School-Butter!

This post, written by Tracy, originally appeared 8/21/2008.

Elisabeth has been working on a reference request this week dealing with the history of the railroad in Como, Mississippi, which is in Panola County. She was hot on the trail until she came to a little volume called History of Panola County: Compiled from Reminiscences of Oldest Citizens, which, um, she refused to read because “it smells like an armpit.” Having detected no armpittian aroma, I looked at it on her behalf. While there were no references to the railroad (which, btw, came to Como in 1857), there were many funny stories told by those oldest citizens. I thought this one was pretty good:

In 1845, Mitch Woolard, a boy of about 15, whose father lived at Hernando, had the contract to ride the mail from the town of Hernando, to Panola, passing through our settlement, and directly in front of the school house. One day in passing, the mail-rider called out ‘School-Butter,’ a term of contempt which in those days was considered an insult, not only to every pupil in the school, but to the teacher as well. The mail was carried between these points only twice a week, as this was before we had a post office in our settlement, and by the time the mail-rider came again, the boys made a plan to show their resentment of this insult, and they came to me to get me to make a signal when I saw the mail-rider coming so that I might let them know.

I hung a piece of sheet-iron and told them when I saw them coming I would strike on it with my hammer and they could then carry out their plan of action. The teacher had given his permission for them to have some fun and show that they were prepared to defend their school, but he made them promise that they would not hurt the boy, nor be too rough with him. When I saw the mail-rider approaching along the public road, I gave a stroke with my hammer on the sheet-iron and the next moment the school boys, big and little, came swarming out and started down the road to meet him. He saw them coming in time to realize what it meant, and putting spurs to his horse, tried in vain to escape. Almost before he knew it they had surrounded him and pulled him from his horse and I guess he must have thought his time had come. Beyond pulling him around pretty roughly, however, and making him promise not to repeat the offence, they did not do him any harm, although I suppose he was pretty badly frightened and very angry.

According to Slang and Its Analogues (reprinted 1970, originally 1890-1904), “school-butter” means “a flogging.” The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue defines it as “a cobbing, a whipping,” and the OED describes it as “a teasing call to school children.”

Look, don’t mess with the ruffians of Panola County. Let the story of the school-buttering of poor old Mitch Woolard (whose father equipped him with a pistol for future journeys), be a lesson to you!

Cromie, Robert. 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. Digest Books, 1971.
Farmer, J.S. and W.E. Henley. Slang and Its Analogues. Arno Press, 1970.
History of Panola County: Compiled from Reminiscences of Oldest Citizens. Southern Reporter, Sardis, MS. 1908-1909.
OED Online. http://www.oed.com

La La La...

This blog post originally appeared 8/8/2008.

Yesterday I had the Rhett Miller song "Our Love" stuck in my head; some of the lyrics are:

Kafka in his letters to his lover Milena was alive
But he was waiting for a love that never would arrive
Their rendezvous was singular
Her husband was his friend

The reference to Kafka (and Milena Jesenka; story here) got me thinking about other songs with overt literary references. The Simon and Garfunkel song "The Dangling Conversation" came to mind:

And you read your Emily Dickinson
And I my Robert Frost
And we note our place with bookmarkers
To measure what we've lost

I made a list of some others, but what are your favorite literary songs?
 
-Tracy

The Importance Of Being A Dude

This blog post originally appeared 7/24/2008.

While perusing the pages of The New York Public Library Desk Reference, 3rd Edition, I looked at the bottom of the page containing common crossword puzzle words and saw the following fabulous fact:

The word dude was coined by Oscar Wilde and his friends. It is a combination of the words duds and attitude.

Oscar is the original dude. He had an immeasurable amount of style; this photo from 1882 captures him in his favorite coat. Talk about strutting his stuff! Tres chic!

Oscar was dude-a-rific not only for concocting new words, but also for his ready wit. Here are a few Wilde quotes to get you through the day:

The good ended happily and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

I can resist everything except temptation.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.

