October 5 marks the 50th anniversary of when the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on television in 1969. Monty Python is a British surreal comedy group. The television show was conceived, written and performed by its members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Besides the television show, there were several well known movies made by the Monty Python group. To learn more about Monty Python check out the suggestions below. You can also find a more extensive list on our catalog. Continue reading “50th Anniversary: Monty Python’s Flying Circus”
Posted on Monday, September 23, 2019 by Reading Addict
“We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.” ~Thomas Jefferson
National Voter Registration Day has been celebrated on the fourth Tuesday of every September since it was first observed in 2012. It falls on September 24 this year. The holiday was established in order to bring awareness to the registration process through a coordinated field campaign so that every voter who wants to vote has that opportunity. Volunteers and organizations all over the country will be out and about to register as many people as possible. According to the National Voter Registration Day website, there were over 800,000 voters registered in a single day nationwide in 2018. One of the stated goals for National Voter Registration Day is for it to be “a day of civic unity … an opportunity to set aside differences and celebrate democracy and the rights and opportunities we all share as Americans.” Continue reading “National Voter Registration Day: September 24”
The phrase “back to school” doesn’t just apply to kindergarten through college. Many older adults are starting new educational pursuits in order to finish a bachelor’s degree, complete a technical or professional course or even take a self-paced class in order to learn something new. Your local public library should be one of your first stops when looking into resources, databases, classes and programs for your ongoing education, and all you need is a library card! The best thing about these offerings is that they are absolutely free. Continue reading “Back to School for Adult Learners”
Are you looking for ways to better organize your life, goals or daily schedule? Join us at the Columbia Public Library on Wednesday, August 21 for the Intro to Bullet Journaling program. This program will discuss the basics of Bullet Journaling and help you get started by providing a notebook and some supplies. If you’ve never heard of Bullet Journaling before, this will be a fun chance to explore how it works and see how you can use it in your daily life to get more organized. Or, maybe you are already a Bullet Journal enthusiast. If so, we encourage you to join us at the program. You might pick up some new techniques or get inspired in a different way! Continue reading “Intro to Bullet Journaling”
Welcome to another entry for our 50th anniversary series focusing on important events that happened in 1969.
Woodstock was a music and art fair held in Bethel, New York on August 15-18, 1969. Around 500,000 people attended and 32 bands and singers performed. Several major bands and singer that performed there including: Santana, Grateful Dead, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Janis Joplin, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Joe Crocker and Jimi Hendrix. For more suggestions on library materials about Woodstock check out this list. Continue reading “50th Anniversary: Woodstock”
An AFL-CIO poster suggesting that a living wage sets a strong foundation for a thriving community.
It has been 10 years since Congress last raised the federal minimum wage to $7.25, and workers are still demanding better, family-supporting pay across America. Since 2012, movements like “Fight for Fifteen” have demonstrated that working for the current minimum wage cannot meet the cost of living, causing workers to call for incomes that reflect a “living wage.” This means pay that covers staple expenses like housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and other basic needs. Showing just how out of sync the minimum wage is with sustaining an ordinary lifestyle, the Living Wage Calculator* measures these average costs for different towns and family makeups to estimate the amount of money people should earn to afford their necessities. For the base-line single person in Columbia, that number is currently $11.13. Continue reading “Spotlight: A Living Wage”
This is a continuation of my 50th anniversary posts focusing on important events that happened in 1969.
The Manson Family murders, also known as the Tate Murders, occurred on August 8-9, 1969 in Los Angeles, California. At 10050 Cielo Drive Roman Polanski lived with his wife, actress Sharon Tate. On the day of the murders, Tate, who was eight and a half months pregnant, was there along with three friends, and an 18-year-old visitor. Manson told four of his followers, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins, Linda Kasabian and Patricia Krenwinkel to go to the house and “totally destroy everyone in [it], as gruesome as you can.” To find out the whole story check out one of the items below from the library or check out this list for more suggestions about the Manson Family murders. Continue reading “50th Anniversary: Manson Family Murders”
Mark your calendars because the most prominent holiday of the year is quickly approaching. August 18 is National Bad Poetry Day!
Whether you’re reading or writing it, bad poetry is fun. Maybe it’s the pure schadenfreude of watching someone be bad at something. It makes us feel better about ourselves, especially when good poets put out bad poetry. The same poet who penned beautiful lines such as: Continue reading “National Bad Poetry Day”
This is the second post celebrating the 50th anniversary of a big event to happen in 1969. I’m sharing some books and DVDs that focus on the Apollo 11 moon landing that happened on July 20, 1969. There are even more library materials on this topic than the few I’ve listed below. Check out this list for more suggestions!
On July 16, 1969 the Apollo 11 spacecraft, manned by Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, launched from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex. Apollo 11 landed on the moon four days later July 20, 1969. This was the first mission to land men on the moon and the first return of samples from another planetary body. Continue reading “50th Anniversary: Apollo 11 Moon Landing”
There were several big events that occurred in 1969. I will be doing a series of posts that focus on these important events and share some library materials about these events for library patrons to check out!
The Stonewall Riots occurred on June 28, 1969. New York City Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in Greenwich Village. This raid sparked push back from the gay community of New York City and beyond. The Stonewall Riots help strengthen the Gay Liberation Front and lead to the formation of the Gay Activists Alliance. It also lead to the first Gay Pride March that occurred one year later on June 28, 1970.
Books
“The Stonewall Reader: Edited by the New York Public Library” by New York Public Library, Edmund White (Foreword)
June 28, 2019 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, which is considered the most significant event in the gay liberation movement, and the catalyst for the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Drawing from the New York Public Library’s archives, “The Stonewall Reader” is a collection of first accounts, diaries, periodic literature, and articles from LGBTQ magazines and newspapers that documented both the years leading up to and the years following the riots. Most importantly the anthology spotlights both iconic activists who were pivotal in the movement, such as Sylvia Rivera, co-founder of Street Transvestites Action Revolutionaries (STAR), as well as forgotten figures like Ernestine Eckstein, one of the few out, African American, lesbian activists in the 1960s. The anthology focuses on the events of 1969, the five years before, and the five years after. Continue reading “50th Anniversary: Stonewall Riots”
