Date published: Thursday 7th September 2017 12:05

Its hard to find respite from the world, but its even harder to find a way to get away from ourselves.

Theres always myriad little threads of thought going around, many of them unpleasant or worrying, all of them in our own inescapable inner voice. Weve all, to some degree or other, had the experience of wanting to take a holiday from our own head.

The suggestion to take up yoga and meditation is unbelievably common from therapists and doctors as a way to take a little daily mental holiday, particularly for people with issues around anxiety and depression, like me.

The idea is that it teaches not only patience, but the ability to let your own thoughts pass through your mind uninterrupted, rather than continually getting hung up on seeing every single thought from every single critical angle.

While those ends would undoubtedly do me the world of good, I am wary of the new-age woo pseudoscience that often seems to go hand-in-hand with yoga and meditation.

Shallow and short-sighted though it may be, I just cant turn off my critical faculties long enough to get out so much as a namaste without wanting to shatter the nearest fire alarm with my face and run into the night screaming Forgive me, Immanuel Kant!

This puts me in a bit of a bind: I want to experience the benefits other people get from their daily yoga, but I need it to be packaged in a way I can actually stand. It was only when I started talking to people in more detail that I realised hang onI get all of that from watching crap football matches.

Most Saturdays and Sundays, Ill be at some game or other as a neutral fan or as a reporter, and its only there, in the stadium, with a really boring match unfolding in front of me, that I am able to spend minutes at a time slipping into idle thoughts.

My eyes reflexively track forwards runs and defensive shapes, before jolting back into full consciousness after a promising passage of play, and then I realise I have absolutely no idea what happened whatsoever in the six minutes leading up to that wasted half-chance.

At that point the cycle begins anew: analysis once again becomes thoughtfulness, and then thoughtfulness becomes thoughtlessness, which sticks around until the swell of noise as a striker goes through on goal jerks you back into analytical mode.

The word hypnotic is always deployed in football to describe elaborate, fast-paced attacking, but it should more properly be used for games devoid of action. There is a lot happening the relentless shuttling of players around the pitch, looking to take up an advantageous position and yet, at the same time, nothing happening. If that isnt some sort of Zen then the mystics are missing a trick.

There must be thousands of people out there who, like me, would never dream of setting foot on a yoga mat, but who go to the game every week and enter that wonderful trance. Even those who are not sitting studiously, but joining in with the rhythm and repetition of familiar terrace mantras, are surely experiencing the kind of weightless, carefree state that churches and yogis aspire to create.

This is what makes football different from other forms of entertainment, and there are certainly similarities in the evangelical fervour of a football fan and that annoying yoga convert who occupies every workplace in the country. A football fan lost in the same chant he sings every week has more in common with a Hare Krishna than she does a theatre-goer; this is more gospel choir than armchair fan.

Bad footballs meditative quality also helps explain why we so gladly lap the game up, even when we know theres a decent chance the game will be utterly awful. When its good its exciting and passionate; when its bad, it is therapeutic and tranquil. It is vital therapy for a huge number of people who would never dream of seeing a mental health professional.

We all want the glitz and glamour of glory, we all want exciting football, and we all want to be entertained but for me at least, even bad football is capable of serving an important mental function.

Namaste.

Steven Chicken

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Namaste: We use bad football as meditation - Football365.com

You cant go home again. The final scene of Twin Peaks: The Return offers the most literal interpretation possible of this old idiom, couched in a typically Lynchian abstraction, when Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) attempts to bring Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) back to her mothers housethe quixotic righting of a quarter-century-old wrong, the replacement of the missing piece that allowed the darkness lurking beneath this placid Pacific Northwest town to break throughonly to find that everythings changed. It isnt Lauras home anymore; it belongs to a Mrs. Tremond, and even shes not as we remember. Lauras no longer Laura either, even if she screams like her.

Even Cooper isnt himselfnot really. Hes crossed so many thresholds and inhabited so many tulpa versionsnot so much fire-walked between worlds as fire-straddled themthat we cant be quite certain which one stands before us now. As he tells Diane (Laura Dern) earlier in the episode, before they drive across some mystical line in the sand, Once we cross, it could all be different; their softcore sex scene that follows and Coopers waking up to find hes a man called Richard confirms as much. Worse, even Coopers ostensible heros return in the previous episode was undercut by a close-up superimposition of his own face while he intones, We live inside a dream, implying that we cant trust anything were seeing. It looks like Twin Peaks, but is it?

Thats a question a lot of fans grappled with across the entire 18-episode revival, with this show that often looked like Twin Peaks, andin the strains of Angelo Badalamentis score that gradually broke through the alien, ambient buzzoccasionally sounded like Twin Peaks, but so often, steadfastly refused to be Twin Peaks. And if David Lynch and Mark Frosts revival of the series could be said to be about anything, it was about the impossibility of ever doing that. Twin Peaks has existed in our imaginations for 25 years, even as it has been endlessly recycled and picked apart, its recognizable strains churned into obvious imitators and costume parties and tote bags. Throughout it all, Twin Peaks has lingered in our minds despite this limiting nostalgia thats been forced upon it, primarily by resisting the exact kind of tidy ending a decades-later sequel threatens. Twin Peaks isnt Mayberry; you cant just return there. And not for nothing, but its corrupted-innocent high schoolers are now middle-aged; many of its players are long retired from acting; some of them are dead.

So naturally, when the series was first announced, a lot of fans had some immediate reservations. How can you reprise a series that was based on such a nigh-supernatural confluence of talent and timing, with so much of it dictated by what Lynch calls his happy accidents? How do you recreate its strange atmospheres and idiosyncratic quirks, which are by now thoroughly folded into our pop culture lexicon, without creating a pandering facsimile of itself? How do you go home again, when home exists immutably, safely ensconced in a collective dream? (Especially when, suddenly, Jim Belushi is living there?) You cant, and The Returnits subject ironically telegraphed right there in its deceptively innocuous titlewas all about Lynch and Frost telling us that.

The word meta doesnt really appear to be in Lynchs vocabulary; hes long resisted the idea of his art as allegory, doesnt like to reveal his own intentions lest it influence the audience, and openly regards his own ideas as messages channeled from the great unified field. Yet the fact remains that a lot of the biggest ideas he catches while hes quietly sitting and listening often have some bearing on his own life: the formative childhood traumas that cracked open Lynchs suburban idyll in Blue Velvet; his paranoia about fatherhood and the surreal ugliness of life in Philadelphia in Eraserhead. There is much about Twin Peaks: The Return that suggests its similarly about Lynch, now 71 and teasingly retired from filmmaking, marking the passage of time between himselfand usand these worlds he created, and making peace with the idea that we can never fully go back there.

There are many ways of interpreting The Return, of course; were only a few days into the next 25 years of articles, books, and Oberlin courses it will inspire. But this one might be the most satisfying, at least emotionally: In all its thrilling, occasionally maddening elusiveness, the real closure Twin Peaks gave us was the chance to say goodbye.

This was especially true in its inclusion of actors who have died since the shows original run, and those whom we know now were dying at the time: Frank Silva as BOB; Jack Nance as Pete Martell; Don S. Davis as Major Garland Briggs; David Bowie as Phillip Jeffries; Catherine Coulson as Margaret Lanterman, a.k.a. The Log Lady; Warren Frost as Doc Hayward; Miguel Ferrer as Albert Rosenfield. In many of these cases, inclusion is actually too light a word. Some of them amounted to little more than sentimental cameos: Frost popping up via Skype to exchange some dad jokes with Sheriff Frank Truman (Robert Forster); Marv Rosand, whose Double R line cook Toad is only known to diehards scouring DVD deleted scenes, but nevertheless popped up here to take a bread delivery from Becky (Amanda Seyfried); Nance, tugging heartstrings by popping up in archival footage from the pilot alongside the lamented (but not late) Piper Laurie and Joan Chen.

But some of these ghosts also turned out to be major players, to the point where the spotlight The Return afforded themand the shadow of their deaths that surrounded itfelt like deliberate commentary on the gulf of time, the impossibility of traversing it, and the lost pieces that, like Laura Palmer, can never be put back. This intentionality is most deeply felt in Coulsons scenes, which Lynch filmed, quite remarkably, at the very beginning of production in September 2015, only weeks before Coulson would die of cancer on Sept. 28and so secretively that even her agent was surprised by it. In her conversations with Hawk (Michael Horse), Coulsons Margaretfrail, missing hair, a breathing tube beneath her nosesays a series of protracted goodbyes that feel movingly direct, gazing into the camera at Lynch (a friend and collaborator since his early short films), as well as at us, which gives her pronouncements the tinge of last testament.

You know about deaththat its just a change, not an end, Margaret says in her final lines. Theres some fear in letting go. My log is turning gold. The wind is moaning. Im dying. Good night, Hawk. There is special meaning in hearing these words from The Log Lady, who became the de facto voice of Twin Peaks when she recorded a series of Lynch-scripted intros for its initial Bravo run in syndication, where she teased outsometimes ominously, sometimes playfullythe shows more metaphysical questions, becoming the most recognizable embodiment of the shows spirit. That voice is fading now, The Return said; the spirit is moving on. The subsequent moment of silence Hawk holds for Margaret around the sheriffs department conference room is also for us, grieving not only for The Log Lady, or for Coulson, but also for Twin Peaks itself, and the times we have shared together.

Knowing that Lynch filmed those scenes first, one imagines it couldnt help but color the entire productionwhich was already being assembled under the onus of time running outwith an added aura of finality. Miguel Ferrer was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, and his condition reportedly worsened in 2016, to the point where NCIS: Los Angeles wrote his illness into his character. But rather than sideline Albertor even use him relatively sparingly, like he was in the original seriesLynch brought him to the fore, keeping Ferrer close at hand as the most frequent recipient of Lynchs own dialogue as Gordon Cole.

