No-Ice Skating Rinks And Other Matters

It used to be that no-ice skating meant roller skates. In the course of looking up information about a company named Mitsubishi Plastics for a patron today, I discovered that Mitsubishi Plastics is selling petrochemical resin panels for artificial ice rinks in Japan.

Another interesting question from the past couple of days: how many cardholders does the library have? Answer: over 12,000, including people who come from other towns and register their cards here. We were also asked how to kill wisteria, which led to the discovery that there are 2 opposing schools of thought on this question. From a leaf watcher headed to Massachusetts, came the question of whether we have any books that will help you identify trees by leaf color in the autumn. I gave the person a basic tree identification book and some New England guidebooks. We've also gotten our yearly request for books by the latest Nobel literature prize winner. English translations of some of Jean Marie Gustave le Clezio's books are heading to BHPL, as soon as the publisher can print some more.

Voting Has Begun . . .

Voting has begun for next year's One Book New Jersey selection. The idea is to get everyone from Tony Soprano to Bruce Springsteen (OK, maybe not everybody) to read the same book next year. You don't want to get stuck reading a book you don't like, do you? Vote for your selection here:

Also, if you'd like to vote in that other election, the deadline to register in New Jersey is Tuesday, October 14. You can pick up a registration form to mail in here at the library, or print out your own here. If you don't have time to go to the polls, any voter in New Jersey can vote by absentee ballot.

Mrs. Guggenheim and the Mona Lisa

This month's display features books on art. Actually, it's books on art that are not so large and unwieldy as to topple off the shelf and land on readers' toes.

Some that I lingered over as I put them on the shelf:

Leonardo and the Mona Lisa Story: The History of a Painting Told in Pictures by Donald Sassoon

Blue: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau


Art Lover: a Biography of Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill

Q: "Mrs. Guggenheim, how many husbands have you had?"
A: "D'you mean my own, or other people's?"


The view from the art section on a rainy night.