Marian the Librarian
Who is more multi-faceted than singer/actress Shirley Jones? She went from Academy Award-winner, playing a prostitute in Elmer Gantry, to the most wholesome of TV mothers on The Partridge Family. In between she portrayed Rodgers and Hammerstein heroines, solidified every stereotype of librarians in The Music Man and married both the suave Jack Cassidy and the goofy Marty Ingles. Had she stayed in Western Pennsylvania where she was born 74 years ago today, she might have ended up working in the family business, the Jones Brewery.
We've got her on video in Carousel, The Music Man and Oklahoma!
Today jazz pianist/composer/leader Marian McPartland turns 90. When she started out in the United States in the '40's, an English woman jazz piano player wasn't standard fare. But she soon formed her own trio and played long engagements at clubs in New York. In 1978 she began taping the NPR series, "Piano Jazz," which she still hosts today.
March 19 is Act Happy Day. The week of March 17-22 is Act Happy Week. If you are an exceptionally good actor you can act like spring will really be here on Thursday.
It was a dark and stormy night. The lightning was flashing, the thunder rolling. The roof of the library continued to be flat. Snow embraced each square corner and enveloped each drain. The reference librarian on duty made the rounds searching in all the usual spots for leaks. But a certain location, once renowned for drips but dry for eons, escaped this librarian's scrutiny. Then the alert came: a student reported some water. Water. Not a leak, not a drip, but a cascade. Water pouring from the ceiling. Ceiling tiles in smithereens on the floor. The books were removed, the plastic draped, receptacles gathered.