Library now offers passive programming

Have you ever heard of pas­sive pro­gram­ming? It is a fun and inter­est­ing way to present pro­gram­ming ideas with­out actively pre­sent­ing them to a group. At the Delaware County Dis­trict Library, you will see pas­sive pro­gram­ming boards pop­ping up at branch locations.

This month at the Delaware Main Library to cel­e­brate the start of the Sum­mer Olympics, vis­i­tors are encour­aged to guess the names of 20 for­mer Olympians whose pho­tos are posted on a bul­letin board. Adult ser­vices man­ager Joe O’Rourke cre­ated the intrigu­ing pas­sive pro­gram dis­play that will stay in place for about a month, giv­ing you plenty of time to sub­mit your guesses.

When you sub­mit your guesses, you can use your real name or a nick­name (think online trivia games in restau­rants). Each week, names of the top entries will be posted near the bul­letin board. While there are no trips to Hawaii or any other prize for the win­ning entries, you can have the sat­is­fac­tion and pres­tige of see­ing your name on the leader board.

The pas­sive pro­gram­ming chal­lenges will be chang­ing through­out the year to help keep your mind sharp and maybe even learn some­thing new. I tried my hand at this month’s chal­lenge and even though I am the least sports-minded per­son I know, I scored 14 out of 20. Not bad.

Who is Norma Talmadge?

Norma Tal­madge (May 2, 1894-Dec. 24, 1957) was an Amer­i­can actress and film pro­ducer of the silent era. Accord­ing to The New Bio­graph­i­cal Dic­tio­nary of Film, she met and mar­ried pro­ducer and busi­ness­man Joseph M. Schenck in 1916, and with his back­ing they formed their own pro­duc­tion com­pany and turned out a num­ber of films, the first of which was “Panthea” (1917). Her com­pany pro­duced hits such as “The Won­der­ful Thing” (1921), and “The Song of Love” (1923). About this time, “talkies” were all the rage, and Norma’s voice did not lend itself to sound, forc­ing her out of the movie busi­ness. She divorced Schenck and mar­ried George Jes­sel who had his own radio show, think­ing she would revive her stalled film career, but the show was ulti­mately can­celed. She divorced Jes­sel in 1939 and mar­ried Dr. Carvel James in 1946. She remained with him until she died of a stroke on Christ­mas Eve in 1957 in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was 62 and had been in a phe­nom­e­nal more than 250 motion pictures.

Is there a shark known as a “cookie cutter?”

The cookie cut­ter shark, also called the cigar shark, is a species of small dog­fish shark, liv­ing in warm, oceanic waters world­wide, par­tic­u­larly near islands. Reach­ing only 17 to 22 inches in length, the cookie cut­ter shark has a long, cylin­dri­cal body with a short, blunt snout, large eyes, two tiny spine­less dor­sal fins and a large cau­dal fin. It is dark brown in color with a darker “col­lar” around its throat and gill slits. The name “cookie cut­ter shark” refers to its feed­ing habit of goug­ing round plugs, like a cookie cut­ter, out of larger ani­mals, accord­ing to the book sim­ply titled, Sharks.

Where is Mac­quarie Island?

The tiny island of Mac­quarie, part of the Aus­tralian state of Tas­ma­nia, lies in a spot where tec­tonic plates meet, about halfway between New Zealand and Antarc­tica. Mac­quarie is a breed­ing ground for aquatic life, par­tic­u­larly ele­phant seals and royal pen­guins. It is also home to other seals and pen­guins, sev­eral species of alba­tross and other sea birds, plus a few dozen wildlife sci­en­tists and park rangers who work there on a tem­po­rary basis. For more infor­ma­tion, check in The Com­plete Atlas of the World.

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 by vis­it­ing the library’s web­site at delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked.