Off Topic: "The General Diffusion Of Knowledge"

That's a Thomas Jefferson sound byte, I think.  He was for it.  (Not everyone is, these days.)

I'm downsizing my household, a well-known byproduct of ancien-ness.  One category of things I have way too many of is books: car books, biographies, histories.

I'm in the mood to donate, so I called my local library.  "Actually, we can't use 'em," the librarian said.  "We don't blow donors off, because it's not good community relations.  But, truth to tell, we recycle [shred] anything that comes in our front door from the general public."

So I called a prison.  "The few books we have are in terrible shape," the librarian said, "so we're not looking for more."  I'm still trying to understand that.

So I called my local middle school.  "Most of the books I want to donate are car books, which I think would appeal to middle school-aged boys."  "Oh yeah," the librarian said.  I continued: "But the rest of them are very adult stuff on history and politics, maybe more suitable for college-aged kids."

"No problem.  I know this guy who has a program to donate books to underserved areas of Appalachia.  What I do is go though your stuff, keep what I or the high schools can use, and give the rest to him.  He packs 'em up and drives 'em down there a couple of times a year to outfits who want them.  Phone me before you come and I'll meet you at the front door."

I guess nobody reads books any more--at least that's what I see on TV.  ;-)  But my middle school librarian and I, we're gonna go down on the Good Ship Gutenberg, with our colors flying.