Brandy Danner is a librarian specializing in young adult services.
Things I Learned Today By Doing Reference
(a) Boston Common, the first public park in (what became) America, was established in 1634 as a utilitarian common ground for grazing, militia formation, and public hangings.
(b) Pascal's Triangle is a concept in calculus that is related to Fibonacci numbers and other mathematical patterns and sequences. Not much is written about this, and 90% of the articles that are written are not available as full-text.
(c) Children enrolled in center-based day-cares have more immune system responses (i.e., get sick more often) than children in home-based day-cares. [NOTE: this is what the woman was researching; I don't know if it's actually true.]
(d) If a squirrel takes up residence in your car door, the average mechanic will charge $150 to repair the damage. This is why books like *Outwitting Squirrels* and *Outwitting Critters* are popular titles, and why it is useful to have an online subscription to Chilton's Automotive Repair, with drawings to show how to disassemble one's car door without paying a mechanic more than once.
(e) To a first-grader, birds and alligators are equally cool, and students should not be forced to choose between them for the purposes of reports. Sadly, there is no flying alligator.
