The Delaware County District Library’s latest edition of our quarterly newsletter/calendar, “Check It Out!,” has hit the streets! Featured on this issue’s cover are Ostrander branch associate Laurie Post and Gabriel, her 31-year-old thoroughbred horse, who has been with her for the last 22 years.
Laurie, the proud great-granddaughter of the former Presidente Municipal de Hermosillo, Mexico, is helping the library promote Hispanic heritage in Delaware County.
This September and October, the library is leading a communitywide reading of the 2014 bestselling novel “The Book of Unknown Americans” by Cristina Henriquez. Hundreds of copies of the book are available for checkout, so you, too, can join the discussions planned throughout the next few weeks.
You’ll want to mark your calendar for Oct. 9 when author Henriquez will be at the Delaware main library to speak about writing the book and being an American of Latin descent.
The library has also been selected to receive the “Latino Americans: 500 Years of History” grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association to help support the DelawaREADS program. You can find information about all of the programs, including the upcoming screening of the PBS film “Latino Americans” at the Strand Theatre, at www.delawaREADs.org.
“Check It Out!” is loaded with other great announcements about upcoming programs as well as a complete program lineup for each library location. Pick yours up today.
What is the Mathematical Bridge?
The Mathematical Bridge is the popular name of a wooden footbridge in the southwest of central Cambridge, United Kingdom. It bridges the River Cam and connects two parts of Queens’ College. Its official name is simply the Wooden Bridge. The bridge was designed by William Etheridge and built by James Essex in 1749. It has been rebuilt on two occasions, in 1866 and in 1905, but has kept the same overall design. Although it appears to be an arch, it is composed entirely of straight timbers built to an unusually sophisticated engineering design, giving the bridge its name. A popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts. Various stories relate how at some point in the past either students or fellows of the university attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together, but were unable to work out how to hold the structure together and were obliged to resort to adding nuts and bolts. In reality, bolts or the equivalent are inherent parts of the design. When it was first built, iron spikes were driven into the joints from the outer side, where they could not be seen from the inside of the parapets, explaining why bolts were thought to be an addition to the original. Check in World Book Encyclopedia for a photo of the Mathematical Bridge.
Why is coffee called a “cup of joe?”
According to Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, there are two popular theories about the origin of this phrase. One refers to Josephus Daniels, who was Secretary of the Navy. In June 1914, he banned all U.S. Navy ships from serving alcoholic beverages, so sailors had to resort to the next strongest drink on the list: coffee. Since Josephus Daniels was the one responsible for banning alcohol, the sailors nicknamed coffee after him, or “a cup of joe.” However, a more plausible theory comes from www.Snopes.com, where it is explained how the word “joe” can simply mean the average man.; therefore, a drink involving the word “joe” would show that the drink is for the common man, or the average person.
Can the library help me to write my resume?
While library staff are generally not available for this type of one-on-one help, we do offer a wonderful online resume-builder called Cypress Resume that lets you create professional-quality resumes. The program eliminates the difficult work of composing and formatting your resume and produces a finished resume in minutes. You merely fill in the blanks as prompted, and when you are done, you can email, print or save your resume. You’ll find Cypress Resume under the “Research” tab on the library’s website at www.delawarelibrary.org.
