Category: From the Reference Desk

From the Reference Desk: The San Francisco Chronicle Encourages You To “Die Now”

Notice found in an issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, dated March 27, 1867: “Worthy of Note. Persons contemplating dying soon are remined that the present times are favorable towards the securing of a respectable crowd of mourners. This is mainly owing to the fact that the Central R.R. Company charge but one fare to the Lone Mountain cemetery. Hence,…

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Challenging Reference Question: Searching Hansards and British Parliamentary Papers

Here was a challenging reference question I received at the Young Research Library reference desk that was ultimately solved by a couple of my colleagues. A patron was looking for a transcript of a debate that took place in the British Parliament in 1937 about, as the patron asked, whether any black representatives would be able to (allowed to?) attend…

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From the Reference Desk: The First Martini

The martini was first mentioned in O.H. Byron’s The Modern Bartender’s Guide, published in New York in 1884. A martini is a cocktail made of gin or vodka and vermouth, with a dash of bitters. The origin of the name is in dispute. Byron called the drink a “Martinez” and described it as a Manhattan (a whiskey cocktail sweetened with…

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From the Reference Desk: Lompoc – Ye Olde Party Towne

I found the reference book cited below when looking in YRL’s reference collection for information about Santa Barbara sheriffs in the 1870s and 1880s. This is a bit of information about historical Lompoc that I just found amusing. Apparently Lompoc used to be a quite a raucous town in the late 19th century: “Lompoc was founded as a temperance colony,…

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From the Reference Desk

Famous Last (Presidential) Words The following quotes are allegedly the last recorded words of several Presidents before they died: John Adams: “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Franklin D. Roosevelt: “I have a terrible headache.” Theodore Roosevelt: “Please put out the light.” James Madison: “I always talk better lying down.” Warren G. Harding: “That’s good. Go on, read some more.” Millard Fillmore:…

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From the Reference Desk

The beauty of working at a reference desk is that I have access to all kinds of information, and I can easily grab a reference book at random and review it. Today I pulled off the shelf The Illustrated Book of World Rankings. (5th ed. Kurian. Edited by George Thomas. Armonk: Sharpe, 2001). It ranks the world’s countries according to…

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