Between 2010 and 2019, Cauli Le Chat (2006?-2020), feline roving reporter for Mooresville Public Library (Mooresville, Indiana), reported all things interesting to cats (and humans) happening at the library. Related stories from across the state (and beyond) were also included.
The Lady With the Red Hair has been pretty busy. She has made another book trailer featuring one of the Cat in the Stacks mystery series, by Miranda James. This video showcases Classified As Murder, which sounds like an exciting, suspenseful read, if the book trailer is any indication.
The Lady With the Red Hair also prepared another book trailer featuring the first book in this mystery series, Murder Past Due. Have you seen it yet? Now's you chance!
There has been a slew of stories lately about librarians (or librarians and their cats) solving mysteries. This is a genre in itself! Check out T.L.W.T.R.H.'s book series trailer featuring the mystery fiction of Elizabeth Lynn Casey, author of the Southern Sewing Circle novels.
These books are available in the Evergreen Indiana catalog. Use your E.I. card to check them out! If you don't have one, because you're not a patron of an E.I. library, then weep bitterly. You could also visit your local library to see if these books are available there. A little sleuthing on your part will bring great rewards when you've had a chance to read these mysteries.
Being a Feline Detective is Pretty Cool, I'll Wager,
Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Mystery Genre News Beat
P.S. "Watching the Detectives," by Elvis Costello, seemed apropos for this posting. First released in 1977 in the U.K. as a single, the song was released in the U.S. on the album My Aim is True (1978).
Today is SCUD (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama) Day. (As if I could invent this stuff! You can look it up.) This is obviously another of those human "holidays" intended to divert attention constantly given to the daily human "tragedy" of ordinary living. People suffer a daily misperception that their lives are full of drama and its attending heartache. I hate to tell my people friends this, but the drama is all in your heads. Sure, folks must endure actual hardships and difficulties--this is life on earth we're talking about, after all, and a little rain does fall in everyone's lives--but how we perceive these events, and, particularly, how we choose to react to them largely determines our happiness and peace of mind.
Comedy/Tragedy Masks:
Which Will You Choose to Wear?
We felines are masters at savoring the humor and jettisoning the drama. We just don't sweat stuff. There are things--mostly human behavior--that irritate us and make us stressed-out, but we know what to do to quickly alleviate those negative feelings and return to our almost constant state of general contentment and enjoyment of life's adventures. Humans should pay closer attention to cats on this point. Even slobberdogs maintain an overall optimistic worldview, largely because they want to please and be of service to others (primarily humans, although that logic escapes moi).
Listen, drama queens or kings. If you've got your three square meals a day, lots of furry (or actual, breathing) meeses (could be laser meeses) to chase about, and plenty of comfortable places to snooze, then life is pretty darn grand. Forget the drama already! Lounge in the sun and get a belly rub (if you like that sort of thing) or get scratched between the ears (who doesn't like a head scratch?)
The entire drama thing is a consequence of an increasingly self-absorbed, narcissistic human society. Narcissism is fine for felines--we are, quite rightly, the center of any universe--but it makes sloppy kitty caregivers out of people. Instead of focusing unnecessary attention on their own lives, people should put the attention where it belongs: on us cats.
Savoring humor is the true strength of today's SCUDness. There is much to laugh about in everyday life, and not all of it involves Scowl-Face. Cats don't laugh like humans, but we do find much amusement, and we have our own ways of displaying our reaction to humor. Watch closely, and you will see.
Meanwhile, be a SCUDder. Like drama cattle chewing their SCUD (see, even bad puns can make you smile a little), we should all look to the brighter side of our daily grinds. Sleeping helps enormously. Time for a nap.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Holiday News Beat
P.S. There are loads of stress songs, or songs about drama types. I can think of three alone by Billy Joel: "Prelude/Angry Young Man" (from the 1976 album Turnstiles), "Pressure" (from the 1982 album The Nylon Curtain), and "I Go to Extremes" (from the 1989 album Storm Front). Any videos? Naturally.
Thanks to a shipping error from Amazon.com, Scowl-Face received a credit to purchase some good books for moi to do the readers' advisory thing. He did, and I am, so here goes.
Dear Sparkle: Cat-to-Cat Advice From the World's Foremost Feline Columnist, by Sparkle the Cat [Avon, Mass. : Adams Media, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4405-0379-5 (pbk.); eISBN 978-1-4405-0735-9 (ebook)]. Available from Amazon.com and elsewhere.
