Thursday, September 11, 2008

Jon Stewart on 9/11/01

Courtesy of a link from Neil Gaiman's Journal, I was able to see, for the first time, the beginning of Jon Stewart's first Daily Show after September 11, 2001. Not only was I impressed by a man who wasn't afraid to share, and show, the emotions he was battling with, but one of the last things he said really hit me: He said that the view from his apartment used to be the World Trade Center, but that now it was the Statue of Liberty. Not only from his apartment, but from all of lower Manhattan. He didn't dwell on it, but it really got me thinking about the American way of life and our priorities - the dominant feature of a landscape changing from buildings of commerce and business to a symbol of what this country used to, and should, stand for. And, I hope, will again someday.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Map Tunneler

Geek Alert!

A Free Map Tools map that shows you what's on the other side of the Earth.

For the Big Island of Hawai‘i, it's Botswana, Africa.

Where's your opposite?

Friday, September 05, 2008

Brit-Fix

Most of my audiovisual material lately has been from the United Kingdom. For months now, my Netflix queue has been Doctor Who and MI-5 (with the original Avengers creeping in recently), I've been watching and re-watching my Jane Austen collection*, and my iPod keeps me awake while I drive with the Harry Potter books.

Right now, November 18** seems an awfully long way away, although with as crazy busy as this semester is going to be, I'm sure it will actually fly by.

* Pride and Prejudice with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth; Sense & Sensibility with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Alan Rickman; Persuasion with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds; and Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Northam

** Release of Season Series 4 of Doctor Who

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Reference Question

One of the most unusual questions I've received at the Reference Desk:

"How many sentences are supposed to be in a paragraph?"

The patron really, really wanted a specific number...