The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa -- it's the time of year for many joyful celebrations.

But of all the wonderful winter holidays, there is one that clearly stands out.

Yum.

Yes, December 30th is Bacon Day, one of two days of the year when all bacon aficionados can come together to celebrate that most tasty of foodstuffs. (The other day is International Bacon Day, held the Saturday before Labor Day. I think we can all agree, however, that bacon is special enough to deserve two holidays.)

As much as I agree with the idea on principle, it's true that I'm not exactly sure when, or why, bacon became singled out as the food most worthy of special attention. (It's more or less become a genuine internet phenomenon.) Cookbooks are devoted solely to bacon dishes, restaurants are adopting an all-bacon theme -- and bacon-based products abound, from bacon perfume and bacon soap to bacon jewelry and bacon band-aids.

As a bacon fan myself, however, I say: bring it on. And so we've compiled a list of bacon resources, from around the web and from our own Library Catalog, to help you celebrate the fast-approaching bacon holiday.

From all of us at MPL, we wish you and yours a very happy and peaceful holiday season.

With lots of bacon.

Getting hungry now.

Links

- Bacon Day -- More about this all-important holiday, including information on the day's history, tips on how to celebrate, and the great minds behind such a noble celebration.

- Bacon Today -- For all your bacon news needs.

- 50 Things to Make With Bacon -- Courtesy of the Food Network. Includes recipes for bacon and bacon-flavored guacamole, popcorn, meatballs, croque-monsieur, pancakes, and brittle.

- BaconFreak.com -- Your one-stop bacon shop. Includes t-shirts, jewelry, and a bacon-of-the-month club.

- Bacon Restaurant Grand Opening Expected Early 2015 -- Plan your trip to  Louisville, Kentucky now; they've got an all-bacon restaurant in the works!

- Stove Ownership -- Webcomic XKCD weighs in on bacon.

From the Catalog 

(Click to request!)

- Bacon Nation: 125 Irresistible Recipes -- by Peter Kaminsky and Marie Rama.

- The Bacon Cookbook: More Than 150 recipes From Around the World for Everyone's Favorite Food by James Villas.

- Seduced by Bacon: Recipes and Lore About America's Favorite Indulgence by Joanna Pruess with Bob Lape.

- Everything Tastes Better With Bacon: 70 Fabulous Recipes for Every Meal of the Day by Sara Perry.

Click here to watch Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson request "all the bacon you have"

Even a super-villain like Loki appreciates the value of bacon

-- Post by Ms. B 

Staff Recommendation #28: "Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened" by Allie Brosh

Hyperbole and a Half:

Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

by Allie Brosh

It began as a blog. The website Hyperbole and a Half is a collection of stories from the life of its creator, Allie Brosh. While there are hundreds of blogs that could fit that description, Brosh's stands out for three reasons: her hilarious writing style, her quirky but utterly fun artwork, and the fact that she can tell a good story.

Her illustrated tales are a mixture of childhood remembrances, adventures from her day-to-day experiences, and reflections on herself and on life in general. Many of her stories are laugh-out-loud hilarious -- such as when she's remembering her beloved dinosaur costume or her childhood fondness for cake. But she's not afraid to tackle more serious fare -- such as her courageous two-part tale detailing her struggles with depression. (In fact, if I have any criticism for the book at all, it's that she is far too hard on herself for what she sees as her personal shortcomings.)

When turning her stories into a book, Brosh plucked several classic entries from her website for publication. But there is also a plethora of new material in the book, including an ill-begotten hiking trip from her childhood and the truth behind her lifelong love of hot sauce. The book was as delightful a read as her webpage stories have been, and I'm already hoping a sequel might be in the works.

Want to try a few of her tales?  Here are five of my favorites (just click on the title to read the story on her website):



1. The Milk Crisis of 2005

Before I was a librarian, I spent nine months working as a waitress. That memorable experience gives me a special appreciation for this story: a simple, heartwarming tale that rapidly turns into full-blown horror. (Of the most humorous kind.) A cautionary tale for anyone contemplating a career in the food service industry.



