Gretchen Beilfuss Witt
February 21, 2011
Going Green
Our culture is increasingly aware of the impact our choices make on our environment. Recycling is part of our everyday life, yet when it comes to larger concerns, what can we do? I have a house built in the 1920s which I love; it has character and a coziness which makes it home. Yet it is drafty, hard to heat and it's not getting any younger. As rooms are remodeled and appliances need to be replaced, how can I maintain my cozy cottage and have a healthier, more energy efficient home that is kinder to the environment?
Barry Katz's "Practical Green Remodeling" has some of the answers. This colourful and engaging work clearly explains what the advantages of a green home are from an economic as well as from a philosophical stand. Even small improvements can make a big difference; "If just one quarter of the single-family homes in the United States reduced their energy use by 20%, it would prevent 48 million tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere each year." Katz categorizes the fundamentals of green housing into three classifications – "energy efficiency, resource conservation and healthy living environments."
He offers practical advice on finding a green contractor and what questions to ask. Excellent examples and sidebars illustrate how to build or remodel with the least impact to the environment without sacrificing aesthetics or comfort. The book explains R-Values and what can be done to reduce a buildings demand for heat and cooling. Katz discusses the types of appliances, heating units, toilets, faucets and other items that use resources of all types. Energy Policy acts and EPA criteria are addressed as well as how to comply with new equipment requirements. He offers practical advice on how to save water without it costing you a cent. Did you know that by cutting one minute from a daily shower can save 1,000 gallons of water per year per person? Or putting a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank can help you determine if you have a leak.
Katz also discusses types of healthy, sustainable, non-toxic materials to use in construction, interior design and decorating. House plans, air flow illustrations and other helpful diagrams are plentiful and make this a very usable resource. "Toward a Zero Energy Home" by Johnston and Gibson, "A Healthy Home Handbook" by John Warde and "How to Plan, Contract and Build your own Home" by Scutella and Heberle are among the books related to green building, energy efficiency and healthy home environments waiting to be checked out.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Serendipity at the Library
by Betty Moore
What better place for serendipity could there be than a library? “Serendipity” is accidentally stumbling upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something completely unrelated.
Have you ever come to the library to get one particular item, then left with several others – after overhearing another reader tell how much he enjoyed what he just turned in, or passing by an interesting DVD on the “New DVD” rack by the door? Maybe you came in to get a tax form and discovered the ongoing Friends Book Sale.
Give yourself the time to discover things you didn’t even know you wanted to know – at the library! Recently, a gentleman asking a question at the reference desk told me, “Last year I made a resolution to spend at least an hour in the library each week.” He was pleased with what he’d learned over the year, just by setting aside a time for exploring the library.
It’s not too late to add this to your own New Year’s resolutions.
Maybe you’ve never been on the second floor or visited the children’s room. You may not have taken the time to look at the display cases, or decorative stained glass windows. You may not know there are murals and sculpture. You may not have seen the historic maps and prints.
Wander through the 149 magazines and 13 North Carolina and national newspapers at Headquarters. I recently passed through the magazine section at the Salisbury branch and a circus train on the cover of “Trains” magazine caught my eye. The fascinating photo-filled cover story on “what it takes to put Ringling on the rails” contains circus train history and culture as well as how older cars are adapted for circus train use.
Finally, treat yourself by visiting a library branch you’ve never been to before. Rowan Public Library’s Salisbury, China Grove, and Rockwell locations each have attractive, comfortable surroundings full of resources with unique activities and displays. You’ll be surprised and pleased to see both familiar and different things at each branch, plus you’ll get to meet other helpful, friendly staff members.
Be open to serendipity at the library!
by Betty Moore
What better place for serendipity could there be than a library? “Serendipity” is accidentally stumbling upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something completely unrelated.
Have you ever come to the library to get one particular item, then left with several others – after overhearing another reader tell how much he enjoyed what he just turned in, or passing by an interesting DVD on the “New DVD” rack by the door? Maybe you came in to get a tax form and discovered the ongoing Friends Book Sale.
Give yourself the time to discover things you didn’t even know you wanted to know – at the library! Recently, a gentleman asking a question at the reference desk told me, “Last year I made a resolution to spend at least an hour in the library each week.” He was pleased with what he’d learned over the year, just by setting aside a time for exploring the library.
It’s not too late to add this to your own New Year’s resolutions.
Maybe you’ve never been on the second floor or visited the children’s room. You may not have taken the time to look at the display cases, or decorative stained glass windows. You may not know there are murals and sculpture. You may not have seen the historic maps and prints.
Wander through the 149 magazines and 13 North Carolina and national newspapers at Headquarters. I recently passed through the magazine section at the Salisbury branch and a circus train on the cover of “Trains” magazine caught my eye. The fascinating photo-filled cover story on “what it takes to put Ringling on the rails” contains circus train history and culture as well as how older cars are adapted for circus train use.
