Blue moon alert, plus other things of note

It's a blue moon tonight, by the way. Well, depending on where in the world you live. Check it out!

There's a new book out called The Fox and the Flies. In it the author makes the case that his subject, Joseph Silver, a South African criminal in the years leading up to World War I, might have been Jack the Ripper. The evidence is circumstantial, but why not? I'm not into the Ripper as much as many people are, but it's still kind of neat to read about the murders.

According to this story, a public library in Gilbert, AZ, will be the first in the country to abandon totally the Dewey Decimal System to categorize their books. I wonder if Roger has an opinion on this. I do like how they're trying to make the libraries more like bookstores, where people can hang out and browse. I remember when the central library in Portland re-opened after being renovated, and it was so loud that it was much nicer to go to bookstores. Has anyone else noticed that libraries these days are louder than bookstores, even the big-chain bookstores?

Finally, the Spelling Bee is being televised today. One of the favorites is a kid from Gilbert. I happened to see him this morning, and he has a weird style. Check him out explaining his strategy here. There's a commercial first, but bear with it. I don't care if he wins, I just thought his tic was interesting. I also saw a girl get knocked out when she couldn't spell "difficile." I don't know how she spelled it (I came in a bit late), but why are they making kids spell French words? I bet they would never have a winner if they just threw some Russian words at those kids! What the hell? I felt bad for her, because why should she know how to spell a French word? Did "difficile" enter our language and no one told me?

I'm sure I'll have more interesting things soon enough. In the meantime, here's a site devoted to penny postcards. A fine time-waster!