Human Rights – From “Conception” to “Realization”

Hey y’all, this is Savannah from the Macon County Public Library.   You heard about several holidays in the last blog but for this blog, we are going to talk about human rights and Human Rights Day which was on December 10. Now, as a semi-trained history geek, my “historian” mind went all over the place …

National Parks and Recreation Month

Hi Shelf Life Readers! Happy National Parks and Recreation month! I am writing to you from the Jackson County Public Library but if you tried to find me during the summer months from 2012 to 2015, you would’ve had to look deep in the wilderness of either the Sumter or Chattahoochee National Forest, where I …

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I made my first trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1975 when I was in graduate school at UTK in Knoxville.  Three years later, forty years ago, our family made our first hiking trip, when we participated in a church sponsored outing, which included a walk up Mount LeConte.   Since then, we've …

Let’s clear the air: a Vulture is not a Buzzard

  Today’s blog focuses on the Turkey Vulture, another one of the most commonly seen birds here in the Southeast. Before we talk about identifying characteristics though, I thought we could dive into the semantics of the terms vulture and buzzard, because it can be pretty confusing. Before researching this topic, whenever I heard the …

Libraries Lead

This past week, April 8th to 14th, was National Library Week! Hooray! We hope everyone celebrated appropriately with books and movies borrowed from your library. If not, don’t worry, Governor Cooper has declared this month as Library Appreciation Month!  National Library Week was first officially sponsored in 1958, making this the 60th anniversary! This week …

“Riders on the Storm,” Vietnam, Pt. 4

When Richard Nixon was elected as President of the United States in November 1968, Lyndon Johnson's administration had started talks with representatives of the Communist government of North Vietnam six months before, but when they attempted to get the South Vietnamese and the Viet Cong to join the discussions, the talks broke down.   The Tét …

“When thou haply seest Some rare noteworthy object in thy travel”

My life here in the frigid middle of January feels like I've been binge-watching an Adam Sandler marathon while trying to stomach a Banquet Microwavable Chicken Pot Pie that was taken out of the oven after just over a minute-and-a-half -- addlepated with an unshakable feeling of general disappointment. (As an aside, how hungry do …

“We Gotta Get Out Of This Place,” Vietnam, Part 3

This  is the third blog  in a series about the Vietnam War and focuses on the  consequences of  the Communist Tét Offensive in the spring of 1968.  It is also the fiftieth  anniversary  of the North Vietnamese Army (PAVN)/VC attack that changed the war and influenced the political climate back in the States.    Tét is …

Katrina, Ike, Harvey, Irma, Maria, Etc.

  Note:  In addition to books available in the collections of Fontana Regional Library and the NC Cardinal consortium I used articles from databases in NC Live. In recent weeks three category four or five hurricanes devastated multiple Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico,  the Gulf coast of Texas  and the whole state of Florida.  Remnants of …

Truman vs. MacArthur

On June 25, 1950, the North Korean army streamed across the 38th parallel attacking the poorly equipped Republic of Korea (ROK) soldiers, driving them southward.  With the backing of the United Nations Security Council, President Harry S. Truman ordered General Douglas MacArthur to send  members of the 8th United States army, then on occupation duty …