I fell deeply in love with Miguel on the latest Twin Peaks, Lynch told The New York Times after the actors death in January. I liked him before, but it wasnt deep love. I just didnt know him that well. This time I fell in love. And indeed, as Albert and Gordon exchange their respective confessions about the past, bringing up things theyve kept from each other for decades, that love is felt implicitly, even when the two are just discussing cold cases. Again, there is the sense of goodbye.

Garland Briggs, whose portrayer Don S. Davis died in 2008, similarly became a much larger presence, mostly by being scattered across various dimensions: Briggs was a naked, decapitated corpse who turns up in South Dakota; a ghostly, floating head who occasionally drifts across the void; and, most effectively, a father still capable of moving his son, Bobby (Dana Ashbrook), to tears from across the span of decades and the divide of death. In the original series, Major Briggs was an outward hardass who revealed himself to have a great inner well of enlightenment, and whose greatest fear is the possibility that love is not enough. In The Return, Briggs is lovea benevolent spirit still sharing messages from beyond, still putting people on their path. Death is not the end, but a change.

The loss of David Bowie in January 2016 came right before he was meant to film the reprisal of his swamp-accented Fire Walk With Me character, Agent Phillip Jeffries. Most showrunners would have just written around it; Jeffries, though beloved for his David Bowie-ness, is a character who opens more questions than he answersquestions he explicitly didnt want to talk about, and which could have easily been addressed without his direct participation, or elided altogether. And yet, Lynch made those questions and Jeffries central to The Return, resurrecting Bowie as a giant teakettle (a literal Tin Machine) and giving him what appears to be the final word on the shows overarching mythology as he fills Cooper in on Judy, sort of, from beyond.

As great as it would have been to see Bowie againto discover that his death was just a setup for the greatest TV cameo ever recordedas with Major Briggs, its hard to imagine his character having as profound an impact if it were being performed by a living man. The loss of Bowie and Davis adds a melancholy subtext to their characters being trapped inside their respective spiritual holds. Their deaths give themand the showfar greater resonance. They are the shadows of the dream were now struggling to retrace.

Jeffries was the first to declare, We live inside a dream, way back in Fire Walk With Me, as we looked upon Bob, Mike, The Man From Another Place, The Woodsman, and Mrs. Tremond and her grandson et al., cooking up a batch of garmonbozia above the convenience store. (Goddamn, how I will miss writing sentences like that one now that the shows over.) But Coopers We live inside a dream also parallels a scene set earlier in The Return, when Lynchs Gordon recalls a far more pleasant dream he had about Jeffries dreamone that featured a cameo from Monica Bellucci.

Aside from telling us a lot about Gordons taste in women, the sequencelike the real-world owner of Laura Palmers house turning up at the door in the finalemarks a rare intrusion of our reality into Twin Peaks carefully quarantined dream world, as disarming as a needle drop on ZZ Tops Sharp Dressed Man. And while Lynch would probably blanch at the phrase, it can be interpreted as the shows most meta commentary. We are like the dreamer who dreams and lives inside the dream, but who is the dreamer? Bellucci asks Gordon/Lynch, before pointing over Lynchs shoulder to the younger version of himself. I doubt Lynch ever intended the scene to be read this bluntly, but there is certainly something here suggestive of Lynchs extratextual role as the shows creator, now living inside his own dream.

Like Albert, Gordon has a notably bigger presence in The Return, interacting with just about every major character and narrating the plots myriad twists in much the way Cooper did in the original show. His more central role takes on greater significance when you consider that The Returns cast wasnt just a reunion for the Twin Peaks cast, but also assembled players from Lynchs vast repertory company. Robert Forster, Naomi Watts, Patrick Fischler, and Brent Briscoe (and had she not turned it down, Laura Harring) from Mulholland Drive. Balthazar Getty from Lost Highway. Chrysta Bell, from his side gig as a musician. Along with some new additionsincluding actors, like Tim Roth and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who seem like they should have been in a Lynch movieThe Return was a homecoming for Lynchs far-flung flock. Most notably there is Laura Dern, whose role as Diane comes close to creating some Grand Unifying Theory Of Lynch by bringing her into an another intimate pairing with Blue Velvet love interestand Lynchs other longest collaboratorKyle MacLachlan.

In what will surely go down as one of The Returns most analyzed sequences, shortly after Cooper utters that line about living inside a dream (and says to those assembled, I hope I see all of you again), we watch as that trinityLynch, Dern, and MacLachlan, the dreamer and his musesenter an abstract plane, where a door yields to Coopers nostalgia-evoking Great Northern hotel key. Before Cooper passes inside, returning to the seasons earliest scenes, back to the beginning of the loopback to the very beginning of our collective love of Twin Peaks, heralded by Mike greeting him with its famous, cryptic poemCooper turns to Lynch and Dern and says, See you at the curtain call.

