Presidential memories

Do you remember the first time you ever voted in a presidential election? My first time was for Walter Mondale in the 1984 election. (He lost to Reagan.) It was so exciting to finally be grown up enough to vote. I even hosted a small debate-watch party in my dorm room.

And speaking of debates . . .

The first debate of the Obama election takes place this Friday at Ole Miss. Here's a poignant article about the choice of locale: npr.org.

And here's a message from Michelle:

The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar

Sfar, Joann. The Rabbi's Cat. New York: Pantheon Books, 2005.

I stumbled upon this wonderful book when I was up in the stacks looking for something entirely different. The Rabbi's Cat by Joann Sfar takes place in Algeria during the 1930's. It's a funny story about a rabbi, his beautiful daughter, and their loyal cat. Since the book is kind of hard to describe, I'll leave it to the pros. NPR's Laurel Maury says it best:

Sfar has a kind of Isaac Bashevis Singer-like love of rambling, subtle yarns with universal appeal. The artist's wavering line beautifully renders his characters' sympathetic imperfections, but the real magic is in the gentle wisdom of his words. It's a rare book that makes talk of art, faith and humanity as exciting as a rollicking thriller.

Daniel Pinkwater to the rescue!

I'm afraid I just don't understand all the hype about podcasting. To me, listening to a podcast is like listening to a lecture. I tried out Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast.net, but I wasn't impressed. Too much clutter. I managed to find a podcast about children's literature called Children's Book Radio and added the feed to my Bloglines account. I doubt that I'll listen to it much, though.

The only podcasts I enjoyed listening to were the ones I found on npr.com. I liked this interview with Daniel Pinkwater. He's one of my favorite authors and commentators. In this interview, he talks about two wonderful picture books: Another Perfect Day by Ross MacDonald, and Yellow Umbrella by Jae-Soo Liu.