Definitely not a dude who would ever misplace his car!

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2004.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oscar_Wilde_3g07095u.jpg

Look BOTH Ways Before Crossing The Street

This blog post originally appeared 6/26/2008.

A few days ago I was researching Winston Churchill for a patron. The patron wanted to know about a car accident in which the Prime Minister had been involved. The answer was relatively easy to find and led to an oodle of interesting facts about this great man.

• Churchill was unable to locate the house of a friend in New York. After fruitlessly searching for the house for an hour on one side of the street, he attempted to cross the road to look on the other side. Unfortunately, he looked right and not left! (This is, of course, is what one does in England.) He was hit by a car going about 30 MPH and was in the hospital for more than a week.
• After this accident, a doctor prescribed "the use of alcoholic spirits at meal time...the minimum requirement to be 250 cc." (That's about one cup for all of us non-doctor types.)
• When Theodore Roosevelt met Churchill in 1900, he said "I saw the Englishman, Winston Churchill...he is not an attractive fellow."
• His full name was Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.
• He made a lecture tour of the United States with Mark Twain.
• He was on the cover of Time magazine eight times.
• He became an honorary U.S. citizen in 1963. (He watched this via satellite from London.)
• He was awarded Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
• When asked if he had any criticisms about the United States, Churchill replied "...toilet paper too thin, newspapers too fat."
• He was Prime Minister twice.

Who knew?!

http://winstonchurchill.org/
http://www.unitconversion.org/
Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008.
Historic World Leaders. Gale Research, 1994.

Wish Me Luck! (Let Me Tell You How)

This blog post originally appeared 6/6/2008.

The Reference Department just received a book that I personally believe to be one of the best ever written. The Encyclopedia of Superstitions references traditions and customs common in popular culture (like saying "bless you" to someone who has sneezed) while also giving a nod to some more, shall we say, farfetched beliefs.


•As long as at least one acorn lies on one of your home's windowsills, the house will not be struck by lightning.

•To avoid bad luck, do not wash blankets in months whose names do not contain the letter "r" (May, June, July, and August.)

•Do not pick dandelions! This will cause you to wet your bed!

•You will have bad luck for two years if a strange cat kills your pet canary.

•The best days to cut your fingernails are Monday (brings wealth) and Tuesday (brings health).

•You are about to receive a letter if you sneeze on a Wednesday.

•To get rid of a wart, rub it on a man who has fathered a child out of wedlock without letting him know what you are doing.

•It is lucky to meet a left-handed person, except on Tuesday. This is very unlucky.

Oh! My left foot is itching! Instead of scratching it, I'll just knock on wood.

-Tracy

Webster, Richard. The Encyclopedia of Superstitions. Llewellyn Publications, 2008.

Knock Knock...

This blog post originally appeared 5/30/2008.

While browsing some new reference books, my coworker came across a great entry in an encyclopedia about the Great Depression: the fads of the 1930's! Times might have been hard, but read on to find out how struggling Americans spent all that free time.


1.Eating contests: including pies, EGGS, clams, oysters, spaghetti, and hot dogs

2.Rock-a-thons: rock continuously in rocking chairs without falling asleep!

3.Marathon Dancing: dance the longest total time to win a prize

4.Kissathons: stay lip-to-lip for the longest amount of time

5.Tree and flagpole sitters: began in the 20's but carried over; attempt to remain on top of pole for weeks, even months; partner on the ground collected money from spectators

6.Bike races: designed for setting records for the longest continuous time on a bike; usually took 6 days

7.Rollerskating derby: 4,000 mile roller skating race; also usually took 6 days

8.Chain letters: scratch off first person's nameon the list, send that person a dime, and mail out 5 more copies of letter; if it remained unbroken, original sender stood to amass a fortune in dimes

9.Goldfish swallowing: began when a Harvard freshman swallowed a live goldfish on a dare, Boston reporters showed up, and the news coverage resulted in college students repeating the stunt on their own campuses (one MIT student swallowed 42 in a row!)

