This has been a very enjoyable training exercise. I've enjoyed learning to blog and may continue that -- I have some ideas up my sleeve, not particularly library-related, but sort of (my last blog here, about the name of this blog, is a hint ...).
I always enjoyed the guidance we get with these training opportunities -- there are some very smart people running this affair -- and I appreciate that they will change deadlines and fine-tune assignments as needed.
I've learned how to find RA sites in unfamiliar genres; how to find and review book trailers (whether they're actually useful or draw in new readers is another question); and I've found through their blogs and Goodreads friendship that many of my coworkers have similar or interestingly contrasting taste in reading.
And it's becoming obvious who to ask for help in what genres!
So thank to everyone who initiated this training -- see you in cyberspace!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Stoddard's Palm Garden
Some of my readers have been curious about where the title of this blog came from -- "Stoddard's Palm Garden"? What's that? They clamour for an answer, and so I will explain.
James W. Stoddard was a Catonsvillian of the turn of the last century, who ran the Terminal Hotel, located at 1600 Frederick Road, just next to the terminus of the streetcar line that ran from Towson through Baltimore and ended in Catonsville, from 1898 to November, 1963. From about 1898, when he took the venture over from Thomas Litchfield, until about 1925, he owned or managed the hotel, and established an outdoor palm garden in time for the Fourth of July celebration in 1900.
The building itself, with additions, survives as Matthew's 1600. According to info in online version of the Baltimore County Department of Assessments and Taxation, the primary structure was built in 1903 ... but the dates for buildings of this era can be off by years in either direction.
While under Stoddard's care, the Terminal Hotel and Stoddard's Palm Garden hosted jousting tournaments, with a 20-dollar prize for the jouster who lanced the most rings, with $15 for second, $10 for third and $5 for fourth.
Jousting for dangling rings is the Official Maryland State Sport, as you may know, and the ground it takes to run through the arches means the field must currently be over a hundred yards long, though of course jousters in 1904 were probably not adhering to the Official Rules that were laid down in 1950. More information may be had here, at the official site of the Maryland Jousting Tournament Association.
One envisions a jousting field set up on the grassy slope which is now Matthews' paved parking lot. There was certainly a large amount of land between the Hotel and the house next door, where Stoddard lived at the time of the 1920, 1930 and 1940 Federal Census. After the completion of the electric railway between Catonsville and Ellicott City in 1898, an auction of "THIRTY EIGHT HEAD OF FINE YOUNG MULES AND SIX GOOD HORSES" was held on the property on December 14, 1898. That's a lot of livestock!
Ralph Heidelbach's compendium of booklets, held in the Catonsville Room of the Baltimore County Public Library under the title Catonsville, contains a drawing he did in the mid-1980s of the Palm Garden as he remembered it from his youth. I include that drawing here, and will add a version based on a current photograph of the site. Guess I'd better draw that up -- for now, here's Heidelbach's version:
Transcriptions of various Terminal Hotel-related articles and ads in the Baltimore Sun:
A July 13, 1886 ad:
TERMINUS HOTEL, CATONSVILLE, MD., Is now refitted and ready for the reception of visitors. Catonsville is noted as a Summer Resort and its healthy location and beautiful shady walks. Every accommodation guaranteed. Wines, Liquors and Cigars of the best brands. Meals at all hours at moderate charges. THOS. LITCHFIELD, Proprietor.
August 20, 1889:
WANTED -- A Young Boy, about 16 years of age to HELP IN A BAR and make himself generally useful. THOMAS LITCHFIELD, Terminus Hotel, Catonsville, Md.
June 17, 1898:
Sudden Death of Mr. Thomas Litchfield, A Well-Known Catonsville Contractor
Mr. Thomas Litchfield, a well-known contractor of Catonsville, died suddenly of acute diarrhoea yesterday at "Castle Thunder," his home, on Frederick Avenue.
Mr. Litchfield was fifty-seven years of age and was the son of the late H. Litchfield, a well-known Englishman. He was born in England in 1840, came to this country in 1872 and settled in New York, where he was superintendent in the Page Rolling Mills. In 1877 he removed to Baltimore, where he conducted a restaurant. In 1885 he moved to Catonsville, where he opened the old Terminus Hotel, which he conducted until last November, when he engaged in general contracting work.
On July 16, 1872, while in England, he was married to Miss Martha Ann Jenkins, daughter of J. Jenkins, of England, who survives him, with two children, Harry Litchfield and Mrs. Harry Johnson.
In 1907 James Stoddard attending a hearing at the Towson District Court, regarding his "saloon," probably in the Terminus Hotel. My guess is this was a liquor board hearing, wherein Stoddard and about 20 others defended their claims for liquor licenses.
Things seemed to go well and smoothly for James Stoddard and his Hotel -- usually called the "Old Terminus Hotel" but sometimes "The Terminal Hotel" or "Stoddard's" -- until Prohibition took effect in January 1920.
In the December 2, 1922 Sun:
Catonsville Hotel Raided by Local Dry Agents
Terminal Hostelry Owner Summoned Before Commissioner Supplee
Raiding the Terminal Hotel and Garden, Frederick and Montrose avenues, Catonsville, yesterday afternoon, prohibition agents from the office of Edmund Budnitz, Maryland director, seized a large quantity of alleged illicit liquors, some of which was said to be of rare vintage.
Sidney J. Reinach, proprietor, and James Bropenberg, bartender, were summoned to appear today before J. Frank Supplee, Jr., United States Commissioner, to answer charges of violation of the dry law.
The seizures, consisting of 75 bottles of alleged rare wines and other liquors, and 1,000 bottles of what is supposed to be homebrew beer, were discovered secreted in trunks and cupboards scattered about the establishment, it was said by John M. Barton, who led the raid. With Barton were Agents R. E. Beall, E. Frank Ely, Jesse H. Bratten, Wilton L. Stevens and Robert Barnes.
More to come -- this post is a Work In Progress
James W. Stoddard was a Catonsvillian of the turn of the last century, who ran the Terminal Hotel, located at 1600 Frederick Road, just next to the terminus of the streetcar line that ran from Towson through Baltimore and ended in Catonsville, from 1898 to November, 1963. From about 1898, when he took the venture over from Thomas Litchfield, until about 1925, he owned or managed the hotel, and established an outdoor palm garden in time for the Fourth of July celebration in 1900.
The building itself, with additions, survives as Matthew's 1600. According to info in online version of the Baltimore County Department of Assessments and Taxation, the primary structure was built in 1903 ... but the dates for buildings of this era can be off by years in either direction.
While under Stoddard's care, the Terminal Hotel and Stoddard's Palm Garden hosted jousting tournaments, with a 20-dollar prize for the jouster who lanced the most rings, with $15 for second, $10 for third and $5 for fourth.
Jousting for dangling rings is the Official Maryland State Sport, as you may know, and the ground it takes to run through the arches means the field must currently be over a hundred yards long, though of course jousters in 1904 were probably not adhering to the Official Rules that were laid down in 1950. More information may be had here, at the official site of the Maryland Jousting Tournament Association.
One envisions a jousting field set up on the grassy slope which is now Matthews' paved parking lot. There was certainly a large amount of land between the Hotel and the house next door, where Stoddard lived at the time of the 1920, 1930 and 1940 Federal Census. After the completion of the electric railway between Catonsville and Ellicott City in 1898, an auction of "THIRTY EIGHT HEAD OF FINE YOUNG MULES AND SIX GOOD HORSES" was held on the property on December 14, 1898. That's a lot of livestock!
