Secret Masters of the World

librarian-clipart-pc5yerxcb

By WhskyJack,  a Trail Mix Contributor

Librarians dedicate their lives to the collection and storage of information in a retrievable form. In the information age librarians RULE!

Don’t believe it?

Look at Clinton’s email problem

As an op-ed at the Washington Post pointed out

“Bottom line: Clinton’s mistake was, as she has said, to have decided to use a private server. There’s not much duplicity, deceit or intention to evade to be found in this memo. What the document does reveal is Clinton’s colossal failure to understand the monumental responsibility she took on with her choice; namely, the direct duty to archive public records.

I call this job monumental not merely because it is important — and it is — but also because it is a task to which the entire profession of librarians and archivists is dedicated. ...This is what jumps out of the memo. The story of stuff that is missing, or turned in late, or not initially acknowledged to exist, or accidentally saved in inappropriate places only to be deleted later by low-level staff, appears to be mainly a tale of a bumbling group not remotely close to being equipped to handle, at a public-records standard, the material for which they were responsible.”

Clinton could lose the election for want of a librarian.

“Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don’t ever piss one off” — Spider Robinson

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Message to Congress


“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood … back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and of fame … back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory.” [from “You Can’t Go Home Again” Thomas Wolfe]

By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor

Also because only 18% of the people approve of how you’ve done your job
(Gallup). 78% disapprove of the way you are taking their hard-earned money for barely showing up to work and for doing so very little when you do. That leaves 4% who don’t seem to know any more than you do about your responsibilities.

https://youtu.be/sJwwrUMCnnM

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A Telltale of Two Planes

By PatD, a Trail Mix Contributor

This election is told by the plane your candidate flew in on. One is emblazoned with his name in big letters and the other with a message of unity “Stronger Together.”

Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away
If you can use some exotic shmooze
HRCplaneThere’s a gal whose a pal ready to play
Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away

Once I get you up there where the air is rarefied
We’ll just glide side by side. Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away

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A Touch of History

Hugh_O'Brian_1964

By Jamie44, a Trail Mix Contributor

Hugh O’Brian, best known during his career for portraying Wyatt Earp and in later life for his creation of the HOBY Foundation that encouraged so many young people in public service, has passed away at the age of 91.  The link above gives an excellent tribute and biography.

Several years ago I wrote a rather light hearted blog article about kissing the handsomest man on television, but with the deeper meaning of all the ways we are connected to history.  With that in mind here is a tribute to a good man

Kissing History

What we consider as the “Old West” was for the most part the 30 years following the Civil War. Then civilization caught up with them and a lot of gunslingers were out of business and working at regular jobs. Wyatt Earp lived long enough to appear in a silent movie. He was a little more creative than most and had many romantic and personal adventures in his long life, some of which were probably true. Courtesy of a friendly biographer, his fame has become a bit more reel than real, but who wants to ruin a good story? On January 13, in 1929, Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles was buried in a Jewish Cemetery in Colma which is another good story. Only a little over 25 years later, in 1955, Wyatt got to television for a seven year run in the form of actor Hugh O’Brian playing the marshall of Dodge City. O’Brian was born on April 19, 1925, overlapping the last four years of Earp’s life. So much for major coincidences, and the idea that everything is connected to everything.

Earp Obrian

In 1957, I was a 13 year old who looked 16 enduring one my interminable summers in Fresno. One of the major Polio epidemics had happened in 1952. My stepsister was paralyzed from the neck down and confined to a wheel chair. As a result, I was very active in raising money for the Red Cross. The Salk vaccine had just been approved for massive distribution, but the money that had supported the research, now was helping to fund the injections for all school children. As part of a charitable campaign, Wyatt Earp came to Fresno. If you were female and had a pulse, you were in love with Hugh O’Brian.

On a dare from girlfriends, I took the money I had raised to where the local TV station was showing the telethon, but wouldn’t turn it over until he kissed me. It was a rather decorous kiss, but the poor man ended up kissing virtually every woman in Fresno, including my grandmother who collected one on the cheek for each of her 12 grandchildren. He was a good sport about all of this smooching, but when I turned up in the late afternoon, O’Brian pointed at me and said, “You started this!” At which point, I got KISSED. Bent over backwards, strong hug, the works. When I came up for air and the knees were again working, I staggered off stage to an embarrassing round of applause from the audience. He would have probably been scandalized if he knew my real age at the time, if for no other reason than that this is a man who has dedicated his life to the development and encouragement of young people.

In 1957 the fans of “Wyatt Earp” stole the headstone of Wyatt Earp, so that now he has only a flat marker instead of the large monument.
Another 20 years plus later, “The Shootist”, John Wayne’s last film about a former gunman coming to terms with the changes in the “Old West” and his own mortality is being filmed in Malibu and Burbank. Hugh O’Brian played one of the older gunmen who take him on in his last great gunfight, and Hugh still looked like a greyer version of the TV Wyatt. My son liked to go to the studios and the crews got used to him being there to run errands, so he met Hugh O’Brian and we own a reel of film for the opening of that movie as John Wayne shoots his way through history.

Mr. O’Brian was married for the first time recently at the age of 82 to his long time ladyfriend, Virginia Barber, so he is passing the older Wyatt in age if not quite in legend, all while continuing his charitable ways with his long standing HOBY Foundation. As a symbol of his humor, the wedding “to die for” while formal and celebrated by hundreds of guests was held at Forest Lawn Cemetery. In lieu of gifts the couple requested donations to HOBY.

So there you have it. Four generations covering 128 years connected by the same character and a little story: Wyatt Earp, Hugh O’Brian, me and my son from cemetery to cemetery. Write down your memories. History not recorded is history lost. I’ll close with a bit of a speech given by Hugh O’Brian.

I do NOT believe we are all born equal. Created equal in the eyes of God, yes, but physical and emotional differences, parental guidelines, varying environments, being in the right place at the right time, all play a role in enhancing or limiting an individual’s development. But I DO believe every man and woman, if given the opportunity and encouragement to recognize their potential, regardless of background, has the freedom to choose in our world. Will an individual be a taker or a giver in life? Will that person be satisfied merely to exist or seek a meaningful purpose? Will he or she dare to dream the impossible dream?

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