10.Knock-knock jokes:

[Set Up] Knock knock.

[Response] Who's there?

[Teaser] Dwayne

[Response] Dwayne who?

[Punch line] Dwayne the bathtub, I'm drowning!

It's good to know that in the midst of all the struggles of the Depression and the threat of a second World War, Americans still found the energy to be silly and creative.

Young, William H. and Nancy K. Young. The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007.

Bored Much?

This blog post originally appeared 5/23/2008.

If you ever find yourself wondering what you're going to read next, never fear, we have your next reading list: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. This is a quirky book full of works of critical acclaim as well as cult classics. The more than one hundred international critics that compiled this book recommend everything from The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan to Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.


Here are a few more examples to further whet your literary appetite:

Pre-1700: Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave by Aphra Behn

1700's: The Female Quixote; or, The Adventures of Arabella by Charlotte Lennox

1800's: Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

1900's: The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

2000's: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Each book entry includes short bibliographical information, a brief synopsis, and related artwork, if possible. This book is part of the reference collection at the Mississippi Library Commission. You may search our online catalog here.

We also invite you to check out the following article from the New York Times, which inspired this blog post:
Volumes to Go Before You Die by William Grimes.

Happy Reading!

-Tracy

Boxall, Peter. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

Divination by Mole

This blog post originally appeared 5/13/2008.

We have for you another fascinating installment straight from the Schott's Almanac.

The superstitious traditionally believed that one's future might be determined by the position of mole-spots on the human body.

Location of Mole Prophesy

Armpit...................................................Wealth, honour
Ankle (men)...........................................Modesty
Ankle (women)......................................Courage
Breast (right)..........................................Honesty
Breast (left)............................................Poverty
Chin.......................................................Wealth
Ear (right)...............................................Respect
Ear (left).................................................Dishonour
Forehead................................................Treachery, idleness
Temple (right).........................................Friendship of the Great
Temple (left)...........................................Distress
Foot (right)............................................Wisdom
Foot (left)...............................................Rashness
Heart (right of)........................................Virtue
Heart (left of).........................................Wickedness
Knee (men).............................................Rich Wife
Knee (women)........................................Large family
Lip.........................................................Gluttony, loquaciousness
Neck......................................................Wealth
Nose......................................................Great traveller
Thigh.......................................................Poverty, sorrow
Throat.....................................................Health, wealth
Wrist.......................................................Ingenuity

Well, did the superstitious have it right? I rather hope not because my future includes wealth and dishonesty.

It is curious that men and women should have different destinies according to certain body parts. And that merely a left or right side can be something very different!
 
-Tracy

Dirty Rotten Crums

This blog post originally appeared 5/9/2008.

Microfilm research can be tedious and tiresome. One of the treats microfilm gives in return are jewels like the following.

Wanted-- Fifty healthy cats to rid my place of rats. I will pay one dollar apiece for them if delivered to my residence at nine o'clock this Thursday night.... William Pettibone.

Winona Advance, Winona, MS April 18, 1884

He must have had an enormous rat population! I am vehemently opposed to thinking about that many rats at one time! Did people bring him fifty cats? Did he loose them all at at once like some sort of invading army to ransack and pillage the rat population? What did he do with the fifty cats once they had disposed of the rats? Oh, the things to ponder while scanning microfilm...

$29.50 Reward.... On last Friday night I had the misfortune to leave our Ford truck on the street in front of Campbell's photography gallery and during the night some low down crum maliciously cut my back tire with his pocket knife. I am offering the above reward for the low down scoundrel who done it. It is not the value of the tire I care for, it is the principle involved. I wish that I could have put in print what I would like to say about the scoundrel, but our editor refuses to publish..... Branch Grocery Company.

Winona Times, Winona, MS April 4, 1919

This appeal brought tears to my eyes. This poor man was willing to pay a reward that probably equalled the price of the tire that the lousy crum slashed. It is so very satisfactory to read that it was only the principle of the thing that concerned him! I wonder if any newspaper editors today would have published what the victim wanted to say about that rotten crum? I think I will make crum my word of the day.

