As much as I complained about the semester, one thing it did make me do was some writing. That is what two writing classes and two journalism classes will do. I had a chance to write a bunch of short stories, as well as a few journalistic pieces as well. I updated the Words I’ve Typed and Clips sections, but thought I would drop two of the stories here.
Oddly enough, they both revolve around horses. I didn’t even realize it until the second one was being workshopped.
Need an adjustable dado blade for a day? No problem. How about a squirrel trap, just for the weekend? Got it. Or a 40? aluminum extension ladder for a few hours? It might be checked out.
Tool librarian Mimi Cheng.
Nestled in a nondescript warehouse space at 1314 South 47th Street is the new home of the West Philadelphia Tool Library, a concept simple, smart, and just as it sounds. The library loans out tools to it’s members to maintain their properties, complete projects, take care of their yards or gardens, or any other reason they may have for borrowing one of the 2,500 plus tools in the collection.
Its concept is not unique to Philadelphia, with various tool libraries in over twenty cities across the country, such as Atlanta, Oakland, Buffalo and Portland. But the West Philly Tool Library is the first of its kind here. Started informally in 2007 by Michael Froelich, an attorney at Community Legal Services, the library officially opened on March 15, 2008. The West Philadelphia resident had first heard of the idea while elsewhere in the country, but upon his return to Philadelphia, thought it would be a great idea to begin here.
Each member pays a yearly fee, between $25 and $50, based on a sliding scale according to income. There is also a lifetime membership option for $200. Then they are allowed to take out tools as needed, for up to one week. As with traditional book libraries, there are late fees. The cost is $1 for each day each tool is kept past the due date.
If growth is the measure of success, the West Philadelphia Tool Library has been successful in its short three and a half year existence. What started in a small space donated by West Philadelphia real estate developer Guy Laren, with wood provided by Woodland Building Supply’s Larry Reese, and a fraction of the the number of tools the library now boasts, the library has grown to just shy of 1,000 members, with 351 different people borrowing tools this year alone. Over the summer, it also moved into a much larger space to accommodate it’s expanding collection of tools.
Even with the increase in membership, yearly fees alone aren’t enough for the library to sustain itself completely. Operating costs include the building rent, two tool librarians on staff, and the acquisition of new tools. Although at times tools are donated, as was a large collection recently gifted to the library from Gene and Patricia Woock, they are also purchased as needed with money from grants. The rest of the budget is comprised of grants and donations from such places as the University of Sciences in Philadelphia, Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell and the Philadelphia Activities Fund, PhillyCarShare, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, the Sparkplug Foundation, SCI-West, the Spruce Hill Community Association, and others. The West Philly Tool Library also operates as a project of the Urban Affairs Coalition.
West Philly Tool Library Steering Committee member Jake Blanch.
He originally stopped by the tool library one day to check it out, and instead became a part of the steering committee, the six person decision making body for the library. Even after time, Blanch is still impressed by what the library accomplishes.
“It’s such a great resource, for a number of reasons,” he says. “You don’t have to buy all the tools you need to maintain your property. The other aspect is the community involvement. People meet there, people come together there, people share projects there. It’s become a real hub for all the people in the neighborhood. People coming from very different backgrounds, coming from very different places, that would of never struck up a conversation.”
There certainly seems to be a need, if not demand, in the neighborhood surrounding the library for the services it provides. According to the Board of Revision of Taxes, there are 3,362 properties in the Cedar Park and Walnut Hill neighborhoods, 73.44% of which are residential. In the Department of Licenses and Inspection’s 2000 survey, it found only 4.13% of these properties to be vacant. The 2000 U.S. Census reports that of those, 72.03% are renters and 27.97% are owner occupied. The census also lists the median year structures in the neighborhood were built as 1941, so it is only natural for some of the properties to need repair 70 years later. The Licenses and Inspection department found in 2005 that 30.96% of the houses in these two neighborhoods to have open housing code violations. But with 22.14% of the population in the area falling below the poverty line according to the 2000 Census, the idea of a community sharing resources makes sense.
From power tools, to carpentry and woodworking tolls, concrete and masonry tools, gardening tools and books, if you happen to need it, there is a good chance the library might have it. And the strangest tool he has come across in the collection? “The Super-painter Padomatic Painting Kit,” Blanch says without blinking.
It isn’t a painting kit that bring lifetime member and neighborhood resident Larry Lee in on a Monday evening. Lee is returning a wheelbarrow after borrowing it to move the chopped wood he split.
A member returns tools to the library.
