Inspiring Cooks. Nourishing Communities.

KCLS has an amazing selection of programming and as I enter my last year of service with Redmond’s Library Advisory Board (two term limit!) they couldn’t have picked a better theme in my opinion. A Place at the Table is a year long series to inspire and provoke thought about, for, and with, food. As you might recall from Jaime’s Jaunts, books and food go hand-in-hand in my life! I’ve already attended two programs in the sure-to-be-popular events – Wendy Albee’s “Design A Kitchen for the Way You Live!” for our upcoming kitchen remodel and Tames Alan’s  “Dining at Downton Abbey: A Trial by Fork”, which needs no explanation due to the popularity of the PBS show. (Our local PBS station, KCTS 9 is a sponsor of “a place at the table”, too. :-)) If you can’t make it into the library for an event, consider taking advantage of two online databases available - Universal Class and Access Video. They have thousands of topics available anytime. Watch www.kcls.org/cooks for weekly featured food-related classes and shows. In addition, to help everyone find A Place at the Table, KCLS is accepting nonperishable food that will be distributed to 45 local food banks from March through December 2013. Hopelink and Food Lifeline are great further resources for ideas. I hope you get an opportunity to visit one of the spring programs in this series – there’s something for everyone!

Redesigned Events Calendar Online!

The King County Library System has an amazing variety of programming each month at their libraries, and their new events website makes it much easier to find topics that you might find interesting and relevant.

Want to see only programs designed for a certain age group or popular topic? Use the buttons at the top to quickly filter the upcoming events. Want to see only programs at a specific library?  Use the filter on the left hand side to select your library.

My favorite view is the monthly view! If this existed before on the old site, I never figured it out.  At a glance you can see events across the month that might be of interest. 

Clicking on an event brings you to the event description where you can use the icons at the top to add to your calendar, send an email to a friend, or like on Facebook.

And speaking of events, stay tuned for more information about the KCLS series A Place at the Table!

2013 Community Conversation – Emergency Preparedness

Redmond Neighborhood Network and Redmond Ready
Meet with Neighborhoods for a 2013 Community Conversation

Have you thought about how you would respond to a long-term disaster such as those experienced by the East Coast? How about how your neighborhood will respond?
This year’s Neighborhood Network series is an opportunity to work with neighbors and evaluate Redmond’s preparedness, neighborhood by neighborhood.

The Redmond Neighborhood Network series runs from March through May with three neighborhood events to meet with neighborhoods and share conversation. The Police Department’s Office of Emergency Management will provide a brief Redmond Ready workshop at each of the three events to help participants be informed regarding disaster/emergency preparedness and to be Redmond Ready.

The events take place in the neighborhoods from 6:00pm to 7:30pm and include light refreshments:
• March 20: Downtown, Bear Creek, and Southeast Redmond neighborhoods at City Hall, 15670 NE 85th Street;
• April 17: Education Hill, North Redmond, and Sammamish Valley neighborhoods at Horace Mann Elementary, 17001 NE 104th Street; and
• May 15: Grass Lawn, Idylwood, Overlake, and Willows/Rose Hill neighborhoods at Audubon Elementary, 3045 180th Avenue NE.

Redmond’s Neighborhood Network provides the community, City officials and staff opportunities to check in on an annual basis. Participants meet City officials, learn about City programs and projects, and discuss their respective neighborhood plan including policies, code, and priority neighborhood projects.
To learn more about this community conversation and workshop regarding personal, family and neighborhood preparedness and to complete the annual neighborhood questionnaire, visit www.redmond.gov/residents/neighborhoods
or contact Kimberly Dietz at kdietz@redmond.gov or 425-556-2415.

The Stern Collection of Lincolniana

The Library of Congress online contains an extensive collection of Lincolniana (historical artifacts related to Abraham Lincoln). Alfred Stern presented his outstanding collection of Lincolniana to the Library of Congress in 1953. Begun by Mr. Stern in the 1920s, the collection documents the life of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) both through writings by and about Lincoln as well as a large body of publications concerning the issues of the times including slavery, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and related topics.

Collection Highlights
The Lincolniana collection highlights contain political cartoons, election posters, writings, as well as photos and portraits. Here’s an election poster from the 1864 presidential campaign:

The collection also contains numerous letters from Lincoln written throughout his lifetime. In a letter to James H. Hackett, Lincoln writes:

"...I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it. Yours truly, A. Lincoln"

Other Lincolniana in the collection includes newspaper headlines and posters, including one from Ford’s Theatre announcing the president as a special guest. It was to be a fateful night:

For those who want to learn more about this extraordinary man, the Stern Collection of Lincolniana provides a wealth of information and artifacts.

Lorin Catudio
Redmond Library Board, Emeritus

Puget Brass!!

The bold sounds of Puget Brass definitely encourage the use of exclamation points! (!)

On Sunday, March 17th at 2 p.m., Puget Sound’s premier British style brass band, Puget Brass, will blow out the dreary winter days with a Spring concert for the whole family at the Redmond Library. You will be regaled by marches and soothed by symphonies, all played in the unique and entertaining style popularized by British colliery* bands of the early 20th century.

Hope to see you there – come early to grab a good seat!

___________________________________________________

*colliery = coal mine and associated buildings
If you want to study up before you hear the music, consider renting the movie Brassed Off, which inspired the creation of Puget Brass.  If you still own a VCR, borrow it from the library!  Otherwise, Netflix also has available in their streaming collection.

2013 Tax Time Help at the Library

I should really be doing our own taxes right now, but I am instead procrastinating about it and helping you with yours!

At the Redmond Library, beginning February 2, tax help will be available on Saturdays from 10am-3pm until April 13.

For more information, visit the King County Library System website for 2013 Tax Time Help!

p.s. It took me about 40 minutes to write the three sentences in this post…got caught up checking out all of the Internal Revenue Service’s new media properties!  I’ll start our taxes next weekend. :-)

Jeannine Hall Gailey: Redmond’s Poet Laureate Reads

Join Redmond's Poet Laureate, Jeannine Hall Gailey, for a reading from from her first book, Becoming the Villainess, a celebration of geek culture in poetry, with poems in the voices of comic book and fairy tale characters. After the reading, Jeannine will host a Q&A and discussion about the book. The talk is at the Redmond Library on Wednesday, February 20th at 7pm. Refreshments provided.

Other Books
Gailey’s other more recent notable book of poetry, She Returns to the Floating World, deals with feminine transformations in the personae of characters from Japanese folk tales, anime, and manga. Gailey's work addresses feminist issues of power in mythology and comic book cultures, turning fairy tale stepmothers into empathetic characters, and holding up a mirror to contemporary American culture's images of powerful women.

Here’s an excerpt from the book:

    I’m sorry I didn’t turn out
    like you expected
    sorry the last sight you’ll see is
    the flash of silver in the sky and that
    is it
    a flurry of leaves and dust…
    I wanted to be sturdy I wanted more I wanted you
    but instead I have the transitive the shift the loss
    the goodbye
    farewell goodnight…

Gailey’s third book, Unexplained Fevers, will be published by New Binary Press in 2013. For more about her, visit her blog, Jeannine Blogs.

Lorin Catudio
Redmond Library Board, Emeritus