them. And water hyacinths (see “Water Hyacinths: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful, 2/11/25).
    Although Queen Anne’s Lace started out as in invasive a couple of centuries ago and is the forerunner of modern carrots, according to some in the plant world, it’s been naturalized. You can even find them in floral arrangements. Queen Anne’s Lace is not poisonous, but some say it tastes yucky. (I did not taste it!) It’s easily confused with poison hemlock, according to Farmers' Almanac, the most poisonous plant in the eastern US., so my advise is not to taste it if you have some and decide to let them grow. The FA link (above) shows you how to tell the difference.
    So many more plants are on those (and other) lists. 
    I won’t call a flower or a plant a weed, no matter where it decides to grow or how aggressive it is, but some really are dangerous and are not allowed to live in my garden.
I’m almost half-way through The Calamity Club, (Kathryn Stockett. Spiegal & Grau, 2026). My take on that next week.
           Be curious! (and take time to smell all the flowers)

    “One thing makes us special,” [the bagels] all agreed. ONE THING is who we are.”
    “Be happy with the ONE THING you are,” scolded Great-Plain-Grandbagel.
    But the plain bagel was NOT happy. 
    “It’s boring being just ONE THING,” the plain bagel groaned. “I want to be EVERYTHING!”
                      from The Bagel Who Wanted Everything 
                     written and illustrated by Alan Silberberg
                                                       Viking, 2025
                                        (read on Libby, 7/26/26)

    When it comes to favorite food groups, mine is bread. Oh, that’s not a food group? But there are so many kinds besides white, wheat, and rye. Pumpernickel, sour dough, and cheesy dinner rolls. We have sticky buns dripping with honey, buttery bread sticks, crunchy bread sticks, cinnamon rolls, dal, focaccia, tortillas. Even challah, hard tack, and roti. To name a few. The bread article on Wikipedia lists close to 200, all in alphabetical order. All delicious, I’m sure.
    And bread is the staff of life. Since biblical times, bread has been foundational in both cultivation and gastronomy. Growing grains has been a pivotal act in biblical stories from Joesph’s position of keeper of grains in Pharaoh’s Egypt during the time of intense drought and its resulting famine to the story of Ruth and Naomi who gleaned grain in Boaz’s fields.
    The traditional Jewish blessing before meals thanks God for bringing forth bread from the land. Of course, the human (and animal) labor involved in planting, harvesting, milling, and baking is all assumed, recalling the verse from Genesis, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread.”
    Archeologists have found grinding stones and ovens in ancient dwelling places throughout the world from China to Europe and from Australia to Indonesia and all across the Americas. 
    For all its roundness and for all its twisted history with the pretzel, the story of the bagel is pretty straightforward.
    Medieval monks, especially in Germany, so the legend goes, twisted the ends of dough-ropes to resemble a person at prayer, leaving three resulting “holes” to symbolize the Holy Trinity. Monks made and served these pretzels since the 600s. The word pretzel probably comes from Latin for upper arm, maybe the length of the dough rope.  
