What would you do with $668 million? Use some to feed some of the world's hungry? Use it for disaster relief? Health care? Literacy? $668 million is the amount estimated we'll need to clean landmines from Afghanistan - a project that will take, conservatively, the next ten years. Add to that the $700 million already spent de-mining Kuwait after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the $70 million spent so far in Kosovo... ? This information makes me crazy, and what makes me crazier still is that the United States is one of only 14 countries that refuses to halt production of landmines and has an estimated 11 million landmines stockpiled, the third largest mine arsenal in the world. Bush is revisting US landmines policy. Why don't you drop him a letter letting him know how you feel? more

The Rogue Librarian and I have been busy making buttons (just call it professional development...). Here is hers. If you desire, feel free to add to your site.

Book number one has reached her destination, and I received the kindest thank-you letter yesterday. (If this makes no sense, go read my entry of January 16th.)

I have updated the about me section and added some photos (hit reload and by the magic of javascript a new photo will load). These snaps were taken, variously, in Nottingham, in the schoolyard at the Brighton and Hove High School for Girls, in Toronto, and in Ottawa (by the Rideau Center). The most recent pic was taken 18 years ago. Now how did that happen?

Librarians rock. Here's why. [You might have to scroll down to January 27th entry].

Thanks, Bob, for this birthday suggestion:
"Having just seen that Marmite is 100 years old, why don't we celebrate by spreading the longest amount of Marmite ever seen? I've already done this and it's great fun: Ask everyone in your workplace to bring in 2 pieces of toast each, spread thickly with lovely yeast extract. Lay the beefy pieces end to end on the floor up to your desk, and then when anyone wants to pay you a visit, they'll have to come up your Marmite motorway first!"
Don't know 'bout you, but I'd love a Marmite motorway! Perhaps I should be different and have one leading up to my bed...?

I've just read in the Globe & Mail that Peter Gzowski, a great Canadian broadcaster and literacy advocate, died yesterday. Listening to Gzowski was a joy, whether he was interviewing a Prime Minister, a piper, or uncovering gems of local folklore or history. Christopher Perry suggests that "we should remember Peter by having an unofficial holiday where we wear cords and fishermen knit sweaters to work... or read books to children or make some other personal and meaningful contribution to society. Or, perhaps we could remember him by coining a new term, "How very Gzowski of you"." In lieu of flowers, his family suggests:

• a donation to the Nunavut Literacy Council, or


• a donation to Frontier College

Feeling just grand today. Grand. Apologies to anyone who stopped by marmite on toast last night. A bad cocktail of Netscape 6.2, buggy-blogger template, and a sleepy Catherine meant I stripped all the coding from my page. Ahem. The site is better now, and so am I.
That's 'cos my neighbour and I have been getting up early and going to the gym. I *so* didn't want to go this morning, but went anyways. And because I was in such a foul mood I pushed myself on the treadmill extra extra hard. Damn... I feel good.
Am I a daisy? Why, yes, thanks, I am.

Back from New Orleans in a cranky-ish mood. Things I hate, in no particular order, are librarians in sensible shoes, drunk people, streets that smell of stale beer and piss, humid weather, ALA, snobs, nudges, long lines, and ladies who lunch. [okay, okay, don't take it personally. i should have written 15,000 librarians in one place, in sensible shoes...] On the plus side I got to hang with a smart and kind YA author (hi SR), spent an afternoon in a swamp and a morning at the aquarium, and vastly enjoyed the city's iron fences, old gravestones, big 'gators, little jellyfish, and great food.
My first photos of New Orleans are now up. Enjoy.

So I'm starting a new project today. Once a month I will pick a book from a stranger's "Wish List" on Amazon.com and send it to them. Today I sent Erosion by Jorie Graham to a poet in Rhinebeck, New York. Happy reading, Kazim. Hee hee.

Do you know about The Diary Project? It is a web site where teenagers can post uncensored journal entries on any subject: body image, relationships, racism, poetry, drugs, and a whole lot more. The site launched in 1995 and was inspired by the visit to San Francisco of Zlata Filipovic author of Zlata’s Diary (the story of her life growing up in Sarajevo amidst a raging war). The Diary Project is nicely designed, easy to search, and will keep you reading for hours.

Read Mark Mathabane, author of Kaffir Boy, on censorship and the power of books: "It boggles my mind why, given the complex nature of life, any parents would want to deny their children the opportunity to grapple with its exigencies, especially in light of how complicated our world has become since Sept. 11. American students need to learn more rather than less about different cultures and different ways of life." more

How nice to have a librarian in the White House. Laura Bush has just announced a proposed $10 million initiative for 2003 to recruit a new generation of librarians. more.

Okay. I'll bite, too: B3 d t k s- u- f- i o+ x- e l+ c--

Photos of my Sweden trip are now up. Enjoy, preferably with herring and lingonberries.

What have we done to make the yogurt gods so angry?
First, I exploded a yogurt in the cubicle. Yogurt on carpet. Shoes. Files. Desk. Deciding this looks yummy (the yogurt, not the explosion), C. goes to the fridge to get a second yogurt I'd left there. Comes back with a random, third yogurt. Turns out to belong to the boss.
Oh yogurt gods, we do humbly apologize. White rabbits. White rabbits. Stibbar Etihw. Stibbar Etihw.

The spread that can make grown men weep turns 100 this year. Happy Birthday, Marmite!
Read Laura Thomas of the Guardian on a world divided into those who like Marmite, and those who are imbeciles. more

Back to NYC last night, safely.
Sweden was incredible. I arrived in the middle of a cold snap: -29 C (- 21 F) at the airport, and a full ten degrees colder out at Jukkasjarvi. The thing about spending any amount of time outside in temperatures that cold is that there is no room for anything but peace. Bliss, even.
Polarnight means that the sun set on December 12th and was not due to rise again until December 31st. It wasn't completely dark, but pink-ish between 10 and about noon, then dusk-like between noon and 1:00 pm, and then dark again by about 1:30 pm. More photos will follow, but here's a quick look at the lunch hour light.