Register for the Adult Summer Reading Club

Are you reg­is­tered for the Delaware County Dis­trict Library’s Adult Sum­mer Read­ing Club Pro­gram? Again this year, the pro­gram is self-directed, and you are encour­aged to read any book you would like. Of course, we’d love it if you checked your books out of the library, but the impor­tant part of the pro­gram is read­ing — for enjoy­ment, for infor­ma­tion and to set a great exam­ple for children.

To become part of this year’s adult sum­mer read­ing pro­gram, log on to the library web­site at delawarelibrary.org and click on the big “Adults” but­ton. From there, you need only fol­low the prompts to the online sum­mer read­ing sign-up site. You will need to type in your library card num­ber to reg­is­ter; how­ever, if you par­tic­i­pated last year, you are already reg­is­tered for this year.

After you have reg­is­tered, you can begin list­ing the titles of the books you read this sum­mer between June 9 and Aug. 4, and if you would like, you can even post a review online to rec­om­mend (or not) the book to other participants.

For every three books you read, you can choose a prize and be entered into the draw­ing for a $50 gift card from Barnes and Noble. Prizes include cara­biner flash­lights, jour­nals, glass and screen clean­ing cloths, and cof­fee mugs. (Please note: This pro­gram is for adults 18 and older only.)

And, don’t for­get to check the web­site for the quar­terly newslet­ter, “Check It Out!” to learn about great pro­grams for adults to enhance your read­ing plea­sure. At 7 p.m. Thurs­day, June 26, join ref­er­ence librar­ian Sara Kennedy at a meet­ing of the Cook Book Club at the main library. This month’s fea­tured title is Martha Stewart’s Bak­ing Hand­book. Pick up a copy today, find a recipe that entices, pre­pare it and bring it to share with the group.

Also at 11 a.m. today at the main library, Peace Corps vol­un­teer Jen­nifer O’Neill will talk about her ser­vice in Peru. Jen­nifer is a Hayes High School and Ohio State Uni­ver­sity grad­u­ate. One of the com­po­nents of Peace Corps ser­vice is to share the expe­ri­ence with Amer­i­cans back home, and DCDL is proud to host Jen­nifer as she returns to visit Delaware. It should be an inter­est­ing pre­sen­ta­tion for both adults and teens.

Did Bob Dylan write “Man Of Con­stant Sorrow?”

Bob Dylan’s first per­formed on national TV appear­ance in March 1963 on a pro­gram called “Folk Songs, and More Folk Songs!” He per­formed three songs, includ­ing “Man of Con­stant Sor­row,” a folk tune from circa 1913, orig­i­nally recorded by the par­tially blind fid­dler Dick Bur­nett. Bur­nett, inter­viewed late in life, couldn’t remem­ber whether he had writ­ten the tune, say­ing: “No, I think I got that bal­lad from some­body. I dunno. It may be my song.” The actual com­poser of the song is unknown, but the melody may be based on an old Bap­tist hymn called “Wan­der­ing Boy.” “Man of Con­stant Sor­row” has been recorded by the Stan­ley Broth­ers, Judy Collins, Way­lon Jen­nings, Rod Stew­art, Jerry Gar­cia, and Jack­son Browne among many oth­ers, and was fea­tured in the film “O Brother! Where Art Thou?” The infor­ma­tion came from Song Index.

What is an assas­sin bug?

Assas­sin bugs, accord­ing to Amaz­ing Insects are appro­pri­ately named because of their habit of lying in ambush for their insect prey. With speed and accu­racy, this bug uses its long “beak” to stab the vic­tim and then inject it with a lethal toxin that dis­solves the victim’s tis­sue. The assas­sin bug then sucks up the liq­ue­fied tis­sues. Also known as “kiss­ing bugs,” they are found mostly in late June to early August, and they are ben­e­fi­cial to peo­ple because they eat many non-beneficial insects that are pests to farm­ers and orna­men­tal gardeners.

What is that red stuff they drop on fires?

The red stuff, as explained in How It Works, is a chem­i­cal retar­dant that con­tains phos­phate fer­til­izer, which helps to slow and cool down the fire. The key ingre­di­ent in the fire sup­pres­sion mix­ture is water, treated with guar gum and/or clay as thick­en­ers, to turn the liq­uid into a “blan­ket” and keep it from evap­o­rat­ing in the heat or being blown away before it hits the drop zone. The red color comes from iron oxide (rust), added to iden­tify areas have been treated. The mix­ture includes fer­til­izer to help spur plant growth as well.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked.

Posted by Mary Santos on Jun 30 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.