Library gems.

I enjoy bookstores, but there's something extra special about walking through the stacks of an old library.

In a bookstore all the books have bright, shining covers all trying to attract your attention and wanting to be taken home. In a library, the books are generally those that have found an audience and manage to get taken off those cramped-together shelves. They don't need to prove themselves or attract a reader with bright, flashy covers. Often the books are jacket-less and rather drab looking. I love looking through these books for gems that might be new to me.

Yesterday I found such a book. New? Not even close. The physical book itself is 98 years old (judging by the publication date and copyright). It's a book of plays by a Norwegian playwright I'd never heard of (shame on me): Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.

I'm only half way through the first play ("Love and Geography") in this book ("Plays by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson - Second Series"), and I'm absolutely loving it. Like his contemporary, Ibsen, Bjornson writes of social realism. Unlike much of Ibsen, this play is very approachable and often quite funny:

Some poet who was married said once that he carried his home on his back like a snail. And the fool meant it as a praise of marriage! -- When I meet one of my colleagues on the street -- on of the married ones, I mean -- I
always raise my hat twice: once, openly and respectfully, for the man himself;
and once, secretly and in pity, for his hump!

And, in a domestic squabble, a woman says: "May the Lord protect and preserve everybody from getting married to any one who writes books."

Of course I'm getting a good chuckle out of all this and I'm thinking to myself that this work needs to be staged. Almost certainly Bjornson's work would be remounted regularly but for the fact that he is so over-shadowed by Ibsen that people forget that there were other writers working at the same time.

Doing a real quick "Ask" search for Bjornson, I see that he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1903 and authored many books as well as plays (I'm looking forward to reading Sigurd the Bastard). He was very politically active and was the director of two different theatres in Norway and editor of the Norsk Folkeblad.

But what amazes me is how this play, written 100+ years ago, could easily be played as a contemporary piece; in fact, seems more modern now than it probably would have back in the late 1800's. And it is this ability to capture the heart of people, rather than a period, that makes me want to read more.

And it is this discovery of a hundred year old gem, that will keep my browsing the stacks of drab spines in libraries for as long as I can.

My rap name.

In the event that I should become a Rap star (or, more likely, a MEGA-Star) -- an event that isn't nearly as implausible as one might at first think ... just look at some of those who are stars today -- I've taken a rap name.

You may refer to me as: White Fudge Chunky.

I can just hear it... "Put your hands together for White Fudge Chunky!"

Thank you, Nabisco.

"Ladies and gentlemen...

WHITE FUDGE CHUNKY!"

Reality in Wobegon.

It was so appropriate I actually wondered if it was staged, or planned. But I've decided that this thought was more a case of my pessimism, and indeed, what I saw was very much natural. ...

This past Saturday the family and I spent some time at the Mall of America. We were just about ready to leave when I wanted to stop at the Lake Wobegon USA store, there on the third floor of the mall. I walked in to this very Minnesota, very "natural-ish" store, and the woman behind the cash register was actually sitting there and cutting coupons from the newspaper!

When was the last time you saw someone clipping coupons? Could anything be more appropriate than a woman in Lake Wobegon, USA clipping store coupons? Could you actually plan, and put into action, that kind of "reality touch"?

How to make your knees ache.

I rode my bike today. Not just rode, you understand, but power-rode it.

I was off to find another geocache which was only accessible from a bike path and was six miles from any entrance to the path. So... of course I got on my bike at home and rode the 6+ miles to the proper site. On the way back home, I stopped and took a 1/3 mile hike up a hill to find another cache site. Of course there was the hike down the hill, back to my bike, and then the ride back home, which, unfortunately for me was into the breeze. And as I live up a hill, it also involved the ride up the hill on tired, old legs. But damn my stubborn hide, I wasn't about to get off and walk the bike up the hill!

I was definitely exhausted, and my knees were quite weak -- had trouble walking down the stairs to my desk when I got home! Rested for about an hour, and then went out to mow the lawn.

When the kids came home from school (oh yeah ... I was back from my bike ride at noon), it was nice out and my son wanted to play a little football in the back yard.

And now, no surprise, my knees are screaming out at me to take it easy. My overweight body isn't meant to be abused so. Work up to the abuse, that's how it's supposed to be done.

Twins.

I wanted to avoid mention of the anniversary of the events of 9/11/01, and was instead, going to write about taking the family to see the Minnesota Twins play some superb baseball yesterday (12-1 win over 1st place team Detroit Tigers).

But as soon as I wrote "Twins" it made me think of the Twin Towers that came crashing down. And so let me pay quick tribute to the families of those who lost their lives, as well as to the "survivors" of the disaster. Those who were there and who did not lose their lives, have not been unscathed. My pal Eddie was in the unit of firefighters that was the first on the scene. He lived, and I think of him often, when I think of 9/11, and wonder how he is doing. The last I heard, through friends, via his wife, is that he often had nightmares. Here's hoping that he and his family (his oldest, like mine, would have entered 6th grade this year) are all well.

And so... on to the Minnesota Twins.

I took the family, along with some friends, to the Minnesota Twins ball game yesterday. What a great game to see! The Twins looked unstoppable. I can't remember the last time I saw so many actual hits a single baseball game. They looked as though they could do anything that they wanted with their bats. Triples? What...were there three? (Or were there only two, I can't even remember now.) And home runs? There were ... none. That's right. A game in which the Twins scored 12 runs, and not a single home-run. That's awesome hitting. As I heard on the TV later that night, it's that kind of offensive that has the Twins as a feared post-season opponent -- they don't rely on a couple of power hitters to get the runs in.

A great game to see.

Go Twins!

From out of nowhere....

Okay, so it wasn't actually from out of nowhere, I had gotten a tip that I might get this call, but I had kind of forgotten it.

Today I got a call about doing a brief gig as an Equity stage manager again. I haven't worked a professional job in that capacity in almost ten years.

The show is called TEA AT FIVE, a one-woman show about Katherine Hapburn, starring Stephanie Zimbalist as Hepburn. The show will be playing at the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, MN.

I have to talk to the wife about it, but I'm leaning toward doing it. It's only for a couple of weeks; it's not too far from home; it would be fun to get my feet wet doing this kind of work again; I've actually worked with Stephanie before and it would be fun to see her again; and, why the hell not?

Geocaching.

I took the family out geocaching today.

If you're not familiar with it (and chances are good that you're not), geocaching is a relatively new sport. Basically it's a treasure hunt.

You need to own GPS device and then where to look on the web for coordinates of a hidden cache. Plug the coordinates in to your GPS and off you go in search of the treasure.

It's great for the kids because they often (but not always) get to take a small toy as a treasure, and then leave one of their choosing behind.

My brother and his son introduced us to this sport a couple of years ago. We don't do this very often, but the kids enjoy it when we do get out.

If you're interested in learning more about this (chances are good that there's a geocache within a couple of miles of where you live), go to www.geocaching.com.

Beatles anyone?