Boy Love

Gainesville

A nice day working with the comics in Special Collections. I am learning so much about them by doing this drudge work. My experience as a serials cataloger helps me make good choices on how to describe them in the inventory. Most interesting was two issues of Shojo-Beat ... a manga pub for girls-- big eyed soap operas, mostly about boys. It was in English, but reads from back to front, Japanese-style. Had a hard time with it til I figured that out! My ignorance of manga is vast, but fortunately we don't have much of it. Yet.

Lots of Batman and Green Arrow today. And many single issues and graphic novels-- even an early edition of one of the Sandman compilations. I especially loved coming across a single issue of Love and Rockets -- the first comic book of it I've ever seen; all I know are compilations. I hate the ads when I'm reading new comics, but they are really a hoot when looking at old ones.

Dinner was a blast from the past: Pasta a la Newman. The pasta was dried low-carb Dreamfield instead of the fresh regular stuff we used to get; I actually like it better.

Sandy, tonight I'm drinking your Blue Stuff (the bottle of Bombay we got when you were here). It's not half bad! I'm letting Bill have what's left of the Tanq. It's not desperate yet-- I have one more backup fifth, the travel kit fifth, and a desperation pint left. My number one mission for tomorrow is a liquor run!

Good baby step, Mom. The secret to holding on to cleared Hot Spots is simple: Pick up after yourself every day. When I do that, things go well. When I don't... not so much. It's really such a simple principle, but so hard to internalize.

I should confess that before Doug came I did a stash-and-dash of the stuff that had piled up on the desk in the library room. I tend to put paid bills, magazine subscription notices, things I might possibly want to support, or look into, or do, in a heap. Which shortly overwhelms the desk. Somewhere I have stashed a plastic shopping bag full of this stuff. Now if I could just remember where...

I got a huge book in the mail today-- The Smithsonian Book of Newspaper Comics, to replace the library copy I've had checked out for years. It cost $35 in 1977. I bought a truly "like new" copy from an Amazon seller for $13.50, including postage! It even has a beautiful, unmarred dust jacket. Sweet. My nice little comics collection needs to expand shelf space again, which means more books from in here will be shifted into the limbo of Overflow in the big room. This time it will be UNIX reference books. Haven't looked at any of them in a looooong time.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, THIS year's Library Spring Picnic Invitation. And who's the cutest Wild Thing of them all??

Cast your vote now! Operators are standing by!