Twin Peaks: The Return was that curtain call. You cant say the series was solely about Lynch bringing his players out for one final bow, or saying farewell to us, or even grappling with the enormous, occasionally burdensome legacy of his most famous creation (though the scene of a crazed Sarah Palmer stabbing Lauras prom photo definitely had the ring of catharsis). The show is far too rich in meaning for just that; we can start writing our think pieces now, and Ill see you again in 25 years, when we still havent talked it all out yet.

But the entire season was littered with enough nods to Lynchs pastreturning faces, recurrent themes, visual references to his films and paintings (Twitter user @ramontorrente has done an excellent job of cataloging these)that it definitely lends itself to being read as a distillation of his entire body of work, which he then closed the door on by removing its hinges. By creating the uncertainty of a loop, he gave Twin Peaks an elliptical, open-ended closureone that extends its mysteries and allows those players to go on playing in our imaginations forever, wondering whether Audrey (Sherilyn Fenn) ever finds her way out of her mind trap, or whether Coopers machinations truly altered the timeline and what that means for the Palmers and the rest of the town, or if Sheriff Truman ever gets to see Jesses new car. The uncertainty renders it immortal, existing beyond time and death, where no matter when youre watching it, you cant even be sure what year it is. It will always be confounding and oblique; it will always be Twin Peaks.

If you know anything about Lynch, its that he is a devout practitioner of transcendental meditation; if you know two things, its that he treasures The Art Life, never happier than when he is going through the many granular motions of a restlessly toiling painter. In both disciplines, he preaches and practices finding the joy in the moment, taking pleasure purely in the work. To resolve that work, to be finished with it forever, would be the end. This is death. Instead, he gave Twin Peaksthe people within and without it, those living and gonethe gift of change, to always be working, to remain eternally unfinished. You cant go home again, it tells us. But The Return isnt about looking backward. It was about the dreamer, happy to still be dreaming the dream, for as long as we are still able.

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Twin Peaks gave us a moving meditation on death - The AV Club - AV Club

Former Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar Hassan has resigned as Wiper Democratic Movement Party Secretary General for reasons he termed as personal.

In a letter to the WIPER Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Omar says he had shared with both Musyoka and NASA flag bearer Raila Odinga before the August 8 elections, that he would not wish to serve in their government had they won if he failed to win the gubernatorial contest against Governor Ali Hassan Joho for the Mombasa seat.

Omar further says he will not participate in the NASA campaigns in the repeat Presidential poll scheduled in October.

Circumstances as pertains to the steps I wish to take to seek electoral justices indeed as was your quest in the Supreme Court as NASA, the reorganization of my politics and my endeavors towards scholarship, personal development and repositioning the discourse for social justice and accountability in Mombasa and the coast region through non-state actors makes my position as Secretary General General untenable, he said.

When contacted, WIPER party Chairman Mutula Kilonzo Junior said although Omars resignation was not surprising it is a big blow to the party. He however regrets that NASA mishandled the rivalry in the coalition.

In the last general election Omar contested against the incumbent Ali Hassan Joho for the Mombasa gubernatorial seat where he came out a distant third with 43,790 votes against Johos 221,363. Suleiman Shahbal of Jubilee party came a distant second with 69 429 votes.

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Former Mombasa Senator resigns from Wiper Party - Kenya Broadcasting Corporation

Former Silver Fern Belinda Colling has turned her silky skills to helping the provinces rugby players be the best they can be.

Colling represented her country at netball 91 times from 1996 to 2006.

She was part of the 2003 world championship team and helped the Silver Ferns claim gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 11 years ago. She retains a strong interest in the code and is part of the Sky Sport commentary team.

But earlier this year, Colling took on another role. She works part-time as a personal development manager for the Otago Rugby Football Union.

Colling could not be reached for comment but ORFU general manager Richard Kinley said she was making a big impact in the role.

"From my perspective, it is a role which adds tremendous value to the union," Kinley said.

"In the past, it has been a shared role between the Highlanders and Otago rugby. And Pete Sinclair, who was previously in the role until he retired, it was hard for him to have the time to spread across both organisations and work to a level that Belinda is now able to work at."

The position is funded through New Zealand Rugby and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association.

Colling works directly with the contracted players and the players on the pathway towards becoming professional rugby players.

She provides advice on a range of matters from professional and financial development to risk awareness.

"A big part of it is integrity education. So thats anti-corruption, anti-doping, supplement use, illicit drugs and prescription medication of course."

Colling also provides some education around mental wellbeing. But the core role is preparing players for a life as a professional rugby player.

See original here:
Ex-Silver Fern has role with ORFU - Otago Daily Times

Posted on September 7, 2017 | 11:08 a.m.

Organization promots professional development of its members

Santa Maria Womens Network Board of Directors. (Santa Maria Womens Network)

The new Board of Directors for the Santa Maria Womens Network was voted in by participating members at the group's July meeting.

Board members include: Gina Gluyas, Sandra Fuhring, Sandra Dickerson, Kristie Scott, Christie Benedetti, Erika Weber, Anica Julian, Stephanie Flores, Jodi Radford, Susie Duane, Cara Martinez, Lisa Ramos Murray, Virginia Burroughs and Cristina Martins Sinco.

Each took an oath to perform her duties to the best of her ability in hopes of growing the organization into one of the biggest and best Santa Maria networking groups in the area.

The Santa Maria Womens Network is designed to promote the professional and personal development of its members.

Membership includes men and women from the business and private sectors of the community who gather to exchange information, provide mutual support and assist in the overall advancement of women.

Monthly luncheons are held at the Santa Maria Country Club the first Wednesday of each month. Luncheon costs are $22 for members, $25 for guests. Meetings include networking activities or featured speakers.

Proceeds help pay for the annual Women of Excellence dinner, luncheon costs, and are distributed in scholarship funds and grants for local students, teachers, nonprofits and annual member grant.

To learn more, visit http://www.SMWN.net or attend any of the monthly meetings.

Anica Julian for Santa Maria Womens Network.

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Santa Maria Women's Network Introduces 2017-18 Board - Noozhawk

Jennifer Suarez

Library on Prospect Avenue, Park Ridge, as seen in October 2016.

Posted: Wednesday, September 6, 2017 4:26 pm

Kiosk Comes; Library Considers Content Journal Staff Report Journal & Topics Media Group

Several months after deciding to purchase a kiosk to advertise Park Ridge Library upcoming events, the equipment has arrived.

With recent staff changes, including the retirement of Library Director Janet Van DeCarr, programming and installation had been put on hold.

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Posted in News, Park Ridge on Wednesday, September 6, 2017 4:26 pm.

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Kiosk Comes; Library Considers Content - Journal and Topics ... - Journal & Topics Newspapers Online

What if you could search library collections across Wyoming from the comfort of your home? With an online library account you can do just that and at your convenience. You may renew material (except DVDs) that you borrowed from the Park County Public Libraries. You may place holds at no cost on material from the Powell, Cody and Meeteetse libraries.

Still cant find what you are looking for? For a small fee to cover postage, an interlibrary loan allows you to borrow material from other Wyoming libraries. Katherine Thompson recently demonstrated how she places an online request. That movie is posted at parkcountylibrary.org/2017/08/16/your-online-library-account.

Grace Solie recorded her My List methodology and it is also posted at the preceding link. My List will track books for research or to borrow in the future. Solie usually emails her lists to herself for future reference.

The list arrives with live links to the catalog record, which makes review fast and easy. Lists may be named or added to a temporary folder. Students in the Homeschool Group will find this tool particularly valuable.

To set up an online library account, go to the renew items tab on the far right side of parkcountylibrary.org home page. Enter your library card number with no spaces. Accept the default PIN of WYLD.

That takes you directly to the Wyoming Library Database or WYLD, the state-wide catalog. From there it is possible to narrow your search to individual Park County libraries or to see what is available statewide.

The PIN can be changed. It is also possible to retrieve your PIN. If you have forgotten it, call us at (307) 527-1880.

The Cody library will no longer be open on Sunday afternoons.

Lunch service has been discontinued in the Biblio Bistro. Baked goods and beverages will be served Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. until further notice.

Edie Hanafin Phillips retired Aug. 31 after 25 years service. Leslie Colin Tribble will be the new tech services supervisor.

Until we process all the books recently received, we cannot accept more donations.

September has been designated Library Card Sign-up month by the American Library Association. Do you have yours?

Library programs are free and open to the public.

In The Ghosts in the Green Grass, 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 9, Bud Alley compares the fate of the 7th Cavalry commanded by General George Armstrong Custer in 1876 and his own experiences in the Vietnam War with the 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry. A book signing and sale will follow his author talk.

Meet Montana mystery author Keith McCafferty, 6 p.m., Friday, Sept. 15. Free tickets will be available before McCaffertys visit. He wrote The Royal Wulff Murders, The Gray Ghost Murders, Dead Mans Fancy, Crazy Mountain Kiss, Buffalo Jump Blues and Cold Hearted River. His books will be for sale and a book signing will follow the program. McCafferty will inscribe attendees own copies, too.

The Many Loves of Buffalo Bill: The True Story of Life on the Wild West Show with Chris Enss, 6 p.m., Thurs., Sept. 21. This author talk is hosted by Legends Bookstore and will include a book signing and sale.

In the childrens library

Toddler Group for ages 18-36 months, 10-11 a.m., Thursdays, Sept. 14 and 28.

Health Education for kids ages 9-11 with nutritionist Porter Koury, 9-10:15 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 16. Topics discussed will include sugar, factory farming and new recipes.

Rainbow Fish art project for grades K-5, 3:30-4:30 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 21.

