Words, words, words...

I believe Eliza Doolittle said that in My Fair Lady, but she's not the reason I'm thinking about words today. You may have read that William Safire died this past weekend, and Safire cared passionately about words.

I never followed his newspaper column, but I do remember reading a collection of his On Language columns many years ago. Oddly enough one column from that collection still sticks in my mind. It was a column about names and the tendency of the upper classes to give their children first and last names that could be interchangeable--Chase Parker or Grant Clark for example. I tried to find that column in our collection, but couldn't. However, we do have several book by Safire, including some fiction--which I never knew he wrote.

This morning I was listening to an NPR program in his honor. They were asking listeners to call in their pet peeves and favorite new words. I heard lots of peeves, and very few favorite new words. My pet peeve is improperly used apostrophes. I couldn't think of a favorite new word either, which I guess means I'm more aware of what irritates me than what pleases me. At least linguistically.

Help us celebrate the 75th!

This October marks the 75th anniversary of the Main Library building at the corner of Hoyt and Everett avenues. It's amazing how timeless Carl Gould's art deco inspired design has proven to be, and the renovation and addition by Cardwell/Thomas and Dykeman Architects still serves us well.

Although the basic purpose of the library is the much the same, community needs and expectations for the library have changed over its 75 year life. Obvious changes are the ubiquitous computers that are so much a part of the library business today. Less obvious is the need to improve the resources we provide for teens. Teens are in the library--we know this not only because we see them, but also because over 8,000 of them have library cards. We've got a children's room and lots of space for adults. Now we want to create a teen room.

We are hoping to raise money for this project on Saturday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. with a history-oriented fundraiser at the Main Library. Click here to find out more about the event and how to purchase tickets. We hope you will join us for an evening of wine, food, and history--with all proceeds going towards our teen room project. Let's give our teens a great place to go.