2. Texas

Brosh's first trip to Texas was somewhat ill-timed. Having grown up in the frigid Northwest, the beginning of summer was not a good time to make her first trip down south -- particularly not to compete in a regional track meet. Factor in a fever, fireflies, and a few inadequately-sympathetic teammates, and it's a recipe for certain disaster.



3. The Party

Dental surgery and birthday parties don't mix. Little Allie's not about to let that stop her. All she has to do is prove to her mother that she's sufficiently recovered from her surgery sedation to make it to her friend's birthday party. What could go wrong?  (This one's included in the book.)



4. Sneaky Hate Spiral

Perhaps you've already read the children's book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Here's another look into days like that.



5. Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving

As a long-time dog owner, I'm admittedly biased when it comes to our canine companions. And nothing tickles my funny bone like a great dog story. So I couldn't resist this tale, in which Brosh and her boyfriend must transport their two dogs -- one smart as a whip and highly neurotic, the other a gentler soul who still manages to cause all manner of mischief -- to their new home. Complete with 2 a.m. wake-ups, sled dog booties, and a Bon Jovi shout-out, this is easily my favorite of Allie Brosh's stories. (Also included in the book.)



-- Post by Ms. B 

World Wide Web

A lot has changed in 22 years.

On August 6, 1991, the first-ever website was born. It was the creation of Tim Berners-Lee, a British physicist in charge of the massive project of creating the World Wide Web. That first website was simple by our modern standards: it showed an outline of his project, and some tips to readers on how to make their own web pages. (The website address? http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html -- still in use today.)

To clarify: the world wide web and the Internet are two separate entities. The Internet's been around since the 1960s, and simply refers to computers and networks interconnected with each other. The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is merely one service that the Internet offers -- but it's the tool that most of us use in order to access the Internet's text, pictures, sounds, and video. (If you're interested, you can read more about the technical differences between the two here.)

So unless you're a tech whiz, you use the World Wide Web pretty much exclusively when you access the internet. And we 21-century sorts use the internet a lot. 

Here's some usage facts to try to wrap your mind around:

-- In 2012, there were 2.4 billion Internet users around the world.

-- 244 million of those users are in America. (That's 78% of America's total population.)

-- Over one billion people have a Facebook account.

-- More than 500 million personal photos are uploaded to the Internet every day (using such websites as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Flickr).

-- 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

-- 15% of all internet traffic is coming from mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Computers and the Internet have helped usher in the modern age, but the World Wide Web has changed our everyday life. (Probably, it's arguable, for better and for worse.)

It's changed how we watch TV, view movies, and listen to music. (How we read books is probably next on the list.) It's changed how we learn, how we shop, and how we socialize. It's changed how we get our news and how we spend our time.

Most of all, it's put a world of information directly at our fingertips. Going to www.google.com and typing in a topic or a question has become such a standard method of finding answers that it's become a verb: "Just Google it!" However, whether or not such answers are coming from trustworthy sources can be another matter entirely. (Always remember, however, that we librarians are here to help sort out such matters!)

Computers have been used as tools for decades. But the last 22 years have seen them entirely alter our daily way of life. It remains to be seen what the lasting effect of the World Wide Web will be on our society -- but whatever happens, it's all but guaranteed that the world will never be the same.

All About the World Wide Web:

-- History of the Web: from Tim Berners-Lee's organization, the World Wide Web Foundation.

-- Internet Timeline: includes the introduction of the World Wide Web!

-- The Single Most Valuable Document: The World Wide Web was almost ... patented. Check out this article from NPR for more!

-- What 14 Popular Websites Used to Look Like: Websites looked a lot different in the 90s.



Website Lists:

-- Recommended Websites: MPL's own list of trustworthy research and reference websites.

-- 50 Websites: Time's list of the websites that make the World Wide Web great.

-- 2013's Most Addictive Websites: A highly subjective -- but still plenty fun -- list.

-- Great Websites for Kids: Recommended by the American Librarian Association.

-- 20 Really Cool Websites to Help Cure Boredom: Time-wasting in its most fun sense!

