The Dead White Male of the Month

Humphrey Bogart

The Tender Bar

I recently read The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. I had read a newspaper article by him about a month ago and thought it was good and so I thought I'd give his book a try.

I thought it was a good memoir. Moehringer definitely has a way of putting words together. The next book on the reading list is How I Found the Strong by Margaret McMullan. She received an award from the Mississippi Library Association last week for the book.

As it turns out, she knows my aunt and uncle. My uncle in question is a recently retired English professor who had been at another university in the part of Indiana where McMullan lives.

Country Wolf, City Deer

This past week has been a week of meetings for me. I attended a meeting in Jackson on Tuesday.

When I returned to the college later that day, I prepared for a state conference where I would be for the next three days. It went well.

I had different responsibilities ranging from co-presenting, to chauffeuring, and delivering-- and these responsibilities were the ones I knew of before I had left the college for Tunica. There were a couple of things that came up during the conference. I needed to attend some meetings that I hadn't originally intended to attend, but they were beneficial.

Driving north on Interstate 55, I saw a gray wolf standing alongside the highway. I don't recall having seen a wolf in many years. I thought seeing it was a bit cool.

The weather in north Mississippi and Memphis was mostly dreary for the conference until it was almost over Friday. I did get to see some people I'd not seen in quite some time-- some I'd not seen since the last conference two years ago.

I returned Friday evening. I relaxed. I went to Cups.

I went to Fenian's. I saw the Cardinals beat the Tigers to win the World Series.

I went to Martin's. I visited with friends. I was probably still a bit loopy from traveling. I'd not had much sleep.

Driving back to my house, I saw two deer in West Jackson. I'll be back at the library tomorrow.

Ada

So I read Ada for Book Club. I finished reading it last month. I thought that it was good. I thought that the way Nabokov used words was cool.

What I wish though is that this book wasn't assigned to be read while this reaccreditation/hectic semester was going on. I would have liked to have the time to reread the book to catch the different nuances, the different things that other book club members caught, and that I didn't. I might read it again one summer or maybe even a Christmas break, but not right now.

FP has the next selection, and she's chosen The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I think there's a copy here at the library, but may just purchase a paperback at Lemuria in case there's as much need for marginalia in this book as there was in Ada.

Four Yorkshiremen

Wednesday night. It's already been a long week.

This past weekend was fairly restful. Friday night, I went out to Fenian's before going to Don's and Martin's. I was able to relax, and that was good.

Saturday night, I saw a play at the college. It was good.

Sunday. I didn't do much Sunday.

Monday, I went to a car dealership to get my car serviced. I also worked that night at the library.

I've been working every weekday evening so far this week. I did a stint of study hall tonight in place of someone else who could work for me next Thursday evening while I'm attending a conference.

I had a study hall yesterday evening, and another tomorrow evening.

Then there's book club and then the weekend.

I don't know whether I'll be here or Hattiesburg or both. We'll see.

The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

The past few days have served as a bit of a breather for me. I went to Fenian's Friday evening. I ate a little dinner, drank a couple pints of Guinness, and relaxed.

I then went over to Martin's. I caught a very little bit of the Scissormen, but missed Scott Albert performing. I left earlier than anticipated. I wasn't feeling all that great. Perhaps it was just the aftereffects of everything that had been going on, but I just wanted to get back to the house and relax. And so I did.

I vegged for the whole weekend. I needed sleep, and I got it.

I didn't have to be at work Monday, and instead of working at the library like I normally do, I went over to Fenian's again. I relaxed for a little while and then headed back to the house because I needed to be at work early Tuesday morning.

I wasn't feeling well Tuesday-- neither were a couple of co-workers. One didn't show up to work; the other did, but was very much under the weather. I struggled through work and study hall. When I returned to the house, I was exhausted and needed sleep.

I arrived at work later than normal today, but I was feeling better. I suspect I might have been suffering from caffeine withdrawal. I've not had coffee since Friday, which is extremely abnormal for someone who considers it to be the nectar of the gods.

And so, here I am at Cups on a Wednesday evening. I've still not had coffee. In a perverse way, I want to extend this streak of non-coffee drinking for a little while longer. I'm sure it'll end tomorrow.

