This afternoon I went to the Bucks County Historical Society to do some genealogy research for a writing project I’m working on. When I called the BCHS yesterday to find out their hours I was excited to find out that it’s housed not just in Doylestown, which I knew, but right inside the Mercer Museum.

The Mercer Museum, if you’ve never been to it, is awesome. It’s a feat of Victorian geekery. At the turn of the 20th century crackpot collector Henry Mercer had the idea to compile as many handmade (not machine-made) objects as he could since, as he saw it, these things were on their way out. He assembled his huge collection inside a cement castle (!), with all the various objects of old-school interest divided into separate little warrens that wind around the perimeter of the building and up to the top. There’s tin smithing, whaling, the healing arts; on the top-most level is a gallows. Yikes. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, technology by Katie Haegele
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I am a librarian’s daughter. My sister and I were raised between the stacks. Our mother left it up to us to either be bored or learn to read. We read. My sister was inclined toward smut. But the trashy romance genre was not for me; I was enthralled by non-fiction. History — real people, real events.

Most of the information that I have stored over the years has become disjointed and most was always completely useless to anyone else. But sometimes it amazes me the little jewels I have retained. I’m not bragging. It is a disease. I am obsessive about needing all the facts. Something will pique my interest and I feel obligated to exhaust every resource.

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Tags: books & writing, technology by Jody Lane
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I make zines. I’m a writer, and making zines is a big part of my writing life. At this point it’s a big part of, just, my life-life. A sizable percentage of the people I consider good friends are folks I’ve met at zine fests, by trading zines with them through the mail, or in online ziney gathering spots. 

I’ve been interested to notice — and thought it would be interesting to note, here on the world wide web — that on occasion over the last several years a person who isn’t involved with zines will ask me or my fellow zinesters, rhetorically, musingly: “I guess blogs have kind of killed zines then, right?” 

This annoys me. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, books & writing by Katie Haegele
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Dear Readers,

This is my letter to the editor of the Atlantic, regarding the article that was written by one Professor X, titled “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower.” My interpretation/summary: the author believes that not everyone is equipped, or worthy of pursuing a college education. And it’s America’s fault; it’s the higher education system’s fault. It’s everyone’s fault, except his. Poor, poor, tortured adjunct pseudo-intellectual, who tries so hard to lift heathen souls out of the abyss…what a gift you bestow on the wretched by gracing them with your presence in the classroom.

In any case, the article has caused quite a stir, and if I had my way, I would stir the brains of Professor X with an asp — a metaphorical one, of course.

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Tags: books & writing, education by Terrence Cheng
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