    In the 1300s, when antisemitism was at a feverish peak, Poland saw a mass Jewish migration, primarily from Germany.
    In many countries in Europe, especially eastern Europe, but not in Poland, it was against the law for a Jewish person to own or operate a commercial establishment that baked bread. It was a short jump for Jewish bakers to untwist the pretzel, leaving a plain dough ring.
    The modern bagel’s history began in Krakow, Poland. Polish bakers made obwarzanek (Polish for “boil”), a strip of dough rolled into a rope with fastened ends. Boiled first, then baked, the resulting roll was round with a hole in the middle. 
    Because of their roundness, bagels were a symbol of eternity. They melded into a symbol of luck, a protection against evil and so, were provided to guests at weddings, given to women in labor, and to guests at a circumcision. 
    Another legend moves us forward in time. A baker in Austria in the late 1600s paid homage to King Jan Sobieski of Poland who had recently returned from defeating the Turks. The baker called his creation a “beugel,” the German word for stirrup, paying heed to the King’s conquest and love of riding.
    At the turn of the 20th Century, immigrants from Eastern Europe to the US brought their recipes with them. In the 1920s in the Lower East Side of New York where many Jewish people landed, it was easy to buy a bagel from a street vendor with a pushcart. Bakeries flourished next. Bagels were common, but still Jewish.
    If you ask any bagel maker for their secret ingredient, their answer will be “tradition.” Recipes were passed from bubbe to bubbe through many generations, always looking for better techniques, better ingredients, better equipment, and better serving styles. But the basics stayed the same. The key difference between a bagel and a bread roll is the process. Bagels are boiled before they are baked. That’s what gives them their outer crunch and inside denseness. Their “chew.”
    The bagel shop we went to when I was growing up, Bialy's Bagels, has been in the same location in University Heights since 1966. Terry Skolnick, brought his New York bakery experience with him when he moved to Cleveland and opened his shop. He passed it to his daughter and her husband, Ellen and Mark Osolin who, in turn, sold the shop in 1984 to the Gross twins, Rachel and Sarah. The girls grew up on Bialy’s Bagels, but never dreamed that they would come to own the place.
    How Terry Skolnik named his store is a mystery. A bialy is not a bagel. According to allrecipes, bialys are named for Bialystock, Poland, the place where they were first created. 
    A bialy is round like a bagel, but that’s where the similarity stops. Bialys are not boiled before they are baked, so have a fluffy, roll-like texture. They’re made from a ball of dough, not a rope. A depression in the center is filled usually with sautéed onion, but fillings like sesame seeds or poppy seeds are common, too.
    Just like people, bagels have assimilated into mainstream culture. My grandfather would hardly know what to do with a blueberry bagel. Or a cinnamon crunch or honey whole wheat. And who would bake raisins right into the dough? 
    These days, you don’t have to be Jewish to love a bagel!

