Check It Out

1. the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere.
2. a period of stagnation or inactivity.
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary


The “dog days” are the hot and lazy days of summer-the kind of days that we expect in late July and August around here. Did you ever wonder where the phrase, “dog days of summer” originated? You might think it refers to the laziness of our canine friends during the heat of the long, hot summer days. The phrase actually dates back to the ancient Romans who called these days caniculares dies (days of the dogs) after Sirius, the “Dog Star”, the brightest star in the sky during this time of year. The star was so bright that the Romans thought that the earth received heat from it causing the hot temperatures. In more recent times, the phrase “dog days of summer” has been linked to the stock market when, during the summer months, the stock market is typically slow and poor performing stocks are often referred to as “dogs”. It’s going to be hot. Grab a book, be lazy and enjoy the dog days of summer.

Almost everyone knows that dogs perform such jobs as herding, hunting, guarding, sled pulling and “search and rescue”. Most people know that guide dogs assist the visually impaired. Guide dogs are part of a larger group of working dogs called assistance dogs. They help people with many types of disabilities such as hearing impairment or physical handicaps. Therapy dogs work in hospitals or nursing homes helping people, who are bed-ridden, extremely depressed or seriously ill. Not all dogs have such critical work. Performing dogs, for example circus dogs and actor dogs, entertain us. Wishbone is a Jack Russell Terrier who starred in a PBS series called Wishbone, a show that has spawned a number of paperback novelizations for children.

Excellent books about working dogs exist at every reading level. Hardworking Puppies by Lynn Reiser is a picture counting book about ten puppies, each helping people in different ways. A beautifully illustrated picture book for younger grade school children, Wind-wild Dog by Barbara Joose, tells the tale of a sled dog in Alaska. Star in the Storm by Joan Hiatt Harlow, a book for middle grade students, is about a Newfoundland dog, a breed famous for its propensity to rescue drowning people. A new book for middle school students about a military canine unit dog trained to sniff out booby traps and mines, is a heart wrenching story titled, Cracker!: the Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata.

The Milwaukee Dog Training Club will present two programs with real dogs in the Firefly Room at the Wauwatosa Public Library on Monday, August 13, 2007 at 10:00-10:45 and 1:30-2:15 pm. This program is for students in 1st though 8th grades, no registration required. For more information, please call the Children’s Library: 414-471-8486.

Letterboxing is an outdoor hobby or even a sport that involves following clues and solving puzzles in order to find small, weatherproof boxes in locations accessible to the public. The boxes usually contain a logbook, rubber stamp and inkpad. The object is to find the letterbox, make an imprint of the letterbox’s stamp on your personal logbook and leave an imprint of your own personal stamp on the letterbox’s logbook. Letterboxing clues are often directions, paces, compass points and/or riddles.

There are, perhaps, thousands of boxes hidden in Dartmoor, England, the birthplace of letterboxing. James Perrott, a Dartmoor guide, placed a bottle for visitors’ cards at Cranmere Pool on the northern moor in 1854. This action gradually evolved into letterboxing for hikers. Interest in letterboxing spread to the United States via a feature article in the April 1998 issue of Smithsonian Magazine. Letterbox clues used to be distributed in printed catalogs or by word of mouth. Internet web sites are now the major distribution point of clues (www.letterboxing.org). Several letterboxes are hidden in the Milwaukee area. The clues have intriguing warnings such as “difficult if not dangerous” and “please be careful not to be run over”.

Geocaching is basically letterboxing with a GPS (Global Positioning System) device and coordinates. Often there is also a small treasure in the box for the finder to trade for a trinket that he has brought with him to leave for the next finder.

The Wauwatosa Public Library will have its own treasure hunt for Preschool through Middle School students during the week of August 20-23, 2007. Come to the library any time during opening hours, pick up the clues, and do the hunt at your own pace.

Want something to read but are temporarily laid up or are unable to get to the library? If you are a Wauwatosa resident, call 471-8487 and ask about the homebound book delivery service. After you make the call, the library will send you a reading interest card. Once you return the card, you will get a call and arrangements will be made to deliver books to your door and pick them up after a six-week checkout period. Call us to take advantage of this service.