Will re-open ~ as soon as we can. Watch for details.

Will re-open ~ as soon as we can secure a safe place.
Photo taken Wednesday, July 20. Hole in drop-ceiling through which fell a 35.6 L, 17" x 22" Rubbermaid bin full of water. Shop vac delivered for John to do some sort of clean-up! Turned out to be the least of our problems.
(For larger image, click 3X on photo.)

Smile for Today ~

"When we are collecting books, we are collecting
happiness."

~ Vincent Starrett (1886 - 1974) American writer, newspaper man, born above his grandfather's bookshop in Toronto, Ontario.

"...open the the book itself, carefully lifting the front cover and, with brand-new books (as opposed to used ones), quietly thrilling at the slight resistance offered by a cover that's never been opened before. Gingerly turning the pages, I read the half-title page, the title page, and, in a nonfiction book, the table of contents, savoring each step, until I come to the first page of text. This is the real test, the point at which I will decide to buy or not to buy, elect to make this book part of my life or place it back on the shelf. And so I read the first paragraph, only the first paragraph, never more...."

~ Rob Kaplan (b. 1952) American author, journalist

Did you Know ?

The Indian Bible, printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was the first edition of the Scriptures in any language to be printed in the land that was to become the United States of America?

The Algonquian Indians had no written language. A Reverend Mr. Eliot learned their spoken language, established a symbology and with the help of a London printer and London machinery, produced in 1662 the New Testament. In 1663 the Old Testament was added.

A PASSION for BOOKS, Edited byHarold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan, Three Rivers Press, 1999, article by Ben D. Zevin

The annual CayugaFest Parade ~ More photos.
Dedicated to our farmers who this morning are finally getting RAIN!!!

View Along Cayuga Street ~ July 16

Congratulations to this year's CayugaFest committee. Great job!!!

(Click on photo for larger image.)

Smile for Today:

"Dust, according to some authorities, is not in itself so damaging to books as the act of dusting them by unskillful or irreverent performers. Both Blades* and Birrell stiffly maintain that you should never dust books; let the dust lie until the rare hour arrives when you want to read a particular volume; then warily, Birrell advises, approach it with a snow-white napkin, take it down from its shelf, and with-drawing to some back apartment, proceed to cleanse the tome."

~ A Passion for Books,Harold Rabinowitz & Rob Kaplan, Three Rivers Press, Random House, Inc. ,1999. Article by Holbrook Jackson, 286.

*Wm. Blades (1824 - 1890) British printer, author, collector of old books.

In small-town rural Ontario where as the sayings goes, "Everyone knows everyone" and "Everyone helps everyone," we have to ask,

"How did we get to the stage where a ten minute warning left tenants with child, pets and personal things on the street with no hope of re-entering the building until certain code requirements were met?"

That is what happened last Wednesday on Cayuga Street. Fire prevention officers, accompanied by the OPP, informed tenants that "The Threat to Life" situation left no alternative but to get out.

The Neat Little Bookshop has done business on Cayuga Street for over five years. The current conditions existed when we moved in. We discovered the shocking conditions shortly after our arrival. We immediately offered our help. When nothing happened, we contacted the authorities.

Given the dangerous conditions that exist, we fully support the recent action. However, we ask the question, "Could the situation not have been resolved before it came to this?" Could negotiations not have been conducted ~ assistance provided if required?

Perhaps we were lulled into a false, naive sense of security based on our familiar "neighbour-help-neighbour" environment.

For story visit http://www.sachem.ca/news/article/239501

Home of The Neat Little Bookshop, Haldimand Stewardship Council and Yanch & Kiernan LLP

Cayuga Street North ~Tonight a sign on the law office door reads: CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Other than by appointment.

Sign in the bookshop window reads: The Neat Little Bookshop was closed on Wed., July 20 by order of the Fire Marshal's office. Will not re-open at this location.

