How to use this Page

The past couple of days, I’ve driven home mentally composing great blog posts but, lost interest in them by time I got home. I think it’s time to ‘put pen to paper’ and write something!

With this 2013 stamp, the U.S. Postal Service commemorates the 50th anniversary of the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The highlight of the event — in which some 250,000 people participated — was the powerful “I Have a Dream” speech that Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Speaking of pen and paper, I was at the post office today (yes, it was open for business) to pick up a really fabulous hat I ordered on Etsy and got to see some really neat stamps! They included those with images of Althea Gibson, bonsai trees, Ray Charles, Civil Rights March 1963, Emancipation Proclamation and Lydia Mendoza.

I will miss stamps. You think we’ll still be writing letters 10 years from now?

My BFYA pile grew by 7 books in the past week. YIKES!!! February is getting closer and closer, so I’m doing my best to cancel every weekend activity so that I can get these books read. Even my birthday is serving as an excuse to take a day of reading. I don’t believe in working on my birthday, so today I’m home reading! I’ll step out to treat myself to Taiwanese beef noodles and get back to it.

Got this in an email today.

Teaching Tolerance is pleased to share the Smithsonian’s dynamic new way of engaging students in this history: “I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American E-Comic.”

This free, online comic is an illustrated adaption of the I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story banner exhibition and features work by seven exciting Asian Pacific American comic artists. Its graphic narrative format appeals to students and demonstrates that Asian immigrants are an integral part of every chapter in this country’s great chronicle—from building bridges, toppling barriers, and forming communities to pointing the way to its future.

ISU student take over of the Administration building, 1969. ~ISU Archives

There are gems everywhere! Last week I had the opportunity to visit my library’s special collections. We have one of the largest collections of dictionaries in the world, if not the largest. We have a dictionary from the 16^th or 17^th century that translates an Aztec language into Spanish. There’s an architectural dictionary in two volumes, one with hand drawn architectural images and the other with textual descriptions. Old old textbooks; Eugene Deb’s letters; first edition Mark Twains and Kurt Vonneguts; beautiful limited edition hand bound Indian American poetry; transcripts from the WPA in Indiana… so much good stuff!! I couldn’t help but think about what I’d see if I went to Oxford, la Sorbonne or UCLA and visited their special collections. But then, I asked the dept. chair about what else was in little libraries in IN, which one fascinated her most. She stated that each library had so much uniqueness, so many little gems that it’s hard to say. The problem is that most of it isn’t cataloged. You simply have to visit the library and act interested. The librarians there will talk to you. They love sharing their treasures.

I really need to post the October list of new books!!! Until I do, you can find them here on Pinterest.