Category Archives: From the Library – A Weekly Column

Read the published version of Library Director Charlotte Canelli’s column in the May 17, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

As my 61st birthday raced past me this year, I was reminded of the occasion of my 8th birthday. That spring, my mother planned a butterfly birthday for me. This special day, as all my birthdays were, included a handmade dress. Colorful butterflies adorned the yellow polished cotton. The dress had a sash that was tied crisply at the back of the waist and its short-sleeves were perfect the California weather in May. That day, I most certainly wore turned-down lace-trimmed socks and my black, patent-leather Mary Janes.

Living in the college town of Berkeley, California was one of my childhood’s treasured experiences. School friends from my local public elementary school were comprised from nationalities across the world. Some were daughters of graduate students or professors. Others had parents who were missionaries and scientists. More were from families like mine with fathers in blue-color jobs and mothers who stayed at home. In short, my friends that year were as varied as the multicolored butterflies on that birthday dress.In addition to my dress, there were gifts wrapped in butterfly paper, butterfly decorations and an unforgettable homemade birthday cake.

In 1959, General Mills published the “Baker’s Coconut Animal Cut-up Cake book.” All the cakes in it were baked from scratch in round, rectangular and square pans. The baked cakes were cut up and arranged in animal shapes (or, in my case, an insect). They were then frosted and decorated.
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Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli’s column in the May 3, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

When I was a very young child, my mother whisked my brother and me from Massachusetts to a brand-new life on the Northern California coast. About a month later, a moving van deposited our family’s modest trove of clothing, pastimes and treasures into our new home in Berkeley. As a little girl, I was much more absorbed in in my own sorely-missed belongings and I hardly noticed my mother unwrapping her own treasures, tucking them into cabinets and closets.

Nevertheless, over the years, I became keenly acquainted with most of these family heirlooms. The Taft Family Revolutionary War sword and the Bruce Family Civil War medals were displayed with much pride. My great-grandmother’s hand-sewn quilt lay in a chest wrapped in tissue. Six antique glass goblets and a matching pitcher sat front and center in a china cabinet, rarely used.
I admit those glasses never impressed me much. They were stout and thick and bore lines up the stems. Stored in a cabinet, the sunlight never emphasized the fine honeycomb pattern that covered their bowls.

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Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli’s column in the April 26, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Today everything seems to be big business. Music, sports, the film industry, beauty and even education (with its online colleges and professional degrees) are some of today’s big businesses. And let’s not forget health care, one of the fastest-growing businesses today.

Big businesses always begin as a small business; often it is the result of a good idea of one or several entrepreneurs. And plenty of hard work.

Over a century and a half ago, four men were creating some of what would become the biggest businesses in the United States in the 20th Century. They were Andrew Carnegie (steel), John D. Rockefeller (oil), J.P. Morgan (banking) and Jay Gould (railroads). (more…)

Read the published version of Charlotte Canelli’s column in the April 19, 2013 edition of the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

It was less than four months ago when the tragedy in Newtown left me wordless.  That weekend before Christmas 2012, I idly sat in front of my computers, both in my office and at home. Shocked and saddened,  I contemplated the tragic event at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Very slowly that day, the column I was writing materialized.  I wrote about Fred Rogers and Rabbi Harold Kushner and listed their books and others that might help readers find their way to understanding this terrible event.  I added that 2013 would be the 20th anniversary of the Random Acts of Kindness movement, and I urged readers to continue spreading compassion across the world on a daily basis.

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