Monday, February 22, 2010

In the UK Today: Lapdances = Yes, Libraries = No

We paraphrase, but according to The Daily Mail, the United Kingdom is going to hell in a hand-basket. Recent valuations have shown that while lapdancing clubs, drive-through restaurants and betting shops are up (1150, 53 and 39 per cent, respectively since 1997) the number of public libraries, police stations and post offices have been greatly reduced in the same time period.
The changing face of Britain under Labour has been laid bare in a modern Domesday Book.

It shows how traditional pubs, post offices and libraries have gone by the wayside.

In their place bookmakers, nightclubs and supermarket chains have flourished.
The piece does a lot of political finger-pointing without offering much in the way of solutions. But any time we see a trend that indicates libraries are threatened, we need to take note, take stock and think about what needs to be done differently.

The danger, of course, is that we wake up one day and wonder what happened. Libraries are currently under threat in many parts of the world, quite often for no reason beyond ignorance combined with short-term cost-cutting. The simplest way to help is clear: make sure you use your own local library and let the decision makers in your community know that you do. Libraries are an irreplaceable community resource: we need to both cherish and guard them, no matter where we live.

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2 Comments:

Blogger michael said...

This reminds me of a scene from the French film La Lectrice (The Reader). A woman is hired to read to various people. One of her clients is a young man who has lost his wife recently and was more interested in having sex with the reader than listening to her read. She accepts she should have sex (this is a French film) but feels it is unprofessional of her as a reader. So she reads to him as they have sex. Which distracted him a great deal.

I agree with your point about libraries, but the comedian in me wonder if the answer is for librarians to give lap dances.

Sorry.

Also, Linda L. Richards if you are the writer of Death Was the Other Woman, you might want to double check the Kindle edition of your book. My copy was a mess with pages out of orders.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 10:38:00 AM PST  
Blogger JournoMich said...

Libraries giving lap dances! Fantastic idea, Michael. My tongue is shoved hard into my cheek, but I think you're on to something.

It is a shame how libraries are losing ground. I don't have the answer--honestly, you got me at lap dance. Too much of a hook!

Michele
SouthernCityMysteries

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 5:07:00 PM PST  

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