Going Inkless

     Over the years, I have observed a kind of snobbery relating to forms of entertainment.  It is assumed that the only true or worthy art is in books and that classic literature is the height of that.  Modern works are, of course, less valuable than older ones because we've lost so much intellect, grace and elegance since those golden days. There are those who proudly announce at every opportunity that they don't watch television or that the only movies they see are documentaries.  The conclusion is that everything else is worthless tripe that could only be enjoyed by those of lesser intelligence than the snob.      The prejudice even extends to those who guiltily enjoy movies rather than "cinema", non-educational television, or "lesser" literature like comic books or science fiction.  Often, they seem almost apologetic or ashamed when they judge their choices as the candy of artistic offerings rather than the vegetables. ...

I think that we handled the recent power outage fairly well, but it held a series of lessons nonetheless. The storm swept through northern Illinois suddenly on Monday morning, knocking down trees and telephone poles, tearing off shingles and scattering anything that wasn't nailed down. It blew through quickly enough and left us with clear skies for most of the day, but the damage had knocked out power in a wide area including my entire town and most of its neighbors. I saw work crews on the streets just minutes after the worst of the storm as I drove cautiously to the library, dodging debris from the size of small branches to whole trees. Still, our power wasn't restored until Wednesday night. LESSON 1: Mother Nature is still The Boss. The library where I work was one of the rare establishments unaffected by the downed power lines. Our piece of the grid was still functioning while houses directly across the street were dark until late Tuesday night, and many businesse...