Calendar: 3/12-14: Friends of the Library Book Sale

FOR MORE INFO, CONTACT: Sonja Somerville ssomerville@cityofsalem.net

Phone: (503) 588-6083
Friends of the Library Spring Book Sale coming up March 12-14

Great deals are easy to find at the Friends of the Library Spring Book Sale, coming up soon, March 12-14. Book lovers can load arms and bags with low-cost reading and all the proceeds go to support special programs and projects at Salem Public Library.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Library and operated entirely by volunteers, the Spring Book Sale will be open from

• 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13.
• The best bargains of all are available from 1-4:30 p.m. Sunday, March 14, when shoppers can fill a bag to take away for just $3.
  

The sale takes place in Anderson Rooms A&B at Salem Public Library, 585 Liberty St. SE

Spring sale offerings include thousands of excellent books sorted by genre and topic to make it easy for readers to find what they're looking for. Categories include mystery, biography/autobiography, travel, cooking, fantasy, Westerns, hobbies and crafts, romance, large print, and more.

Prices are, as always, excellent, with paperbacks and children's books for 50 cents each; hardbacks for $1. A long list of AV items is available, including CDs, tapes, records, videos, posters and more, all for 25 cents each. Romance paperbacks are also 25 cents each.

Twice annually, the Friends host a major sale, offering thousands of books sorted by genre. Items available are a combination of books donated by library supporters for this purpose and items that have been withdrawn from the library shelves. All incoming books are sorted for quality and type to ensure quality offerings at the sales. Used books and other items are also sold year-round by the Friends of the Salem Public Library in the Friends Book Store, located on the main level of the Central Library, 585 Liberty St. SE.

More information about the sale, the book store and the Friends organization is available at 503-362-1755 or online at www.splfriends.org.

WORD: An apt description of our "health care" "system"

. . .

We are left, finally, with a so-called health care system so cruel and unjust that the Devil himself in consultation with the most demonic lobbyists, and perhaps a little input from historical politicians such as Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Heinrich Himmler, and Pol Pot could not construct a worse way of deploying the fruits of modern science. It has gotten to the point for most of us where we dread a visit to the doctor more for the bureaucratic consequences than the health issues themselves. Your gall bladder may have to come out, but it's much harder to face the booby-trap clause in your health insurance that will result in you getting stuck with a $123,000 bill for surgery and attendant procedures (including the $500 tylenols). Three months later, of course, the re-po man is towing your car and the mortgage "servicer" has foreclosed on your house, and your life (even without that pesky gall bladder) has become a permanent camping trip next to a drainage ditch. . . .