Toddler Time for ages 1-3 with parent or caregiver, 10-10:20 a.m., Mondays. Short stories accompanied by music and movement develop a comfort in the library and love for great stories.

Story Time for ages 3-6 with parent or caregiver, 10-10:45 a.m., Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Music, games and fingerplays will be followed by a related craft or activity.

Screen-free Haven, 3-8 p.m., Thursdays. Take a break from technology with a book, game or craft project.

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Column: Save time with an online library account - Cody Enterprise

The Library on the Internet

Access our Online Catalog from Home http://www.mclib.org. The library website will take you to the Online Catalog where you can access books, videos, DVD, CDs, magazines and much more. WI-FI is available in the library. Normal library hours are Monday through Thursday 9 a.m.to 8 p.m., Friday andSaturday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and now open Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. To manage your account online, you need your barcode number from your library card and a pin number which you can get from the circulation desk. For more information, contact the circulation desk at 873-3042.

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Michigan City Library Beat - News Dispatch

Plymouth Public Library main branch is located at 132 South St; the Manomet branch is located at 12 Strand Ave. Visit http://www.plymouthpubliclibrary.org.

For information on any Plymouth library program or service listed (unless otherwise noted), call the main library, 132 South St., at 508-830-4250, TTY 508-747-5882, or the Manomet branch, 12 Strand Ave., at 508-830-4185, or go to the website http://www.plymouthpubliclibrary.org. Registration, when required, may be conducted by phone.

The hours for the Plymouth Public Library are: Monday to Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Sunday, from the Sunday after Labor Day through June, from 12:30 to 5 p.m.

The Manomet branch library is open Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesday, Friday and Sunday. The library is fully accessible; call if you need special accommodations to attend meetings or events.

SPECIAL EVENTS

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month

September is Library Card Sign-up Month, a time when the Plymouth Public Library and Manomet Branch Library join with the American Library Association and public libraries nationwide to ensure that every resident has the most important card of all: a free library card. Resources at the Plymouth Public Library are available to anyone who has a library card. Patrons can turn to the library for materials, programs and services that support academic, cultural, recreational and informational needs and interests. The Plymouth Public Library offers access to educational and recreational resources, such as online databases, ebooks, audiobooks and electronic magazines. Residents can even use the library card from home.

For more information on how to sign up for a library card, visit the Plymouth Public Library in person or online. For further information, contact Linda Fitzgerald, public services librarian at 508-830-4250 or TTY 508-747-5882.

Hybrid, Electric Car Show

From 1 to 4 p.m. Sept. 10, the New England Electric Auto Association, in conjunction with National Drive Electric Week, will host a hybrid, electric car show and ride-and-drive event at the Plymouth Public Library. Several dealers, including Tracy Chevrolet, Colonial Ford, Tufankjian Hyundai, Sullivan Brothers Nissan and Toyota and South Shore BMW, will be present with the latest hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles and will be offering test drives. Actual owners will also be present to share ownership experiences. Light refreshments will be served.The rain date is scheduled for Sept. 17.

NEEAA is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to promoting hybrid, plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles as well as increasing the electric car charging infrastructure. NEEAA is one of over 30 electric car clubs across the country and is a chapter of the National Electric Auto Association. This event is free and open to the public and anyone who is interested in the technology is encouraged to attend.

For more information about the event, contact Jesse Rudavsky at 617-483-0994, or visit http://facebook.com/newenglandelectricautoassociation. This free program is sponsored by the Plymouth Public Library Corporation and no registration is required.

Seed Swap

2:30 p.m. Sept. 16 at the Manomet Branch Library. Share garden stories and tips for growing great plants as well swap seeds. Envelopes will be provided for discovered seeds and light refreshments will be served. No need to register.

ONGOING

Chess Club, The Royal Game

Club meets 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays. The program is open to students and adults. Students younger than 12 should be accompanied by an adult. No food and play quietly. Questions regarding this program can be directed to Jennifer Harris, library director, at 508-830-4250, ext. 215; Bill Petrillo, chess club co-leader, 774-766-7689, bill.petrillo@comcast.net; or Jim Pritchard, chess club co-leader, 508-878-8194, jimpri@verizon.net. This program is free to the public. No registration is required.

Teen Advisory Group

The Teen Advisory Group will host a Fall Fondue at 7 p.m. Sept. 13 in the board room of the Main Library. The event will feature chocolate fondue with lots of things to dip in the chocolate, like marshmallows, fruit and cookies.

Any teens interested in joining are invited to meet current members and learn more about library services. This year, the group is working on creating a teen space and building up collections for teens and tweens. Teens, age 13 to 18, are invited to join the Teen Advisory Group, with no registration necessary to attend meetings. Meetings are held every month, typically the first Wednesday evening of the month. For more information about this event, contact the Manomet Branch Librarian.