I’m reading Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller (Philomel/Penguin Random House, 2024). When Magnolia becomes fast friends with the daughter of her mother’s friend, the girls gain confidence as they look for owners of lost socks found at Magnolia’s parents’ laundry. Miller blends the sights, sounds, smells and people of NYC, with a touch of serendipity, to encourage curiosity and wonder in her young readers. Recommended for kids in grades 3-5 and anyone who wants a quick, fun, and thoughtful read.
    Be curious! (and break bread with friends)

    “And this is the brain stem,” continued Skylar, pointing to a long skinny part sticking out of the back. It was painted yellow. “Our brain stems make sure that we are always breathing and our hearts are always beating,” Claire explained. “Imagine if you had to remember to do those things.”
                    from Magnificent Makers: Brain Trouble
                                      written by Thane Griffith
                                    illustrated by Reggie Brown
                        Random House Children’s Books, 2020
                       (audiobook accessed on Libby 7/18/26)

    Sometimes when I was still working every day in my “real job” as a librarian, if I was overly busy, extra tired, or living through a period of overwhelm, sometimes it seemed I might have forgotten to load my brain into my head before I left the house. I’d be forgetful and felt disjointed, scattered. 
    Like most people my age, I think about thinking. I wonder how well my memory is working What was this morning’s Wordle? It’s Tuesday?! Again?! Did I forgot something at the grocery store yesterday? Important things like those.
    Remember the TV ad for a brain-enhancing supplement for people? It’s supposed to help us think more clearly and stay focused on the task at hand. “It’s made from jellyfish,” says the voice-over in the ad. 
    But guess what? Jellyfish don’t have brains. 
    Research showed that apoaequorin, the jellyfish protein used in Prevagen, does not benefit the human brain. WebMD reported in a 2025 article that Quincy Bioscience, the company that marketed Prevagen, lost a false-advertising lawsuit in 2024, and had to stop claiming its benefits. 
    What got me curious was not the results of the lawsuit (though it’s too bad about all the people who were hoodwinked by truth-stretching or down-right lies). It was that impossible-sounding sentence “jellyfish don’t have brains.”
    How does that even work?
    In October 2023, the University of Sydney published an article called “Brainless organisms can learn—so what does it mean to think?” exploring that very question. 
    The main function and purpose of a brain is to synthesize new information, to learn. That some animals don’t have a brain led Tom White, Senior Lecturer and Fellow at U of Sydney, to re-think what it means to learn. 
    Learning can be functional or structural and measured by noting changes in behavior. My first degree was in education. I studied three different modes of learning.
    visual: new information learned best when it is seen or read
    auditory: new information is learned best when it is heard
    kinesthetic: new information is learned best through physical activities 
That was then, this is now and learning styles are divided differently, any where from those three to up to 15. Yikes.
    Besides learning styles, learning theories abound from cause/effect or reward/punishment models like Pavlov’s dogs to the digital-age “theory of connectives” where people access new information by tapping into vast knowledge sources across databases, platforms, and human networks. 
    Learning is measured by assessing written tests, observing changes in behavior, noting progress toward proficiency in an area like reading or gymnastics. 
    We use our brains to learn, to wonder, to become proficient in a new skill, but our brains also take care of everything we don’t have to think about like heartbeats, breaths, eye-blinks. Also healing a stubbed toe or a black eye or a head cold. 
    And how about the jellyfish and all the other animals who don’t have a brain? How do they learn? and think? and adapt to new environmental conditions? And how do scientists know that learning has taken place?
    Jellies don’t have a brain, but they do have nerves spread throughout their body. Scientists experimented on a box jellyfish by putting a picture of moving gray bars in front of its nerve clusters and pairing that with a mild shock. After several sessions, the jellyfish began to signal that it wanted to move away from the gray bars as soon as it detected them. In this way, scientists found out that jellyfish can learn to avoid something unpleasant. But they are still studying the how.
    Other animals are also brainless, but not clueless.
    Sand dollars have a nerve ring that functions as their central nervous system. It controls movement and bodily functions including digestion. Sand dollars use a vascular system that circulates seawater through various tubes inside their bodies. They don’t need a heart. They also don’t have a respiratory system. Or eyes.
    Johnsons sea cucumbers don’t have a brain either. Their central nerve ring extends radial nerves and a nerve net within its skin to detect chemicals and touch. You can see a picture here. They are about 12 inches long.
    Nerve nets of corals extend from their mouth to their tentacles and serve the same functions as other brainless creatures.
    Sea stars can’t swim. They spend their time either on the bottom of the ocean or floating or washed up on the beach. Light-sensitive eyespots on the tips of their arms help sea stars find food. The nerve ring in its center (it doesn’t have a head) coordinates essential functions and relays impulses to its arms. Like sand dollars, they absorb nutrients from their water-based circulatory system. They don’t need brains or hearts.
    Here’s something else to ponder. Octopuses have mini brains in each limb in addition to the main brain in their mantle (head). Are nine brains better than one? That’s a question for another day!
I’m reading The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett (Speigel & Grau, 2026). I’m not very far along so here’s the publisher’s statement: “—an epic testament to underestimated women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. Libby will automatically return my copy before I finish, so my take will come soon. Stay tuned.
                              Be curious! (and use your brain and your heart)

I’m still looking for an agent for my new picture book.
And I signed up for an ekphrastic poetry reading (this time, a new poem inspired by an original and local piece of art.) My three new poems will be judged, and if accepted, I will read for an audience at the YWCA on July 23. I’ll let you know!
See you here next week. Same time, same place!

[Babette] pulled the wool from her eyes.
and with tears streaming down her face,
let out the happiest, silliest, truest giggle.
                                                      from Baa Haa
                                       written by Audrey Perrott
                                       illustrated by Rods Burach
                                              Scholastic, Inc,. 2025