-Tracy

Goodbye, Librarianship. Hello, Prestidigitatorship.

This blog post originally appeared 4/11/2008.

You know what it's time for, right? More tidbits from my Schott's Almanac Page-a-Day calendar!


Today's topic is Occupations of Note. "Librarian" seems so...obvious now. Here are some of the best ones:

Amanuensis: secretary
Bowyer: maker of archery bows
Colporteur*: door-to-door bookseller
Ecdysiast: striptease artist
Funambulist: tightrope walker
Ocularist**: false eye manufacturer
Prestidigitator: sleight of hand magician
Whitesmith: polisher of metalwork

*Interestingly, this guy was not one.

**Has anyone read Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People"? I can't hear about a false eye or a prosthetic limb without immediately thinking of that story.

-Tracy

Exploring The Romance Precision Booksearch

This blog post orginally appeared 4/3/2008.

Yesterday while searching for a novel with a certain character's name in it for a patron, Elisabeth found this romance novel search engine from AllReaders.com. When she first sent me the link, I thought, ok, big deal. And then I examined some of the categories more closely.


I'm not so sure about how well the engine actually works, but the categories are so entertainingly thorough that I am led to believe that there are enough romance novels with those characteristics to justify the options.

Typhoid Mary!

This blog post originally appeared 3/28/2008.

I was browsing charming little reference book called Final Placement: A Guide to the Deaths, Funerals, and Burials of Notable Americans and came across this entry about Typhoid Mary. Maybe I wasn't paying attention in school, but I don't think I knew that Typhoid Mary was a real person, especially a real person...named Mary...who had typhoid.


Here's the entry:

Mary Mallon, nicknamed "Typhoid Mary," was born, probably in the United States, in or around 1870.

In a 1904 typhoid epidemic, she was recognized as the carrier of the bacteria. By the time the disease was traced to her, she had already left the house where she had worked as a cook. She continued to moving from household to household but was eventually found and institutionalized at Riverside Hospital. ... She was finally released when she promised that she would find other employment besides cooking.

During a later epideemic in 1914, she was again found to be working as a cook, and was again detained. Although she herself was immune to the disease, her system was so full of typhoid bacteria that some doctors referred to her as "the human culture tube."

She died of a stroke on November 11, 1938, aged 68. A requiem mass was held for her at St. Luke's Roman Catholic Church in the Bronx, on the morning of November 12, and was attended by three men, three women, and three children, all of whom refused to be identified.

Here are some of the headlines regarding ole Typhoid Mary from the New York Times:

"TYPHOID MARY" MUST STAY.; Court Rejects Her Plea to Quit Riverside Hospital. July 17, 1909

"TYPHOID MARY" FREED.; Lederle Thinks She's Learned to Keep Her Germs to Herself. February 21, 1910

'TYPHOID MARY' ASKS $50,000 FROM CITY; Not a Germ Carrier and Never Had a Contagious Disease, She Says. HER LAWYER TO FILE SUIT Her Standing as a Cook Has Been Injured by Her Three Years' Imprisonment as a Public Danger. December 3, 1911

HOSPITAL EPIDEMIC FROM TYPHOID MARY; Germ Carrier, Cooking Under False Name, Spread Disease in Sloane Institution. CAUGHT HIDING IN QUEENS Blamed for Twenty-five Cases of Fever Among Doctors and Nurses -- Now In Quarantine. March 28, 1915

"TYPHOID MARY" HAS REAPPEARED; Human Culture Tube, Herself Immune, Spreads the Disease Wherever She Goes. April 4, 1915

TYPHOID MARY BURIED; Nine Persons Attend Mass for Her at Church in the Bronx. November 13, 1938

I feel sort of bad for Mary. She ended up having to live at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island for the rest of her life. I'm not sure what the 1915-era alternative would've been (except maybe, uh, checking in with the Department of Health and NOT WORKING AS A COOK IN A HOSPITAL), but still.

