An Evening in Greece program at the MFA

As part of the Aphrodite exhibit, the MFA will have a program on Nov. 30 which will include Greek music, wines, and drama based upon Ovid's "Metamorphosis"--it all sounds delightful!
http://www.mfa.org/programs/series/evening-greece

Culture is political: the library at Occupy Boston

From an article by Katharine Whittemore, Globe Correspondent November 22, 2011

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When the Occupy Wall Street protesters' People's Library at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan was taken apart by police and sanitation workers before dawn
last Tuesday - many of its more than 5,000 books chucked into dumpsters - the American Library Association did not take it sitting down. The dissolution
of a library is unacceptable,' the ALA said in a statement of support. Libraries serve as the cornerstone of our democracy and must be safeguarded.

At the Occupy Boston encampment in Dewey Square, residents and visitors are mindful that another cornerstone will need safeguarding if events echo New
York. Here, the Audre Lorde-Howard Zinn Library fits snugly into one drab green canvas military tent, straight out of M*A*S*H, with boxes of donated books
stacked outside. Inside the 11-by-11-foot space, light pours cozily from several metal reading lamps clamped onto rickety shelves and a string of Christmas
lights. More than 1,000 titles wait to be borrowed, including "Affluenza,' "Che Guevara Reader,' "The Shock Doctrine,' by Naomi Klein, and an entire section
(i.e., milk crate) devoted to Zinn, the late Boston University historian and leftist author.
...
Books are crucial to a democracy,' says Stephanie Fail, a journalism student at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a resident here in Dewey Square.
Books make you quiet. They make you listen. Brendan Allen, 20, and his friend Matthew Hicks, 21, gravitate toward fiction (the sections are delineated
by yellow Post-it notes). They are "homeless but living here for now,' says Allen. Hicks chooses "Best American Short Stories,' edited by Ann Beattie.
Then he spots a fat copy of "The Hobbit,' and urges Allen to take it: "I've read 'The Hobbit' like five times, bro!
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Also check out
MIT Team Works To Winterize Occupy Boston
BY SACHA PFEIFFER AND LYNN JOLICOEUR
Nov 17, 2011
http://www.wbur.org/2011/11/17/occupy-boston-winterization

Thoughts on The Book That Eats People

_The Book That Eats People_ (2009)
Written by John Perry, illustrated by Mark Fearing
http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/book-eats-people

This is a grrreat read-aloud book, and it manages to be more than a little creepy. Ignore the suggested reading level of age three to third grade, although I still recommend sticking to the idea of having someone else risk his fingers by holding it and reading it aloud to you (hey, I need those brailling fingers!).

This book is not cute. It is carnivorous and cunning and capable of chameleon-like camouflage, so be very very careful.

This book also has a Jekyll and Hyde personality, such as when it describes itself as follows:

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WARNING! THIS IS NOT A BEDTIME STORY

Legend has it there exists a book that eats people.

This is that book!

Many readers have been unable to escape its perilous pages.
But this isn't that book.

(Yes it is!)

This is simply a story about that book.
Really. I mean, how could a book eat people?
So if you're just dying to know the history of this literary monster, all you have to do is turn the page...

(Don't do it!)
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Seriously, I dare you to read this book in the dark under the covers with only a flashlight to protect you. Also, this is the kind of book which will ensure any kid you babysit will remember you forever--perhaps not fondly, but for*ever(.

The books of 2011: what did I miss?

I don't know what it is about today, but I've been cold all day, so I finally gave in and pulled out the incredible oversized-and-still-growing sweater which Eitan knitted for me years ago. And when Isay oversized, I mean, it hangs to my knees--I swear when I throw it in the dryer it gets bigger.

And if I had the least bit of productivity left, it's gone bye-bye now that The NY Times has published its list of the top 100 books for 2011, a list which I always enjoy reading as I alternately mock and scribble down titles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2011.html?_r=3&ref=books