    Who would be brave enough to tickle a gorilla? That was my first thought when I finished reading an article in my local newspaper that described a new study on laughter. Then I heard a news short about the different kinds of laughter and why we laugh. And last Thursday morning a friend of mine mentioned that International Joke Day is July 1 every year. (And I missed it by only one day!)
    The Universe must be telling me something, I thought. So I decided to learn a little about laughter.
    Results from a study of great apes were published at the end of last month in nature.com and show “great apes have been laughing in a recognizable way to modern humans for at least 15 million years.”
    Dr. Chiara De Gregorio, a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology, University of Warwick in England, wondered how human speech developed and studied a prominent common denominator between humans and the other four extant species of great apes, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans: laughter. 
    The great apes don’t all speak, but we all laugh. Laughter is produced as rhythmic intervals evenly spaced between successive sounds. In all the great ape species, even us. And according to Dr. De Gregorio, the “basic rhythm structure has remained unchanged since our last common ancestor [15-million years ago]. That’s extraordinary.”
    De Gregorio’s colleague, Dr. Adriano Lameria agreed. “…laughter evolution tells us that humans lay on a continuum of vocal control capacities…being honed for 15 million years.” 
    They joined with Marina Davila-Ross to write an article for Nature. By comparing different types of laughter across species and social contexts, they speculate how laughter’s rhythm led to an ability to control vocalizations. In humans, laugh rhythms have become faster through time, and more controlled so, more purposefully variable. 
    They continue by noting that “[l]aughter … is not merely a social signal but an accessible model for understanding the deep evolutionary roots of human vocal communication.” (Speech) The complexity of moving from the spontaneous rhythms of laughter to the controlled, purposeful grunts, words, and phrases that carry meaning, is nothing short of remarkable.
    The best laughter is spontaneous. It often erupts when humans encounter something unexpected. It’s often contagious and uncontrollable. It’s a form of social bonding. People tend to laugh more when we’re in a group than when we are alone. And laughter can work as a signal to let a person know we want to connect with them. We even pretend to laugh with someone to gain their trust, but fake laughter, even when well done, even when we’re unaware we’re doing it, is easy to detect.
    But why do we laugh? It’s been said that laughter is the best medicine, and the Mayo Clinic documents long and short term benefits of laughter including stress relief, pain relief, immune system improvement, increased oxygen to improve organ functions including the brain, and heart. And a good laugh releases endorphins to improve our mood. Here's a great article on laughter’s health benefits.
    Once, when I explained a joke to my brother after he told me didn’t get it, he said “if you have to explain a joke, you probably shouldn’t have told it.” He said it in the nicest way. 
    So what is funny? Real people study humor. Jonathan Beber, the lead researcher in a study on humor, named nine different types. Probably with a straight face, too. Which one(s) tickle your funny bone?
Physical humor (slapstick) involves physicality. Slipping on a banana peel or Mister Magoo, the Three Stooges. Clowns.
Self-deprecating humor is used by stand-up comedians. They make fun of themselves to earn a laugh (or guffaw). Also internet memes.
Surreal humor is weird, silly, absurd. Monty Python.
Improvisational humor is spontaneous. Made up on the spot like “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” 
Wit-Wordplay is twisted language, including puns and Dad jokes.
Topical humor is based on current events. A spin pop-culture, politics, powerful people.  Think “Saturday Night Live.”
Observational humor makes fun of everyday life. “Funniest Home Videos” can overlap with Physical Humor.
Bodily humor is always funny. It’s gross-out jokes at their worst. (best?) Does anyone outgrow these?
Dark humor usually involves finding the funny in a serious situation. Like the character in Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses who says (as he plunges to Earth in a malfunctioning parachute, “We must find the levity in the gravity of the situation.” (Some overlap with Wit-Wordplay)
    So who would be brave enough to tickle a gorilla? My best guess is a smart scientist who knows how to find joy in work that combines important discoveries with serious fun. If that still feels a little too scary, maybe it’s someone whose job is defining types of humor. Try to do that with a straight face!
I’m still reading The Secret War Against Hate by Steven J. Ross (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026). It’s seriously scary. Knowing our government has been opaque on so many issues dealing with hatred, violence, and organized crime for so long is anything but reassuring. Not sure I’ll finish this one, even though I know how important it is to be as aware as possible.
                               Be curious! (and tell a good joke) 

