Janurary (for January)

Many of the fun facts about the first month of the year have already been touched upon in this 2009 entry for Janaury, so let me just report that, while it's snowing ever so slightly and lightly here right now, it has been unseasonably warm and dry so far. On the other hand, hope springs (or should that be winters?) eternal in the hearts of skiers, skaters, and other fans of the cold fluffy white stuff. The ice skating rink adjoining my workplace has just reopened after several years of being shut down and, despite not having strapped on skates since I was a kid, I just might give it a whirl. In Holland, people often use skates and bikes for both fun and exercise, although bicycles are also a primary mode of transportation. Russell Shorto, author of The Island at the Center of the World, recently wrote in the New York Times that "while many Americans see their cars as an extension of their individual freedom, to some of us owning a car is a burden, and in a city a double burden. I find the recrafting of the city in order to lessen—or eliminate—the need for cars to be not just grudgingly acceptable, but, yes, an expansion of my individual freedom. So I say (in this case, at least): Go, social-planning technocrats! If only America’s cities could be so free..." We found 17 cases of Janurary in OhioLINK today, and 498 in WorldCat. Check your own catalogs this January morning and skate through today's typos with ease.

(Enjoying the Ice, by Hendrick Avercamp, ca. 1630-1634, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid