Thinking Before You Talk

One thing I noticed in the burbs of Chicago amongst older white teenagers and younger college students was a complete ignorance of latent racism in many comments they would make.  Chicago’s not the only guilty suburban area, and I’m not about to predict what area in the country (or beyond) is the worst. Nor am I going to predict if the blatant racism and prejudice I saw in my rural upbringing is any worse than the hidden or oblivious kind. What I can do is direct you towards and expert person who has written an expert book on the subject: The Everyday Language of White Racism by Jane H. Hill. This book helps identify ways in which social exclusion still occurs, and also provides suggestions on how to help eliminate some of the problem.  It is worth a read, and is, as is everything we feature, available in the JCCC Library.

Get Cooking, JCCC: It’s Almost Thanksgiving

We’ve got a lot of cookbooks here to help you through your Thanksgiving and holiday season. Check them out here. Among our new books, we’ve got Baking by James Peterson, which promises you 300 recipes to guide you in your pursuit of baked goods.

Here at the library I offer you a secret family recipe:

Royal Thanksgiving Turkey

  1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.
  2. Take thawed turkey, rubber glove, and begin removing the Pile of Nasty lodged inside it.
  3. Baste turkey, using brush, with mixture of 2 quarts bourbon, 1 stick of butter.
  4. Apply a seasoning mix of garlic, pepper, chives, and questionable spice found in cabinet when reaching for the garlic powder.
  5. Place stuffing inside. It doesn’t really matter if its cooked or not, surely something magical will happen. Turkey’s a mystery, you know.
  6. Remember that you forgot to take the center rack out of the oven: using an oven mitt (DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP [again]). When you realize you have nowhere to set rack, throw it outside. If you rent, prepare excuse for landlord explaining grid-shaped burn mark in grass.
  7. Take battery out of smoke detector.  Actually, you shouldn’t really do this step; I’m guessing it’s illegal. For law-abiding citizens, grab noise-cancelling headphones.
  8. Place turkey, in pan, on the bottom rack, and set the timer for what seems like an eternity. No really, just make up a time. How bad could it be?
  9. Apply one (1) full contents of fire extinguisher to inflamed bird. Use foot to hold back Labrador retriever. Curse yourself for falling asleep. (In your defense, it isn’t your fault that the Detroit Lions insist on playing every freaking Thanksgiving.)
  10. Apologize to appropriate neighbors and civil service employees.
  11. Place keys in ignition, proceed to nearest International House of Pancakes. Pancakes taste better than turkey, anyway, and your vegetarian family members will show visible relief. Turns out, they don’t actually like tofurkey!

Have a good break, folks. We’ll be back Sunday.

The Apollo Program Was (Almost Certainly Not) a Hoax…

but these literature events were!  In Literary Hoaxes : An Eye-Opening History of Famous Frauds by Melissa Katsoulis, you’ll find out about fake Shakespeare notes, an imposter Hitler diary, ancient Roman tomfoolery, and some recent shannanigans pulled by authors trying to make a quick buck off of forgery and lies.  This isn’t really a book for conspiracy theorists, but is perfect for those interested in proven fakes in literature.

As for this post’s title?  I just really like Refused.

Waiting on the Cy Young Announcements?

We are, too. Some of us are White Sox fans, but if Greinke pulls off winning the Cy Young, that would be pretty cool for the KC area.  Aside from getting the All-Star Game in 2012, there hasn’t been much positive baseball news around here.

But if you’re curious about the man behind the Cy Young Award, we recommend JCCC students, faculty, and staff check out one of the services we offer with this electronic book called Cy Young: A Baseball Life. Afterwards, feel free to peruse the rest of our electronic books, readable for JCCC members anywhere with an Internet connection

Veterans Day

wall memorial

 

On this Veterans Day, we invite you to check out our Veterans Affairs LibGuide. We put this together in order to better serve our students, staff, and faculty who have served in the Armed Forces. Hopefully, they’ll find the resources useful.  We have links to bibliographies and filmographies, streaming video resources, articles from our databases, and local organizations who exclusively serve veterans and their families.

The library extends our thanks to those who selflessly serve our country.