“100 down” haiku

If you’re looking for
A fun word puzzle to do
Try a Google search

Today’s Doodle marks
Hundredth anniversary
Of crossword’s debut

In 1913
The New York World’s Arthur Wynne
Made the first “word-cross”

A typographer
Later transposed feature’s name
The crossword was born

Today’s Doodle’s smart
Will save your answers for you
Till you are finished

So if you must quit
And come back later, there’s no
Need to be cross — Word

“You could look it up” haiku

Something to check out:
National Library Week’s
In full swing — no charge!

Love browsing the stacks
Seeing what’s new and what’s old
How titles evolve

My library rocks
Though Internet puts so much
At my fingertips

I love Google, but
Librarians are so smart,
So cool, so helpful

My library card
And librarian still make
A great search engine

Someday I’ll curl up
With an eReader, I know
But not yet, not yet

Ink’s look, paper’s feel
Ignite imagination
I’m bound to binding

Good old books don’t need
A wireless connection
Batteries recharged

And when I need help
My library peeps are there
They’ve got me covered!

And these are from last year, sparked at the time by the annual meeting of the Kansas Library Association. This year’s starts today, in Wichita.

Librarians fine
But overdue for big bash
Break out the bookmarks!

Where else can you say
Dewey Decimal System
Is a hot topic?

Seriously, folks,
They’re working on challenges
Of digital age

Can we use Facebook
And Twitter tweets to trigger
Library flash mobs?

The answer, my friend,
Is blowing in cyber wind
Of tablets, smartphones

Hey, I love gadgets
But not for reading Shakespeare
After a hard day

If pixels be food
Of love for literature
Don’t play on — Kill me!

Amazon has tried
To Kindle my eBook flame;
It always fizzles

Once, a Nook and I
Stared blankly at each other
Like a bad blind date

So, I think nothing
Will ever match the beauty
Of a book in hand

Romance suffers too
When the best pickup line is
“Your iPad or mine?”

For we are such stuff
As dreams are made on: Yes, us!
Not some avatars

In reading, life, love
I must say: Ain’t nothin’ like
The real thing, baby

“It’ll last longer” haiku

Eadweard Muybridge, April 9, 1830 — May 8, 1904
Today’s Google Doodle, April 9, 2012, is here.


Are horses’ hooves all
Off the ground at the same time?
Eadweard Muybridge asked

To find out he took
A gallop poll — with cameras
Triggered in sequence

One shot answered “Yes”
And the rest advanced the art
Of motion pictures

Zoopraxiscope:
He invented an early
Movie projector

Muybridge also shot
Athletes and other people
As they moved about

Muybridge also shot
Wife’s lover dead — talk about
Dark room negatives

Jury rejected
Insanity plea but still
Found him not guilty

“The Photographer,”
Film scored by Philip Glass, told
The trial story

In real life Muybridge
First to charge to see movie
— But no 5-buck Cokes

Edison followed,
Others too, so it behooves
Us to remember

“What’s the frequency, Heinrich?” haiku

Catch a birthday wave
Electromagnetically
Google salutes Hertz

Hertz was first to prove
Electromagnetic waves
Really existed

Showed radio waves,
Light had same velocity
Could be transmitted

Thought his findings were
“Of no use whatsoever”
Boy, he got that wrong

Led to radio
And wireless telegraph,
Rent-a-cars (kidding)

They named the unit
Of radio frequency
The hertz after him

And that’s Heinrich Hertz
Not Heinrich’s uncle Hertz Hertz
Then we’d have hertz squared

“Best of verse, worst of verse” haiku

Beatles land at JFK — Feb. 7, 1964
Charles Dickens, Feb. 7, 1812 — June 9, 1870


British invasion
Fixed bayonets? No, moptops
Armed with 45’s

A Friday landing
New York’s Kennedy Airport
Started their conquest

They’d topped U.S. charts
With “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
More where that came from

Thousands screamed non-stop
Lost voices, inhibitions
Beautiful release

Sunday on his show
Sullivan announced the charge
“Right here on our stage”

40% watched
That first TV appearance
Millions all tune in

Then D.C. triumph
Occupied Carnegie Hall
Sullivan again

Left us wanting more
Like Oliver with his bowl
Loved them, yeah yeah yeah

Here’s another twist
That first U.S. landing came
On Dickens’ birthday

Google Doodle says
Great British author was born
Two centuries past

Crusader with pen
Captured boarding school horrors
The courts’ injustice

Railed at his country’s
Poverty amid plenty
With fiction quite real

Brought London to life
Upper class privileged, stifled
Poor scrabbling to live

Serialized work
Gave his stories a rhythm
Cliff-hangers galore

And the characters!
Nicholas Nickleby, Pip
David Copperfield

The Artful Dodger
Uriah Heep, Wackford Squeers
Mr. Micawber

Samuel Pickwick
Abel Magwitch, Tiny Tim
Ebenezer Scrooge

Dickens visited
U.S. twice, reading his works
Exploring New York

For second visit
Departed England, where else
But from Liverpool

Wined and dined, he made
Dozens of appearances
Dickensmania

Dickens on death bed
Said “be natural,” fulfill
“All the rules of art”

Years later, Fab Four
Would do just that, bring U.S.
One more manic gift

“Not another rock guy’s birthday!” haiku

Nicolas Steno, Jan. 11, 1638 — Dec. 5, 1686

Nicolas Steno
Father of geology
His legacy rocks

Check Google’s salute
To this foundational dude
From 1600s

Centuries before
Chuck Berry, Little Richard
The man could dig it

An upper crust guy
Yet he studied all layers
And how strata formed

He was all about
Things gettin’ horizontal
Just like rock ‘n’ roll

Nicolas Steno
Father of geology
His legacy? Rocks!

“Incredibly tiny chip off the old block” haiku

Robert Noyce, Dec. 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990

You can Google him:
Robert Noyce, the “mayor” of
Silicon Valley

Always tinkering
As a kid he built aircraft
Motorized his sled

Called Rapid Robert
For the way he sped through schools
Grinnell, MIT

Philco and Shockley
Couldn’t hold him long; soon he
Co-founded Fairchild

Then helped found Intel
Genius trio: Gordon Moore,
Andy Grove and Noyce

Inventor’s vision
Was just too big for this world
So he thought smaller

He and Jack Kilby
Credited with inventing
The first microchip

Noyce also fostered
Others’ creativity
Throughout the valley

His parting message:
High-tech education key
To U.S. success

Said that meant teaching
“The lowest and poorest,” too.
Are we listening?

Pretty pictures haiku

Check today’s Google doodle!

The artist Mary Blair
Born 100 years ago
Light, motion, color

On Disney’s canvas
Brought our fairy tales to life
In 1950s

From “Cinderella”
To “Alice in Wonderland,”
“Peter Pan,” “Dumbo”

Her storied career
Continued with Golden Books’
Bright illustrations

On laps, TV screens,
From story books, DVD’s
Her gentle flame glows