Over a period of 33 years, Italian immigrant Simon “Sam” Rodia built a series of structures in the Watts neighborhood of L.A. Adorned with bits of tile, pottery, colored bottle glass, and shells, the Watts Towers were saved from demolition fifty years ago. In spite of official declarations that they were unsafe, the towers passed [...]
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
“The Twilight Zone” premiered on CBS-TV 50 years ago October. Rod Serling, series creator and host, also wrote 92 of the 156 episodes for its five year run. The show became a touchstone of popular culture, and has enjoyed nearly uninterrupted popularity through television, syndication, and DVD releases. The genre-busting series was in vivid contrast [...]
Saturday, September 26, 2009
A patron was “80% sure” that Thomas Carlyle said something like this: “If everything is how I want it to be, you won’t find a more sanguine human being than myself.” Internet searches using the phrase and select words in the phrase came up with nothing. I looked through a lengthy list of Carlyle quotes [...]
Monday, September 21, 2009
A database called ReferenceUSA is an online resource available at all PVLD branch locations, and from home or work to anyone with an Internet connection and a Palos Verdes Library District borrower’s card. To call ReferenceUSA a telephone directory doesn’t do justice to this versatile database. You can find millions of residential, business, and health care listings, with [...]
Monday, September 14, 2009
Among the many words attributed to Benjamin Franklin– and widely cited on the Internet– are these: “Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.” There are several websites using this “quotation” as if it were, well, gospel. A number of them seem to be atheist sites, and none corroborate the citation from any print sources. Sylvia, one of our reference librarians, [...]
Friday, September 11, 2009
In 1994, as part of a facilities expansion project, the Palos Verdes Library District commissioned Gwynn Murrill to create original artwork for the Peninsula Center Library. The results were two bronze cheetahs and a carved limestone column. Murrill is best known for her three-dimensional sculpture, and the Library cheetahs are an abstracted idea of the [...]
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Long-time Peninsula resident (and Library patron) Jack Manning died Aug. 31st. (Scroll past the ad to read the entire Playbill obit). Manning was a character actor whose career spanned seven decades. He appeared on Broadway, in dozens of television programs, and in films including “The Owl and the Pussycat.” Manning was born in Cincinnati and [...]
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
The Swiss company SIGG recently announced it has known for three years that its aluminum water bottles made before August 2008 contain trace amounts of BPA (bisphenol-A). In high enough concentrations, BPA can be harmful to children and infants. SIGG has marketed its bottles as “eco-friendly,” benefitting from the negative press about BPA in some [...]
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Interest in mortuary science as a career has spiked historically when the unemployment rate reaches 8%. The current recession has seen an increase in enrollment in such programs of 20% over last year. Cypress College in Orange County provides the only mortuary science program locally. Those in the undertaking business stress that interest in the [...]
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Take a look at our new custom-made book display cart near the circulation desk at Peninsula Center. This beautiful object was built by Sid Wielin, one of our volunteers. We now have an elegant space for short-term topical collections, with room for many more books shelved cover-forward. Thanks for your labor of love, Sid! The current display [...]
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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