Library Notes
December 9, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
In this world of advancing technology, I tend more and more to be right out there in the middle of it all. Somebody tell me how I keep moving out there, with both heels stuck in the dirt as far as I can get them.
My most recent, present, technological item is a new cell phone, that will do anything except boil water!
Now, I’ve had a cell phone for nigh on to 15 years. That phone is, of course, now like a dinosaur in the cell-phone world. The only reason I had it in the first place was for emergency use, in case I had some tire/mechanical/person problem while I was out on the road some dark night. Come to think of it, I could have had a "person problem" in broad, open daylight at Collin Creek Mall. I think two times was all I ever used it, to call Suzanne and tell her I was held up by highway construction and traffic, so that she wouldn’t send the national Guard out looking for me, as I threaten to do to her sometimes. At seventy cents a minute, one tends to limit that button pushing a wee bit, ya’ know.
Of course, Suzanne has had a cell phone for ages, knows what every button is for, and uses it incessantly.
With all phone companies out there competing for your money, your ear and your account, Suzie found us a good family plan with her phone company, cell, that is.
Of course, we have all these free minutes, beginning at such and such a time, and ending at such and such a time and we can talk to each other free and on and on.
I’ve had this contraption for about a week and I carry the instruction book, with the telephone, everywhere I go. I almost have to read the book to find out which button to push when that thing starts to vibrate and holler at me at the same time. And I’ll think, "What is that racket?" And then the light dawns.
I’ve now learned to push the green button to answer a call and the red button to hang up. I’m making advancement here, folks. Just give me some time. Then I’ll look like everybody else, walking around in the grocery store, with that phone stuck to my ear, discussing the weather, holiday plans and such like.
Then I’ll know I have arrived in the present technological world, right out there in front with the rest of the crowd.
Even if I don’t have a clue as to what all those other buttons might produce, maybe no one will know, unless you tell them. And I can just keep my nose in the air and act like a real whiz on this piece of modern, lit-up, vibrating, noise-making lil’ ole’ thing, not even bit enough to hold to my ear and talk at. And maybe they won’t see me pull out the instruction book, to consult and see what that thang is doing now and which button I should push to accommodate it.
Makes me wonder what marvelous, stupendous, earth-shaking, complicated piece of plastic may come into my life next to "modernize" it. Personally, I didn’t see anything wrong with that black piece of plastic I usta’ use, where you stuck your finger in that little ole’ dial thing a few times, in the correct numerical order, and all you did was talk to the person on the other end of the line.
You know, I get one thing solved in this modern world and then another pops up. But, at least, I’m not getting bored. Getting bored sometimes might be a good thing. I might at least get to read a book again. At this point, I’m like the shoe cobbler, whose kids have no shoes. Here is the librarian, with no time to read a book. That’s pretty sad. But, I’ll let you read one. See if this one is your "cup of tea". And, I can promise you that it will be several peoples’ cup of tea, because it is a Kay Scarpetta one. Yeah-h-h, I said Kay Scarpetta, which means Patricia Cornwell. Entitled "Trace", we have Kay back in Richmond, Virginia, at least for a while. The future will tell us if she remains there or goes back to the other job. Her fans will know exactly what I’m talking about, and you others need to find out.
"Now freelancing from South Florida, Scarpetta returns to the city that turned its back on her five years ago. She travels to Richmond, Virginia, at the odd behest of the recently appointed Chief Medical Examiner, who claims that he needs her help. When she arrives, however, she finds that nothing is as she expected: her former lab seems neither as organized nor as well run as it once was; the inept current chief is driven by a agenda he will not reveal; her former assistant chief has developed personal problems he won’t discuss; and a glamorous FBI agent, Whom Marino instantly dislikes begins meddling in the case.
Deprived of assistance from colleagues Benton and Lucy because they are embroiled in what at first appears to be an unrelated attack by a stalker, Scarpetta is faced with solving the death of a fourteen-year-old girl, despite the smallest pieces of evidence, traces that only the most thorough hunters can identify. It’s up to Scarpetta to follow the twisting leads and track the strange details in order to make the dead speak – and reveal the sad truth that may be more than she can bear"