The Thanksgiving Post

Hi All,

Its official - anything you do for two or more years in a row qualifies as a tradition!  Hence the Thanksgiving Post.

Everything you need to know about Thanksgiving is in this post. Okay...well, not everything.  Just a lot of great, timely links to make your Thanksgiving more festive, less stressful, taste better and more fun for you and for your family and friends.

Thanksgiving weather for the Long Island area...and from News12 - the forecast is....more wet, snowy weather for Thanksgiving.  See link for more.

For a brief history of Thanksgiving, click on this link from The History Channel.  For another view of Thanksgiving, click on this link from National Geographic Kids - kid friendly and still interesting.

For a menu of what is served at a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, click on this link from the Food Network.  And, from AllRecipes.com come these recipes for cooking a turkey. Bon Appetit has an interesting article on Thanksgiving Stuffing and Dressing Recipes.

Jericho Cider Mill is a great place to get apple cider - its a family favorite and goes great with turkey, stuff, gravy, etc... on Thanksgiving. Link above is from Yelp.

Need some information on how to carve the bird? Click on this link from Good Morning America for ways to carve the turkey. Yum. I'm hungry already. 

Okay...now that you've served the meal...its time for some football. Click here to get a listing of the football games that are being played on Thanksgiving 2014. Link is from NFL.com.

And don't forget to drive carefully after the Thanksgiving meal...

Happy Thanksgiving.

Stu

It's Fall - and the Leaves Are Falling

Hi All,

If you didn't notice it, the Fall season is here.  Its starting to get blustery and temperatures are starting to drop at night.  Brrrrr.   And with the Fall season upon us, leaves fall.  Turning all different colors and shades of red, brown, orange, yellow and colors in between its a great time of year for taking walks in parks or near where there are lots of trees.

Click on this link from ILoveNY for the Fall Foliage Report.  And another interesting website for accurate foliage information comes from the Foliage Network.  The site has Pictures, Foliage Reports, Place To Stay, Foliage Spotters and Webcams.  Neat stuff.

In addition, there is a site called Yankee Foliage which also has Fall Foliage Maps, Foliage Drives and more.  Note that the site is a variant of YankeeMagazine.com. 

Finally, the library has a bunch of books on taking nature walks on Long Island.  Click on this link for a list of titles the Farmingdale Public Library has in its collection on the topic of nature walks.

Enjoy the hiking, enjoy the leaves.

Regards,
Stu

That's Punny!

Hi All,

I've heard the quote, "A pun is the lowest form of humor - when you don't think of it first."   Well, it might be true - but there are some awesome pun websites on the web. 

For example, there is a website called WebEnglishTeacher - which has categorized lists of puns.  There are puns in categories like Irreverent Puns, De-tales, Useful Conversions and more.
Memebase has a list of visual puns - seriously, they are really, really funny.

Click on this link from Techeblog.com which as a link to 24 Funny Puns By Internet Geeks That Might Have You Rolling - and they will - they are funny!

Click on this link from PunGents.com for recently posted puns and Pun of the Day.  Click here for Puns by Topic. 

Finally, click on the following links to find other punny websites on the web.
1. 26 Puns That Are Too Clever for Their Own Good
2. Badpuns.com
3. Pun of the Day

And of for a more serious look at the word pun - click on this link from the Oxford University Press link for an article entitled, 'The Dubious History of the Pun'.  The entry is fun, educational and interesting - and well written.

Finally, click on this link to the library card catalog - which goes to the Farmingdale Public Library's holdings on the topic of puns.  

Enjoy the links - and keep on punning!

Regards,
Stu

Hi All,

Stress. It is a part of our daily life - unfortunately.  It can come at you from family, friends, work and other sources. Its, well, stressful.  But there are many ways to relieve stress. 

And because stress is so prevalent in our everyday life, the Farmingdale Public Library is hosting a Stress Management Workshop on Thursday, November 13th at 3pm. 

In this workshop you'll learn how to manage your stress. Topics included: possible causes of stress, the effects stress can have on your life, and some strategies to cope with stress.  Registration for this class has already begun, but there are spots available for the class.  Click on this link to register for the Stress Management Workshop.

And with that all said, here are 3 links from the web, that can help you relieve the stress right now.

This first link is from a website called HelpGuide.org.  The site self-proclaims itself as being 'expert, ad-free resources that help you resolve health issues.  Okay.  Sounds good at least.  The article is called 'Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress'.   The article is well written, clear and gives readers many different tools and techniques for identifying and controlling the stress in their life.

The next link is from the famed Mayo Clinic.  This article is appropriately enough, called, 'Stress Management' and discusses stress basics, stress relief and relaxation techniques.  Excellent article from a world renowned source of medical information.

Finally, the next article comes from the American Heart Association. The article is titled, 'To Stress or Not To Stress? You Decide. But We Can Help.'  The article covers topics like stress management, explanations why it is good to practice stress managment and even more technniques to lower stress in your daily life.  All great stuff from another world famous, unbiased, medical organization. And the information is free to boot!

Hope these entries make your day a bit less stressful!

Enjoy the links,
Stu

Volunteering

Hi All,

Did you know that volunteering in the United States is on the decline?  Well, it is... Check out this article from Newsweek back in October.  The article/entry/post is titled, 'Volunteering in America is on the Decline'.

With that thought in mind, I decided to write a blog entry about volunteering.  Some websites that readers can visit to find volunteer options include: Serve.gov, Volunteermatch, Long Island.com, 1800Volunteer (seriously) and Long Island Volunteer Center. 

The Long Island Volunteer Center (LIVC) is an all-volunteer agency working to provide support to, and promote and advocate for, volunteer service on Long Island.  It is a well-known, volunteer organization - and it has a wonderfully useful website to help volunteers find volunteer positions.  Click on this link to find more information about LIVC.

Click on this link to 'Find a Volunteer Opportunity'.  Users can search by keyword, schedule type, zip code and distance.  Or you can just search the listings.  Note that users can sort column headers.  As a result you can search by title of the volunteer opportunity, organization name, location of volunteer opportunity, time, distance and frequency.  Which all makes searching for just the right volunteer opportunity painless, easy and fast!

Finally, if you are in the library and would like a hard-copy of the brochure 'Places People Can Volunteer' you can come to the Reference Desk or the Children's Room and we'll give you a copy. It's a great volunteering resource.

Happy volunteering.

Regards,
Stu