Today in History: Silly Edition

It's Friday, and sometimes even adults have to be a little silly.

Today (November 15) is the birthday of author Daniel Pinkwater. Haven't heard of him? Your children might have. He's written such wonderful books as Fat Camp Commandos, Fat Men From Space, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, and The Neddiad: How Neddie took the train, went to Hollywood, and saved civilization. All of these titles are in the children's fiction collection here at the library.

Not so silly: Today is also the birthday of American artist Georgia O'Keeffe. You can look at some of her works in The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum here at the library (759.13 G296, on the second floor).

In the mood for some music? Celebrate Kevin Eubanks' birthday by listening to his CD, Zen Food, available at the library (CD MJ EUBA ZF M 54; sorry, that's a long call number!). He was born in Philadelphia, making him one of our many regional artists.

Back to being silly, here's some theatrical history for you. On Nov. 15, 1886, Charles A. Gardiner's play "Karl The Peddler" used the name "George Spelvin" as one of the actor's names, to hide the fact that one actor was playing more than one role in the play. The female version of this name is "Georgina" or "Georgette", or something similar. It's said that "George Spelvin" has appeared in more than 10,000 Broadway performances since then. The Pottsville Library has a number of books about the history of Broadway, both reference and those that can be checked out, if you're curious to read more.

The final silly fact for the day: Tomorrow, November 16, is the annual elephant roundup in Thailand. With elephant demonstrations, tug-of-war between an elephant and 100 men, and elephant races, who could pass up such a day? Don't believe me? You can read the Wikipedia page about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surin_Elephant_Round-up.

Have a great weekend!