“Mine broke three years ago, so I come here,” he explains. “It seemed like such a great idea to be able to share tools. I already had a house I was fixing for myself for eight years, so I had a lot of tools. If I were starting out I would do this anyway, so I donated a lot of tools, and for the tools I don’t have, I come here.”
Lee takes tools out a few times a month, except in the summer when he stops by weekly to checkout a weed-whacker to trim his lawn.
“I think its a tremendous service.”
The West Philly Tool Library continues to increase and expand it’s membership well past the borders of West Philadelphia. This year it won Philadelphia Magazine’s Best of Philly prize for Best DIYers Secret. Anyone can stop in to become a member, not only West Philadelphia residents, during the library’s operating hours, Monday through Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m..
Wise words.
Taken from this awesome interview with Glass on Public Radio International about storytelling.
Here are some words that can’t be translated into English, and their meanings:
1. Toska
Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
2. Mamihlapinatapei
Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start”
3. Jayus
Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh”
4. Iktsuarpok
Inuit – “To go outside to check if anyone is coming.”
5. Litost
Czech – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.
6. Kyoikumama
Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement”
7. Tartle
Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.
8. Ilunga
Tshiluba (Southwest Congo) – A word famous for its untranslatability, most professional translators pinpoint it as the stature of a person “who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.”
9. Prozvonit
Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. In Spanish, the phrase for this is “Dar un toque,” or, “To give a touch.”
10. Cafuné
Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.”
11. Schadenfreude
German – Quite famous for its meaning that somehow other languages neglected to recognize, this refers to the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune. I guess “America’s Funniest Moments of Schadenfreude” just didn’t have the same ring to it.
12. Torschlusspanik
German – Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.”
13. Wabi-Sabi
Japanese – Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”
14. Dépaysement
French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.
15. Tingo
Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”
16. Hyggelig
Danish – Its “literal” translation into English gives connotations of a warm, friendly, cozy demeanor, but it’s unlikely that these words truly capture the essence of a hyggelig; it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known. I think of good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire.
17. L’appel du vide
French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.
18. Ya’aburnee
Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
19. Duende
Spanish – While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.” There’s actually a nightclub in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion, where I teach, named after this word.
20. Saudade
Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.
21. L’espirit de l’escalier
French – When ones ponders what they should have said in a previous conversation.
22. Sisu
Finnish – Gritty, fierce survivalist mentality.
23. Honfibú
Hungarian – Patriotic melancholy. It usually involves some apathy and resentment, often said with ironic or sarcastic undertones because of the collective self-pitying element it evokes.
24. Sírva vigad
Hungarian – Literally, “having a good fun/a good time (among friends)… while crying.” An emotional state which can be related to the above.
25. Talpraesett
Hungarian – Literally, “fallen on their feet.” When somebody has the wits and finds his ways to manage no matter what.
26. Testvér
Hungarian – Literally, “body-blood,” meaning brother or sister. However it can refer to spiritual relation, too, i.e. brotherhood or sistership. “Testvér” is completely gender-neutral. “Testvériesen” means “in good faith, justly, with no selfishness.”
I know you have been waiting with baited breath, but you can relax now.
Merriam-Webster announced this year’s additions to the Collegiate Dictionary.
- Americana (1841): genre of American music with roots in early folk and country music.
- boomerang child (1988): young adult who returns to live at her family home, especially for financial reasons.
- bromance (2004): a close nonsexual friendship between men.
- continuous positive airway pressure (1975): abbreviated CPAP; a technique for relieving breathing problems (as those associated with sleep apnea or congestive heart failure) by pumping a steady flow of air through the nose to prevent the narrowing or collapse of air passages or to help the lungs to expand.
- cougar (1774): slang term for a middle-aged woman seeking a romantic relationship with a younger man.
- crowdsourcing (2006): the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, especially from the online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.
- duathlon (1988): a three-part long-distance race typically having a running phase, a bicycling phase and a final running phase.
- fist bump (1996): a gesture in which two people bump their fists together, as in greeting or celebration.
- helicopter parent (1989): a parent who is overly involved in the life of his or her child.
- m-commerce (1997): business transactions conducted by using a mobile electronic device, such as a cellphone.
- parkour (2002): the sport of traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing or leaping rapidly and efficiently.
- robocall (1993): a telephone call from an automated source that delivers a pre-recorded message to a large number of people.
- social media (2004): forms of electronic communication, such as websites for social networking and microblogging, through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal message and other content such as videos.
- tweet (1768): a post made on the Twitter online message service.
- walk-off (1990): ending a baseball game immediately by causing the winning run to score for the home team in the bottom of the last inning, i.e., a walk-off homer. Also, won by the home team in the bottom of the last inning, i.e., a walk-off win.
Some are funny. Some are sad.
Ish you’re talking