Finally, treat yourself by visiting a library branch you’ve never been to before. Rowan Public Library’s Salisbury, China Grove, and Rockwell locations each have attractive, comfortable surroundings full of resources with unique activities and displays. You’ll be surprised and pleased to see both familiar and different things at each branch, plus you’ll get to meet other helpful, friendly staff members.
Be open to serendipity at the library!
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Library Notes
Rebecca Hyde
The question could be “Can you tell me about yourself?” or “Why did you (or could you) do that?” or “What are my options?” Our answers may or may not come easily. Understanding why we think the way we do (our personal philosophy) is difficult for most of us. Why make the effort? Our philosophy can help or hinder us. As Lou Marinoff says, in “Plato not Prozac,” we need to “evaluate the ideas we hold to craft an outlook that works for us, not against us.”
A famous and engaging example of one who lived a “well-examined” life is Michel de Montaigne. He was as curious as a cat, absorbed in his task of learning “how to live well.” As Phillip Lopate says (“The Art of the Personal Essay”), “Montaigne’s circling, minute self-observations … remind one more of a cat examining its fur.” And what was life like for Montaigne?
Montaigne lived in a time of war and treachery (France, 1533-1592). He was a political advisor, officeholder, landowner, and head of household. He lived in dread of the “kidney stone,” a particularly painful disease from which his father had died. And he never ceased to mourn the death of a dear friend (Etienne de La Boetie, author of a moving treatise against tyranny). Montaigne’s affairs with women and his tedious duties in local government could not divert him from his need to come to terms with grief, pain, and fear of death. So he began a lifelong examination of the human condition and a struggle to accept it through self-study. This very personal endeavor produced the “Essais” (“attempts” or “trials” in French), and Montaigne is commonly referred to as “the first great essayist” or “greatest essayist.” In any case in the “Essays” are found the elements of the personal essay as a literary form: a reflexive conversation, an intimate and relaxed discussion of life/reality as experienced by the “I” author.
In “The Art of the Personal Essay,” Lopate chose to include three of the hundred or so “Essais.” In “Of Books,” Montaigne the critical reader speaks his mind freely because his opinion is the measure of his personal insight, not the measure of things. He reads for pleasure, or for knowledge that “instructs me in how to die well and live well.” The two other selections reveal an individual who is tolerant yet curious about the differences among human beings (“Of a Monstrous Child”) and rather egalitarian when examining the sexuality of men and women (“On Some Verses of Virgil”). Skeptical, undogmatic, with a generous dose of self-forgiveness, Montaigne insists that we look at our own personal experience and try to learn from it.
Rebecca Hyde
The question could be “Can you tell me about yourself?” or “Why did you (or could you) do that?” or “What are my options?” Our answers may or may not come easily. Understanding why we think the way we do (our personal philosophy) is difficult for most of us. Why make the effort? Our philosophy can help or hinder us. As Lou Marinoff says, in “Plato not Prozac,” we need to “evaluate the ideas we hold to craft an outlook that works for us, not against us.”
A famous and engaging example of one who lived a “well-examined” life is Michel de Montaigne. He was as curious as a cat, absorbed in his task of learning “how to live well.” As Phillip Lopate says (“The Art of the Personal Essay”), “Montaigne’s circling, minute self-observations … remind one more of a cat examining its fur.” And what was life like for Montaigne?
Montaigne lived in a time of war and treachery (France, 1533-1592). He was a political advisor, officeholder, landowner, and head of household. He lived in dread of the “kidney stone,” a particularly painful disease from which his father had died. And he never ceased to mourn the death of a dear friend (Etienne de La Boetie, author of a moving treatise against tyranny). Montaigne’s affairs with women and his tedious duties in local government could not divert him from his need to come to terms with grief, pain, and fear of death. So he began a lifelong examination of the human condition and a struggle to accept it through self-study. This very personal endeavor produced the “Essais” (“attempts” or “trials” in French), and Montaigne is commonly referred to as “the first great essayist” or “greatest essayist.” In any case in the “Essays” are found the elements of the personal essay as a literary form: a reflexive conversation, an intimate and relaxed discussion of life/reality as experienced by the “I” author.
In “The Art of the Personal Essay,” Lopate chose to include three of the hundred or so “Essais.” In “Of Books,” Montaigne the critical reader speaks his mind freely because his opinion is the measure of his personal insight, not the measure of things. He reads for pleasure, or for knowledge that “instructs me in how to die well and live well.” The two other selections reveal an individual who is tolerant yet curious about the differences among human beings (“Of a Monstrous Child”) and rather egalitarian when examining the sexuality of men and women (“On Some Verses of Virgil”). Skeptical, undogmatic, with a generous dose of self-forgiveness, Montaigne insists that we look at our own personal experience and try to learn from it.
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