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For rowanf and other librarians and/or bibliophiles on my friends list.

Heard about this on NPR during the commute:

'Librarian Action Figure' to be based on Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl

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And now, a political note from me, for the first time in a while.

In the United States, the authority of government to rule is granted by the people. The people therefore, for better or worse, have to have unfettered direct access to modify the governing constitutions where they live -- this authority should not be given solely to elected or appointed officials.

Two state supreme court rules have made this more difficult in the past week.

First is one mentioned by alobar from Alaska's supreme court, which I have mixed feelings about; I agree with the result but not the reasoning.

The second is one from Nevada's supreme court yesterday that essentially invalidates a constitutional requirement imposed by the voters of Nevada.

Now, I am aware that the majority doesn't always know what is best for itself. But the only alternative is appointing an elite to write the constitution -- or allowing a self-appointed elite to write it. Just because the "Founders" were unusually enlightened doesn't mean the next group of self-appointed elites will be.

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Dee and I saw Sinbad last night. I give it thumbs up, with a couple of caveats.

The setting and situations are drawn from ancient Greek mythology, including the villain Eris, yet the central character is Sinbad instead of, say, Odysseus or Perseus, who would have been more logical choices. So, to enjoy the movie, you have to overlook this juxtaposition.

The other caveat is that traditional-style animation is mixed on-screen with computer-generated imagery. This is the kind of thing that upsets some of the animation purists I know.

If you can overlook those two things, I think you will enjoy the movie very much.

Starting with the very first shot, the movie is visually stunning, evocative and dreamlike.

Eris was well-portrayed, despite the fact that as "Goddess of Chaos" she was taken a bit outside her traditional role as Goddess of Discord. She has the best line in the movie ("Oh, enough talking, let's have some screaming"). I was a little nervous at first when I read that her voice was done by Michelle Pfeiffer, but I needn't have worried; her voice is uber-sexy yet evil, reminiscent of the way she portrayed Catwoman.

The "Gate to Tartarus" would have made Georgia O'Keefe proud.

BTW nothing I've found on the net regarding this movie does it justice, especially the official web site.