Ralph Heidelbach's compendium of booklets, held in the Catonsville Room of the Baltimore County Public Library under the title Catonsville, contains a drawing he did in the mid-1980s of the Palm Garden as he remembered it from his youth. I include that drawing here, and will add a version based on a current photograph of the site. Guess I'd better draw that up -- for now, here's Heidelbach's version:
 |
| H. Ralph Heidelbach's drawing, ca 1984 |
A July 13, 1886 ad:
TERMINUS HOTEL, CATONSVILLE, MD., Is now refitted and ready for the reception of visitors. Catonsville is noted as a Summer Resort and its healthy location and beautiful shady walks. Every accommodation guaranteed. Wines, Liquors and Cigars of the best brands. Meals at all hours at moderate charges. THOS. LITCHFIELD, Proprietor.
***
August 20, 1889:
WANTED -- A Young Boy, about 16 years of age to HELP IN A BAR and make himself generally useful. THOMAS LITCHFIELD, Terminus Hotel, Catonsville, Md.
***
June 17, 1898:
Sudden Death of Mr. Thomas Litchfield, A Well-Known Catonsville Contractor
Mr. Thomas Litchfield, a well-known contractor of Catonsville, died suddenly of acute diarrhoea yesterday at "Castle Thunder," his home, on Frederick Avenue.
Mr. Litchfield was fifty-seven years of age and was the son of the late H. Litchfield, a well-known Englishman. He was born in England in 1840, came to this country in 1872 and settled in New York, where he was superintendent in the Page Rolling Mills. In 1877 he removed to Baltimore, where he conducted a restaurant. In 1885 he moved to Catonsville, where he opened the old Terminus Hotel, which he conducted until last November, when he engaged in general contracting work.
On July 16, 1872, while in England, he was married to Miss Martha Ann Jenkins, daughter of J. Jenkins, of England, who survives him, with two children, Harry Litchfield and Mrs. Harry Johnson.
***
Stoddard took over the Terminus/Terminal Hotel in 1898 and spent over $1,200 refurbishing it, for a reopening in 1899.
In 1907 James Stoddard attending a hearing at the Towson District Court, regarding his "saloon," probably in the Terminus Hotel. My guess is this was a liquor board hearing, wherein Stoddard and about 20 others defended their claims for liquor licenses.
***
Things seemed to go well and smoothly for James Stoddard and his Hotel -- usually called the "Old Terminus Hotel" but sometimes "The Terminal Hotel" or "Stoddard's" -- until Prohibition took effect in January 1920.
***
In the December 2, 1922 Sun:
Catonsville Hotel Raided by Local Dry Agents
Terminal Hostelry Owner Summoned Before Commissioner Supplee
Raiding the Terminal Hotel and Garden, Frederick and Montrose avenues, Catonsville, yesterday afternoon, prohibition agents from the office of Edmund Budnitz, Maryland director, seized a large quantity of alleged illicit liquors, some of which was said to be of rare vintage.
Sidney J. Reinach, proprietor, and James Bropenberg, bartender, were summoned to appear today before J. Frank Supplee, Jr., United States Commissioner, to answer charges of violation of the dry law.
The seizures, consisting of 75 bottles of alleged rare wines and other liquors, and 1,000 bottles of what is supposed to be homebrew beer, were discovered secreted in trunks and cupboards scattered about the establishment, it was said by John M. Barton, who led the raid. With Barton were Agents R. E. Beall, E. Frank Ely, Jesse H. Bratten, Wilton L. Stevens and Robert Barnes.
***
More to come -- this post is a Work In Progress
Monday, June 17, 2013
Week Nine, Assignments One and Two
Assignment One: Done. Interesting articles. Most of the trailers I've seen have been on TV, not on the Internet (I don't click ads as a rule, except by accident) and I usually don't watch ads on TV -- sometimes I don't find the remote in time to fast-forward past them.
The trailers I've seen weren't nearly so objectionable as the ones these writers are reacting against -- though the production values are usually pretty low, about what you expect from a high-budget local-TV commercial. There are exceptions, though, which I'll talk about a big, below.
