Read about this centennial celebration here.
Archive for Fun
Happy Groundhog Day!
A harbinger of sprinr? Rr a prognosticator of more winter? We’ll find out today. In the meantime, please visit these sites for more information: Groundhog Day: Ancient Origins of a Modern Celebration from the Library of Congress; Groundhog Day: History and Facts from the History Channel; Ground Hog History from the National Weather Service; or Groundhog Day from the Britannica.
Also, please consult the hundreds of newspaper articles, going back over a century, on this celebratory occasion.
Top 2023 Google Seaches for New York City Area (includes Jersey City)
Here is what we have been searching for this past year.
The History of Halloween
This feature from history.com does a good job; The Deep History Lurking Behind Halloween from the University of California Press also presents some fascinating historical details.
Halloween Greeting Cards
Here are some historic examples of Halloween cards: from the New York Public Library; Material Matters: Halloween from the Winterthur Museum; and Happy Hallowe’en from Middlebury College.
When Will Peak Fall Foliage Arrive in New Jersey?
According to this interactive fall foliage prediction map for the contiguous United States, New Jersey’s peak season will be around October 16. You can also see where the colors will be most vibrant in other states as well. Scroll down in the above site for more interesting facts about fall foliage.
New 2023 MLB Rules Explained
As baseball season opens today (go Mets!), here are the new rules and what they mean for the game.
New MLB Rules for the 2023 Season
There are three new rules that have been approved for major league play: pitch clock, defensive positioning, and larger bases. For an explanation of these changes and what the impacts will be on the game, please come to this MLB site.
Happy Festivus!
The airing of grievances. The feats of strength. The Festivus pole. The origins of this December 23 holiday can be found here.
2022 NFL Rulebook, Media Guides, Factbook
As this season gets underway, one has recourse to: 2022 Official National Football League Record & Factbook; 2022 Media Guides For All NFL Teams; and 2022 National Football League Rulebook (this latter volume comes in at a bewildering 245 pages).
A Walking Tour of Greenwich Village
This is a lovely tribute to this most unique NYC neighborhood. (A point of transparency – I lived in the Village and went to NYU as an undergraduate and graduate student.) This video is from the Architectural Digest site that is replete with additional historic tours.
Three Essential Guides to 2021 Football Season
For those armchair quarterbcks, these titles are a must have:
2021 Official NFL Record and Fact Book;
2021 Official Playing Rules of the National Football League; and
The Negro Leagues in Baseball
Baseball.com, a comprehensive source for all things baseball, has begun to more exhaustively cover the Negro Leagues in its work. This will be an ongoing project as more teams, players, and histories can be explored in detail. Read about the Newark Eagles and some of its players: Monte Irwin and Mule Suttles.
Another database to be commended is the comprehensive Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, an impressively vast compendium of information.
A stimulus to this project was the recent announcement by MLB that the Negro Leagues are major league.
You’ve Seen Lupin, Now Read His Adventures
The Netflix series Lupin has garnered much attention since it first appeared. How many know that the character of Lupin figures prominently in a series of novels, plays, short stories, and that in fact a couple of the stories revolve around the master criminal up against Sherlock Holmes? (These two are actually contemporaries of each other.) For those interested in reading about Lupin’s exploits, you can visit this site where dozens of translated works reside. You can also listen to many of these works here. IMDb lists the many film versions of Lupin back to 1909; here is a trailer for “Arsene Lupin Returns”
Everything You Need to Know About the MLB Post- Season Playoffs
In excruciating detail, this ESPN piece epitomizes TMI.
The Sounds of New York City
I am a native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn, schooled at the major universities in this city, employed by at that time the most profitable company in the world, and a resident of The Imperial City for almost three decades. There are certain sounds that accompany that part of my life’s journey that have now been stilled. However, the New York Public Library has released an album of those city sounds – Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers; the last track is entitled “The Not Quite Quiet Library”. Enjoy.
More Free Children’s Books Online from Audible
Audible has made available for free numerous children’s books in multiple languages. You can listen to White Fang, The House at Pooh Corner, and Bambi, among others. Access to classic works, fairy tales, and works for older children can also be freely accessed. This offer will last as long as schools are closed.
Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library Blog 