Now that I've got a bit of a breather, I'm getting more and more prepared for a conference presentation. It shouldn't be too bad. I'm going for something fairly informal, which should work.

I'm also trying to get some stuff accomplished with regard to a student organization of which I serve as the faculty sponsor. We had a meeting earlier this evening and plan to have another meeting sometime next month.

Tomorrow is another busy day. Even with the short work week and people being sick, I still hope I can get some housekeeping stuff accomplished.

At the End of the Day

A couple of accrediting teams came to the college this week. SACS was the first group to visit. I was part of a group of librarians who were interviewed. From all indications, things went well.

My perceptions were confirmed the following day. A campus-wide e-mail was sent out from our president. Apparently, he was happy enough with the verbal report to declare Monday a holiday for twelve-month employees such as myself. School isn't in session on Monday anyway-- it's a fall break day.

The other accrediting team represented a national organization reaffirming its accreditation of one of the college's programs. I've not heard how that went.

***
My fantasy baseball team, the Gashouse Gorillas, finished in third place in my league. I had a good late-season run to finish third in the regular season. The team also finished third in the playoffs. Not bad. Not bad at all.

***
I took a little bit of a break the past couple of days-- working half-days yesterday and today. I need a break to recharge my batteries, and what with Monday being a holiday that should help. One thing though, I've not been much of a fan of short work weeks because there always seem to be more work performed.

I considered heading down to Hattiesburg today, but I'm not really in the mood to travel too much this weekend. I'm going to stick around Jackson Friday. I may head to Fenian's later this evening, and perhaps go to Martin's or Don's later. I might go see a college football game on Saturday.

Otherwise, I'll be resting until Tuesday morning. I've got to open up the library that morning.

Judging Books by Their Covers

Here's an interesting photo gallery of Penguin and Pelican book covers. Thanks go to Bookslut for the link.

Pub Crawling

I needed to relax this past weekend for reasons made obvious in previous posts. Friday after work, I went to Cups.

I had a mocha frappuccino, answered e-mail, and did some fantasy baseball stuff.

At about 8 p.m., I headed over to Fenian's. I used to go there a lot when I first moved here.

I don't go there as quite as often because many of the friends I've made here hang out at Martin's, WC Don's, and Hal & Mal's. I had a thirst for some Guinness, and so I went.

I relaxed. I saw & spoke to some people I knew. I had fun. I've always liked the atmosphere of Fenian's.

After I left Fenian's, I remembered Jaysus's myspace bulletin about American Death Ray performing at Don's. Upon arriving at Don's, I chatted with friends.

TD wants me to apply for the Guantanamo Library job. He thinks that would be a cool job. I think it would be interesting too, but I keep thinking that I would be Santiago trying to get away from Colonel Jessup before he orders the Code Red. Well, actually, I don't, but I wanted to be glib here.

I saw this band out of Atlanta called Parade perform. They were good.

Death Ray was awesome. I purchased a CD.

I pretty much slept for the rest of the weekend. I stuck around the house for the most part.

I need to make a point to go to Fenian's more often. This semester has been busy though what with library work, the study hall, and writing for my friends' newspaper. It keeps me busy, yet I have little time for socializing. I want to make the best of the time that I have.

How Soccer Explains the World

I recently read How Soccer Explains the World by Franklin Foer. Bill Simmons had recommended reading it in one of his espn.com columns, and so I did.

When it came in via interlibrary loan, our acquisitions librarian noticed it, was interested, and decided to order the book for our collection. It arrived the other day. By that time, I had finished reading the book.

It's an excellent book. It's like Simmons said:

It's like "Freakonomics" and "Blink," one of those mainstream intellectual books for dummies like us. You learn some stuff, you feel smart after you're done, and then you can impress people at dinner one night by bringing up anecdotes from the book.

Highly recommended.

Next up on the Additional Reading List, I'm reading The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer. He wrote that article about the Bolivar County librarian I blogged about last week.

I did a little research on Moehringer and found out that he won a Pulitzer for feature writing a few years back. His book was published last year and has gotten a lot of critical praise. A paperback edition has recently been released.