For story visit http://www.sachem.ca/news/article/239501

Smile For Today ~

"My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging."
~ Hank Aaron, American baseball player, broke the career home run by Babe Ruth (b. 1934)

"Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."
~ Lou Holtz, American football coach, author, sportscaster (b. 1937)

Thought for Today ~

"In a Hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence"

~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter, Canadian Educator, best known for the formulation of the Peter Principle ( 1919 - 1990)

Behind the Scene at ~

The Neat Little Bookshop

Upfront ~ 35.6L Rubbermaid bucket full of water that came crashing through the drop ceiling. It remains in place to catch leaking water.

1. The 35.6 L Rubbermaid bucket ~ full of water ~ The next proposed remedy was to suspend it by wiring from the floor above. (The defining moment. We cannot stay.) One too many floods!

2. & 3. Sample Mould in the Loading Dock Room

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

~ Martin Luther King, Jr., America Civil-Rights Leader (1929 - 1968)

Sign on the Bookshop Door

Tomorrow: Some light-hearted humour.

Light at the End of the Tunnel ~

With outstanding fire-marshal orders and future uncertainty ~ not to mention the Rubbermaid bin full of water that came crashing through the drop ceiling ~ the bookshop will not re-open in the same location. We are packing our books.

We have been offered a commercial space just around the corner. We cannot divulge the details yet but we are very excited. Family and friends including authors and business associates have offered to help us move.

Photos of conditions we have been battling ~ Enough! Lorna

Re-entered the Bookshop ~

Everything is as we left it yesterday, except for more water filling a 17" x 22" Rubbermaid bucket in the middle of a wet carpet.

When the place was shut-down, Robert Yanch, the resident lawyer, kicked into action. Before anyone had time to say "no," he had a crew clearing huge rooms of combustible materials -- two dumpsters and two pickup trucks, to be specific. How he met the other specifics of the "Threat to Life" order from the Fire Marshall's office is a mystery. But I for one will never question Bob's will to get something done! Thank you Mr. Yanch.
The bookshop remains closed. Perhaps we have simply lost heart. We have had enough. We won't open again in this location.
Tomorrow: Light at the end of the tunnel.

The Neat Little Bookshop has been dealt a severe blow. The owner of the property has not complied with continued, long-standing orders from the fire department. The bookshop, along with our adjacent neighbouring businesses and upstairs tenants have been CLOSED by order of the fire authorities. The building has been issued an "Immediate Threat To Life" notice from the office of the Ontario Fire Marshal.

This is a great setback for us; however, as soon as we get permission to remove our store contents and can locate a new commercial site (We have some offers.) we will notify our customers. With the brief notice that we had to evacuate today, we attempted to remove books that were ordered for customers.

It goes without saying that we apologize for any inconvenience and hope to quickly relocate. We can still be reached at 905-577-5635 or e-mail lbwalker@shaw.ca Our sincere apologies to the authors whom we had recently invited to Meet The Author Teas: John Geddes, Neil Paul and Jose Penny. We will be booking again at the earliest possible date.

Thank you for your business and your understanding. Our gratitude to our fellow business people, our family and friends who came immediately to our aid.
Lorna and John

This event is postponed until a later date. A Meet-the-Author Tea ~ Everyone Welcome

In A Familiar Rain, neuroscientist, Alex Hemmer is committed to developing a drug that would enable subjects to relive their most treasured past experiences. If he could achieve success, it would mean that Alex could revisit his deceased, young wife.

A retired high-school English teacher, author John Geddes said,

"I love the idea of time travel...I wrote it into my curriculum ~ creating a Time Travel unit studying books from Jack Finney, H.G. Wells and others."

Geddes was fascinated by Wilder Penfield's* explorations of the human brain in which Penfield actually caused some of his test subjects to relive past events.

