LISNews: Librarian News

Behold the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen. For all the unwashed out there, Stephen A. Smith is a pompouos "sport's personality" on ESPN. The Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen is a group of Knick fans, all graduates of Regis High School on the Upper East Side, who for the past two NBA Drafts have filmed their heckling of Stephen A. Smith and posted them on YouTube. These things are hilarious. The 2007 one is the sports equivalent of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Here is the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen at the 2007 Draft.

Here is the Stephen A. Smith Heckling Society of Gentlemen at the 2006 Draft.

Pure magic.

From a Richmond Times article entitled, Art and Politics Collide at Event: Artist Philosophical About Obama Camp's Call to Cover His Works:

Before the Illinois Senator (Obama) spoke Tuesday night at a Richmond art gallery to about 500 Democrats, an Obama advance woman asked the gallery to cover one painting deemed potentially offensive and to remove another.

Artist Jamie Boling said he first was offended by the censorship but now has mixed feelings. In today's political and cultural climate, the pictures could have been used against Obama, he said.

Just let it slide, he's a D.

Don't know if this was posted but I'll offer it up.

Here is the story.

I wrote about him retiring several months ago. Seems he had cancer and he died yesterday at age 68.

On Saturday mornings during the 1970's he narrated "In the News" on CBS. It was aimed at kids watching cartoon. The theme was very familar. Here is a link to the theme:

From the Wasington Post article:

A vice principal at Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School in Laurel last month ordered Amber, then 12, to stop reading the Bible or face punishment, according to a lawsuit filed Friday by Amber's mother. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, alleges that the vice principal's actions violated the girl's civil rights.

Here is the link:

If true, this is pretty disturbing.

Movie theater in small town refuses to show crappy movies like Beerfest and Jackass 2.

Here is the link:

I agree that most movies Hollywood produces are drivel.

From the 8/31/06 Telegraph (UK), an article about characters like Tom Sawyer, Pinocchio and others have converted to Islam in new versions of 100 classic stories on the Turkish school curriculum. Here is the link:

In one way*, is this any different from that company in Utah that "cleans" Hollywood movies like Titanic in order to take the sex out?

*I understand there is a copyright issue facing the Utah company and I believe copyright is inapplicable in the Turkish situation. However, I have heard some voice horror over the fact that the Utah company was destroying the artistic integrity of the films. Is this any different?

I have not verified this story, take it for what it's worth.

This is a story from The New Criterion magazine's blog. A patron suggested a title for the Brooklyn Public Library to add to their collection. The book is called Londonistan and it deals with radical Islam in England. Supposedly, a collection development person at BPL emailed back this response:

Thank you for your question. Normally, the library doesn't add a nonfiction title to the collection (and especially one that is potentially incendiary) unless a review from a trusted source (professional journals) can be found. Unfortunately, we have not found such a review for Londonistan. Therefore, at this time, the library will not be adding Londonistan to the collection.

Perhaps I understand the professional journal review requirement; however, it sounds more like a convenient excuse when the book is characterized as "potentially incendiary."

As I wrote, I haven't verified this story so I don't know if this is all there is to this story. Sure is interesting.

Here is a link to The New Criterian blog:

Stealing the cycle is stealing second, third and home in the same game. Tampa Bay Devil Rays outfielder Carl Crawford achieved this trick on Wednesday night against the Boston Red Sox.

Here is Red Sox third baseman on Crawford:

"He's so fast, it's unbelievable," Lowell said. "[Tuesday] he stole third from a standstill with both hands on his knees. Most guys, they try to get momentum. He's going from a standstill. Everyone talked about Deion [Sanders] and how fast he is, but I've never seen anyone faster than [Crawford]. He just goes from a standstill [position] to full speed so quickly. Even [Tuesday], his triple, he's waltzing into third and most guys are only getting to second on that. It's impressive. God, I wish I ran like that."

Here is the article on MLB.com:

"No Tornadoes Confirmed In Nebraska-Kansas Area This Year"

This article can be found at

From the article:

Meteorologists at the National Weather Service office in Hastings are feeling lucky this year.

The 30-county area they serve in central Nebraska and north-central Kansas hasn't had a confirmed tornado for the first six months of this year. That hasn't happened since 1950.

Hey, can we credit global warming for that?

Follow this link:

Red Cross = Yes

Red Crescent = Yes

Red Star of David = No

Read all about it at

Some D.C. area 3 year old had a "News Hour with Jim Lehrer"-themed birthday party complete with birthday cake with the Newshour logo and a photograph of the entire cast as frosting.

Here is the Washington Post article from the Reliable Sources column dated 6/15/2006: article

The last line of the article:

"All of our guests were really good sports," said the hostess, noting that serving the cake was a little awkward. Do you want ice cream with your Ray Suarez?

This is troubling on sooo many different levels.

If you were a kid in the 1970's and watched Saturday morning cartoons on CBS, you probably heard the 1 minute news blurb show for kids called In the News. It ran in between cartoons and it had spacey music. It was essentially a current awareness show that tried to educate little kids like myself who were all hopped-up on sugared cereal.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/22/entertainment/main1337111.shtml

Go to this link and click the first audio link by Charles Osgood. The theme is very distinctive and it will trigger lots of memories. Go on, don't be shy.

If you want to read a fine piece of writing, read this January 22, 2006 Washington Post article entitled, "The Peekaboo Paradox" by Gene Weingarten.

It is about a Washington D.C. area children's birthday party performer. Perhaps there is hope for newspapers.

Here is the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434.html

He died in his home in Princeton, New Jersey last night at the age of 65 due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Good book; however, one of those rare times when the movie was actually better than the book.

A couple of observations:

1. As a kid growing up in South Florida in the 1970's who boated and fished almost every day, Jaws scared the crap out of me and lots of other people.

2. He can be blamed for thousands (millions??) of sharks needlessly being killed based on fear. I'm not saying he was a criminal or a bad person but lots of people went after sharks simply because they were sharks. Don't even get me started on shark fin soup.

From a Welsh newspaper:

"A Welsh flagmaker last night issued an urgent safety warning to Muslims who are buying up his Danish flags to torch in cartoon protests.Orders for the

Danish national red and white flag began flooding in to Swansea-based business Mr Flag as soon as the Prophet Muhammad caricatures featured in a Danish newspaper were reprinted in Europe. "We have experienced a rise in orders for the Danish colours," owner Robin Ashburner confirmed.But he warned, "It has to be pointed out though that a number of modern flags are now made largely of polyester and when they burn they melt. That means if they are whirled around by a protester, his or her fellow protesters could be splashed by flying pieces of burning material. If it got into the eye it could do serious damage so we are about to issue a warning to this effect on our website.

Here is the link to the full article:

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=16686539%26method=full%26sitei...

That's pretty funny.

The World Baseball Classic is next month. There was a dust up about letting the Cuban National Team play. They are going to play. Interesting article about it from the Weekly Standard.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/695irvyh.asp

Team Fidel might be a team of slaves, but at least they have free health care.

I found that there is a great amount of variation in people making tuna fish salad. Your responses to these questions means absolutely nothing but it is interesting to see the variations in preparing tuna fish salad. So here are the questions:

How do you make tuna fish salad? Do you put mayo in it? Do you put in relish? Do you add onions? Explain.

Bonus question: If you celebrate Christmas does your family open presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? If you open Christmas Eve, do just the kids open presents? Do they open only one?

I haven't seen many comments on LISNews regarding the Danish cartoons.