Greg Hill
At the Library
Greg Hill is director of Fairbanks North Star Borough libraries.
Recent Stories
- You can be as cool as Connery with a mighty moniker
- Monday, Oct. 6, 2008
- An Eastern Washington University professor, Grant Smith, has an interesting slant on the outcome of presidential races, according to a Seattle Times article by Nicholas Geranios. Smith, a nationally known specialist in onomastics, the study of names, predicts future presidents by looking at the “music” of their names, saying voters prefer comfortable-sounding names.
- Everyone carries the bad-idea genes — even mayors and inventors
- Monday, Sept. 29, 2008
- Some of the ideas showcased earlier this year at the International Exhibition of Inventions held in Geneva are suspect at first glance but worthy upon reflection. Artificial nose hair, for example, could prove useful to allergy sufferers.
- Cookery has its fair share of rats — as ingredients and authors
- Monday, Sept. 22, 2008
- Thirty-five years of marriage sometimes wear away the jagged edges of cohabitation. It holds true at the Hill household, especially in the kitchen, where time has shown I enjoy cooking but abhor doing the dishes, while my mate is the opposite.
- Memory’s a funny thing, it’s just sometimes hard to find
- Monday, Sept. 15, 2008
- Patrick O’Brian, my favorite novelist, also was highly esteemed by his colleagues.
- There's no way around it — euphemisms are here to stay
- Monday, Sept. 8, 2008
- Quentin Crisp, the 20th century British author, once said, “Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic clothes.”
- Some of us don't preserve Charlemagne's gift of legible handwriting
- Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008
- The scribes of ancient Mesopotamia, history's first writers, had to write legibly and keep track of the documents, and so became history's first librarians.
- Words, like tools, can be misused by even the best of craftspeople
- Monday, Aug. 25, 2008
- While driving south on a recent trip looking for sunshine in vain, my main squeeze for the past 35 years and I listened to “Holy Cow,” a delightful audiobook about contemporary India by Australian newscaster Sarah Macdonald. She explored some of India’s many religions, including the Sikhs, who consider their holy book, the “Guru Granth Sahib,” a living saint.
- Peony farmers have little to be gruntled about with spider invasion
- Monday, Aug. 18, 2008
- This summer brought an invasion by small spiders that use peony blooms to suspend their egg sacks, covering them with heavy webs that stunt blooming. Researchers are just beginning to determine what’s going on and resolving it.
- Eight-legged friends make great silk, horrible asphalt
- Monday, Aug. 11, 2008
- Spiders bother many people, especially tarantulas, being the biggest and hairiest spiders on Earth.
- Just a (tea)spoonful of cinnamon makes the blood sugar go down
- Monday, July 28, 2008
- “Saturday Night Live” writer and cast member Jack Handy, wrote “Probably the saddest thing you’ll ever see is a mosquito sucking on a mummy.”