I have a staff of thirty-seven people who work for me at a public library in Irvine, California and nearly half of them are immigrants to the United States. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of the... Continue reading

I wasn’t sure what to write about today, so I asked my boss, Trish, for a suggestion, and she replied, “Summer,” and enumerated all the things I could write about: the last day of school, long days, freedom, watermelon, slamming... Continue reading

I admit to spending an afternoon perusing skateboarding and Roomba-riding cats and have also had a go or two with I Can Haz Cheezburger. My son likes Longcat, just about the tallest thing on the planet. I also love the... Continue reading

One of my favorite poems is Kenneth Koch's "Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams" which spoofs (mocks?) "This is Just to Say" by Williams, the famous poem about the juicy, ripe plums the speaker ate, which hinges on... Continue reading

In college I developed a crush on Nathaniel Hawthorne. I not only liked his books, I liked his looks, too, at least as he appeared in a painting at the Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts. I used to take regular... Continue reading

"Nothing human is foreign to me" and that's because I live in Orange County, California. I live behind the orange curtain, as it goes in an old local joke, home of The Virgin Connie Swayle and Gob Bluth instead of,... Continue reading

In graduate school for library science my favorite class covered the history of printing and publishing. We read a book called The Coming of the Book by Febvre and Martin. "The coming of the book" is a phrase that has... Continue reading