Happy Birthday to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter!

Our very own Senator Specter turns 79 today. If you see him (or not) send good wishes his way.

A Presidential Courtship

Good Morning! This just crossed my screen and I thought it more than entirely appropriate considering President's Day & Valentine's Day are right around the corner. Plus it's always interesting to read about real love stories and even more so if they have to do with an American President and First Lady.


The First Proposal
or
What a Future President of the United States Did When He Was Rejected by the Woman He Loved

How the Internet is Changing Democracy

This just in from a Reuters blog by Don Tapscott : The First 100 Days: Harness the Genie of Citizen Engagement .

This just reinforces what I've known for awhile now: The Internet is here to stay and it is going to be bigger and more pervasive than anything we've seen before. It is, IMHO (in my honest opinion), more important than the invention of the printing press. We have only seen the tip of this particular iceberg.

For all you good people sitting on the Digital Fence (or doing your best to try to ignore it) Mr. Tapscott is absolutely right when he says the genie is out of the bottle and she's not going back. We've got Internet classes here at the library starting in March. Sign up and join the revolution!

More Muppet Show

Watching this intro to The Muppet Show clip just makes me miss it all the more! (Sorry, couldn't help myself.) It was really brilliant and fun. Enjoy!

The Story Behind the Muppets

Have a favorite Muppet?
(I, myself, have several.)

Then check out this Mental_Floss (it's a magazine) blog entry on how twenty of them got their start. (I miss the Muppet Show!)

Click Here!

AFL Friends Winter Raffle

Hey Library Peeps!

There is still time to get your raffle tickets for a chance to win this tres cool raffle basket. You are probably wondering what's in it for you, right? Well, here's a list of the goodies you could win:

• $75 gift certificate to the Inn at 422
• 4 tickets to the Allen Theatre
• $25 gift certificate to Borders
• 3 Best Seller Books
• Various Fun-In-The-Snow items

Tickets are only $2 each or $10 for six!

Help support the AFL Friends support the library you love!
(Say that ten times fast!)

The Drawing will be held:
Friday February 27th @ 4 pm

Need not be present to win.
Winner will be notified by phone.

AFL PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

How much do you really know about smoke detectors? Think they're all the same and all work pretty much the same? Well, they're not and they don't. I know I never thought much about it until my brother called to tell me that he was awakened in the middle of the night to a house FULL of smoke from a malfunctioning wood stove. Guess what? The smoke alarms (which were in good working order) never went off. He told me to go check out the Barre City (VT) Fire Department's website and take a look at their smoke detector videos.

Who knew that there are photoelectric and ionization smoke detectors? Who also knew that the ionization detectors react 20 to 30 minutes slower than the photoelectric ones when exposed to a smoldering fire? Most require an actual flame to set off the alarm. That's a long time to be exposed to disorienting & increasingly deadly fumes.

Check it out for yourself and make sure that you and your family have the right early warning protection. There's a lot of information on this site. Here is the link: http://barrecityfire.org/smoke.html