Cauliette in the Press Box

Once again, I've come out of retirement to report on a library program featuring moi.  Well, to be precise, Cauliette, my puppet self that BizMeister created.  Click the photos to bigify.

 Backdrop for library program about Amos Rusie,

"The Hoosier Thunderbolt"

Cauliette reporting from the press box

(note the notepad and press pass)

Mooresville native Amos Rusie (1871-1942) played for the New York Giants and was considered the fastest major league baseball pitcher of his time.

The Decorinator and BizMeister created this wonderful backdrop for this program and suggested that I cover it for my blog.  Since I'm retired, it was a perfect job for Cauliette, who still works in the MPL Indiana Roving Reporter Room.

My minions took some photos before the program began, which showcased homemade snacks (created by BizMeister), including "crackerjack" caramel corn and baseball cookies, as well as hot dogs. Our local McDonalds graciously donated juice containers.

BizMeister also served as ticket-taker (well, since the program was free, she actually gave out tickets for a raffle prize).

BizMeister & the Decorinator

joking around before the program

The program was presented by Indianapolis author and baseball expert Pete Cava.  If you missed the program, Scowl-Face video-recorded it, including a Q & A session.

Amos Rusie:  The Hoosier Thunderbolt

by Pete Cava

(click image to play video)

Question-and-answer session for Amos Rusie program,

by Pete Cava & David Reddick

(click image to play video)

Before the program began, our own Miss Teresa, whom I'm now nicknaming Keyboard Queen, played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Miss Teresa plays "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

(Amos Rusie program intro)

(click image to play video)

I guess I should include some images of Amos Rusie himself.

 Amos Rusie 1889 baseball card

from the Indianapolis Hoosiers

(major league baseball team)

 Amos Rusie baseball card

early 1890s, New York Giants

 Amos Rusie in the windup

(He was the fastest pitcher of his era)

 Amos Rusie baseball card (mid-1890s)

New York Giants

Amos Rusie PowerPoint slideshow

played at the beginning of our program

Amos Rusie Baseball Hall of Fame plaque (1977)

Several Rusie family members attended the program and added some interesting stories during the Q & A session.  There was a good turnout. Luckily, we didn't have to call the game because of rain, but it was really windy.  That's why we didn't play a wiffle ball pickup game in the library courtyard outside after the presentation.

As always, everyone did a wonderful job.  It was a most enlightening program.

Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL2GO, Featuring Moi

2022 UPDATE:  The library's mobile app, mpl2go, has been discontinued.

 

T. Rex said that the Library's new mobile app, mpl2go, is now available to download, but that's not the most exciting news.  The app features moi, which was sufficient reason for moi to briefly come out of retirement and make this huge announcement.

 The New MPL Mobile App (mpl2go),

Featuring Yours Truly "Running"

(Click Images to Bigify)

Close-up of Moi Running

Wait--you can't see moi running in these still photos.  Make with the video, minions!

Our New Mobile App (mpl2go) Featuring Cauli Le Chat
(MPL Promo Trailer)

This is truly exciting!

Here's another promo trailer that explains how you may download the library's mobile app, MPL2GO.  Of course, I just explained that, so it's probably redundant.  There's some funny stuff in the video, though.

MPL2GO Mobile App Promo Trailer

by Mooresville Public Library

Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

My Retirement Travels, Part Quatre

My retirement travelogue continues with my visit to the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya.

Hitching a ride with one of my big cousins
(click images to bigify)

Originally established in 1961, Masai Mara is one of Africa's most popular nature reserves. Rather than reinvent the wheel, here's a website that provides a good description of its wonderful scenery and ecosystems.

I had a famous distant relative from Kenya called Macska (Hungarian for cat), who lived with Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke (1885-1962), who, under the pen name Isak Dinesen, wrote the book Out of Africa (1937), a memoir of her times in Kenya.

Karen Blixen & Macska

(undated photo)

After Africa, I ventured to many other places around the world.  Here, in no particular order, are some of those destinations.

 Hanging five at Fuerteventura, Canary Islands

 "Nice Suits!" I told this pair of Flipperwaddlers
(Humans call them penguins)
Antarctica

 "Looks green to moi," I told these tourists as we floated down
the Danube River in the Wachau Valley in Austria.

