In Defence of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan is a welcome and long-overdue addition to the myriad of books available on food issues. Its greatest appeal will be to those  people who are tired of trying to explain why they don’t drink pop, why they spend a lot of time in the grocery store reading labels on food products, and why they cook “from scratch” instead of using food that comes in boxes.  

These people, like me, will like this book because it will let them know that they were right all along - - that the longer the list of ingredients on a food product the further it is away from being real food, and, the more likely it will make them or their children still hungry minutes after eating it, or, worse, tired, irritable, or sick.  

A journalist who first examined food issues in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan in this, his latest book, puts the Western diet under a microscope, discovering that “food has been replaced by nutrients and common sense by confusion”. Delving deeper into the history of “nutritionism” and the industrialization of eating, Pollan attempts to explain why Western society, with supposedly the means and knowledge to eat well and thrive, somehow isn’t. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Guinness still has to officially verify the record, however, 1,400-1,500 people showed up at the Forks today to participate in the Winnipeg record attempt for the longest ice skating chain in the world. More information here.

The most popular reference books in my school library are the Guinness World Records annual books showcasing photos and information about a variety of world records established or surpassed in the years leading up to the book’s publication. The 2008 book, with a shiny red foil cover and glow-in-the-dark features, examined sports records, epic endeavours, incredible stunts, environmental records, inspirational people, consumer technology and entertainment, animal records, and, perhaps the most fun and easily participated in types of records, those for mass participation.    

If you live within driving or skating distance of Winnipeg and have a free afternoon Moday February 18 (our province’s first official Louis Riel Day), you’ll have your own chance to be part of such a record - - The World’s Longest Ice Skating Chain. 

The record is currently held by a group of 200 school children in Mexico City, who seen here, achieved the feat in January of this year. With promotion from Winnipeg’s Hot 103 radio station, organizer of Winnipeg’s attempt, Dean Koshelanyk, hopes to secure the record for our city. It only seems fitting as Winnipeg’s skating trail at the Forks recently beat out Ottawa’s Rideau Canal for if not the biggest, at least the longest outdoor rink.

To participate and be counted as part of the record, you need to register between 12:30 and 2:10. Registration forms can be downloaded here but you still need to present them on-site. The line up on the ice starts at 2 p.m. with the event starting promptly at 2:30. You must have skates, be able to skate forward and stop and hold onto the person in front of you while skating for a full 3 minutes.  Find more information here.

At a crossroads in my life on a number of issues, I was thinking today that getting older doesn’t necessarily coincide with getting wiser. How do you determine if you’re on the right track after years of pursuing, as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series author Douglas Adams aptly put it, the “ultimate answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything”? And, do you really want or need to know the answer at all?   I guess I’m not that old, but, I’m not that young any more either. In fact, in two days my age will reach a certain number, which, if you are an Adams fan, you will recognize as the actual answer to “the great question of life, the universe and everything”, at least as calculated by super computer Deep Thought.

After spending seven and a half million years calculating the ultimate answer, Deep Thought muses that perhaps the question was a little too broad.

I guess in the pursuit of the ultimate answer to “life, the universe and everything” I agree with Slartibartfast, who tells Hitchhiker anti-hero Arthur Dent:

Read the rest of this entry »

Christopher Paolini has released the title of the next book in the Inheritance series which began with the popular Eragon. In announcing the title on his website, Paolini explains: 

“Brisingr is an Old Norse word for “fire.” As you may remember, in Eragon, Brom uses the word brisingr to start a fire. This is the first time Eragon hears an ancient language word, a word of magic. Later, when Eragon is cornered by Urgals in Yazuac, he shouts “Brisingr!” to great effect (see Eragon—chapters “Revelation at Yazuac” and “Admonishments”).”

Despite the announcement of the title, anxious readers still have to wait until Sept. 2008 for the next installment in the series and even longer for the recently announced fourth book. For more information visit Alagaesia.com.

The best part about being a school librarian is having school holidays. You don’t get paid for them, of course, but, it gives you some nice time at home with your kid(s), who, if they get bored with you trying to pretend you’re a rock star while accompanying them on the new X-Box 360 Rockband game, might actually give you a half hour here or there to yourself to read. So far this holiday season I’ve finished off The Everyday Activist 365 Ways to Change the World. Compiled by Michael Norton as a one-page-suggestion-per-day way for ordinary people to make a difference in the world, The Everyday Activist wasn’t necessarily meant to be read in one sitting. However, as I purchased the book for my school library, I read the entire book right away to more quickly get it into circulation. Now I can rely on the companion website at www.365act.com, which I will also recommend to my student readers, to follow along. 

As Severn Cullis-Suzuki (daughter of the famous David) points out in book forward: 

“This book is not a blueprint for saving the world… Its point is to show the plethora of ways to create positive change in the world. Its mandate is to get you thinking. It’s not so much a calendar of things to do each day — some of the individual activities could take a whole year to execute – but rather a resource of ideas and examples… to get us out of following the patterns of consuming, working and living in a thoughtless way. The 365-day format is a way to get us to think about things that matter each day.”   

Read the rest of this entry »