-Tracy

Dickerson, Robert B., Jr. Final Placement: A Guide to the Deaths, Funerals, and Burials of Notable Americans. Reference Publications, 1982.

Filthy Fly!

This post originally appeared 3/19/2008.

Maybe it's because she has an eye for such things, or maybe it's because I always make her search the microfilm, but Elisabeth has found yet another funny advertisement from the Purvis, Mississippi newspaper The Booster, sometime from 1928:

This reminds me of the "Cluckin' Chicken" restaurant commercials on Saturday Night Live. Click here to read a transcript of the commercial.

Trust in the Waffles

This post originally appeared 3/14/2008.

We all know that Mississippians like to eat -- we don't rank #1 in obesity for nothing -- but we also like to write and talk about eating. Eudora Welty wrote "The Flavor of Jackson" as the foreward for The Jackson Cookbook, published in 1971, which contains these tasty quotations:

"I often think to make a friend's fine recipe is to celebrate her once more, and in that cheeriest, most aromatic places to celebrate, the home kitchen."

"Jackson believed in and knew how to achieve the home flavor. And if ever there were a solid symbol of that spirit, one that radiates its pride and joy, it is the hand-cranked ice cream freezer. I see it established in a shady spot on a back porch, in the stage of having been turned till it won't go around another time; its cylinder is full of its frozen custard that's bright with peaches, or figs, or strawberries..."

"John Woodburn was a New York editor who'd come through Jackson on a scouting trip for young unknown writers and spent a night at our house. He carried my first collection of stories back with him and worked very hard trying to persuade his publisher to take them. Several years later, when he succeeded, he sent me a telegram to say, 'I knew as soon as I tasted your mother's waffles it would turn out all right.'"

The cookbook includes a recipe for something called Squash Eudora, which sounds more like a children's game than something to eat. Instead of telling you how to make it, let us concentrate on what I am currently thinking of: that homemade ice cream with peaches, figs (figs!), or strawberries melting over some of Chestina Welty's waffles.

This makes the package of peanut butter crackers I'm about to eat look really, really sad.


The Jackson Cookbook. The Symphony League of Jackson, 1971.

William, Jane, And John Must Be Separated!

This blog post originally appeared 3/10/2008.

While Elisabeth was waiting for her oatmeal to cook the other morning, she was wandering the stacks and came upon an interesting book called Virgins: Reluctant, Dubious, & Avowed. It has proven to be fascinating and covers all aspects of chastity, celibacy, and prudery. Speaking of prudery, check out this passage from a Scotswoman's 1877 diary:

"It is a rule that on our library shelves the books written by authors and authoresses must be kept apart. Lady novelists must be strictly separated from the gentlemen writers so Mamma was extremely annoyed that Emily had put them back on the wrong shelves after dusting. She sacked the girl without more ado. 'Look what you've done! You've placed Miss Jane Austen between Mr. William Shakespeare and Mr. John Milton. Go pack your bag this minute and leave this house immediately.'"

While quaint, I don't think we'll adopt this method of shelving here at MLC.

Segal, Muriel. Virgins: Reluctant, Dubious, & Avowed. Macmillan, 1977. 142-143.

Don't Be Didine!

This blog post originally appeared 2/28/2008.

We all know that "canine" means dog and "feline" means cat, but did you know the rest of these animal adjectives?


Ant: myrmicine
Armadillo: dasypodid
Crocodile: eusuchian
Dodo: didine
Duck: anatine
Duck-billed platypus: monotremal
Flea: pulicine
Flamingo: phoenicopterous
Goat: caprine
Goose: anserine
Louse: pedicular
Mite, tick: acarian

I am going to have to try hard to manage to work in some of these into my everyday vocabulary. Let's see:

He took a phoenicopterous stance while playing hopscotch.
Don't be didine! Of course I love this blog.
That is the lowest, most pedicular thing you have ever done.

