Celebrity Death Watch 2011

Always something to speculate about, some friends and I spent the day thinking up names of people who could/would/might/we'll-see-if-they die from now until Dec 31, 2011.

Come on now, you knew this could be coming. A list about celebrity death predictions? Right up my alley.

So without further ado...

CELEBRITY DEATH WATCH 2011

Dan Ackroyd - 58 (he popped into my head and I thought I'd better just go with my gut)

Chuck Berry - 84

Ray Bradbury - 90 (He's old and a lot of big name authors have been going lately)

Lillian Jackson Braun - 97 (she's really old and I've been thinking she was going to die for the last couple of years)

Jimmy Carter- 86 (he's gotta stop writing books sometime)

Dick Clark - 81 (wouldn't it be ironic if it was on New Years Eve?)

Tim Conway - 77 (from the Carol Burnett Show)

Billy Crystal - 62 (another Dan Ackroyd situation)

Doris Day - 88 (she's old and hasn't been seen for a while)

Kirk Douglas - 94

Michael Douglas - 66 (they say he's better but...)

Roger Ebert - 68 (we all know about his health issues. How much longer will he be with us?)

Queen Elizabeth - 84 (Charles has gotta take over sometime)

Peter Falk - 83

Aretha Franklin - 68

Zsa Zsa Gabor - 93

James Garner - 82 (sad but it could be coming)

Billy Graham - 92

Andy Griffith - 84 (haven't heard much from him lately)

Larry Hagamen - 79 (TV star of Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie)

Russell Johnson - 86 (the Professor from Gilligan's Island)

Kim Jong-il - 69 (He's been ill... haha, I know, bad joke)

Lindsay Lohan - 24 (Getting out of rehab... possible OD in the future. Sad but it sometimes happens)

Rose Marie - 87 (I'm thinking it's going to be soon.)

Penny Marshall - 68 (she has been ill and has cancer)

Taylor Momsen - 17 (that girl's headed for trouble)

Peter O'Toole - 78

Nancy Reagan - 89

Carl Reiner - 88

Keith Richards - 67

Andy Rooney - 91

Taylor Swift - 21 (I'm pretty sure this was just someone's wish but at least it would turn the manic mourners off of Michael Jackson)

Elizabeth Taylor - 78

Amy Winehouse - 27 (I was suprised she was 27. The same age as me! She looks a lot older than that. I guess drugs, alcohol, and life on the road will do that to you. Keith Richards?)

Christmas Break Re-Read

I have been commissioned (for enjoyment, not pay unfortunately) to reread one of my favorite books from yesteryear and bring it to share for the high school book club in January.

The rules are as follows:
1) The book must be at least a chapter book (no picture book cheaters in this crowd).
2) The book must be something you read when you were younger.

Here in lies the problem. For the high schoolers the "read when you were younger" means jr high. For me, what does that constitute? Books read in jr high? High school? College? I'm not sure how to define this.

The high school librarian is doing Little Women which opens up a whole other field of classics that maybe I didn't read when I was younger but were meant to a younger audience.

Here are the titles I've been contemplating...

1) All American Girl - Meg Cabot
By far my favorite Meg Cabot book for it's awesome wit and fun action.
Plot: a girl living in DC instinctively jumps on a would be presidential assassin and gains fame as "The Girl Who Saved The President". Insanity and hilarity ensues as she meets the first family and starts a friendship/maybe more with the first son.

2) Dealing with Dragons - Patricia C. Wrede
The first in a four part series. The third book in the series is the one that got me back into reading in the 6th grade.
Plot: A tomboy princess runs from home when she is told she will be forced to marry a prince she doesn't know. She runs into a dragon (usually feared) and takes a job as a Dragon's Princess (a job one is normally kidnapped for). While learning the ropes she has to ward off knights
trying to "rescue" her and help hysterical princess who actually were taken, she also has to top the plot of an evil wizard.

3) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
A classic. If I have to tell you the plot I am very ashamed of you.