“I cannot believe that something that looks like pond scum can actually be a source for energy,” Avery remarked.
                        from Green Algae and Bubble Gum Wars:
                                            Beacon Street Girls #13
                                            written by Annie Bryant
                          Books on Tape/Listening Library, 2008
                                      accessed on Hoopla 6/28/26
     When I was going to school, we learned to classify our environment into three identifiable forms: animal, vegetable, and mineral. Only animals and plants were alive. Only animals (and only some of them) were sentient. In other words, they had feelings, could communicate, were able to use locomotion.
    You have to love science and scientists. Unlike most of us who like to be right, (some of us even want to be right all the time), scientists start out solving a problem or answering a question by trying to discover how or why their assumptions are wrong.
    Because of scientists’ insatiable curiosity, relentless pursuit of facts, and determination to share their results, today’s kids learn a much more accurate way to define their surroundings.
    Now, scientists classify six Kingdoms of life: Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Eubacteria, and Archaebacteria. 
    When I saw current pictures of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and learned (some of) what happened and how and why, I decided to learn a little more about algae. I learned first that algae belong to a “new-ish” classification, Protista, or protists.  
    Plants cells and animal cells are both eukaryotic. Their cells contain a nucleus and organelles. The organelles in each plant cell and animal cell differentiate to provide a particular function. Many cells of the same type combine to make organs. Organs work together to sustain the life of the organism.
    Protists are a lower life form. Although their cells are eukaryotic, each cell of a protist is an identical copy of every other cell. Therefore they are not animals. They’re not plants or fungi, either.
    To include life forms that did not fit neatly into the Plant or Animal category, Ernst Haeckel (1834 - 1919, Germany) coined the term Protista. The category is huge and diverse. Scientists are still working to organize them into all their variations. “The effort to understand the incredible diversity of life remains one of the most difficult tasks that humans have undertaken.” That’s a quote from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. (AAAS https://www.aaas.org/) 
    One way to organize protists is divide them into sub-categories depending how similar they each are to animals, plants, or fungi.
    Animal-like protists can move on their own. They eat other organisms. Protozoa are in this group. Protists that cannot make their own food and use spores to reproduce are fungi-like. This group includes slime molds. Plant-like protists use photosynthesis to make their own food. Algae are classified here. They contain chlorophyll, a green pigment that absorbs light to provide energy for photosynthesis. 
    According to the American Chemical Society (ACS), algae are categorized according to their color. Green and blue-green algae live in freshwater and saltwater. Red and brown algae (seaweed) live only in saltwater.
    Naturally occurring, algae can be one-celled organisms and microscopic, or cluster in long strands or large colonies of multiple identical cells, or be any size in between. 
    Kelp (seaweed) is a type of brown algae. Like plants, kelp photosynthesizes its own food, but unlike plants, it does not have a root system, leaves, or a stem.
    It is only one of many types of algae used for human food and supplements. As long as 1,200 years ago, people in Japan collected seaweed at low tide. The Aztecs harvested blue-green algae and ate it dried with tortillas. English colonists brought with them to the New World, a pudding they made by boiling red algae with milk. 
    These days, nori are dried and used as sushi wrappers, added to soup and baked goods. Brown algae is used as a thickener. And blue-green algae is an important protein source, especially in areas where food is scarce. Spirulina’s beautiful blue is used to color candy, ice cream, and blue gum.
    Cyanobacteria, more commonly known as blue-green algae, are powerhouses of oxygen production. Just like the leaves of trees and other plants, algae absorbs sunlight and combines it with water and carbon dioxide to produce glucose. They use the glucose for energy, and they release oxygen as an unneeded byproduct. 
    Algae are critical to the environment. Their respiration and photosynthesis cycles are responsible for reducing carbon dioxide and provide nearly half the oxygen produced on Earth.
    Even so, too much of a good thing us usually not very good. 
    Algae, in a favorable environment, will grow to an overabundance. Some blue-green algae are toxic. Extra nutrients found in common fertilizer run-off (especially nitrogen and phosphorus) contribute to algal blooms. 
    Overly warm water, slow moving (or standing water), larger than average amounts of detritus, all contribute to the possibility of algal blooms. People and animals can get sick when they come into contact with toxins through the water, food grown with tainted water, and even breathing contaminated air. 
    Some blooms are not harmful, but potential harm cannot be detected just by looking. 
    The severe algae bloom found in the Reflecting Pool is the result of a perfect storm of friendly (to algae) conditions. A darker color paint allows the water to heat up faster. The shallow, stagnant water creates ideal breeding conditions, nutrient-rich water from the Potomac River’s Tidal Basin feeds the algae.
    The Reflecting Pool, built in the 1920s, is an iconic landmark. Its current algal bloom has focused the world’s attention on what has become a modern metaphor and begs the question: Does art reflect culture, or does culture reflect art? 

I started reading The Secret War Against Hate: American Resistance to Antisemitism and White Supremacy (Steven Joseph Ross, (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026). I’m not far enough in to comment, but so far it’s fascinating and very scary. It’s thoroughly researched and very true.
                             Be curious! (and look for beauty)

They walked to the library 
Day after day
And turned page after page after page.
                                                 from The Library
                                        written by Sarah Stewart
                                            pictures by David Small
                                       Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995
                   audio version accessed on Hoopla (6/22/25)


