EX LIBRIS

— Necia Liles, editor
Once again, The Burg came through. The last book sale was the
best in history. Thank you, Burgers. Thanks for bringing in the
books and blessings upon you for coming back to buy some more. It
is perfect symbiosis. Pitiful as it sounds, there are libraries all
over the country opening only one or two or no days a week. Because
you are such a literate and caring bunch, that won’t happen
here.
And because you responded so well to the plea for more books,
our ongoing book-sale cart is disgorging books out onto the floor,
each one waiting to trip you and fill your discretionary hours,
teach you something peculiar, confirm your suspicions, or gratify
your hunger for social or spiritual enlightenment. So when you
finish the last batch, bring them in and get a few more. At $1
each, you can pick up something that might teach that impossible
person something useful.
Wonderful as you are, though, you are somehow hesitant to write
a review on the books you love or hate. Wouldn’t you like to be
published right here in the Trib, byline and all? Just write about
400 or fewer words about any book in the Sonoma County Library
system. Simple. That goes for teens and kids, too. Send it to
ne***@li***.net. Fret a bit
about grammar and punctuation if you want, but don’t overdo it.
I’ll tidy up anything wayward.
There are now 621 members of the Friends of the Healdsburg
Library (or FOHL, but I don’t know why it isn’t FOTHL, or just FHL.
Why would we give a capital O to “of” and not honor “the” in the
same way?). That number is on the light side, however, because some
are family memberships and include several people. We also have 95
Life memberships, which means you will never again have to lie
awake nights and worry about scraping together $5 a year, and if
the price goes up, you’ll have made a bountiful investment that
won’t disappear into the ether like IRAs and retirements and that
sick joke called the stock market. Even family Life memberships are
not inheritable, though, so don’t plan too far ahead.
The picnic was as good as it gets. We had so much food that
there were even some of the heavenly desserts left over. All of it
was good, but we seriously need to build a statue of whoever made
those merangue/chocolate chip cookes.
Word of the day: reason why. I know a teacher who longs for
corporal punishment to come back so she can whack her kids when
they use this redundant expression. Reason says it all. Adding
“why” makes it completely tautological.