Posts by Robert Arrighi

I recently had two French couchsurfers stay with me. I went downstairs to find the guy in the kitchen rummaging through my refrigerator. I asked him what he was looking for. He said milk. I said I don't have milk... well... just almond milk. He said to not have milk was un-American.

I don't even know what that means.

We have started offering internships for aspiring judges here at the Institution of Judging Books by their Covers, and our first intern is a jubilant Young Adult patron of the New Dorp Library, Stacey.

Today we will attempt to judge the book The Sylvia Game by Vivien Alcock.

It was during the early '80s that my mom decided Little House on the Prairie would be more beneficial to my development than Welcome Back Kotter, so the TV dial went from channel 5 to channel 11 every night during dinner at 5 P.M. I haven't seen an episode of Little House on the Prairie in over 20 years but some of the scenes are burned into my memory... some good but mostly bad.

The courts are backed up, the case files are stacked high, and the court stenographer called out sick, but that doesn't mean we can't take a few minutes to judge a book by its cover.

Let's try Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

Andrew is 17 years old. He has been attending Young Adult programs at New Dorp Library for several years. In an attempt to get to know him better, I asked him five ridiculous questions. These are his serious answers.

Forget everything you have learned and remember nothing that you have forgotten.

After barely passing Earth Science and failing Chemistry due to a combination of attendance and attention deficits, my guidance counselor thought it best for me to take a sequence of business classes so I could graduate high school. Because of this I never took a physics class. My path through college didn't wind through a physics class either. Anything I know about physics I've learned from Hollywood.

Silence in this court, here comes the judge, this court is in session.

Jen and I will attempt to judge the book Whales on Stilts by M.T. Anderson by its cover and its cover alone.

The season finale of AMC's Breaking Bad is soon approaching, and the problems for Walter White and company are mounting like Everest. It got me to thinking that if some of the characters on Breaking Bad had a NYPL library card, some of their problems could have been avoided.

If you have not yet seen Breaking Bad, I would suggest you stop reading this blog post. Like your fridge during a blackout... this will contain spoilers. You are better off reserving a copy of Breaking Bad, watching it, then reading this and nodding your head in agreement.

I’ve always been told to not judge a book by its cover.
Whatever.
I’ve judged books by their covers my whole life. I’ve also judged books by their thickness and font size.

My coworker Jen and I will judge the following book by its cover, and when I say judge, I mean guess what the story is about.

My friend arrived at my home wet and hungry. On the way to my house her windshield wipers stopped working which was problematic since it was raining. She couldn't make out which lane she was in but she could distinguish the wiggly globs of red and green as traffic lights. She wanted to stop and get a bagel on the way but there was nowhere to park in the parking lot of the bagel store. Well there were available spaces but her car no longer does that thing, the thing where you go backwards, you know, 'reverse,' so you have to really plan out your parking strategy.

I was washing dishes at home and listening to the noise rock band Lightning Bolt at a moderate volume. I started with the plates because I find those the easiest to clean. I left the frying pan with caked on baked on grease for last. I moved on to the untensils and glasses after the plates. When I was finally ready for the frying pan I was amazed to find that it was clean. How?! The only possibility I could manufacture was that the abrasive aural nature of Lightning Bolt cleaned the frying pan. I am sharing this secret with you... here... now!

The television series Walking Dead, as seen on the cable channel American Movie Classics, was recently released on DVD. The hit TV show has been renewed for a second season, which will most likely air in the fall. If you need your zombie fix sooner than later and need to know what happens to the survivors, visit your local library and check out the graphic novels that inspired the TV show.

Are you into reality shows? Maybe not, but what about designing your own clothes or choosing unique pieces of clothing? Then this is a post for you!

The National Hockey League begins the 2010-2011 season this week when the Carolina Hurricanes play the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland.

I became a fan watching the New York Rangers on WWOR, channel 9 in 1985. Cable television was not available in my area at the time so I was only able to watch a handful of games on free television every year. This limited availability made me look forward to each and every game.

Do you remember the first time you read a book that made you really think about issues that perhaps were not often heard? Maybe it became your favorite book!

We are lucky to live in a country where we are able to read anything we want, thanks to the 1st amendment of the Constitution.

Here is my coworker Jen's report on the 2010 Teen Art Gallery.

Saturday August 28th was New Dorp Library’s second Art Gallery that I’ve been allowed to host in the branch… Each year has been a wonderful ball full of stress and excitement! I was constantly worried about having enough finished pieces to fill the room with color and give people a chance to see inside each artist's mind.

Are you ready to go back to work or school? Ready to go back to the routine? Why not take advantage of the last days of Summer and go on a vacation? Or a "Staycation"?

Are you enjoing the summer so far? The weather has been extremely hot, but that just gives us an excuse to host some outdoor parties! No snow or rain to worry about.