See the slideshow.

Later, a photo still captures the creature looking directly at the camera. The eyes are remarkably animated for such an elusive and reclusive beast.

Here he plays "the much requested" Jolie Blonde.

The big oak trees dropped some limbs. It took a team of us most of the day to clean up. Grandmother next door had a huge limb about the size of a car fall and block her whole driveway, but it missed her house.

Our shed is never anything nice to look at, but it looks even worse here. The opening into the shed is actually part of the wall next to the door that blew off. The door was wet so it was swelled shut. I had to step through the opening in the wall to get into the shed. Luckily, that section stayed in one piece and we were able to reattach it. The shed and the barn both lost a couple pieces of tin off of their roof, but they were easily repaired too.

When we started to pull the limbs to the road, I turned and almost stepped on something wet and fetus-like. I screamed like a little girl "Ack! A rat!" Then I realized it was a baby squirrel. We found two others. They must have been blown out of the tree. We've been feeding them and we plan to reintroduce them into the wild, where hopefully the owls won't eat them.

Now its time for the requisite cute baby squirrel pictures. It's a squirrel on a towel.

Its a squirrel on a shoe.

Here we are nursing the squirrel. Mom, if you are reading this, this is your grand-child, er I mean grand-squirrel.

By the way, if anyone sees a wayward mama squirrel, send her my way. She's abandoned her children. Last I heard, she was gathering nuts in the tree by the strip club down the road, chattering at all passerby.

Finally, I have one more piece of media to share with you. A flying swimming pool. Isn't the internet a wonderful place, where you can find all sorts of things you didn't know you wanted to watch? Did you ever think to yourself "I want to watch a swimming pool fly"? Probably not. But here you are, just about to press play. You can't resist. You know you're going to watch it.

A little piece that I wrote for the library's Infoblog called 10 Reasons to Have the Library Information Service On Your Speed Dial was picked up for inclusion in The Source, which is the library's monthly newsletter. When I found out they wanted to print it, I asked if I could rewrite it. Of course, time was scarce and I only spent a few minutes on the rewrite before I sent it in. I thought it was going to be buried somewhere in the middle in a little sidebar, but here it is in glorious large print right on the cover! This may be my biggest literary achievement to date, other than my appearance in the pages of Wired.

When trying to think of a difficult word for the "when a dictionary isn't handy" example, I flipped to a random page (via the random page feature on Amazon) of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. I knew any single page of that novel would yield something unusual (in this case adamantine). It's hard for me to judge what kinds of words are unusual, since with my Scrabble training I think anestri and loriner and triazine are common words.

The Watergate salad example was inspired by my grandmother-in-law's bowl of holiday strangeness.

Children, ages 2 and up, will sing along with Mike the Librarian and Oscar the Guitar as they perform classic children's songs at six libraries this summer. The classic tunes will include Old McDonald, Wheels on the Bus, I've Been Working on the Railroad, Slippery Fish, and many more!

• Tuesday, June 17, 2:30 pm -- Main Library
• Wednesday, June 18, 2:30 pm -- Jones Creek Regional Library
• Tuesday, June 24, 10:00 am -- Zachary Branch
• Wednesday, June 25, 2:30 pm -- Central Branch
• Tuesday, July 1, 10:00 am -- River Center Branch
• Tuesday, July 8, 10:00 am -- Greenwell Springs Road Regional Library

Last issue I mentioned some books that libraries are ditching on a regular basis. I happened upon a blog entry that is a good example of what librarians think their duty is regarding books:

http://www.mwbrand.com/waughblog/2005/07/the-island-of-u.html

The gentleman who wrote the entry obviously didn't have the time or inclination to actually OPEN and READ a few paragraphs of the books he was 'de-selecting' -- before passing judgment.

These particular books are older looking, but I regularly find even brand NEW, beautiful books that have been lovingly donated by women's clubs, etc. carelessly 'weeded' or 'de-selected' by (ahem) what I would call uneducated librarians. Notice how he speaks of too much 'information' being on the shelves -- as though literature were simply 'information'.