 Hiking near Whistler, British Columbia, Canada

 "Make with the giddyap, Icelandic horseys!"

 More hiking in New Zealand

Himalayan adventures in Nepal and Tibet

Some wise guy said I'd been "photoshopped" into these pictures, but I was really at all these places.  Can I help it if I take a flat photo?  Sort of like "Flat" Cauli, only she's supposed to be that way.

Anyway, it was fun travelling yonder and back.  Retirement certainly has its rewards.

Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

A Lucky Scurrydog, I'll Venture

Although I've been retired for some time from my job as MPL feline roving reporter, I couldn't resist blogging about an exciting new children's chapter book, Lucky, by Chris Hill. It's about scurrydogs.  Well, that's what I call them.  You may call them something else entirely.

Lucky, by Chris Hill
(MPL Book Trailer #263)

You'll see why this red scurrydog is called Lucky in our book trailer (above).  I'll help with the reading-between-the-lines bit:

• Lucky escaped the talons of a hawkenswooper (humans call them hawks, probably for short);
• He was "adopted" by a grey scurrydog clan called the Cloudfoot;
• He hasn't gotten beaten up (yet) by the rival scurrydog clan, the Northenders;
• He's living in Albion Park, which has bunches of places where humans toss away perfectly good food (plus the trees have nuts, the bushes berries, etc., which I assume scurrydogs eat);
• None of the many other predators in the park (including slobberdogs and felines) have decided to make a snack out of him; and
• He's a character in a book, so the writer can get him out of any tight jams with a flourish of keyboard strokes.

Actually, it's quite an exciting story for children who enjoy chapter books (so we're talking human elementary school grades 3-6, presumably).  I'd recommend it for humans aged 8-11. Younger felines, of course, might enjoy it, too.  Slobberdogs might, also, if they had someone to read to them (like our Paws to Read program at the Library).

The book is now available to checkout from our Evergreen Indiana catalog.

Now, I'd best get back to watching scurrydogs raiding the backyard feeders.  Retirement doesn't do itself, you know.

Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat

My Retirement Travels, Part Trois

Since my retirement as MPL feline roving reporter last year, I've been world-travelling. We've already talked about my visits to Montana (in search of relatives) and Peru.  Next on my itinerary was Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, France, birthplace of my ancestor, Cyrano Le Chat (1924-1937), about whom I blogged previously.  As always, click the photos to bigify.

Moi sitting next to the statue of

Jacques Tati (as Monsieur Hulot)

(from Tati's film comedy, Monsieur Hulot's Holiday [1953])

(sculpture by Emmanuel Debarre) (erected in 1999)

at La Plage de M Hulot ("Monsieur Hulot's Beach)

Saint-Marc-sur-Mer is a seaside resort located six kilometres (3.7 miles) west of the center of the town of Saint-Nazaire.  I was able to locate Cyrano's birthplace in Saint-Marc-sur-Mer.  The house has been heavily renovated but was originally built around 1920.

Birthplace of Cyrano Le Chat

Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, France

(House constructed circa 1920)

Cyrano was a superb "mouser," as humans call cats adept at catching rattermeeces (sometimes also spelled rattermeeses), so, in 1926, Cyrano became ship's cat first class aboard the French passenger liner, S.S. Île de France, which was built in Saint-Nazaire and was the first post-World War I French vessel to exceed 40,000 tons.

S.S. Île de France (1926)

Cyrano disembarked in New York City to requisition canned tuna-in-oil for his feline shipmates when he was abducted by a sixteen-year-old American girl from Brooklyn, Clarice Monsanto, who was at the docks awaiting her grandparents' arrival on another ship.  Clarice assumed Cyrano was a stray who needed a home.  So, like it or not, he had one, in which he eventually settled down.

I wandered the beach and resort, in which we had a very nice room.  My tour minions were able to capture some decent photos, but not including moi.  What's up with that?

 La Plage de M Hulot,

Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, France

La Plage de M Hulot,

Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, France

Tune-in again to see where my world travels took moi next.

Your (Retired) Roving Reporter On The Go,

Cauli Le Chat