The backdrop for his book is Geddes' own alma mater, the University of Toronto, where his professors included Marshall McLuhan and Northrop Frye.
http://www.johngeddes.ca/

* (1891 - 1976) Canadian Neurosurgeon

"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen."

~ Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961) American author and journalist.

"When you talk, you repeat what you already know; when you listen, you often learn something."

~ Jared Sparks (1789 - 1866) American historian, educator and minister.

Cayuga Fest Parade 2011 ~ Cayuga Street

Congratulations to Grand Treats & Treasures ~ First Prize (Sorry no picture.) Click 3X on image.

Grindstone Creek Gallery is offering a free clay workshop for the children today. The children's' workshop is one of the festivities, Cayuga Fest, a three-day event, includes Art in The Park in the Village Green beside the library, Saturday only. The pottery gallery is across the street from the Village Green. http://www.grindstonecreekgallery.com/ http://www.cayugafest.com/

"It was a wildly beautiful, yet desolate place. The wind was relentless as it battered the beach. I let it punish my hair and scour my mind, as I stood there, shirt billowing like a parachute, eyes scrunched to narrow slits against the grit the wind flung in my face. It was a timeless scene: the long line of waves rolling in and pummeling the shore as it had done for thousands of years. Momentarily, I felt a brief frisson as my mind tried to come to terms with the passage of millenia."

~John Geddes
http://www.johngeddes.ca

Meet the author on Saturday, July 23, 1:30 p.m. at The Neat Little Bookshop. Everyone welcome. Coffee Pot's always on . . .

Photo: James N. Allan Park, Haldimand County, by Lorna. Click 3X on image.

CayugaFest July 15 ~ 17

Classic cars, bands, arts, crafts, food, games, competitions ~ the friendly hospitality of Cayuga-On-The-Grand.

Do you like parades? There is a new category this year: the Best Redneck Float. Your committee has been working hard to make this year's CayugaFest a new experience.

Bring your family. Take advantage of the local restaurants and businesses. Experience the Grand.
For more information visit http://www.cayugafest.com/

"It's a good thing to have all the props pulled out from under us occasionally. It gives us some sense of what is rock under our feet and what is sand."

~ Madeleine L'engle (1918 - 2007) American author

House at Old Brewery Bay ~ The home that Stephen Leacock Build. Secluded, away from the city ~ where the author "spent most of his creative time."
http://www.leacockmuseum.com/ Click on Visit. Learn More.

Also, find Leacock Summer Festival and Stephen Leacock on Facebook.
Photos: by Lorna (Click on 3X)

www.johngeddes.ca

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends."

~ Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926) American academic, President of Harvard 1869 - 1929.

"I write every morning as soon after the first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or cold and you. . . warm as you write."

~ Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961) American writer

A Reminder ~
The Neat Little Bookshop is Closed this week for holidays. Opening again on Wed., July 13.

Meet the Author, John Geddes, on Sat., July 23, 1:30 pm. For excerpts of his latest book ~ A Familiar Rain visit www.johngeddes.ca

Stephen Leacock (1869 - 1944) One of Canada's Greatest Humourists. Black and white portrait is of the writer sitting at the desk beside the clock. (Click 3X on photo)

The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour Award is presented each year in April for the best Canadian humour. http://www.leacock.ca/Leacock Summer Festival Orillia ~ July 19 - 30 Readers. Authors. Books
www.leacockmuseum.com














Shelves of Books Line the Walls





Stephen Leacock's Old Brewery Bay Estate build in 1928 on the Shores of Lake Couchiching.
Photos: Lorna

On This Day in 1958 the City of Orillia Opened to the Public Old Brewery Bay, Stephen Leacock's Home.

Old Brewery Bay Orillia

The boathouse where Leacock did much of his writing on the upper floor.

Photos: Lorna

Smile For Today

"The Best part about living in a small town is that when
I don't know what I'm doing, somebody else does."

~ Will Rogers (1879 - 1935) American Cowboy, humorist.

Down on The Farm