Tag Archives: Stump the Librarian

In Memory of Anne Hinrichs (1938-2024)

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Anne 

(“Gonzo Technology” was written for my library school blog and posted on April 25, 2016.)

“I never met him alone,” Anne, our volunteer technology instructor at Fairhope Library said. “My husband, or daughter would go with me to downtown Mobile.”
“He would give me his Dictaphone tapes and I would give him his manuscript.” Anne  used her data processing machine in the picture above (left) to transcribe the tapes of Hunter S. Thompson’s The Curse of Lono (1983) manuscript.

“There was a lot of foul words in it,” she recalled, “And I remember them flushing drugs down an airplane toilet.”

“He liked my speed, she said of Thompson. “He was a bit strange, as writers tend to be. This was way before he became famous.”

“I needed the money,” she said. Anne’s IT addiction, a computer and printer set her back five thousand bucks. Anne is pictured above with the actual Apple II Plus (right with NEC Monitor) she used to type Thompson’s manuscript.

Hunter, it turns out was a friend of a friend of Anne’s husband. All these guys shared a love of cars. American Cars! However, this wasn’t just any friend of a friend, it was novelist Tom Corcoran.

I didn’t have any reason to doubt Anne, but I found myself Googling (newly acquired reference skills be darned) Hunter Thompson and Fairhope. The next time I saw her she had done the same thing, “I’m losing it,” she said, of her memory, but of all the people I know, Anne in IT speak is “with it.”

WE found the same book reference. Fairhope is mentioned in Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson, by William McKeen.

None of this may seem like a big deal, but Anne continues to be an early adopter despite having a severe case of macular degeneration, which she described to me one day as “looking through a shattered windshield.” She’s mastered Windows 10, wields an iPad better than any kid, and can code like there is no tomorrow.

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My first home computer, circa 1992, was a Tandy 1000. (www.old-computers.com)

Anne and I have a lot in common. We thoroughly enjoy lifelong learning and we are absolutely giddy when we are sharing what we know with others at the Fairhope Public Library.

Spring Events have Sprung

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Here’s what’s happening in my reading and writing world now that March is about to roll in. If I did this correctly, you should be able to save the event image and share it on social media to help me get the word out. All books are for locally at Page and Palette.

So honored and excited to be a part of Alabama Authors day at Five Rivers in Spanish Fort.

I’ll be reviewing Gabriel Zevin’s book Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow on Tuesday, March 5, at 10:30 AM at the Fairhope Public Library.

My friend and Alabama Authors Day Organizer Mike Bunn is going to be our speaker at the March 7 Fairhope Single Tax Lecture Series (poster below). It begins at 6 PM at the Fairhope Public Library and I look forward to seeing you. Mike is the director of Blakeley and is a fine writer, especially his latest book, Fourteenth Colony.

We’ve got a Pensters Writing Group meeting in March too. I’m interviewing my friend and fellow Penster Lovelace Cook. I’m reading Meet Me in Mumbai now and have already lined up a few questions for her.

Yes, Gabe Gold-Vukson and I are closing out the lecture series in April this year talking about our Fairhope book.

Thanks for reading and sharing!

Taste of LA and Best of Baldwin 2024

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So excited to be part of the food, fun, and family tomorrow at the Fairhope Piggly Wiggly. I’ll have my books, Fairhope Past and Present, Stump the Librarian, Clay City Tile, and Mapping Fairhope for sale. My Fairhope Past & Present co-author Gabe Gold-Vukson is joining me after he gets out of work. Stop by and say hi!

On Monday, I went in to the Fairhope Public Library to return and renew some books and ran into my former co-worker, Kris. We were getting caught about a committee we are both on. As we parted ways she said, “don’t forget to vote.” I looked at her puzzlingly. “You are a finalist for Best Local Author in the Best of Baldwin.” What? Sure enough! Someone nominated me and now I’m one of five finalists in Gulf Coast Media’s Best of Baldwin 2024. Follow this link or scan the QR code below and vote for me. Thanks for voting! While you’re there, vote for people and places (Fairhope Public Library) in other categories including my friend, fellow blogger, and local artist Judy Hanks Pimperl.

Books In Return

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It’s been a week for books! The first book arrived in the mail, a thank you for blurbing a friend’s book. Kathie Farnell asked me to say some kind words for the back cover of her book, Tie dyed: Avoiding Aquarius. Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed her first book, Duck and Cover: A Nuclear Family, the sequel, I can honestly say is better than the original.

“Farnell’s latest memoir, Tie Dyed: Avoiding Aquarius is equal parts dramatic and hair-on-fire hilarious. A follow-up to Duck and Cover, Tie Dyed traces Farnell’s high school and college trips in Alabama through the counter-culture sixties and early seventies where she’s mostly a fish out of water, swimming against the “tied.” Farnell’s true life tales are slap full of smart, sass, and sarcasm. She’s got gumption, so get reading.” Alan Samry, Author of Stump the Librarian

A day later, my order of Clay City Tile books arrived. Just in time to restock Page and Palette, our local bookstore. Finally up to date on their accounts, they are now, happily, paying us when we drop books off, instead of after they’ve sold through the consigned copies.

I met with Jason Fisher the following day. He’s a kind soul, full of care and compassion, and a newly minted author. His new book, To Where You Are was published last month. I interviewed him for Fairhope Living magazine at Provision in downtown Fairhope. The young woman at the counter overheard Jason talking about his daughter, who has autism. As someone with autism, the Provision hostess offered to answer any questions we had, which was very kind and unexpected.