"Cat experts" are often humans, and, with all due respect, humans cannot possibly know as much about felines as the authentic article. Cats deserve sage advice from the only authoritative source--another kitty--and Sparkle the Designer Cat delivers definitively sound advice. Open-minded humans, too, could clearly benefit from Sparkle's insights, although the intended audience is obviously feline.
The book is a collection of advice columns that Sparkle has written to answer troubled kitty quandaries. Sparkle's website, which began offering cat-to-cat advice in 2003, is loaded with enjoyable, informative material, but you should really purchase a copy of this book so that you have the advice readily available in a quick-reference source. Every kitty household should own a copy, and it should be required reading for all human caregivers, as well as for the cats with whom they share their homes. My fellow felines will laugh aloud (we do that, you know, but most people don't recognize it) at the witty, clever suggestions, observations, and admonitions Sparkle deftly delivers to both two- and four-legged readers. Some people may get a kick out of it, too, and they'll learn a great deal about how to live with cats. Humans badly need this instruction, and Sparkle does the job, and then some.
Sparkle has a second book available (published in 2009), but we haven't read it yet (sorry, but we read kinda slowly), but that will be our topic for a future readers' advisory. If you can't wait, and I wouldn't blame you one bit, check Amazon.com (or elsewhere) for more details.
Really Enjoying Sparkle's Sense of Humor,
Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Readers' Advisory News Beat
P.S. Getting advice is like hearing things through the grapevine--like the Internet?--which prompted me to think of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong (1966) and recorded by multiple artists, but we present the version by Marvin Gaye (1968).
UPDATE: In October, 2012, Casey at the Bat was hired as our new boss lady of the MPL Youth Services Department. I blogged about it here.
You may have read the poem "Casey at the Bat: a Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888," by Ernest Thayer. (If you haven't, you should, if for no other reason than to get a picture of American baseball in the latter 19th century, when it was truly the American pastime.) My Library has its own "star player" working as an intern this summer.
Meet Casey O'Leary, graduate student in the IUPUI School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) in Indianapolis. Casey is working on her S605 internship course in the MPL Youth Services Department. So far this summer, she has overseen eight youth programs with 155 attendees. That alone would keep anyone busy, but she has also undertaken outreach programs at the local YMCA day camps and the Pioneer Park aquatic center. The pool program is called "Little Tykes," and, as the name indicates, it caters to tiny human patrons who are a pawful, to be sure. Along with all of these duties, Casey also answers reference questions at the MPL Youth Services Desk, prepares PowerPoint slideshows of upcoming youth programs and events, and handles some of the acquisitions processing for children's collections. That's a plateful of chores!
Broadway Gal, who, you will recall, is boss lady in the MPL Youth Services Department, says that Casey has been a super-great intern, and libraries will be clamoring for her services (if they're smart) as soon as she secures her M.L.S. degree. Earning that degree is no cakewalk, either. Just ask Broadway Gal, Boss Lady, Manga/Anime Gal, The Lady With the Red Hair, or Scowl-Face. (The gals have obtained their M.L.S. degrees, while Scowly is still a work-in-progress. He insists, however, that I mention his doctorate. That'll cost him a case of canned tuna-in-oil.)
Congratulations to Casey for a terrific internship. We appreciate her invaluable contributions to Mooresville Public Library. Unlike the title character in the famous poem, our Casey has hit a home run and won the game. That, my friends, is how happy endings should be written.
Although there's no movie starring moi, like the one starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (You've Got Mail, 1998), it is still mighty exciting to report that I've got mail! Ellie and Miguel, two of my kind and loyal readers, have thoughtfully sent moi a postcard from the U.K. That, my friends, made my day. Do share, you say. Glad to.
Getting mail is, quite simply, the cat's PJs. It is more fun than a catnip toy. Well, that's a pretty close contest. Better than canned tuna-in-oil? Let me think about that one.
Thanks, Ellie and Miguel, for the terrific postcard! If any of my other readers would like to send moi a postcard, please mail to: Mooresville Public Library, Attn: Cauli Le Chat, 220 West Harrison Street, Mooresville, IN 46158 USA.
Now to find an extra special place to show off my postcard. Maybe on my desk in the MPL Indiana Roving Reporter Room. Stop by and say hello, if you're visiting my Library. If I'm out gathering the latest headlines, leave a message with whichever of my minions is working the desk.
Why Not a Movie Called Cauli's Got Mail? Just Asking,
Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Mailbag News Beat
P.S. I've already used the song "Please Mr. Postman" as a musical closer, so this time I'll use "The Letter" (1967), by the Boxtops.
