Roar-schach.

While today marks the 101st anniverary of the dedication of the New York Public Library, last night marked another sign of the times as library officials entered the lion's den, defending plans for a $300 million renovation that will close two branches and remove a million and a half books from the flagship Fifth Avenue branch, exiling those volumes to storage in New Jersey.  http://tinyurl.com/7s94fbc  More than 1,000 writers, scholars and artists have petitioned the library to jettison the plan; Pulitzer-winning biographer Edmund Morris took to the NY Times op-ed pages to protest it http://tinyurl.com/7n93jur, and others have joined in the fray.  http://tinyurl.com/6qpvcf3

The nicknames of those lions, by the way, are Patience and Fortitude.  Qualities not much prized in today's wired world, where we must be "connected" to everywhere, everyone, all the time.  Making it easy for one person to unplug and connect, deeply, slowly, with one book--how old fashioned!  Or not.  Call it our on-going roar-schach test.

Ruth Marcus in today's WaPo pleads for less techno-immersion.  Sounds good, but when she cites a recent survey that 12% of "Millenial Moms" have used their smartphones during sex, and I don't mean creatively, it seems to me that books and reading, unless shaded in gray, are probably screwed--and I don't mean in a good way.   http://tinyurl.com/c9hqzjh