    I’ve been either a library user or a library employee all my life. And of course there was overlap. I continued to check out books and read (most of) them while I worked as a librarian. 
    My younger daughter is a librarian, too. She understood the library concept very early. Library books are borrowed. That means you need to give them back. When she lost a book about frogs that she was very interested in, I was sure it would turn up. It did not. When we packed up to move to another house, I was sure it would turn up. It did not. I paid the library to replace the book, but never found the one I checked out for her. Ever!
    When she found out about renewals, we kept Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches until I was sure we had kept it too long. I ordered a new copy from The Little Professor, our nearby bookstore, and gave it to her before we returned the library copy.
    The girls and I visited most of the libraries in our county and nearby counties, too. We all have multiple library cards. My grandkids do too.
    But I’ve never been to a Presidential Library. 
    In 1815, Thomas Jefferson donated his personal book collection to rebuild the Library of Congress after it and its 3,000 volumes were burned during the War of 1812.
    When he offered his collection, most congressmen were pleased. But opposition came from the Federalists, especially Cyrus King. He “argued that Jefferson's books would help disseminate his ‘infidel philosophy’ and were ‘good, bad, and indifferent ... in languages which many can not read, and most ought not.’” (Johnston, W., and Library of Congress. History of the Library of Congress. Volume I, 1800-1864. Government Printing Office, 1904.) The bill was passed by a narrow margin, and the books were acquired.
    At the time of his donation, Jefferson’s collection was not a public library as we know them now. Today, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. It houses millions of books, of course, but also films, videos, sound recordings, manuscripts, legislation, periodicals, personal narratives, web archives, 3-D objects, and much more. And the public (that’s us!) can borrow books, periodicals, electronic copies, and newspapers when they’re requested from our local library. They’re handled as Interlibrary Loans.
    But the Library of Congress is not Jefferson’s Presidential Library, even though the first items held were his. Surprisingly, the first president to build and open a library was Herbert Hoover.
    Hoover’s is part of the sixteen member Public Library System managed by the National Archives, but it was not until Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency that the country adopted his belief that presidential papers, documents, and artifacts belonged to the people of the US. They record our history and make it available to “We the People.”
    When a president leaves office (except for once), all the papers, documents, and artifacts are delivered to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This is law. There they are referenced, cataloged, and protected until they are ready for public viewing. 
    And now we have a new Presidential Library to record our recent history and help us move into the future.
    Amid speeches and festivities, the Obama Presidential Center opened last week as a place to congregate, learn, and grow community. The Obamas planned the building “to inspire, empower, and connect people to change their world.”  And located it in their home town, the South Side of Chicago, to honor the place where they both grew up and eventually made their home. 
    As part of their mission, the Obamas list 10 values for visitors to explore, and include ideas to help turn their “Hope into Action.” 
    The Obama Center officially opened appropriately on Juneteenth (June 19), 2026. Visitors are invited to “explore art installations, gardens, nature walks, a playground,” and several dining options. 
    And the Center houses a branch of the Chicago Public Library.
    You can watch both Barak’s speech Michelle’s here. 
    Although tickets are not available right now for the museum you can get on their mailing list here. The gardens, nature walk, playground, and restaurants are open, and regularly scheduled 15-minute tours are offered in the various gardens. Here's a partial list.
    The website for the Obama Center is well-designed and has a wealth of information, but I’m sure it’s not like being there.
    Road trip, anyone?
I’m reading Theo of Golden, by Allen Levi (originally self-published in 2023 and bought by Atria Books, 2025). When Theo, no last name given, arrives in Golden, a small southern town, he is intrigued by 92 pencil images hanging on the coffeeshop walls depicting townspeople. He purchases each, one by one, and gifts them to the person depicted in exchange for a conversation. At the half-way point, I’ll hold onto my opinion till next time. 

          Be curious! (and be the change you want to see)    

Hickory dickory dock,
the moon shone on the clock
twelve o’clock midnight
“Little mouse goodnight!”
Hickory, dickory dock!
                                              from Hickory Dickory Dock
                                    written and illustrated by Keith Baker
                                                             Harcourt, 2007
    
