Midweek linksies
More whingeing about public libraries: have finally cracked and zapped off an email pointing out that what we want in public libraries is what isn't on the shelves in Waterstones, however the only way to acquire books in this category is to purchase ex-library stock copies via www.bookfinder.com.
Zoe Williams, The psychology of debt favours the swaggering middle classes over the risk-averse skint. I'm a bit sort of hmmm about this: because I don't know how I'd have coped if I'd had to take on student loans, I felt pressured enough without having *OMG repaying loans*: suppose I can't get a job, worry worry worry hanging over my head. On the other hand, am massively debt-averse though do have a mortgage. On the first foot, however, I can see that it could be easy to run up credit card debts made up of lots of fairly small purchases, while being daunted by taking on a huge long-term commitment.
Mickey Spillane is dead: I didn't realise he was still alive.
Though I did realise that social historian ES Turner was still around (until last week), since he was continuing to review in the TLS and LRB.
In praise of... ginkgo trees:
There is no other tree like the ginkgo. More than 250 million years old, it has seen dinosaurs come and go, survived ice ages and also the drifting of continents. It is often called a living fossil: its leaves look exactly the same as fossils formed hundreds of millions of years ago....
[I]t is now the tree of choice for street planting in towns around Britain. Why?
It is the perfect urban tree since it tolerates pollution, is disease-resistant, doesn't have invasive roots, and requires minimum maintenance since it sheds its leaves within a two-week period, reducing the need to keep sweeping up. It is so tough that four survived the bombing of Hiroshima. Unlike the plane tree, it doesn't have massive spreading branches that are difficult to prune.