Maria Callas

The night before we left for Toronto (way  back in August), I was emptying out a bag that I needed for the trip and I found a library videocassette that was horribly, horribly overdue.  The tape was somewhere around 30 days overdue, to be more precise.  I returned the video late that night, long after the library was closed so that I would be spared any further embarrassment.  I have been avoiding the library ever since, figuring that I would need to pay a hefty fine of $30 or more to get borrowing privileges back.  Imagine my surprise when I called the library late yesterday and learned that I only owed $6.70!  It turns out they cap the late fees at $5.00 per item as long as the item is returned intact.  So yesterday afternoon, I stopped at the main branch to pay up and resume my place as a responsible member of the borrowing community. 

It was good to be back amongst all that free stuff.  I have been listening to opera performances by Maria Callas lately and I immediately checked to see if the library had any of her performances on CD.  I was happy to find Callas renditions of "Armida," "Andrea Chénier," and "Carmen."  Additionally, I picked up CDs of the Kirov Opera performance of Glinka's "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and Paul Robeson's "Songs of Free Men."

The main branch of the library has also acquired a lot of of Teaching Company courses on CD and DVD.  I am generally fond of Teaching Company materials, as I have both purchased and borrowed courses in the past.  This time around, I selected a DVD course entitled "Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age."

All this stuff should keep me pretty busy for a while.