Assignment Two: I watched the Official Trailer for Stephen King's latest, Joyland ... but sadly, it was in Polish. So apart from commenting on the production values (decent-budget TV-commercial-quality), I don't have much to go on there. Stock shots of an amusement park, with proper "fun/scary" sound effects, followed by Polish voice over probably saying "Joyland, the latest horror-thriller from the master of horror-thrillers, horror-thriller-master Stephen King. Available in WalMarts in Warsaw, Lodz, and Gdansk. For everywhere else, there's Amazon." It seemed like an adequate trailer. I give this one a five on a ten-point scale.
The trailer for James Patterson's Maximum Ride looked good, at least in the small window on a 13.2-inch monitor, lots of CGI of wing-sprouting angel-creatures soaring around a Gotham-like cityscape, but not movie-quality. The "acting" consisted of meaningful glances between angel-like things but they were mostly flying, not emoting. I give this one a six.
The last I watched was for John Green's hyper popular The Fault of Our Stars and it made so little an impression I don't remember a thing about it. Wait, I'm gonna go look again, brb.
Okay, teen-actors on a playground, "sensitive" music and quotes go by, and a heart monitor beeps. A tragic teen love story? Gee, there's never been anything like that, EVER!
I know, that's heretical, and I really will read it one day -- it can't be bad, if my daughter loves it so much, at least that's been my experience with most books she loves (except Twilight, and that was just a phase). The trailer was quick and evocative, though it didn't really make the book look too appealing to a Green-novice (I was just going to say "Greenovice" but didn't want to confuse anyone unnecessarily).
Whether book trailers are of any use is probably not debatable -- it's a "modern" form of advertising, and books have been advertised by their publishers since Daniel Defoe's time, if not before. How effective they are -- whether they're worth the expense to the publisher -- is between the publisher and his bottom line. My guess is that they MUST help fuel sales, or we wouldn't be seeing them, especially for books by new authors.
And not very useful for RA, I think.
The trailers I've seen weren't nearly so objectionable as the ones these writers are reacting against -- though the production values are usually pretty low, about what you expect from a high-budget local-TV commercial. There are exceptions, though, which I'll talk about a big, below.
Assignment Two: I watched the Official Trailer for Stephen King's latest, Joyland ... but sadly, it was in Polish. So apart from commenting on the production values (decent-budget TV-commercial-quality), I don't have much to go on there. Stock shots of an amusement park, with proper "fun/scary" sound effects, followed by Polish voice over probably saying "Joyland, the latest horror-thriller from the master of horror-thrillers, horror-thriller-master Stephen King. Available in WalMarts in Warsaw, Lodz, and Gdansk. For everywhere else, there's Amazon." It seemed like an adequate trailer. I give this one a five on a ten-point scale.
The trailer for James Patterson's Maximum Ride looked good, at least in the small window on a 13.2-inch monitor, lots of CGI of wing-sprouting angel-creatures soaring around a Gotham-like cityscape, but not movie-quality. The "acting" consisted of meaningful glances between angel-like things but they were mostly flying, not emoting. I give this one a six.
The last I watched was for John Green's hyper popular The Fault of Our Stars and it made so little an impression I don't remember a thing about it. Wait, I'm gonna go look again, brb.
***
Okay, teen-actors on a playground, "sensitive" music and quotes go by, and a heart monitor beeps. A tragic teen love story? Gee, there's never been anything like that, EVER!
I know, that's heretical, and I really will read it one day -- it can't be bad, if my daughter loves it so much, at least that's been my experience with most books she loves (except Twilight, and that was just a phase). The trailer was quick and evocative, though it didn't really make the book look too appealing to a Green-novice (I was just going to say "Greenovice" but didn't want to confuse anyone unnecessarily).
Whether book trailers are of any use is probably not debatable -- it's a "modern" form of advertising, and books have been advertised by their publishers since Daniel Defoe's time, if not before. How effective they are -- whether they're worth the expense to the publisher -- is between the publisher and his bottom line. My guess is that they MUST help fuel sales, or we wouldn't be seeing them, especially for books by new authors.
