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This is the Lunch/Dinner menu for Dixie’s Chicken, a restaurant located in Salem, MA. The menu is circa 1945. And, interestingly, feels compelled to include the text “positively no dancing” which makes you wonder about the event that necessitated that addition. View the full menu here: https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/menus/id/15/rec/1
Don’t hesitate to give us a call at 323-255-0537 if you have any questions. Email ayosco@lapl.org
This month’s trivia question asked how you could find a poem on the topic of the start of school. While there are many ways one way is to make use of the library’s database “Lit Finder.” Once in the database you’d want to do an advanced search using the search term school and limiting the results to full text poems. One of the results is the (somewhat saccharine) poem “The Father in School” by Amos R. Wells. The poem begins:
Unfamiliar work and rule, --
Little Lad's first day in school.
"Stay! O papa, stay with me!"
Thus he murmurs tearfully.
And, though business calls away,
Papa stays the livelong day.
Wells, Amos Russel. "The Father in School." The Collected Poems of Amos R. Wells, by Amos R. Wells, Christian Endeavor World, 1921, p. 44. Gale Literature: LitFinder
Find the Lit Finder database on the library’s Research page (https://www.lapl.org/digital-library/search) search for it by title and access it with your library card.
This bookplate is for the Akron Public Library. It is dated 1908 and is a black and white plate of an Olympic runner holding a torch above the library's name which is bordered by a decorative trim.
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark is set in an alternate history Cairo. In this world a researcher managed to open a hole between our universe and one inhabited by mythological beings sometime in the mid-1800s. The resulting migration of some of those beings as well as the technological and scientific discoveries enabled by the whole situation resulted in Egypt coming to prominence in the world. In this particular story we follow two investigators for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities as they investigate a tram car that is haunted getting a close look at this interesting different version of the world along the way.
This is a fascinating exercise in world building that is supported by an interesting plot and likeable characters. I would heartily recommend it.
This month’s trivia question is more about process. Let’s celebrate the start of a new school year with a poem. How could you find a poem on that topic (i.e. the start of the school year)?