Thank the goddess, it's still news when someone throws away a book, or a dumpster full of books.

Jay Sorgi on Newsradio 620 in Milwaukee reports a public school there was caught "tossing piles of books right into the dumpster. A garbage receptacle at Grand Avenue Middle School near downtown held hundreds of books that the school decided to remove after the school year ended."

When books in a dumpster make Newsradio 620 the book lives on!

You may remember reports earlier this year that teenagers broke into the historic home of poet Robert Frost and trashed it. It's just too easy to call their punishment poetic justice, but we will: Twenty-five young miscreants were sentenced to take classes in Frost's poetry as part of their punishment.

Poetry as punishment reminds me of current efforts to stop teenagers from congregating in front of retail stores by playing classical music on loudspeakers until they slink away in confusion.

One day the Supreme Court may rule poetry AND classical music cruel and unusual punishment, but that day has not yet arrived.

There are other indications books still matter. Take the recent floods along rivers in the Midwest. Two weeks ago flood waters overtook the University of Iowa. News reports spoke of volunteers who "formed a chain to remove books and dissertations from the campus library, while others transferred art works from the museum as the arts campus was submerged."

In a June 17 blog update, librarian Melissa W. reported, "The University of Iowa did not sustain any damage to collections held at the Main Library. They were able to get all the Special Collections out of storage and up to the upper floors while everything else was moved to higher shelves. The building did take on two or three inches of water in the basement and that is minimal compared to the amount of water in other buildings on campus."

In 1995 Carol Vogel published a children's book titled The Great Midwest Flood about the high waters of 1993. Vogel noted, "while an earthquake does its damage in seconds, the great flood of 1993 was a slow-motion disaster." Her book went out of print but still can be found on the upstairs floors of libraries, online and in used bookshops. Maybe it's time for an update.

The Wall Street Journal quoted scientists who said, "By building along the riverbanks and forcing the Mississippi into a bed that is less than half the width of where it ran a century ago, residents are displacing water and forcing the river to run faster and higher." It's not the residents so much as questions about who maintains levees, who allows homes to be built on flood plains, issues with flood insurance, issues with government support, and more. As the floods disappear, so do news reports, leaving victims of poor planning to rebuild with relatively little outside help.

Staff and volunteers on this station have done a heroic job reporting on local wildfires this past week. A hero's thank you must also go out to CalFire and volunteers battling fatigue while dealing with smoke and fire damage.

In August, Macmillan/Forge will publish Hell on Earth: The Wildfire Pandemic by David Porter. "After losing his home to a wildfire in 2003, David Porter set out to find how and why this was happening, not only in the western US, but around the world. The world is burning, and it appears that we are to blame," writes the publisher. "Conditions that create large-scale fire disasters are occurring more frequently every year, spurred on by global warming..."

Aired Sunday June 29, 2008 at 10:55 am and Wednesday July 2, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Orders/Information:

Books in the dumpster: http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/21411129.html

The poetry of Robert Frost as punishment: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24935777/

Bloomberg report on U of Iowa flooding: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=auHg7tPATShg&refer=uswww.bloomberg.co

The Great Midwest Flood by Carol G. Vogel. Little Brown & Company hardcover $15.95. Out of print. Published September, 1995. ISBN: 0316902489

Mellisa W.'s blog on libraries and flooding: http://balletbookworm.blogspot.com/

Hell on Earth: The Wildfire Pandemic by David L. Porter. Macmillan/Forge hardcover $24.95. Will be published August 19, 2008. ISBN 0765313804.

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