And not very useful for RA, I think.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Week Eight, Assignment Four: Two nonfiction booktalks
Eight Men Out, Eliot Asinof, 1963. That the 1919 World Series was thrown by the Chicago White Sox was not unique -- sports was rift with betting and criminal influence, both before and since. What made the "Black Sox Scandal" so noteworthy is the way the baseball club owners instituted a higher authority -- the National Baseball Commission -- and handled the problem from the inside out, and from the top down. Eight Chicago players were initially placed on a makeshift "ineligible" list (with the promise to be reinstated if found not guilty of their accusations), and eventually indicted on various conspiracy charges. All eight were acquitted. All eight were never allowed to play professional baseball again.
Appeal factors such as characterization, setting and detail are all pronounced in Asinof's book. The team roster comes to life and the motivations for the players to do what they were accused of doing (remember, they were acquitted so you can't legally say they did anything illegal!) are clear: they played baseball for a man (Charles Comiskey) who was so notoriously cheap that one story behind the name "The Black Sox" predates the gambling scandal and instead refers to Comiskey's making his underpaid players pay for their own uniform laundering -- and in protest, they played until the white-with-black-pinstripe uniforms were almost completely black with grime.
The best baseball club in the world worked for fame and fortune for a man who wouldn't share the fortune he was making off of them. Wouldn't that gambler's money be pretty durn tempting to men who'd been cheated out of promised bonuses and benefits?
Asinof, writing 40 years after the facts, and while some of the principals were still living (four of The Eight were still alive when the book was published), relied almost entirely on newspaper accounts and other researches -- his introduction says that he met with some of the 1919 team but no one would talk to him about the World Series. Why not? What would so stigmatize the players that they felt they couldn't speak to a reporter about the event that forever changed their lives?
This topic, and the history of Christianity, has long fascinated me, probably contributing to my heretical bend. Ehrman started his career as an Evangelical Christian, out to prove that the Bible was actually and literally written by "God" and therefore inviolate by us mere humans, but his open-eyed researches have lead him to other conclusions. I think this is what I like so much about his work: it's the former smoker who makes the most convincing anti-smoking crusader, after all. Plus his research seems (to a non-specialist) fair, balanced, and thorough.
This is not to say Ehrman is anti-Christian, at all. He's just become much more scholarly than he originally intended, and has some interesting and, to some, controversial conclusions about the earliest versions of Christianity -- which he calls proto-orthodox Christianity.
This book would be a natural to recommend to those who are intrigued by the religious aspects of Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series -- but unlike Brown, Ehrman's books, shorter on story-line, are much longer on research and detail. (In fact, Ehrman wrote one of the [many] books that debunked some of Brown's conspiracy theories, namely Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code, 2006.)
Week Eight, Assignment Three: Four nonfiction recommendations
"Choose any four of the 16 nonfiction genres ... list Dewey call numbers for those genres .... Choose and recommend a book for someone who normally doesn't read nonfiction."
In a surprise move, Bryce chooses the genres of Sports (790s, generally), Faith (200s) ... and then resorts to the old faithfuls of History (900s) and Biography/Memoirs (which SLRC's video divides into two separate genres -- I disagree. They live, in BCPL at least, in B or, in Dewey terms, the 920s, with some in other sections throughout the collection, depending on a myriad of reasons best understood by cataloguers -- as an example, if 51% of a biography is about the subjects fight against heroin addiction, you might find it in the "substance abuse" section, in the 616s).
In Sports -- and people who know me know I'm not a fan at all, really, but I do have an historical appreciation for Sports and can fake it when some jock wants to talk about how The Ravens, Orioles, Blackhawks, Lakers, or Pomona College Sagehens did last night -- I'd recommend Eliot Asinof's book on the Chicago "Black Sox" Scandal of 1919, Eight Men Out (796.357 A). A detailed "book talk" will follow.
In Faith -- and people who know me know I'm not a fan at all, really, but I do have an historical appreciation for Faith and can fake it when someone want to talk about the Torah, the Bible, the Lotus Sutra, or the Book of Mormon -- I'd recommend Bart D. Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus (225 E).
