There's something cool happening in Texas,

and by "cool," I don't mean the weather, although I hear it's pretty hot down there, too. Despite the fact that my best friend in the world is from Texas and I know that there are plenty of good folk that live in the lone star state, they seem to have serious problems with just about every area of what makes a place civilized -- at least to a gal with liberal leanings. I'm perfectly aware that California has its share of crazies, but that's not what this post is about -- nor is it about Texas, really. Or Wal-Mart -- except that there are an awful lot of Wal-Marts in Texas, and I do love a good Wal-Mart bashing post. Insults aside, I was just reeling you in to tell you about this article I read about a former Wal-Mart being bought by the city of McAllen in southern Texas and turned into a library! A fantastic looking library at that -- check it out here.

Oh, and I just remembered -- some very wealthy guy in San Antonio built the world's first adaptive amusement park for his disabled daughter and others like her a while back. That was something good coming out of Texas, too.

Texas Reader, tell me more good stuff.

Library

I've been ordering books at the library of late -- trying to turn the tide of bought books that threaten to take over every corner and surface of my house. Despite the purchase of a Kindle a few years ago and a subsequent rigorous discipline of only buying hardbacks of writers that I just know I will want to hold in my hands and smell and caress, the piles grow, they topple, they gather dust. The Central Library in downtown Los Angeles has an incredible database and now I can visit my podunk local library, (the one with the shopping carts and homeless folks outside and an empty public pool, scrawled with graffiti and dusted over by baseball dirt,) order any book off of the ancient computers and have it sent to me for pick-up within a few days. Yesterday, I picked up Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, two books I read so many years ago, that I know I lent out and never got back but I had a hankering for good writing and recipes, so I picked them up and checked them out and walked down the hill to watch Henry's baseball game, their crinkly jackets pressed to my white shirt, provoking a few chiding laughs from Those Who Don't Visit Libraries.

The Library from Sergey Stefanovich on Vimeo.