Sam Squirrel Becomes Dinner Entre As Cooper Hawk Dazzles Westchester University Students With Definitive Dive-Bombing Skills In Central Campus

Nature does as nature will do and to hell with housing developments, universities, and flocks of on looking students. After all, a hawk’s gotta eat, doesn’t he? And so the fate of poor Sam the Squirrel, who thought life was safe on campus among his peeps, where predators tends to shy away, came to a sudden and rather unexpected end on this fine October evening. Sam was whiling away the late afternoon putting away some food for the upcoming scarcity of the cold to come and having a generally happy time. Little did he know that eyes were on him from up above. And I’m not talking about the Lord. These eyes had a gourmet meal in mind. Sam, being a vegetarian and living next to the campus Starbucks that meant rich supplements of cookies and muffins to his diet, had little thought of such skyward gourmets.

Meanwhile, Cooper was making his mark. Within seconds, he had his aim lined up and BOOM! Sam was a dinner entre. Students were stunned. They stood their distance and watched as Coop began his meal. Now you might think that the common human reaction would be disgust. Repulsion. Fear. Quite the opposite for the most part. Oh a few walked past and muttered the odd “awwww” or “ewwwww”, but for the most part Coop garnered respect and reverence. Hundreds of students passed as he partook of his gourmet feast and all steered clear, or were politely steered clear by those watching, since he was so quiet many couldn’t see him, and most stopped to have a look. Seeing this beautiful almost 1 ½ foot bird with razor sharp claws and beak eating his catch and, for the most part, ignoring all of the people passing by seemed incredulous. It was as if he was putting on a show and he was the star.

Library Mania

I made it through my first official librarian conference.

When I told my brother back in September that I was going to be spending three and a half days at a librarian conference in mid-October surrounded by hundreds of librarians from all across the state of Pennsylvania, he just looked at me and said, "great Liss, 'yawn'!" When I tell people I am studying to be a librarian, half the time I get this look and then people will usually say something along the lines of "but you just don't look like a librarian..." Somehow I think most of the world still seems to be under the impression that librarians are these quiet little old ladies that hang out in cloistered little stacks of books with their natty cardigans, glasses, and stern glances. The librarians I know just don't fit that image. We're an eclectic bunch of well-read, fun-loving, tech-savvy and often slightly crazy folk known to be the loudest group in the bar. At least that's my experience! Needless to say, I feel right in my element!

It was slightly dangerous letting me loose at a librarians conference. Little did I know I'd be tempted right off the bat by a discount book sale. Of course I just couldn't walk away -- and proceeds went to support the Pennsylvania Librarian Association. Yet more justification for my diseased habit of acquiring literature. The gift shop was filled with more books, also profiting PaLA, and most of them were showcasing authors who were speaking at the conference. I picked up several as gifts for the kids. I then toured the floor of the exhibits and found some unusual book publishers -- and bought a book for Elena which I had signed by the author. Lucky me, I also won $100 in free books from the Junior Library Guild -- one of my favorite vendors! Once I am a librarian, I hope to use them as their titles and reviews are awesome.

My book habit just continued to be fueled as I met author after wonderful author at the conference. I bought books from all of them and had them signed. All but one were Pennsylvania authors. It was so exciting to see such talent right here in PA! As I read these wonderful new additions to my collection in the coming months, I'll post reviews and share them. Hopefully I won't garner so many yawns -- and maybe some of you will even be inspired to read a few!