I found a copy of The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler at Goodwill that was not only from my elementary school library, but was the one I checked out several times in the 1960's (with the little card still in the pocket, my name scrawled twice)! You bet I bought it!

I detest libraries that do this. It’s absolutely punishing the people who need libraries the most and who would be most likely to support libraries in the future.

that’s nicer than the time our local library sent my overdue fines to collections

I was one of those poor kids in NYC and had my card ever been frozen for late fees, I wouldn’t have been able to pay it. It helped that I spent much of my free time there and pretty much inhaled everything long before the due date, but it was a constant terror in my head about what might happen if I didn’t get them…

I remember getting coffee from McDonald’s pre-lawsuit and wondering for what possible reason anybody thought coffee should that hot. You had to wait 10-15 minutes before you could drink it.

I once racked up $5.00 worth of overdue fines (on a number of books) when I was a wee child. My parents were PISSED when they found out and I paid for it...literally, via chore money. As a result, I am super-understanding when it comes to late fines with my kids. I make sure they know the value of the money and…

Not that I want it to happen, but I don’t get too stressed when books go missing in my library. They probably ended up in a place where they were needed, and the worst thing that happens to me is I need to buy a replacement copy somewhere down the road.

I’m a librarian at a NYC public school, and I got so excited about this that I made a sign to put on my library door and I e-mailed all my teachers. Also, we’re part of a public library program called MyLibraryNYC so my students can actually sign up for fine-free cards for the future. If you’re in NYC and your kids…

This is what I imagined the great hall in Hogwarts to look like.

I lived in the pubic library as a child. I spent soooooo many hours there every week, and also in my school libraries. But I’ve since found among my own books two elementary school library books I never returned (and I had switched schools that summer) and 3 public library books. The shame.

THIS IS SUCH A GOOD THING!!!

I love this. Sadly, a lot of kids who find their cards trapped did not accrue those fines themselves. Oftentimes, it’s parents and guardians who use their kids’ cards inappropriately (maybe they owe on their own cards as well), and the kids never even get a chance to be responsible users, never have good card…

I don’t need another reason to love libraries, but this is definitely added to the list. Now for anyone who needs some library porn... (as in beautiful libraries, not porn filmed in those libraries!)

Thank god. I can remember paying $50 in fines once I could afford it after getting the flu and forgetting to return the 16 childrens books of 10 pages each that we kept for three weeks. I think we couldn’t borrow for over a year. Also libraries have made mistakes before. Twice I’ve gone in and found the book on the…

This just makes sense. The library was such a sanctuary for me as a young boy growing up in a fucked up environment. It was personally mortifying to me as a kid when I couldn’t get my books back on time due to some fucked up twat getting too drunk to get me to the library. There needs to be some allowable separation,…

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU’RE STILL AFRAID TO GO INTO YOUR CHILDHOOD LIBRARY BECAUSE OF YOUR DEBTS AND YOUR SINS

Awwww. Some thoughts.

Nope, don’t give him a pass for it. Depression and substance abuse are damn monsters to deal with, but they in no way excuse abusive behavior. I know plenty of people who’ve dealt with both to varying degrees, myself included, and none of us have managed to assault someone even during the worst of benders. The fact…

Definitely not the first time as this isn’t even his first DV related arrest.

1) let’s revisit season 6. The worst monsters are the every day men in our lives.