what can children handle?

I know no one ever reads links that people send or post to their blogs, but I can't resist with this one that I found on Bookslut. It's an article from the Boston Globe on the watering down of fairy tales. I don't really know when or why this happened, because just a couple of decades ago, we were all pretty much taught the real gruesome versions of most fairy tales. Okay, maybe not the most gruesome, scary Grimm versions, but people died, witches were evil, etc. People are about a million times more overprotective these days, it seems.

This even extends to non-fairy tales. Many librarians don't even do the real version of "The Old Lady Who Swallowed Fly." You'll recall that the rhyme repeats the phrase, "perhaps she'll die," which is evidently too scary for today's children. Instead librarians replace that with things like "my oh my." My supervisor, bless her, does use the real version and even ends it with the "she's dead of course" line. I tend to agree with my library school professor--if you can't bear to tell the real story, you should just pick another story and not butcher the original with goofy changes. We all survived knowing that the little old lady might die; I think children today will survive too and possibly learn a valuable lesson about the dangers of swallowing livestock.

being old

You know you are old when you have to add files titled "Car" and "Job" to your file folder. Today, I went and became the official owner of the Subaru, so it is now a Californian.

Can I just say that AAA membership is worth it just to be able to register your car there and not have to set foot in the DMV? I did enough of that when I was trying to get a CA driver's license a few weeks ago. I will fully admit here that I did not actually pass the written test the first time (yes I had to take a written test). I was all overly confident about the whole thing; after all, I already had a driver's license, so it should be no problem, right? I don't need to read through that silly California driver's manual! But after failing (hey, they had a high standard--I could only get 6 wrong out of 36), I realized my blase attitude was probably a bad idea and I actually sat down and read the darn thing. Needless to say, I passed the second time, thank goodness!

California, despite its progressive reputation, is behind the times when it comes to the DMV. When I got my Washington license, 8 years ago, the test was computerized. In California, 8 years later, I still had to fill in bubbles on a piece of paper which was then hand scored. Oh well.

Oh man, I am so old and boring now, going on about the DMV. Luckily I have a few exciting events coming up that do not involve state bureaucracies. Brunch with friends, a weekend visit from my favorite expecting family, and I get to work tomorrow (Saturday)! Okay, so that last one isn't so exciting, but at least it gave me today to take care of these little odds and ends that cannot be done on the weekend. Woo.

working girl

Yep, that's me! I just finished up my second week as a children's librarian here in the greater Los Angeles area. It's been a great first two weeks. I work with some very nice, enthusiastic people who are passionate about their work and want to do good things. And how can I complain about a job where I get to order toys for the little ones in the first two weeks? It is going to be busy and I'm sure I will be going crazy at times but I am so excited to be starting in on my librarian adventure!