Many things go missing – overdue books, keys, socks in the dryer – but none of those can compare with the gravity of when a person simply disappears. Approximately 90,000 people are missing at this very moment in the United States, and while the vast majority of missing person cases are resolved quickly , the remaining 0.3% of cold… continue reading The Mystery of Missing Persons
By written by Violet L. April 16, 2019 2
The Barbie doll’s official beau has always been Ken, but to many toy collectors (and some cultural critics ) the real natural counterpart to Barbie has always been G.I. Joe . The two playthings, created within five years of each other, ushered in a new era in the way children play with – and the way adults regard – toys .… continue reading Happy Birthday, Barbie and G.I. Joe!
By written by Violet L. March 27, 2019 2
March 20 is the Great American Meatout – an annual challenge to pass up meat for just one day and give the vegetarian (or vegan) life a try. What you choose to eat is a very personal choice, but if you’ve been contemplating making the switch to a plant-based diet and all its benefits , know that you’ll be in very… continue reading A Look at Some Famous "Veggies" in Honor of the Great American MeatOut
By written by Violet L. March 20, 2019 1
Even if you’ve never read Mary Shelley ’s groundbreaking novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus , you’ve certainly heard of the stiched-together monster the teenage mother invented during a drizzly 1816 summer vacation on Lake Geneva , in response to a contest proposed by Lord Byron for each vacationer – a crowd… continue reading Immersive Multimedia Experience Breathes New Life into the Frankenstein Mythos
By written by Violet L. February 21, 2019
Get your scented candles and bath bombs ready, because February 9 is Read in The Bathtub Day! We know you’ve probably already got an attractive paperback you’ve been dying to find time to dip into, but if you need some suggestions, here’s a bathing bibliography to peruse. Why not start with the writer who set her novels in her… continue reading Take a Deep Dive Into These Recommendations for Read in the Bathtub Day!
By written by Violet L. February 8, 2019
Long before Comic-Con , long before the Hugo and Nebula awards, long before the sci-fi superhero film Black Panther made $1.3 billion dollars globally and became one of the highest grossing movies of all time , a Harlem man named Warren Fitzgerald invited some similarly future-minded pals over to the home he shared with his wife Gertrude… continue reading Black to the Future: African-American Voices in Science Fiction
By written by Violet L. February 5, 2019 1
On a cold winter day 125 years ago, only two hours from here in West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison completed construction on the Black Maria , (pronounced "muh-RYE-uh") the world’s first film production studio. The black tarpaper shack (built for a cost of more than $15,000 in today’s money )… continue reading Masterpieces of Silent Film at the Free Library
By written by Violet L. January 31, 2019
With an estimated 62 million Spanish speakers residing in the US, the United States now has the second largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico. But for many bilingual Americans, their preferred everyday tongue is "Spanglish", a comfortable mix of Spanish and English that's spoken with friends,… continue reading Spanglish Se Habla Aquí
By written by Violet L. November 16, 2018
If you totaled up all your tweets, comments, texts, and Facebook posts for one day, do you think they might add up to 1,667 words? They might very well – in which case, why not try your hand at NaNoWriMo , or, as it’s more formally known, National Novel Writing Month ? That’s when professional writers, budding… continue reading It's National Novel Writing Month—Get Motivated to Start Writing Your Own Book!
By written by Violet L. November 6, 2018
The Fool in King Lear advised "Speak less than thou knowest" – but it's good the speakers at this year’s Shakespeare in the World lecture series aren’t following his advice. If you’re addicted to knowing all there is to know about " The Bard of Avon" , fix your eyeballs on this… continue reading Shakespeare In the World Lecture Series
By written by Violet L. November 5, 2018 1
The position of First Lady is a unique one in American government. It’s not a democratically elected position, but the office holds a great deal of cultural clout, and the women who occupied it have been deemed significant enough for the U.S. Mint to honor them on a $10 coin series , making them the most populous group of women depicted… continue reading First Ladies, In Their Own Words
By written by Violet L. October 29, 2018
Does the "O" in October ever remind you of a hot, bubbling, scrumptious pizza? If it does, maybe that’s because October is National Pizza Month! We just observed International Pizza and Beer day last week—a perfect pairing if ever there was one—but there are plenty of other great cookbooks about how to bake that… continue reading Celebrate National Pizza Month Through Books and Film!
By written by Violet L. October 19, 2018
Have you ever read a graphic novel or a comic strip and thought, "I would love to make my own comic... but I don’t know how!" Well, good news! The Free Library has tremendous resources about how to create comics, and here’s just a few of them, from absolute beginner to way, way advanced. If you’ve never even doodled… continue reading So You Want To Draw Comics...
By written by Violet L. September 19, 2018 2
You’ve heard the adage that “All politics is local”, but the real, hidden story of American life is documented in the rich and mostly lost bounty of local television programming . For every regional program like Philly’s Bandstand that became a nationwide hit as American Bandstand , there are thousands of farm reports,… continue reading Input and the Extraordinary Marion Stokes
By written by Violet L. September 14, 2018 10
Who remembers having to visit the library and look up magazine articles in the long, long row of green hardbound Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature ? No disrespect against the Reader’s Guide— it’s still a great resource and we’ve still got it in the reference stacks at many of our branches —but if… continue reading Back to School Resources | The Artemis Literary Database
By written by Violet L. August 29, 2018
For Baby Boomers, the words “Land Shark”, “Samurai Delicatessen”, “Coneheads”, and “The Blues Brothers” conjures up adventures on the wild frontier of comedy, when Saturday Night Live defined the ultimate in pointed, no-holds-barred laughs that weaved back and forth on the tightrope between… continue reading Brought To You In Living Color
By written by Violet L. August 23, 2018
"For two centuries," writes The New Yorker essayist Adam Gopnik in the preface of his 2004 collection Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology , "Paris has been attached for Americans to an idea of happiness, of good things eaten and new clothes bought and a sentimental education achieved." The voices of over 250 years of… continue reading An American Author in Paris
By written by Violet L. August 16, 2018
