[Publib] Holiday closings & book narrators

[John]

We closed on A. Lincoln's birthday until this year.  But we did not take
Presidents (Presidents'...I've seen both, and wonder which one is really
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but) Day.  Now we do, and we
dumped Abe.  For the first time ever, last year we had two irate patrons
who got their noses out of joint because we closed on Lincoln's b.d.
One woman said something like, "I don't have children in school, I know
nothing about Abraham Lincoln's birthday, I don't know when it is, and I
don't care, but you were CLOSED!!!!!!"  The logic is a little weird.
One might know about Mr. Lincoln's b.d. even if one did not have kids in
school.  The children around here don't get Lincoln's b.d. off; they're
off for Presidents(') Day.  We decided to be more consistent with the
holiday "thing" by closing on Presidents(') Day.  Three-day weekend, and
all that.  We close for MLK Jr. Day, and that's a Monday.

Personally, I've always been a fan of Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce,
James Knox Polk (I'm related to him, distantly), and James Buchanan, but
we never seem to get *their* birthdays off.

Listening to a book drives me crazy when I'm driving, especially in
heavy traffic--my mind tends to wander, to begin with, and then I
realize I haven't heard anything the narrator's been saying, and the
rest of the time I am meditating on Fillmore, Pierce, Polk, and
Buchanan, feeling aggrieved that we don't get their days off, etc.--but
if listening to a book will keep a child from asking, four thousand
times during the course of a long trip, "Are we almost there yet?" then
I will listen, too.  I agree with whoever said kind things about John
Erickson's reading of the Hank the Cowdog books; what...a...hoot.
Otherwise, I suppose Rachel Ray could be reading Tolstoy, and if it put
a particular child to SLEEP (so he didn't ask, "Are we almost there
yet?"), I wouldn't care.  If it put *me* to sleep, then there might be
problems.  I thought E. B. White does pretty well with Charlotte's Web,
also.

John D. Richmond, Director
Alpha Park Public Library District
3527 So. Airport Road
Bartonville, IL 61607
Ph: (309) 697-3822, ext. 12
Fax: (309) 697-9681
E-mail: jrichmond at alphapark.org
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"To do two things at once is to do neither." -- Publilius Syrus, 1st
century B.C.