Tween Interest Group

The Junior Friends of the Plymouth Public Library is undergoing a change. Residents may have noticed that the library has a group for teens, ages 13 to 17, which encourages volunteering, program planning and having a voice in library services. The library ise starting a similar group for ages 9 to 11, the Tween Interest Group, aka TWIG! The library wants to get tweens involved in library activities and know that parents are looking for opportunities the library. This may mean helping Youth Services staff prep materials for programs, sorting and shelving books, volunteering at the biannual book sale, or assisting the Corporation with the storybook breakfast. In addition, TWIG members will help with program ideas and have a voice for what the library offers to tweens. Meetings are scheduled each month, typically the first Wednesday evening of the month. Potential TWIG members are invited to join members of TAG for the Fall Fondue on Sept. 13.

Nonfiction History Book Discussion at the Manomet Branch

The group meets at 4 p.m. one Thursday per month to discuss the months selection. For more information about this event, contact the Manomet Branch Librarian at 508-830-4185, email to jenniferj@ocln.org or visit the librarys web site.

For the next meeting, the group is talking about The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel on Sept. 21. Sobel examines the impact of women calculators in the field of astronomy and the accomplishments of future women astronomers.

Vintage Reads: a book group for classic novels

This group reads and discusses novels from the 20th century and earlier, focusing on novels and authors that have stood the test of time. Some of the classics read are popular while others are more unconventional and unfamiliar. Copies of the book are available to check out at the Manomet Branch. The program is free and requires no registration.

The next meeting will be held Sept. 14 with a discussion of Humboldts Gift by Saul Bellow. In Bellows Pulitzer Prize winning novel, Charlie Citrine, an author in some unfortunate circumstances, receives an unexpected legacy from his deceased friend and poet Von Humboldt Dleisher.

Outreach/Senior Services Programs

The Plymouth Public Library's Outreach/Senior Services Department provides services and collections of interest to older adults, such as large-print fiction and nonfiction and audiobooks. Outreach also provides services to individuals who would otherwise not have access to library materials, such as people who are homebound, institutionalized or who have a physical or mental disability. Outreach services includes books by mail, deposit collections of regular and large-print books, educational and recreational programs, recorded books and machines, and reference assistance. Currently, four local nursing facilities partake in the deposit collection program which brings the library to the residents by fulfilling specific requests in addition to a variety of fiction and nonfiction titles each month.

The Large Print collection includes New York Times Bestsellers, inspirational reads, local interest nonfiction, mysteries, romance and biographies. With a collection of over 2,000 audiobooks, patrons with limited sight or who are visually impaired can enjoy reading again.

For more information on any of the library's outreach services, call Tom Cummiskey at 508-830-4250.

Mobile Hotspots

The Plymouth Public Library lends T-Mobile Hotspots. The library has six hotspots available. Hotspots are small hockey-puck sized devices that allow you to access the Internet on your computer or wireless device for free. Just turn on the hotspot and connect to it like any other Wi-Fi network. Up to 10 devices at a time can be connected to one hotspot. You can leave the hotspot plugged in, or take in on the go for up to six hours of battery use.

Hotspots can be checked out for two weeks at a time; you must reserve a Hotspot for a specific date on the library's website. Hotspots are available to Plymouth cardholders only and your account must be in good standing in order to check out a device. All hotspots must be picked up and returned to the Main Library. There is a $1 per day late fee, and an $80 fee for lost or damaged items. For more information, contact the Plymouth Public Library at 508-830-4250 or visit plymouthpubliclibrary.org.

Hoopla Digital

Plymouth Public Library offers the public availability of thousands of movies, television shows, music albums, e-books, audio books and comics, all available for mobile and online access through a new partnership with Hoopla Digital.

Plymouth cardholders can download the free Hoopla Digital mobile app on their Android or iOS device or visit hoopladigital.com to gain access to thousands of titles from major Hollywood studios, record companies and publishers available to borrow 24/7, for instant streaming or temporary downloading to their smartphones, tablets and computers.

You must have a library card to access this content on the hoopla app or website. Patrons can borrow this content free of charge. It's digital so there is no waiting period for popular titles and hoopla's automatic return means no late fees.

Great Courses series

Plymouth Public Library is now offering an expanded selection of more than 40 titles from the Great Courses series. Produced with the goal of creating engaging, immersive learning experiences for lifelong learners, these courses are available either in audio format on CDs or as DVDs. Subjects range from history to science, "better living," fine arts and music and literature. Available courses include such titles as "Forensic History: Crimes, Frauds, and Scandals," "Great American Music: Broadway Musicals," "Our Night Sky" and "Fundamentals of Sustainable Living." Visit the website at http://www.plymouthpubliclibrary.org to see all of the titles and course descriptions.

The Great Courses are meticulously produced following the vision of the company's founder, Tim Rollins. As he puts it, his idea in founding the company was to"record lectures by the greatest professors in America, professors who were not just experts in their field but who were also passionate and truly gifted communicators, so anyone could enjoy learning from them, without the pressure of homework or exams." The company conducts a painstaking search for the best professors in each subject.

