Mockingbird

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‘Minds Like Empty Rooms’

“I arrived in the first grade, literate, with a curious cultural assimilation of American history, romance, the Rover Boys, Rapunzel, and The Mobile Press. Early signs of genius? Far from it. Reading was an accomplishment I shared with several local contemporaries. Why this endemic precocity? Because in my hometown, a remote village in the early 1930s, youngsters had little to do but read. A movie? Not often—movies weren’t for small children. A park for games? Not a hope. We’re talking unpaved streets here, and the Depression. . . .

“Now, 75 years later in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books. Instant information is not for me. I prefer to search library stacks because when I work to learn something, I remember it.”

—Nelle Harper Lee, author, To Kill A Mockingbird (1960), in 2006 letter to Oprah magazine.

(Thanks to alert WORDster Javan Kienzle)

• Editorial Comment: I’ll never forget the day I read a book.

• Yesterday’s WORD: Sweet Old Poop Did you miss yesterday’s WORDs from the British Parliament, who said Rupert Murdoch is unfit to run his global mega-NewsCorp? Click here.

News from our award-winning student news site, The Hard News Café 
• Journalism prof known as quirky, dedicated, passionate, inspirational, by Kristi Ottley

• Parking at River Heights park has neighbors at odds with city, by Sean O’Sullivan
• False ID makes Logan woman’s underage drinking trouble worse, by Steve Kent

• Humane Society volunteers give loving care to homeless pets, by Jimena Herrero

• Blind in a sighted world: Independence means everything , by Chris Lee
• Herbal remedies, natural medicine growing more popular, by Tmera Bradley
• Mongolian journalists visit USU to develop partnerships, by Rebecca Holliday
• Swapping schools: Logan, Cache districts accommodate requests, by Tara Alvey
• GRAMA request reveals missing faculty conflict-of-interest forms, by Caitlin Moffitt
• ACL injury lands snowboard pro in months of rehab, by Josh Ruggles
• History named top teaching department at USU in fierce competition, by Allie Jeppson
• Astronomer warns of ‘Death from the Skies’ in Science lecture, by Mary Stocking
• Commencement 2012: Aggies have less debt than national average, by Kristi Ottley
• Aggies team up with Nike to launch new ‘look’, by Rebecca Holliday
• Aggies TV News—Cache Rendezvous (April 25)

 PeezPIX by Ted Pease 

Catalog here

Lulu the Bighearted Dog left us much too soon. 
2002-2012 RIP