Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:44 AM

In honor of Banned Books Week, Entertainment Weekly offers a photo essay: 18 Wild Trips to the Library Stacks.

No mention of Party Girl, a 1995 Parker Posey flick that's probably only watched by librarians these days, but otherwise a pretty nice collection.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:09 PM

The interior of the Woburn Public Library, as taken by my little cellphone camera:

This really doesn't do it justice.

I've seen similar structures made from stone -- the Boston Athenaeum, to name just one -- but here all the arches and balconies are wood.

Gorgeous.

Even though I get the Renaissance Library Calendar every year, I would love to see a photo essay of libraries of Massachusetts, particularly focusing on those portions which predate electrification.

For example, the older portions of Melrose Public Library have translucent glass floors, which was one way to improve illumination within the stacks. Not only that, but the second floor is actually supported by the shelves, rather than the other way around.

Henry Petroski's Book on the Bookshelf provides a history of book storage technology, including such tidbits on library construction.

Fascinating stuff.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:28 PM

Who's the voiceover artist in this clip?

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:48 PM

While looking for that photo of the train in Peshtigo, I came upon a picture of a Leif Ericson statue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

And, I realized that this statue is identical to the statue of Leif Ericson on Commonwealth Ave in Boston.

So, what gives?

Anybody know why this statue exists in both Boston and Milwaukee?

Are there other copies elsewhere in the States? Elsewhere in the world?

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:25 PM

Recently finished Firestorm at Peshtigo, about the Wisconsin forest fire that took place the same night as the Chicago Fire.

Having grown up in Wisconsin, I already knew most of the facts, but this provided some context and details I hadn't previously learned.

How intense was this firestorm?

[T]rees seemed to have been blown down, rather than burned down -- yanked viciously from the ground by their roots. In one spot, the hot sand had been spun into a glass sheet around a tree trunk. It takes temperatures of more than 1,800 degrees to transform sand into glass. [...] Farther on lay a shapeless lump of metal, all that remained of the several-hundred-pound fire bell that had hung in the cupola of the firehouse. An entire train loaded with lumber had simply disappeared, leaving only the partially melted wheels and the burned engine as markers of where it once stood.

Although I'd seen maps of the fire zone, I'd never really put it together that the fire jumped Green Bay.

It's really mind-boggling.

Also from the book, a quote from Increase Lapham's 1867 Report on the Disastrous Effects of the Destruction of Forest Trees Now Going On in the State of Wisconsin, that shows far more foresight than today's advocates of a "Drill, Baby, Drill" policy:

On this question of fuel, we are to calculate by ages of the Earth, and not by the life of man. Fuel will be required so long as man shall inherit the Earth, for his comfort and for existence. Without fuel, humanity would cease to exist. Viewed in this light, the deposits laid up during uncounted periods of time . . . in the shape of coal, petroleum and peat, and which man is now drawing out and using for fuel or wasting, must be exhausted.