"Of the more than 500,000 college professors in the world," Rollins said, "only the top 1 percent are selected to teach one of the Great Courses. Our esteemed faculty includes award-winning experts and professors from the most respected institutions in the world, selected by our customers exclusively for their ability to teach."

The Great Courses titles are now available at the main library in the Reference Department shelved in the computer room. They can be checked out for 14 days and can be renewed, provided they are not on reserve for another patron.

Access to U.S. military service records

The Plymouth Public Library is now offering its cardholders access to Fold3 Library Edition by Ancestry. This subscription database provides convenient access to U.S. military records, including the stories, photos and personal documents of the men and women who served. This continually growing collection contains millions of records from world-class archives, many of which are exclusively available on Fold3. With content from the Revolutionary War onward, Fold3 Library Edition is an invaluable research resource for historians, genealogists, researchers, military enthusiasts, veterans and their families, teachers and battle reenactors. Researchers can access more than 440 million records beginning with the Revolutionary War. The new user interface makes it easy to search historical documents from diverse sources including the War of 1812 Pension Applications and Service Records, Civil War Widows Pensions, and records of the United States Colored Troops, and, unique non-military sources such as Native American records, FBI Case Files, and Holocaust records.

The Fold3 name comes from a traditional flag folding ceremony in which the third fold is made in honor and remembrance of veterans who served in defense of their country and to maintain peace throughout the world.

The new library edition can be used from any location and also provides access to personalization tools. Library patrons may choose to create a personal user account to build memorial pages, submit annotations to any image, or leave comments. See http://www.plymouthpubliclibrary.org/databases/.

Excerpt from:
Plymouth Public Library news - Wicked Local Rockland

Photo: Genevieve Reilly / Hearst Connecticut Media

The Fairfield Public Library system loans out more than just books and movies. At the Fairfield Woods Branch, patrons can find seeds for their garden.

The Fairfield Public Library system loans out more than just books and movies. At the Fairfield Woods Branch, patrons can find seeds for their garden.

Surplus funds could mean restored Fairfield library hours

FAIRFIELD Surplus funds will allow the towns libraries to fill vacancies and restore library hours that have been cut, according to the first selectman.

But some Board of Finance members Tuesday night wondered where that money was coming from since it had not yet received documentation on unspent but budgeted funds. The finance board typically approves a list of funds to be carried over from the prior fiscal year, and spent in the current fiscal year.

Fiscal Officer Robert Mayer said there is about $1.4 million in surplus money from the last fiscal year. Chairman Thomas Flynn asked how much of that departments have asked to carry over to spend on budgeted items.

The carry overs arent much at all, Mayer said, adding that the town will focus on using that money to make up for any state revenue it ends up not receiving.

Theres a press release from the first selectman talking about the library, finance board member James Walsh said. We know nothing about any of these numbers.

Library hours as of Aug. 14

Main library

Monday, Wednesday, Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Thursday 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Saturday 1-5 p.m.

Sunday closed until further notice

Fairfield Woods branch

Monday, Wednesday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Tuesday, Thursday,Friday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Saturday 1-5 p.m.

Sunday closed until further notice

Previous library hours

Main library:

Monday - Thursday, 9 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Friday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sundays in the fall 1-4 p.m.

Fairfield Woods branch:

Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Friday 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Sundays in the fall 1 p.m. -4 p.m.

The Board of Finance is scheduled to meet again on Sept. 26, and vote on a list of proposed carry over expenditures.

On Aug. 31, Tetreau sent out a release where he announced 2017 is higher than anticipated due to strong fourth quarter results realized from expense holdbacks and controls, including a hiring freeze, a higher than budgeted tax collection rate, and strong fourth quarter investment returns and fee revenues.

Just a few weeks earlier, the town had announced reduced hours at both the main and branch library, in part due to questions about what state revenue will come Fairfields way once a state budget is finally adopted.

After reviewing the numbers, Tetreau said, he was pleased the town has surplus funds available that could be used to fill the open positions and reinstate library hours, although he said it will take time to fill those positions. Tetreau anticipated restoring the library hours sometime this fall.

Tetreau said the town still anticipates a loss of state revenue, but said the surplus could be used to supplement the new budget should the Board of Finance choose to carry forward the fiscal year 2017 surplus to the fiscal year 2018, which would serve to mitigate some of the loss of state revenue.

He said it is similar to last year when at Flynns suggestion, the finance board voted to carry forward a significant portion of the fiscal year 2016 into the fiscal year 2017, again to make up for the loss of state revenue.

The surplus funds could also be used to fill two vacancies at the Parks and Recreation Department, according to Tetreau.

The hiring freeze remains in effect for all other departments, and certain capital spending, such as paving, is still on hold.

Continued here:
Surplus funds could mean restored Fairfield library hours - Fairfield Citizen