Feel free to leave your own adjective-filled comments if you get the urge.

Source: Schott's Almanac 2008 Page-a-Day calendar; Thursday, February 28.

Calling All Choppers And Spuds

This blog post originally appeared 2/12/2008.

Because I am a fan of the excellent Schott’s Miscellany series – Schott’s Original Miscellany, Schott’s Food and Drink Miscellany, etc – I bought the Schott’s Almanac Page-a-Day calendar this year. It is a treasure trove of my favorite kind of nuggets: funny and random.


Last Saturday’s page deals with the British armed forces’ tendency to give automatic nicknames to people with certain surnames. Like so:

Surname: Austen
Nickname: Bunny

Surname: Clarke
Nickname: Nobby

Surname: Harris
Nickname: Chopper

Surname: Miller
Nickname: Dusty

Surname: Murphy
Nickname: Spud

Surname: Payne
Nickname: Whacker

Surname: Short
Nickname: Jumper

Surname: Smith
Nickname: Smudger

Surname: White
Nickname: Chalky

Surname: Young
Nickname: Brigham

Sadly, none of the reference staff’s surnames are on this list, although I do know several Chalkys and Spuds. I really shouldn’t talk; my grandmother was a Smudger.

Be Afraid... Be Very, Very Afraid

This post originally appeared 2/5/2008.

John Kenneth Muir, the author of Horror Films of the 1980s, insists in his introduction that art imitates life. So what in the world was happening in the libraries of this most decadent decade to garner attention in horror films? Well, I think Muir explains it best in Appendix A from his book:


The Library of Doom!


Many 1980s films feature scenes set at libraries. It makes sense: Often characters are faced with the necessity of research (The Changeling, Of Unknown Origin) and the library is simply the best place for that (at least pre-Internet). Some library scenes even involve rapes and murders (The Incubus), and frightening confrontations with the likes of Mr. Dark (Something Wicked This Way Comes).

The Changeling (1980)

The Beyond (1981)

Evilspeak (1982)

The Incubus (1982)

Of Unknown Origin (1983)

Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)

Witchboard (1986)

The Unnamable (1988)

I, Madman (1989)
Watch them if you dare! And SHHHHHHHHHH!

Muir, John Kenneth. Horror Films of the 1980s. McFarland, 2007: 790.

No More Summer-Heat!

This blog post originally appeared 1/30/2008.

In doing some research on early Vicksburg companies, Elisabeth came across In and About Vicksburg: An Illustrated Guide Book to the City of Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was originally published in 1890 and was reprinted in 1976.

Besides having lots of information on city government, churches, reports of war aftermath, and poems, the back section is chock full of advertisements. While many are amusing -- G.W. Hutcheson Grocery Company, for example, were dealers in "staple and fancy groceries"; Graham, Clark & Riggs were wholesale dealers in "apples and Irish potatoes" -- this fantastic new invention is truly the star of the show.

Please don't miss the excellent copy along the right-hand side:

No More Panting, Sick Children to be Fanned!

I plan on ordering mine today.

Common Questions? Fast Answers!

This blog post originally appeared 1/9/2008.

One of my favorite reference sources is Fast Answers to Common Questions. It's organized by broad subject and then each topic is worded as a question and an answer. Browsing the sports area, I just learned that the answer to "What famous American doctor competed in the 1924 Olympics?" is Dr. Benjamin Spock! He was on the Olympic rowing team and competed in Paris.


Here are some other choice tidbits that could possibly help you if you are thinking of trying out to be on Jeopardy! anytime soon:

The longest name in the Bible is Maher-shalal-hash-baz (Isiah's son)

Phosphenes are the lights seen when you close your eyes tightly.

Mrs. Santa Claus's maiden name was Grundy.

Only three fruits are native to North America: Concord grapes, blueberries, and cranberries.

Kleenex brand tissues were first sold as Celluwipes. [Ed. note: gross!]

Fast Answers to Common Questions. Carolyn Fischer, ed. Gale, 2000.