4)Princess Diaries - Meg Cabot
Meg again but this time the title she is most known for. Another fav from yesteryear (and by yesteryear I mean high school and jr college. Sad but true, I didn't discover her until much later than I should have. This is the first in a twelve part (with extras here and there) series of the
hilarious happens and hijinks of Princess Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldo, Princess of Genovia.
Plot: Mia is your everyday New York girl who like to blend into the background. Unfortunately, she finds out she is actually the princess of Genova (a tiny country located between France and Spain) of which her father is the current monarch. The book is quite different from the
movie but the main elements are there. Her life is pretty much pathetic since she does not want to be a princess, is clumsy, not that pretty, is terrible at math, has blond triangle hair, a cat that eats her socks, a crush on her best friend's brother, a horrible grandmother who is given
her Princess Lessons and a mother who is now dating her Algebra teacher.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Not sure this one will count but it has been a favorite of mine since 2005...
Plot: Pi Patel and his family are traveling with animals from their zoo in India to North America to start a new life (The animals are set to go to other zoos). The future is not what was expected however when Pi's boat sinks and he is trapped on a life raft for many days with an injured
zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a full grown Bengal Tiger. Soon only Pi and the tiger remain. A story of survival in the face of tragedy.

6. Me: Stories of My Life - Katharine Hepburn
A nonfic, always good to have at least one in the mix, about the life of the incomparable Katharine Hepburn.
Plot: Katharine Hepburn's entire life up until 1991 when the book was written (she died in 2003).


Any other ideas or suggestions appreciated but let me know what you think...

M.A.S.H.

We all remember the game M.A.S.H. from childhood. While going through my YA Librarian blogs today (because I haven't had time all week) I found this blog post from ForeverYA that had an interview with author Anthony John. For some reason, at the end of the interview, they had him do a M.A.S.H. game for himself. (Maybe not so odd though considering they do address YA life and culture in the blog and M.A.S.H. better well be a part of that!

Here was his game, which made me laugh...

And now, it’s time for everyone’s favorite psychic prediction game, MASH! As always, Antony provided three options and we provided a fourth unsavory one. The random number was seven. Play on, playas!

LIVING
Mansion
Apt
Shack
House

SPOUSE
Someone 5’7” with a cute nose
Someone brunette with an infectious smile
Someone with soulful eyes and endless energy
The Berlin Wall (you’d have to fight that other lady for it, though)

HONEYMOON
Didn’t get one
Didn’t get one
Didn’t get one [Damn you, INS]
Queens, NY

NUMBER OF KIDS
2
2
2 [Don’t you dare say any number higher than 2]
20

JOB
Wine taster
Trapeze artist
Corpse on CSI
Officer handing out ASBOs

INCOME
1 billion
2 billion
5 billion
$413.24

HOMETOWN
Boring, OR
Peculiar, MO
Okay, OK
Hell, MI

PET
Betta fish
Goldfish
Potted plant
Chewbacca

CAR
Yugo
Fiat
Skoda
Lime Green
Triumph

MAN, Antony!! I was so looking
forward to seeing you cram your 20
kids, plus Chewie, into your Fiat. You
must have the best MASH luck
ever!!

So - with this as inspiration, I present the M.A.S.H. game of a 27 year old (I can't believe I'm really that old!)

LIVING
Mansion
Apartment
Shack
House


SPOUSE
David Boreanaz
Nathan Fillion
Colin Firth
David Spade

HONEYMOON
Paris, France
Rome, Italy
Los Angeles, California
Reading, Pennsylvania

NUMBER OF KIDS

2

3

4

21 (I'm going to combat the Duggers)

JOB
Zoologist
Librarian
Author
Wal-Mart Cashier

INCOME
$1 million (I won't be a greedy as Anthony)
$10 million
$1 billion
$600.00

HOMETOWN
Los Angeles, California
Paris, France
New York City, New York
El Paso, IL

PET
Cat
Tiger
Ferret
Tarantula

CAR
Smart Car
Pinto
Mustang
Mini Cooper


Ok - now this is just wrong - I live in a house. I can see that. And I love David but he would totally cheat on me. I mean, look at everyone else he's cheated on. Then, we honeymoon in LA but live in Paris. Something tells me we got a little mixed up on that one. Also, with the Pinto. If I'm an author and making $10 million I think I can do better than a pinto. And what the what is up with the tarantula!?! It must belong to one of the 21 kids we have which might be a contributing factor to our life in Paris. The paps don't bug celebs much there so David and I can live in semi peace inbetween his cheating spurts.