The next day, in a serendipitous connection, I unboxed a book at the Austin Meadows Library, located on the Bay Minette campus of Coastal Alabama Community College. I’m filling in on that campus due to several retirements, including my former boss. Long story short, some new books arrived already cataloged courtesy of Kim in Brewton and were ready to be shelved. The one that struck me, after having met Jason and the young woman at Provision was The Boy Who Felt Too Much: How a Renowned Neuroscientist and His Son Changed Our View of Autism Forever, by Lorenz Wagner. After I read that people with autism “don’t feel too little; they feel too much,” I was intrigued.

I just finished reading All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the American Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler. The American woman is Mildred Fish Harnack. You should read this book! Although it is history, it is written in the present tense. Let that settle in…History, not written in the past tense. Many publishers declined it for this reason, but you’ll see that Donner is closely connected to Mildred and I am glad she stuck to her principles and found an agreeable publisher. Donner’s book of narrative nonfiction is compellingly crafted and very relevant.

I have a book deal! My co-author and I will be working on a Fairhope history book this year and it will published, hopefully, in the fall of 2023. It’s a long way off! I’ll keep you posted here at Stump the Librarian. In the meantime, keep reading Fairhope Living.

Photograph Courtesy of the Fairhope Single Tax Corporation

Still Curious?

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Sirmon Farms, Daphne, Alabama

Although, I have not lost my curiosity, *@$!&%’ COVID scared it some. So, what’s with the symbols instead of the swear? It’s got a name. It’s called a grawlix. The word was coined by Mort Walker, creator of the Beatle Bailey cartoon. Every darn spell checker turns it red, so I’m happy to have something the computers don’t have a clue about how to autocorrect.

On the subject of humans and computers, I’ve heard told we don’t always gee haw. Yeah, I learned this southernism from Art, our local planner, and yes, it means get along. Right is Gee, and Haw is left, and there’s some mule from 135 years ago who didn’t hear nothing, and so farmers started saying, “Me and this mule just can’t gee haw.”

As for the writing, the Birmingham Arts Journal published my essay, “The Flo of Old Fairhope” in August. If you just read it, and you live locally, you’ll realize that I have to rewrite the ending. Maybe to the tune of “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Libraries: Culture, History and Society just published my essay, “In a Foot of COVID-19 Clay Are the Feats of Library Writing Communities.”

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I’ve been happily cranking out copy for Fairhope Living magazine. The October issue has the historic hotels of Fairhope’s past. It was a cool article to write, similar format to the street history. Also enjoyed getting to know Jenny Resmondo of South Alabama Physiotherapy. November has the Gaston and Mershon family history and a home on Coleman Avenue. December has a story of how a pole barn becomes a retirement home and the Knoll Park Christmas tradition.

Hope everyone’s alright out there. Stay curious and keep creating. At this blogging rate, the best of 2021 list will be next. Happy Halloween.

Are you Thankful?

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This past month I’ve been on an incredible journey. Here’s a few photos from Stump the Librarian‘s book stops. Thanks for supporting a local author and your hometown librarian.

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I was in great company at my Page and Palette book signing. Frye Gaillard (A Hard Rain), political cartoonist, JD Crowe (Half-Thunk Thoughts), and The Grinch!

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The event at Barnes & Noble in Spanish Fort on the 28th was special too. The Brewster family came by and so did a former co-worker and now Spanish Fort Public Library Librarian Zach Basler.

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Sue’s always by my side, em well, except when The Grinch is around.

Enjoy the holiday season and check my author site to find out where I’ll be signing and telling leg stories next. Thanks for reading Stump the Librarian.

Until then, want to know where you would be cataloged in the Dewey Decimal System?

Take this quiz at Spacefem. It’s fun! You can find Stump the Librarian in Biography, but here’s my nonfiction section. The “What it says part about you” is surprisingly true.

Alan Samry’s Dewey Decimal Section:

997 Atlantic Ocean islands

Alan Samry = 121491385 = 121+491+385 = 997

Class:
900 History & Geography

Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.

What it says about you:
You’re connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You’ve had some conflicted times in your life, but they’ve brought you to where you are today and you don’t ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

On Sale Now!

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officialcover

Click on the photo or here to buy the print book from Amazon.

Also available as a Kindle Book.

What are People Saying?

Alan Samry’s kaleidoscopic book, Stump the Librarian is at once a glorious compendium of quick biographies of one-legged individuals, a moving memoir, a fascinating history of amputations and prostheses, and a medical investigation of the congenital anomaly that left the author with a disability at birth.  Samry, a librarian in Fairhope, Alabama, takes joy in the quest for answers and pursues information with the sublime sense of mission that the best librarians possess.  With clarity, candor, and a down-to-earth directness, he takes us with him:  fascinated, outraged, horrified, thrilled, and ever curious about a world populated—and profoundly changed—by those who not only get by on a single leg but stand far more firmly than many people with two. Samry weaves poignant personal recollection through his tapestry of information, making Stump the Librarian a must read.

—Molly Peacock, author of The Analyst and The Paper Garden 

Alan Samry takes readers on his personal journey of curiosity, humor and exploration. In an unlikely narrative readers learn about Alan’s life as a congenital below-knee amputee.  In a very delightful and provocative manner, Alan relates his personal memoirs and shares historical and imagined characters who are like-amputees. Alan’s writing style is fascinatingly varied, and insightful into his own self-discovery.  He shares intimate details that enable readers to appreciate his story and perspective. This book is a celebration of Alan – his person, determination, and his insatiable desire for truth.

—Tamara Dean, Director, Fairhope Public Library