    I’m more of a word-nerd than a number cruncher, but for a reason I can’t seem to put my finger on (again!), I noticed numbers were flying through my brain and settling on 12.
    Why? I wondered. I started wondering about
        12 numbers on a clock
        12 months in a year 
            including standard “Western,” Hebrew, Chinese, Hijri/Muslim
            Most Native American tribes use 13 moons per year divided among 4 seasons. 3 each, Spring, Summer, Fall, and 4, Winter. (13 x 28 = 364)
        12 inches on a ruler
        12 eggs in a dozen
        12 grades in school
    And what about the world’s cultures? We find 12 Hebrew tribes, 12 Olympians, 12 Apostles, 12 signs of the Zodiac. Ancient India recognized 12 heavenly gods.
    And what they might all have in common?
    The easiest explanation is 12’s highly composite nature. It divides easily by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and itself. Halves, thirds, and quarters are simple to figure out.
    In the US, linear space is calculated using 12. It’s a carryover. The ancient Romans used 12 as a standard because it was so easy to divide. Inches were similarly divided, with the smallest mark at 1/16th. A yard, 36 inches and a multiple of 12, is also easily divided.     
    In Elizabethan England, marketers sold their goods by the dozen. A dozen is easy to divide. If a dozen eggs cost a shilling (12 pence), it was easy to know how much to charge for three or ten.
    Why do 12 British pennies make 1 shilling, and 10 American pennies (if we ever get them back) only make 1 dime? Well, the easy answer is they don’t. In 1971 the UK replaced its historical monetary system (pounds, shillings, and pence) with the decimal system.
    Eggs, roses, and school supplies are still commonly packaged in dozens. It’s easy to divide when you only need, say 3 eggs or want half a dozen roses or a cookie or two. When it comes to donuts and other bakery items, a common count is 13, a baker’s dozen. 
    According to Southern Living Magazine, the origin for a baker’s dozen dates back to a medieval law passed in 1266, during the reign of King Henry III. The king determined the specific weight for a loaf of bread. If a loaf came up light, the baker could be beaten or imprisoned, and yeast is hard to control. Two loaves of the same size might have different weights. As a precaution, bakers added an extra loaf or cookie or bagel to an order to overcompensate and avoid punishment.
    Marking time is the oldest convention of all. We calculate the time between one sunrise and the next by dividing time into 24 hours, 12 for “daytime” and 12 more for “nighttime.” Dr. Nick Lomb of the Sydney Observatory says, “[o]ur 24-hour day comes from the ancient Egyptians…the length of day-time and night-time hours were unequal and varied with the seasons.” We standardized them with noon and midnight in the Middle Ages..
    Time, both on clocks and calendars, is consistent around the world. Our 60-second minute and 60-minute hour come to us from the ancient Babylonians who also used 360 parts or degrees to divide a circle. They estimated a year to be approximately 360 days. 
    Since its calculation began, we’ve used sundials, water-clocks, hourglasses. Mechanical, pendulum clocks, quartz watches, and atomic clocks have “enabled us to measure time with increasing accuracy.” (Lomb)
    But, we are losing our ability to read an analog clock due to its replacement with digital timepieces. Quarter-tills and half-pasts are reserved for usage by people of a certain age (measured in standard years and months).
    I started thinking about school and found out most countries consider 18-year-olds adults. They can enter into contracts, vote, drive, marry. If they’re adults, they should be finished with school. Since six is the age most children begin their formal education, although Kindergarten is becoming more and more demanding, those 12 years, from 6 to 18, fit nicely into a standard education.
    Even though so much of our societal norms are based on 12, we use base 10 to count. Our number system is called positional. Numerical values depend on where a number is in relation to other numbers around it. That’s why 103 is less than 301. 
    Now for the words themselves. Why don’t we say ten-ty one or even one-teen instead of 11 and ten-ty two or two-teen instead of 12? We get the tens place back by 13, 14, 15 and so on.
    A study of etymology (where our words come from) points to the versatility of 12s so commonly used in markets and in trading goods. It’s another carryover.
    English is a Germanic language. Eleven was “ten with one left over” ainlif (one left.) Twelve was twalif  “ten with two left over.” In modern German, elf (11) and and zwölf (12). And in modern English, eleven and twelve. 
    So, no matter how you say it, twelve, or two more than ten, it’s a marketing thing, whether you’re measuring donuts, yards of fabric, or lines on a football field. Or hours in a “day” or “night.”
    Religious complexities regarding Olympians, Hebrew tribes (lost or otherwise), Apostles, and various cultures’ interpretations of the Zodiac will have to wait for another 24-hour span.
    In his opening of  “Auguries of Innocence,” William Blake reminds us
        To see a World in a Grain of Sand
        And Heaven in a Wild Flower
        Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
        And Eternity in an hour.