Here was the ideal list:
LIVING - anything but a shack
SPOUSE - Nathan Fillion
HONEYMOON - Paris, France
KIDS - 3
JOB - Zoologist (Something I've always dreamed of doing if I could pass the advanced math and chem classes)
INCOME - $10 million (I'm not too greedy, plus, Nathan makes good money)
HOMETOWN - LA
PET - cat
CAR - Mini-Cooper (that will just be mine. We'll also need something to haul around our kids and Nathan will have his own as well)

Failure to Bloginate

I know when I started this blog that I set out to post about once a week or more. Obviously this has been a phenominal failure. I mean, just look at my blog stats!

November (2)
October (0)
September (1)
August (2)
July (13)

In the future I will make it a mission to update the world on my life, thoughts, what have you on a more regular basis.

But right now? I'm going to bed.

Blog Share

My newest blog share is for fellow librarian and other nerds. It has some of the best of the web related to books, libraries, movies, YouTube videos, etc. I love it. Scroll through the past posts and be informed and entertained.



Here's something educational from a recent post....


THIS JUST IN: MAJORITY OF LIBRARIANS ARE CAT PEOPLE
Fact: A majority of librarians are cat people.
Fact: Only a librarian would conduct a survey on librarian pets.
A preview:

Such vital statistics!

Follow 100 Scope Notes. You won't regret it!

The Triple Monday

Today has been long and tiring. And it's not even over yet!

Maybe the reason is because this is actually the third Monday of the week for me.

Last night I had two separate dreams that involved my going about my daily Monday tasks.

Dream #1: Wake up, go to work for 8 hours, come home. Nothing special happened but I totally went through the entire day!

Dream #2: Wake up, get ready to go to work only to find my tire is dead, slashed or just punctured. Either way, I apparently didn't have a spare and my dad had to go to Blo-No and get a new tire. I made it to work around noon, finished up the day, and came home.

Dream#3/Reality: Wake up really confused thinking it at least has to be Tuesday, right? Get ready, go to work, remember and go to CIRCL (Central Illinois Regional Childrens' Librarians) meeting where a lady is wearing too much perfume, get headache, head back to library and work 3 hours on the ref desk, post this blog....

Needless to say, I'm ready to go home. The thing that's keeping me slightly cheery today? The knowledge that tonight I get to watch the 200th episode of Dancing With The Stars and a new, and hopefully swoon-worthy episode of Castle.

Sad, but true.

It's been over a month of silence. Sorry. I've been busy not updating this blog. There really was no excuse.

But, today, I wanted to bring to you a blog share. Just because I liked this post and we were discussing it at work today. We talk about food a lot at work. It's nice.

But here it is.... some m&m info...

The discussion broke out concerning the tan m&m. Do you all remember that baby? I remember it being more of a light brown but according to Kim at work it was a disgusting diarrhea color. Her words, not mine. Here's what the old m&ms used to look like.

It looks like they took the browns and mixed them to come up with the current selection including Mr. Blue. I voted for purple so don't blame me for that one.

Personally, I think the color is off on this lot. They are usually a little brighter orange and a little darker blue. But anyway, back to the great color change of 95. All I remember is that you had to call in (how old school is that?) and vote for either blue, purple, or pink. I was always rooting for purple but alas, blue was the winner and we are stuck with it. It's still my lease favorite color.

But, listen to this, apparently there was originally a purple m&m in the set. I found this chart on wikipedia (before I found the blog post) and was amazed.

Why would they get rid of purple?!?! That's a drastic mistake! And the red hiatus? Apparently there was a red dye that was toxic or something and the red one was stopped even though it did not contain the dye. Instead, they made orange and the heavens rejoiced. Orange is the best one after all. But, red was brought back later and everyone was happy again. Still, they should never have gotten rid of purple.

And if you want to learn a lot more about m&ms, like the fact that they were thought up during the Spanish Civil War because Forest Mars Sr. saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard outer shell to prevent them from melting, and that the candy is named after the Mars Company founder, Forest Mars Sr., and William F. R. Murrie (President of Hershey's Chocolate), check out the wikipedia page. Because is always contains the most reliable information. :)