Hey, I’m guest blogging over at Library Talk (unfortunately not really guest blogging since my hosts don’t know about this blog as far as I’m aware). More posts will come once I’m back from my vacation.

Another take on alternative “treatments” in the UK, a professor of complementary medicine says that if pharmacists don’t point out that homeopathic remedies have never been show to work, EVER, then they are in breach of ethics. Boots’ frantic statement in defense of selling the products is interesting: do they feel that disabusing their clientele of their illusions (or the illusions being busily pushed upon them in the aisles) will cut into the profit margin?

I’ve been getting librarian spam for a while (buy my poorly-written self-published book that has been reviewed by no-one!), but this one is even better (extra spaces removed):

Dear fellow-servant of the blind,

This is to inform you of [web address]’s newest music course “Intro to the Harmonica for the Visually Impaired.” This course is one among over a dozen others that are taught in an all-audio format and that are specifically designed for those who are blind or who have visual impairments. These courses DO NOT require any Braille skills so they are quick and easy to use.

To find out more about complete courses and song-based lessons for piano, guitar, violin, flute and others go to:

[web address]

Thanks and blessings!

[name]
[email address]

Possible alternate titles for the historical romance novel Wicked as Sin, which seems a bit wan for a saucy bare-chested aristocrat:

Wicked As a Bag of Hammers
Wicked As All Get Out
Toot! Toot! All Aboard the Wicked Train!
If You Looked Up Wicked in the Newly Invented Dictionary, There He’d Be
Wicked by Appointment to the Queen (Purveyors of Fine Wicked Since 1689)
10 Pounds of Wicked in a 5 pound bag
Wicked like Wombats

In a BBC story about a woman left with brain damage from a detox diet not based on any medical mechanism balances the two sides of the story:

Side one:
* the nutritionist (training unregulated) who recommended the detox and said that vomiting was a normal part of the process.
* the reflexologist (training unregulated) who mentions that you can tell that it’s working when you feel like crap.

Side two, the “critics” in the story:
* the head dietician at a hospital (training regulated) who mentions that she often has to deal with the medical consequences of people following the advice of nutritionists.
* a doctor (training regulated) at the national Food Standards Agency who points out the actually testable point that your liver is what detoxifies you.

Wow! Two people on each side! I guess that means the issue is not yet settled! How could we possibly find out how the human body eliminates toxic substances?

A small girl, attempting the “guess the character contest” at the library:
“Is it Green Eggs and Ham?”
me: “Yes! What is the name of the character?”
her: “I don’t remember, I read it when I was 6.”
me: “Do you remember how the book goes?”
her: “I do not like it on a train, I do not like it on a boat…”
me: “The part with the name?”
her: “…”
me: “I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them….”
her: “…”
me: “Rhymes with ham.”
her: “Sam!!!!”

(runner up title: “Pam I Am”)

An interesting and interestingly horrible story of door-to-door magazine sales companies. Makes me want to never buy a magazine again.

My employer just switched to those bio-degradable bags made out of corn instead of petroleum based plastic bags. They are so popular with the patrons that they *take extra bags home* in addition to the ones they use for their books. This says something about something.

Read (and see photos of!) the touching story of bank employees assisting ducks.

Victoria, B.C. yet again demonstrates that they need to be pressured to deal with their waste: they’ve made an even bigger (accidental) attempt to poison Puget Sound, this time with fish pathogens. Way to go!

Keep your (admittedly weak) tourist dollars away from those poop-where-we-eat-ers.