I’m still reading Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper/HarperCollinsPublishers, 2022) and still loving it. 
                Be curious! (and stay in the moment as often as you can)        

Before long, our vegetables grew. Some were big and lumpy. Some were thin and green and covered with bumps. Some were just plain icky yellow. They were ugly vegetables.
                                          from The Ugly Vegetables
                               written and illustrated by Grace Lin
                                                   Charlesbridge, 1999
                                            read on Hoopla (6/5/26)
                                     Triangle Interactive, LLC, 2018

    The vegetables Grace Lin wrote of (in today’s quote) are supposed to look like that. They are Chinese vegetables that the main character’s mama cooked into delicious soup and traded for beautiful flowers with the neighbors. There’s a whole list with pictures in the back matter.
    In our quest for perfect produce and pristine packaging, many of us have no idea of the waste those habits generate.
    Here’s the definition of food waste from Feeding America: “Food waste is perfectly good, safe-to-eat food that gets thrown away instead of eaten.” It includes not only the food itself that gets tossed, but considers the resources used to produce and transport it and even cook it. 
    According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s website.
    “[F]ood waste is estimated at between 30-40 percent of the food supply.” In 2010, that corresponded to “approximately 133 billion pounds … of food.” (I do not know why the government is still publishing 15-year-old data on its website. That’s a subject for another day.)
    In 2015, using 2010 as a baseline, the USDA set goal of cutting our food waste by 50% by 2030. That’s only four years away, and the clock is ticking.
    According to Retail Track Systems (RTS), the United States wastes 120 billion pounds per year (325 pounds of waste per person). My math says that’s only 13% less than the USDA’s 2015 figure. Thirty-seven percent to go, with 2030 just around the corner.
    As a result of this food waste, hungry people are not getting all the food they need.
    Good food is being discarded needlessly.
    Methane is being produced by food rotting in landfills, and our landfills are filling up.
    RTS claims the biggest reason, by far, to explain why so much food is being thrown out, 80% of those 120 billion pounds, is confusion over labels. “Labels like “sell by”, “use by”, “expires on”, “best before” or “best by” are confusing to people — and in an effort to not risk the potential of a foodborne illness, they’ll toss it in the garbage.” 
    More reasons: 
    We’re impulsive about our buying choices. 
    Food is plentiful and relatively inexpensive compared with the rest of the world, so it’s under appreciated. 
    We bring home doggie bags and don’t feed the dog or ourselves with the leftovers.
    We need education about home composting. Community omposters can be “a thing.”
    Restaurants and grocery stores need an easy and convenient way to donate extra food.  
    Wasting food wastes the water and energy it took to produce it, cook it, and deliver it.
    The problem is big and, well, ugly, but many states are working on solutions through legislation encouraging government/citizen co-operation.
    New companies have grown up with reducing food waste policies included in their the mission statement. Misfits Market is one of them. 
    “We have a two-pronged mission here at Misfits Market: to provide affordable access to healthy food and to fight the food waste crisis.”
    Abhi Ramesh launched Misfits Market in 2018, after he visited an orchard near his home and noted how many apples were being tossed because they were too big, too small, or a little odd-looking. He found out that across the entire supply chain billions of pounds of high-quality food is discarded “mostly because traditional grocery stores only want perfect-looking food.” (Misfits Market) 
    Mostly, I think, customers want perfect-looking produce (or grocers think they/we do.)
    I’m guilty of choosing the greenest celery, (is it really more nutritious?) the the reddest red, and plumpest, roundest tomatoes. I like smooth-skinned potatoes, they’re easy-to-peel, even though I hardly ever peel them any more. 
    And it’s hard to lose that habit. I don’t choose veggies past their prime or hard peaches or soft apples. But a two-legged carrot? A conjoined pepper or strawberry? Why not?
    Those veggies are not the only ones you’ll see if you order food from Misfits Market. They source from organic farmers who generally avoid using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. And sometimes they plant too much.    
    From their website, “Every order helps fight food waste, support small producers, and challenge the way Big Grocery does things. Each week, our customers help rescue an average of 500K lbs of food that would have gone to waste or lesser outcomes.”
    I was curious enough to sign up. There’s a $35 minimum order and a large selection to choose from. Boxes come every week, unless you choose to skip a week or cancel altogether. My first box will come tomorrow. I’ll let you know.    
    Their food may be ugly, but in the most beautiful way.

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver(HarperCollinsPublishers, 2022) is Kingsolver’s answer to David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens. She writes for a new generation who are well-aware of our society’s ill treatment of the downtrodden mistake makers. Demon’s survival skills pair with his dead father’s good looks, athletic ability, and red hair to keep readers rooting for him as he works his way through the underbelly of our popular culture. Is a re-read of DC in my future? Not sure!
    -—Be curious! (and try an ugli or ugly fruit or veggie)