The Surreal InterVention

Please do not ask me how I found this site, but I will admit I am glad I did. The voyeur in me loved admiring the amazing curvatious stairwells within these libraries…Check it out…

http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/

On Colbert, the “Communist Threat” of Free Libraries
October 13, 2008

Last Tuesday, Comedy Central’s faux serious Stephen Colbert took off from charges of socialism in Congressional bailout plans to warn, “There’s an even more pervasive Communist threat, right there in our town square: libraries.” The piece was titled “The Red Lending Menace.”

His crew went to the ever-wholesome Rutherford Public Library, NJ, and filmed Jane Fisher, the director, and Arlene Sahraie (pictured), library services director for the Bergen County Cooperative Library System (BCCLS), explaining, with sincerity, that “July was our busiest month on record” and “We didn’t make any money. Our goal is not to make a profit.” (This article from the South Bergeniteexplains that the Colbert crew was inspired by reports that the economic downturn is driving increased public library use.)

His solution: defeat this “Red Lending Menace” by taking out books, not returning them, and then paying for them. Of course, Colbert being Colbert, he also recommended viewers read Sexodus, by “Leon Urine”—a reference (which I’m not sure all would get) to Exodus, by Leon Uris.

Fisher, a 2004 LJ Mover & Shaker, told me that she was glad to see libraries get coverage in such a popular, nontraditional media source. She acknowledged that the appearance was a little risky–libraries aren’t free, of course; they’re funded by local communities–and that she knew that Colbert might make fun of libraries. However, she said, producers reassured her that enough Colbert fans are library users that they knew they couldn’t go too far. Local library users, she said, were happy to see Rutherford on the tube, and she even was asked for her autograph.

Posted by Norman Oder on October 13, 2008

I just read this in today’s library news-

Have a Cookie! Sarah Mackey reports a great story: this past weekend at Northstar restaurant, the man behind the counter asked her, “What’s your favorite cookie? Peanut butter, chocolate, or oatmeal raisin?”

Also, later that night, a man approached Sarah during Gallery Hop on High St. and said he recognized her from the website, and again congratulated us on CML being #1! Word is getting out, and our community is proud!

I wanted to remind everyone what hipocrites the Northstar Cafe is…

They claim to recycle, but they don’t. Over 65% of all the recycling goods are thrown out contributing to our landfills every night. And while they claim to have fixed this problem…it was only temporarily. They still don’t and won’t recycle glass goods.

They over-work their employees and all their food is NOT organic.

I could go on and on about how horrible of a company they are, and how I still have nightmares about how horribly I and others were treated while working there. But I won’t-I’ll just ask you…Please reconsider dining there, knowing they are tyrants and their great disquise is good intentions.