Final Resting Place?

Okay, so where would you rather end up -- Chicago or Heaven? Obviously Chicago! I mean, you get the greatest caramel corn, the greatest deep-dish pizza, the greatest polish w/grilled onions and bbq rib-tips. It's just plain obvious!

 

Bye-Bye My Friend -- No More C&RL News (in Print)

 

Darn! They just announced on the ACRL listserv that December will be the last time College & Research Libraries News (C&RL News) will appear in print (link). Henceforth, you'll only be able to access it online.

Kind of a bummer. I mean, that plus ALA's more general, American Libraries, are just about the only two journals I still get in print. They're things I look forward to -- things I can toss in my backpack and maybe a day or two later, read while waiting for a bus or whatever. Oh well, no more.

P.S. I actually have an article or two in the thing.

P.P.S. Well, I guess I could start printing the thing out myself.

P.P.P. Update (10/20/2223): So I’ve taken the logical option: our friends at ALA put out a PDF version of both C&RL and C&RL News. I simply take those and print them out on my (very nice) HP OfficeJet Pro 902e printer. One heavy-duty staple on the top left corner of each print-out and voila!

Working from Home (When I'm Not)

 

Oy, was scheduled for ChatReference from home -- 'cept the internet connection really sucked (thanx AT&T). So I ran over to the Lincoln Pk campus, setting up shop on one of the tables in the SAC building.

At the Scanner

 

Tuesday evening (10/12) was really really nice. We had a good crowd and it almost seemed like we were back to -- err (rhymes w/'Formal') ...

Instructor contacted us via Chat asking if we had a scanner. I checked just to make sure it was working.

Facebook Took to Twitter

 So where do you go when your site is out-of-order? Why, you go to the site of your chief competitor(s) of course:

During the outage, the company [i.e. Facebook] took to Twitter to acknowledge the situation and apologize for the inconvenience. [source]

9/11 - Twenty Years Ago

 Yes, it's the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center -- the 20th anniversary of that absolutely horrifying loss of people both occupying the twin towers and those rushing in to save them. I was living in New York at the time. My experience for that reason was particularly direct.

I've written about this (link) and even put together a video (see below). As I've said before, the best event I ever personally experienced -- that was the the fall of the Berlin Wall; the attack on the World Trade Center -- that was the absolute worst.

RefDesk: First Shift of the School Year!

 
We're talking 2021-22! Happy! Happy!

No State Fair for Me This Year

Well-known columnist/blogger, Rich Miller, has an interesting article in Friday's Sun-Times, 'If I'd Caught the COVID-19 Bug, It Would Have Been On Me. I Walked into the Crowded Room'.

In it, he says:

"The State Fair is such an integral part of our state’s political culture that I think many of us desperately wanted to latch on to some sort of normalcy last week after a year and a half of nothingness. But this clearly ain’t over — though Illinois is doing much better than the southern states — and many of us should’ve known better."

"Integral part" -- I totally agree. It's also a whole lot of fun! There's bar-hopping in the evening; then all the activities at the Fair itself the next day. It really really is a great time! But this year, personally -- no way. Decided to stay home. That said, looking forward to 2022!

Be Aware of Flying Golf Balls

 

Interesting sign out near the golf range at Diversey and Lincoln Pk: 'Be Aware of Flying Golf Balls'. The golf range itself is in the background, on a raised platform.

First Day Back at the RefDesk

 

First day back at the RefDesk. It's been a while (after logging in, Google Calendar says 'March 2020'). Brought two friends along -- pillow & teddy bear.

Things I Had to Get Used to Eating in Paris

 

Things I had to get used to eating — or at least get used to being served — at the Student University Restaurants (aka 'Resto U's) while in Paris: rabbit, sheep, kidneys, intestine ....

Actually the first two (rabbit and sheep) weren’t bad. The last two (kidneys and intestine) I’d simply toss focusing on veggies and, at least with the kidneys ('rognons' en français), sopping up the gravy with pieces of baguette. Interesting diet. Lost a whole lot of weight.
[source of photo]

View Out on the Porch

 

View out the porch on a very early evening in Chi-town...

Chat-Ref Under the Stars

Landline was dead on Tues. & Wed. last week. My shift for Chat Reference is 6p-9p so it was back to the Student Center at Lincoln Park -- at least till 8pm when the Center closed. One more hour to go -- no problem! I simply switched to the Quad with my laptop for the final 60 minutes. 'ChatRef under the Stars'? 

At Today's Zoom Get-together...

 

Great get-together with colleagues and old friends!

New Year's Party -- via Zoom (of course)

Had a great time with old friends (along with laptop, iPad, face-mask, cassette player, cellphone, can of beer and burnt pizza ...)

Doh-Doh Librarian

 

So I wake up and look at the clock. Holy sh*t -- it's 6 o'clock! That's the start of my evening shift for chat reference! I rush into my workroom, turn on the computer, hook up to the library web-service page. Whew, that was close! Funny thing is, nobody else is hooked in. Huh? Usually at least someone from the earlier shift hangs around till you get settled. So where is everyone? I check out the time at the bottom of the computer screen. Just a couple minutes past 6 -- that's not bad! Then I notice something else: it's am at the moment -- not pm. Opps!

Update: Same thing happened a couple weeks later (12/1) only this time it was '5 o'clock' when I woke up. 5 o'clock? No problem! Shift doesn't begin till 6pm -- I had an hour! On the radio I was expecting NPR's evening show, 'All Things Considered'. Instead what I got was 'Morning Edition'. Okay, I get it...

Ballot Delivery Boy

#BallotDeliveryBoy : At the Cook County Election Board Office, 69 W. Washington St., Chicago.

Nice Fall Day (2020)

 

Nice fall day. Leaves in bloom(?). Roscoe walking north on Sheridan (Chicago).

Hey, That's Me in That Rock Video from the 1980s!

 

I probably knew about this at the time (1987) and just plain forgot but yes, that’s me on the left. It's a brief appearance in the 'official music video' by well-known rock band 'Faith No More' in their tune, Anne's Song. I happened to know Anne and hung out with her and a whole bunch of other fascinating people during my one-year stay in NYC*.

Here's some background info from the FaithNoMore website: Faith No More released their second single Anne's Song 30 Years Ago!.

Here’s the YouTube video: "Faith No More - Anne's Song (Official Music Video)". (I appear at around 1:50.)
________

* For the record, I returned to Berlin at the end of the year, staying there till Reunification in 1990 -- at which point, I returned to Manhattan for more than a decade.

1st Reference Session of the School Year

First reference session (chat) of the school year! [Note: public access to library not yet possible. Everything done remotely from home.]