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)