-- The Useless Web: Having trouble finding a thoroughly useless website?  Here you go!



-- Post by Ms. B 

Behind the New Normal

"The reinventors of normal."

That's the slogan presented in Amazon.com's new television spot, which first starting appearing this fall. To quote their marketing agency: "Amazon hasn’t simply changed how we shop or read, but more importantly, they have revolutionized how we live."

That might be considered a somewhat lofty claim -- at least until we take a closer look. Ordering merchandise online has, indeed, become part of the normal shopping experience: during this year's Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving), Americans spent $1.5 billion on online purchases in twenty-four hours. It's hard to say how many of those purchases were made at Amazon, but for some perspective: on Cyber Monday 2011, Amazon sold 17 million individual items. 

They're impressive stats for a store that's only 17 years old (although it's true that 17 years in tech-time is a decidedly long stretch). Amazon.com started life on July 16, 1995, in a two-car garage in Bellevue, Washington. In the beginning, it was something of a seat-of-the-pants operation, with founder and CEO Jeff Bezos overseeing a handful of people packing and shipping boxes off of a table made out of an old door. (Nowadays, many of the desks in the Amazon offices are still made out of doors, in tribute to the company's modest beginnings.) 

It's a far cry from the company's fulfillment warehouses of today, one of which -- located in Phoenix, Arizona -- opened its doors to reporters to give them a glimpse into what goes on to make the Amazon shopping experience possible. 

A Phoenix, Arizona "fulfillment center"

Filled with miles of conveyor belt, this particular fulfillment center consists of a 1.2 million square foot warehouse. The items held inside -- from books and packs of coffee to board games and computer equipment -- are organized not by type or brand, but, instead, are placed in any spot that happens to be free. If an empty slot fits, it's used, no matter what else may be in that particular aisle.

The secret to what Amazon calls "chaotic storage" is in its barcoding system, which is how the warehouses' lack of order is still kept organized. Every single shelf space in the warehouse has a unique barcode; when an item is placed onto the shelf, it's tagged with the particular barcode that matches its new storage spot. Barcodes, in fact, are the backbone of Amazon's warehouses, where codes are used to find, ship, and track each and every purchase.

After an online order is placed by an Amazon customer, the order appears on an employee's handheld scanner. The employee follows the corresponding barcode number to the right shelf, then pulls the item from the shelf (yes, by hand) and places it into a barcode-marked yellow bin. The bin is then placed on a conveyor belt, and soon arrives in the hands of another employee for its contents to be boxed up and shipped. 

It's a massive operation that requires massive manpower, particularly during the holidays; Amazon hired 50,000 seasonal employees this year alone. It also requires complex computer programs to keep track of inventory, whether for items coming directly out of Amazon's warehouses or, instead, from sellers who are offering their merchandise through Amazon's website. (Business owners can sell their products through Amazon; their merchandise shows up on Amazon's website, and can even be purchased directly through Amazon, in return for Amazon receiving a share of the sales profits.)

Other computer programs have been developed to manage search terms and track buyers' habits. The company is striving not only to offer low prices, but also to customize users' shopping experience according to what each shopper wants. Complex algorithms have been developed by Amazon computer techs to track what you buy and develop personal recommendations based on what you purchase or even search for.

Amazon can be a great place to shop easily, for nearly anything, at great bargains. But remember: Amazon still can't guarantee the lowest prices. This holiday season, don't forget to shop around.

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

For Further Reading:

-- "Amazon's Warehouses Truly Boggle The Mind" - from the Huffington Post. Includes photos of Amazon warehouses.

-- "How Dead Is the Book Business?" - from the New York Times. Publishing giants Random House and Penguin have merged together to stay in the book-business game against Amazon's new printing imprint. But this isn't the first time industry has changed at the turn of the century. Includes theories on what the future of commerce may look like.

-- "Booksellers Resisting Amazon’s Disruption" - more from the Times about how publishers (and traditional booksellers) are keeping relevant against Amazon's competition.

-- Post by Ms. B