Searching for Newspaper Articles

I'm drawing a complete blank while trying to recall an episode where I helped a patron by finding a newspaper article for her/him.

I know of done it dozens of times, but can't recall a specific instance.

SO.... I'll do a search for myself. I found out recently that a long-lost cousin of mine was in jail for killing someone during a drug-related dispute on Staten Island. I'll see what I can find out...

(later) Ahhhhhhhhh - the tawdry details of his crime, revealed to me at last. The family has been trying to keep this under wraps for years - and now I know what REALLY happened. (what a dirtbag).

Saturday afternoon and America's Newspapers!

Just finished reading lurid details of a serial rapist that terrorized one of my old neighborhoods - Capitol Hill in Denver - during 2005. Searched the papers by region and then by newspaper name (Rocky Mountain News) using the rapist's name (Brent J. Brents). Then googled his name to see what I would get - which brought me to one of Denver's TV stations and their take on the news.

When Brents was captured he had a hostage with him - who was unnamed in the articles I looked at. I'm going to see if I can find out her name. She ended up committing suicide shortly after her ordeals - well, some said suicide and some said she overdosed.

Found it. "Aida Bergfeld". Now I'll compare search results using the Rocky Mountain News site and the America's Newspapers database limiting results to that same newspaper.

3 results from R.M.N's site
Only 1 result from American's Newspapers, using same search term ("Aida Bergfeld") and limiting results to R.M.N. - searching "All Text" and "1st/lead para" fields.

I know there must be reasons for this discrepancy but sometimes it makes searching frustrating. But then, all I have to do is think of how it used to be if a customer wanted this kind of info...YIKES! We've got it EASY!

Saturday afternoon and Google Books!

Today I felt as though I was either PMS'ing (I never know now when that could happen) or it was a full moon or everyone was a bit "slow". One of those days when the reference questions do not stop and that cup of coffee I was going to drink just got cold too fast. Another 6.5 hours on the reference desk.

A woman came in looking for a poem by Phyllis McGinley - she said it was called 531 and was about a man coming home on a train. Looked around a bit, saw people huffing and puffing standing behind her, placed 1 request for another title for her and an ILL request for another title for her and told her I'd look for her poem and give her a call.

It slowed down for a bit a few minutes later and after Googling the poetess' name and 531 and train, etc. etc. I found a link to google books with the poem (which is quite lovely but called The 5:32). It was in the Bartlett's Poems for Occasions which PX owns and I copied it for the customer & called her on her cell - she came back 15 minutes later to pick up the poem. YAY!! Read the poem:

The 5:32

She said, If tomorrow my world were torn in two,
Blacked out, dissolved, I think I would remember
(As if transfixed in unsurrendered amber)
This hour best of all the hours I knew:
When cars came backing into the shabby station,
Children scuffing the seats, and the women driving
With ribbons around their hair, and the trains arriving,
And the men getting off with tired but practical motion.

Yes, I would remember my life like this, she said:
Autumn, the platform red with Virginia creeper,
And a man coming toward me, smiling, the evening paper
Under his arm, and his hat pushed back on his head;
And wood smoke lying like haze on the quiet town,
And dinner waiting, and the sun not yet gone down.

Subscribing to Google Blog

OK - did it. But don't see myself having time to follow it. I don't even have time to put aside to really get managing my own blog down.

I will admit that I found the article on the designs seen on the ocean floors to be interesting. I'd much rather be spending $2billion on mapping the ocean floor than sending folks to Mars or LOTS OF OTHER THINGS.

Round 2 - Conscious Eating

I read the article about lactose intolerance and found it very informative. My teenage daughter has been complaining about symptoms that we had difficulty attributing to any specific cause - the doctor couldn't figure it out either. I actually thought her stomach pains, bloating, etc. could be due to teenage "angst"...when I was a teen I suffered from a bout of what was diagnosed to be colitis - and the dr. said it was from "nerves" - this was a time when my Mom & I did not like each other that much! As Celia and I seem to be going down that same path once traveled by my mother and me, I was pretty sure it would just "pass" - maybe when she left home the day after her 18th bday.

She can be a hypochondriac (when she was 4 she started screaming that she wanted the "pink" medicine {Pepto Bismol}- when I said that was just to take when she was sick she started to scream "I dying!") so when she decided she was lactose I just said hmmm. But she's taken steps outlined in the article and now takes the over the counter lactase enzyme pills and feels better! She is also a vegetarian so I have concerns about her calcium and protein intake and have been using tofu in our meals more and more - but did not know that "tofu processed with calcium sulfate" is a good source of calcium - so will look for that next time I shop.

I have also tried to stop eating when I'm full. I can really eat a lot at one setting and have been told by a few men that I can down way more food than them. I eat fast too - which leads to overeating. None of which seemed to cause me any problems (except one man didn't like to take me out to eat cause I ate so much - hahahaha) but now that I'm older and my metabolism has slowed down (good excuse for MANY things) I have to cut back on my intake. So I've been trying to eat slower and take smaller portions. Put extra food away in the frig before I sit down to eat so I'm not as prone to keep picking and I sometimes remember to concentrate on feeling full. It works when it works. Wish me luck.

Me - 10 months from now

Regarding my goals for the Health & Wellness Challenge-I'd like to be 15 pounds lighter and have some flab turned into muscle. I'd like to have more energy and sleep less. I'd like to be able to handle stress better and learn more meditation techniques.

BM Web Challenge #3 - GVRL

I enjoyed this exercise very much and plan to share it with other PX staff. I've already shared the resource below w/those who work on our ref. desk because we have had teens coming in to the library for info about the Great Depression...

The GVRL book I chose was Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library. Allison McNeill, Richard C. Hanes, and Sharon M. Hanes, eds. Detroit: UXL, 2003. 827 pp. 4 vols.


Found the chapter, "Everyday Living" to be interesting - probably some of us are following the same tips that folks used during the Depression to save moola, i.e.

"Families figured out ways to "cut corners," "make do," and "keep up appearances." Frequently people who had employment supported family members who had lost their jobs; almost all families had a close relative who suddenly was without an income"

AND

"Although the Great Depression brought forth the many strengths of the American family, it also took its toll. Family structures changed: Marriages were postponed, fewer babies were born, young people lived at home longer or returned to their parents' home when they lost jobs, and households combined to aid struggling relatives. For some, the strain was too much, and their families broke apart."

AND...for Going Green advocates:

"Everything was saved and reused: paper bags, shoe boxes, tinfoil, rubber bands, jars, old clothes, and broken tools. " pp. 189-192