First class postage rate increases to 42 cents effective Monday, May 12.

Dead Girls Are Easy, by Terri Garey, sister of Tampa paralegal Pam Talley, has been nominated for Best First Book and Best Paranormal Romance by Romance Writers of America. http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/16586/Terri_Garey/index.aspx

New GAO Reports (PDFs) Source: Government Accountability Office 9 May 2008
1. Offshore Marine Aquaculture: Multiple Administrative and Environmental Issues Need to Be Addressed in Establishing a U.S. Regulatory Framework2. Federal Real Property: Corps of Engineers Needs to Improve the Reliability of Its Real Property Disposal Data Permalink

National Archives Creates Plan for Online Access to Founding Fathers Papers
News release: "On Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein submitted a report, entitled The Founders Online, to the Committees on Appropriations of the U.S. Congress. This report is the National Archives response to concerns raised by the Committees that the complete papers of America’s Founding Fathers are not available online.

Excess production of books
“We'd like to see them reduced, not only for the environmental impact but for the fact that pulling returns, boxing them and shipping is one of the most time-consuming things our employees do.'' Overproduction of books leads to many of them ending up in landfills, and an entirely new system is needed. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aRXJccOAF_r4&refer=home

On May 9, 1933, under orders from Chancellor Adolf Hitler, university students (first in Berlin, then throughout Germany) collected books from the libraries and other collections—stole them, really—that were considered un-German. On May 10th (and on the days following throughout the fatherland) thousands of books were thrown onto bonfires. Heinrich Heine, the 18th century poet whose books were consigned to the fires that day, prophesied a century earlier: "Where books are burned, in the end people are also burned."
M-W Word for the Wise

pa·limp·sest noun
Etymology: Latin palimpsestus, from Greek palimpsēstos scraped again, from palin + psēn to rub, scrape; akin to Sanskrit psāti, babhasti he chews
Date: 1825
writing material (as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
www.m-w.com

Strive for success by learning to
Compromise.
Set boundaries, and respect those of others.

Reminder: Do not pass on mass messages that warn against products, individuals, or groups. These are usually hoaxes or “urban legends” and may contain viruses. Much of what is on Internet is invalid, outdated or biased. Delete without opening “must read, must share” messages.

May 12 is the birthday of the man who has been called "the father of nonsense," Edward Lear, (books by this author) born in London, England (1812). He went to school only briefly, and then, as a teenager, began to support himself painting shop signs for local merchants and sketching diseased patients for medical textbooks.
At the time, there was a fad for books of illustrated birds, so Edward Lear got into that business and became one of the most successful bird illustrators in the industry. Among his clients was Charles Darwin, who had Lear illustrate the specimens he brought back from his trip on the H.M.S. Beagle.
In 1832, the Earl of Darby invited Lear to come to his estate and paint all the animals in his private zoo, the largest private zoo in the world at the time. Lear agreed, and when he arrived at the estate, he wound up spending most of his free time with the Earl's grandchildren. Lear had never spent any time with children before, and he found that they brought out a whole different side of his personality. He began acting like a clown for them, singing songs, drawing cartoons, and making up humorous poems. The children loved the poems so much that he wrote them down and they became his Book of Nonsense (1846).
The Writer’s Almanac