"Copper-Toed Boots" by Marguerite de Angeli is a LOVELY fiction story
set in early Michigan. "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" is one of my favorite read-alouds of all time. And this so-called librarian doesn't even seem to recognize Walter de la Mare? Did he ever take a course in children's literature?

They will tell you the books simply aren't being checked-out and are outdated. The REAL problem is that librarians aren't doing their job recommending good books! Otherwise, children would be reading them, enjoying them, and coming back for more great recommendations.

Who knew that "Nobody Plays With a Cabbage" would be someone's favorite read aloud of all time? As someone told me today, for every book ever written, there will be at least one person out there who thinks its the greatest book ever. And thanks to the internet, they will find my blog post mocking it and proudly proclaim its superiority and accuse me of ineptitude.

Mike Waugh, meet The Long Tail.

I might tone it down when my vision returns after staring at my screen for the last few hours trying to figure out the css declarations.

What to order:

Veggie lasagna: it's made with that tangy sauce. It will fill you up. Fill up on the complimentary bread and you'll have enough lasagna to bring home.

Veggie muffaletta: eggplant and roasted red pepper. I like it with either the pasta salad or the house lettuce and olive salad mix. Great for lunch. I get the quarter muff, the half is still too big for me.

Eggplant parmesan poboy: good for something different if you've burned out on the above two.

Another Broken Egg is the newest in a long line of brunch places that Baton Rougeans flock to like impatient geese. You would think there would be a saturation point for the brunch market. How can it be that every eggery in the city has 30 minute waits on Sunday morning?

Well unlike most places that depend on their bloody marys and mimosas to keep the masses satiated, Another Broken Egg does it with good food. Here's a concept: they actually can cook eggs--none of them over-cooked smells-like-a-wet-dog omelets here. The menu is huge, so you are sure to find something to your liking, even if it is all a variation on the same theme. Bach did it with Goldberg! Why not with eggs?

What to order:

huevos rancheros: eggs, tortillas, and refried beans with salsa and guacalole. filling and well executed.

hey ricky! omelet: a veggie spanish omelet

veggie benedict: a hollandaise themed variation for us vegetarians. There's also a veggie benedict involving hollandaise, spinach and fried artichoke hearts that was good, but I can't find it on the online menu, which is probably outdated.

blackberry grits: grits that come with a side of blackberries. spoon them on top for a sweet and savory treat

What not to order:

grits and grillades: yeuck!

Through the years, other albums provoked similar astoundment. But as I grew older, it seemed these treasures were fewer and fewer between. Perhaps the problem is I don't have buddies pointing me toward new music like I used to...nobody's storming into my room with a new album he heard about from someone down the hall.

It's easy to think that as we age, we will never find any good new music. So we fill our mp3 players with the same music that we remember we liked. But all it takes is sense of curiosity and a willingness to explore. Eventually the joy of discovery will return.

Thank goodness for the internet: custom playlists, internet radio, recommendations and what-not. The tools are there for us.

Here are some recent gems I brought back from the wilds:

• Gogol Bordello: Gypsy punk. Eastern European cousin of The Pogues.
• Ted Leo + the Pharmacists: Great jogging music.
• The National (Alligator): A little moody but not too dark. The lyrics keep it interesting.
• Levon Helm (Dirt Farmer): Levon might be setting up a Johnny Cash style comeback.
• The Decemberists: That "baroque" indie pop I've been reading about.

I hope I'm not leaving anyone out. Oh wait. I guess you're wondering about that album cover.

I made a playlist with some music I thought sounded like Vampire Weekend: selections from Paul Simon's Graceland; some Talking Heads; David Byrne; the "riddim" experiments of The Clash, King Sunny Ade. I guess that explains the world music part. But there's also a bit of that baroque pop thing I keep reading about (see above).

This band seems to cause extreme reaction one way or the other. Even though they hardly have their first album out, there's already some Vampire Weekend backlash. My boss saw them on Saturday night Live last week and told me they were terrible. "They don't have any testosterone! They don't even have any estrogen!" I admit that they are not winning over any fans playing live with their weekend-at-the-Hamptons threads. But being that I've listened to the album nearly everyday this month, I've got to give them some credit.