Curiosities

Okay, everyone. Don’t panic. February is here again. Last year, the month of February did its best to break our spirits through record-setting snowfall and feeling like the longest month ever, despite only having 28 days. This year it has 29 days, but it’s going to be okay.

February can be a trying month. The holidays are long behind us and somehow, it’s still winter. No matter what the groundhog says, spring is not visible on the horizon. We face a long, dull, plodding trek to warm sun and green grass. Odds are, you’re not as busy this time of year as you will be in a few months; that makes February the perfect time to cultivate some healthy habits.

A month ago, you may have set some New Year’s resolutions. Or, if you’re like me, you may have looked at your track record with resolutions and decided not to set yourself up for failure. Either way, February is to great time to either evaluate your progress or set some new healthy goals without the stress and gravitas of a New Year’s resolution.

Here are a few keys to good goal setting:

1. Set an attainable goal. Don’t expect to enact a complete lifestyle change overnight. Leave yourself some wiggle room, because you might have a bad day or a bad week, but that doesn’t mean you’ve failed. You goal should be something you both want to do and are capable of doing.

2. Set a measurable goal. This is how you know whether you’re succeeding. Instead of saying you’ll work out more, specify that you’ll go to the gym three times a week or take a 30 minute walk at least four times a week.

3. Set a time to finish or re-evaluate your goal. Having a finish line to work towards provides motivation. If you’re trying to make long-term changes, it also provides an opportunity to reflect on whether you want to continue as is, make adjustments, or scrap your goal altogether for a new one.

If you’d like some inspiration to help you be healthier this month, the library has many resources to support your physical, mental, and emotional health goals. Try recipes from a healthy cookbook. Pick up a DVD to guide you through a work out at home. Listen to a meditation CD to help you de-stress. Create something in the Dabble Box. Join the adult winter reading program and set a reading goal.

You may think that February goal setting is nonsense, and maybe it is, but I’ve yet to share the best part: if you focus on achieving a goal this February, by the time you’re done, it will already be March.

The L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library is jumping on the cake wagon and joining the many public libraries with cake pan collections!

You batter believe it! Libraries around the country have been curating collections of cake pans for decades. Specialty cake pans can be expensive, especially considering how infrequently most people use them. They also take up a lot of valuable storage space in your home. It just makes sense to share cake pans as a community the same way we share books, movies, music, ukuleles, and sewing machines: through the public library.

Next time you’d like to bake your own funky cake bundt you don’t feel the need to own a novelty pan, don’t sweet it! LEPMPL’s cake pan collection already boasts 28 pans and is still growing. Do you have a cake pan gathering dust in a cupboard? We would love to accept your gently used cake pans. Donations may be left on top of the book donation box in the lower level or dropped off at the Customer Service desk on the first floor.

The collection will debut on Tuesday, November 26 at an open house to celebrate LEPMPL being named the 2019 Library of the Year by the Wisconsin Library Association. Join us for the main ovent from 3-7pm. Eat a cupcake, check out a cake pan, and chat with staff about all the library has to offer.

If you miss the open house, don’t shed a tier! Afterward, the cake pans will be on display on the first floor near the Dabble Box. You will also be able to view a list of all our cake pans on the MORE Catalog. The check-out period for cake pans will be 2 weeks, and they will not be available to put on hold.

For your next celebration, get a slice of the action and sprinkle some extra joy on the occasion! Check out a cake pan from the library!

Banned Books Week is an annual internationally celebrated event where libraries share the most challenged and banned books of the previous year and bring awareness to the threats of censorship in our society. The following list has the top 11 banned books for the year of 2018 with each followed by a powerful quote by influential individuals with similar warnings against censorship throughout history. 

1. George by Alex Gino

Reasons: banned, challenged, and relocated because it was believed to encourage children to clear browser history and change their bodies using hormones, and for mentioning “dirty magazines,” describing male anatomy, “creating confusion,” and including a transgender character

“Censorship reflects society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.” – Potter Stewart, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Republican

2. A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller

Reasons: banned and challenged for including LGBTQIA+ content, and for political and religious viewpoints

“As centuries of dictators have known, an illiterate crowd is the easiest to rule; since the craft of reading cannot be untaught once it has been acquired, the second-best recourse is to limit its scope.” – Alberto Manguel, Argentine Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and Director of the National Library of Argentina

3. Captain Underpants series written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey

Reasons: series was challenged because it was perceived as encouraging disruptive behavior, while Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-A-Lot was challenged for including a same-sex couple

“Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” – Isaac Asimov, Science Fiction Author

4. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Reasons: banned and challenged because it was deemed “anti-cop,” and for profanity, drug use, and sexual references

“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” – Henry Louis Gates, American literary critic

5. Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier

Reasons: banned and challenged for including LGBTQIA+ characters and themes

“The prime goal of censorship is to promote ignorance, whether it is done via lying and bowdlerized school texts or by attacking individual books.” – Felice Picano, American writer

6. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Reasons: banned, challenged, and restricted for addressing teen suicide

“Don’t join the book burners. Don’t think you’re going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book…” – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States, Republican

7. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

Reasons: banned and challenged for profanity, sexual references, and certain illustrations

“The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen.” – Tommy Smothers, American comedian

8. Skippyjon Jones series written and illustrated by Judy Schachner

Reason: challenged for depicting stereotypes of Mexican culture

“The only thing that is obscene is censorship.” – Craig Bruce, Australian radio personality

9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Reasons: banned and challenged for sexual references, profanity, violence, gambling, and underage drinking, and for its religious viewpoint

“Censorship, like charity, should begin at home, but, unlike charity, it should end there.” – Clare Boothe Luce, former U.S. Congresswoman and U.S. Ambassador, Republican

10. This Day in June by Gayle E. Pitman, illustrated by Kristyna Litten

Reason: challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content

“More than a building that houses books and data, the library represents a window to a larger world, the place where we’ve always come to discover big ideas and profound concepts that help move the American story forward and the human story forward. That’s the reason why, since ancient antiquity, whenever those who seek power would want to control the human spirit, they have gone after libraries and books. Whether it’s the ransacking of the great library at Alexandria, controlling information during the Middle Ages, book burnings, or the imprisonment of writers in former communist block countries, the idea has been that if we can control the word, if we can control what people hear and what they read and what they comprehend, then we can control and imprison them, or at least imprison their minds.” – Barrack Obama, 43rd President of the United States, Democrat

11. Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Reason: challenged and burned for including LGBTQIA+ content

“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” – George R.R. Martin, American author, A Clash of Kings