History is my "thing," I enjoy it a lot, and despite its somewhat dry reputation, there has been a lot of good narrative nonfiction in the discipline ever since Tacitus' time. Fiction readers might be intrigued by Simon Winchester's A Crack in the Edge of the World, about the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906 (979.461 W), among literally thousands of others.
Memoirs and biographies are just "personal" histories, so semi-obviously a history nerd is going to enjoy them, too. Truman, by David McCullough, tells in vibrant terms the story of "Give 'Em Hell Harry," the President perhaps best known for nuking Japan and firing General MacArthur for insubordination (Biography [or 920] TRUMAN).
In a surprise move, Bryce chooses the genres of Sports (790s, generally), Faith (200s) ... and then resorts to the old faithfuls of History (900s) and Biography/Memoirs (which SLRC's video divides into two separate genres -- I disagree. They live, in BCPL at least, in B or, in Dewey terms, the 920s, with some in other sections throughout the collection, depending on a myriad of reasons best understood by cataloguers -- as an example, if 51% of a biography is about the subjects fight against heroin addiction, you might find it in the "substance abuse" section, in the 616s).
Monday, June 10, 2013
Week Eight, Assignment Two: View a SRLC video.
Done. Good job, State Library Resources Center! I sort of disagree that Biography and Memoir are two separate genres, though -- more like two sides of the same coin, one written in the third person, and presumably without an "agenda," the other usually in the first person, and generally with an "agenda" (those that say the loudest that they HAVE no agenda are those with the most profound ones).
Week Eight: Nonfiction
Or, as Cole Porter and Peter Bogdanovich might say, "At Long Last, Love."
I'm a big-time reader of non-fiction. Not that there's anything wrong with fiction, I enjoy it, too, but I read far more non-fiction, always have, always will.
For the first part of this assignment, we read articles by Jennifer Brannen, "Borderlands: Crossing between Fiction and Nonfiction in Readers' Advisory," and Catherine Sheldrick Ross, "Reading Nonfiction for Pleasure: What Motivates Readers?" Brannen's was a good opinion piece, based on experience and principle, but I found more value to Ross's article, if only because hers is based on interviews and her own personal research. (To be fair, the articles are two different approaches to the same general subject -- one is opinion-based, and the other research-based).
The assignment doesn't specify that we're to respond on our blog to the articles, but I wanted to. One of the quotes in Ross's article reminded me of a dialogue in the 2004 film, Sideways. The writer, played by Paul Giametti, has been asked by his best friend's father-in-law-to-be about his book:
Miles (Giametti): It's... it's a novel. Fiction. Yes. Although there is quite a bit from my own life... so I suppose that, technically some of it is nonfiction.
I'm a big-time reader of non-fiction. Not that there's anything wrong with fiction, I enjoy it, too, but I read far more non-fiction, always have, always will.
For the first part of this assignment, we read articles by Jennifer Brannen, "Borderlands: Crossing between Fiction and Nonfiction in Readers' Advisory," and Catherine Sheldrick Ross, "Reading Nonfiction for Pleasure: What Motivates Readers?" Brannen's was a good opinion piece, based on experience and principle, but I found more value to Ross's article, if only because hers is based on interviews and her own personal research. (To be fair, the articles are two different approaches to the same general subject -- one is opinion-based, and the other research-based).
The assignment doesn't specify that we're to respond on our blog to the articles, but I wanted to. One of the quotes in Ross's article reminded me of a dialogue in the 2004 film, Sideways. The writer, played by Paul Giametti, has been asked by his best friend's father-in-law-to-be about his book:
Miles (Giametti): It's... it's a novel. Fiction. Yes. Although there is quite a bit from my own life... so I suppose that, technically some of it is nonfiction.
Mike (played by Shaun Duke): Good, I like nonfiction. There is so much to know about this world. I think you read something somebody just invented, waste of time.
Miles: That's an interesting perspective.
Miles: That's an interesting perspective.
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