I logged onto the Internet the other day to research electrochemical cells for a library patron. When my home page opened, one of the headlines announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger owns a home with 10 bathrooms. This bothered me because I’m always concerned about the cost of bathroom supplies. Arnold has six people in his family: himself, wife Maria, and four children. I’m sure they have domestic help and they probably have a lot of friends spending the weekend. I have no doubt that the Schwarzeneggers need 10 bathrooms. Just imagine the number of rolls of toilet paper required to supply that many bathrooms. You couldn’t just hop in the old custom-built Hummer and run to Pamida for a 4-pack and assume that would cover the situation. A 12-pack would be the absolute minimum purchase. And, most people don’t feel safe with just one roll of TP in the restroom facility. In truth, a 4-pack per bathroom is the basic requirement. Personally, I prefer the maximum security of a 12-pack on hand at any given moment. With 10 bathrooms the Schwarzeneggers would need 120 rolls. It would be embarrassing to walk out of Pamida hauling that much TP. People might think you’re obsessed. Toilet paper is cheap compared to 10 bottles of Vanish Bowl and Bathroom Cleaner, 10 bottles of Drano Professional Drain Opener, 10 containers of Tilex Mildew Remover, 10 toilet bowl brush and caddy sets, 10 plungers, 10 boxes of Windex Glass and Surface Cleaner, and 10 dispensers of Scrubbing Bubbles Flushable Toilet Wipes. Don’t forget the bar soap, liquid soap, loofah sponges, fragrant candles, bathroom scales, towels, facial puffs, shampoo, and dental floss. It’s endless. Also, a man like Arnold would definitely need a supply of strawberry-scented urinal screens and a stockpile of Tough-actin‚ Tinactin Anti-fungal Cream for athlete’s foot. If you did the math, I’d bet that the Schwarzenegger’s yearly bathroom supplies budget would far outweigh the library’s entire budget for books, salaries, videos, CDs, magazines, and toilet paper. Very disturbing. I will not dwell on this great inequity, but dwell on that fact that "A Perfect Day" by Richard Paul Evans is out on the shelf. Robert Harlan has three loves in his life: his wife, Allyson, his daughter, Carson, and his writing. As a sales rep for a small radio station, he has hopes of one day leaving it all behind for a successful writing career. When he is unexpectedly laid off from his job, Allyson encourages him to pursue his dream of writing. He writes a novel entitled A Perfect Day, based on the last few months Allyson and her father spent together as he died of cancer. The story becomes a huge success and Robert finds himself swept into a new world far from his wife and home. In time Robert loses track of the things he loves most ... until he meets a stranger who begins telling him intimate details about his past, his present and, most important, the brevity of his future. Thinking that he has just months to live, Robert begins to discover the truth about himself; who he has become, what he has lost and what it will take to find love again. Also new on the shelf this week is "Blacklist" by Sara Paretsky. Eager for something physical to do in the spirit-exhausting wake of 9/11, private investigator, V.I. Warshawski accepts a request from an old client to check up on an empty family mansion. She surprises an intruder in the dark; and, giving chase, topples into a pond. Grasping for something to hold on to, her fingers close around a lifeless human hand. It is the body of a reporter who had been investigating events of 45 years earlier. V.I. is quickly sucked into the history of two great Chicago families — their fortunes intertwined by blood, sex, money, and the scandals that may have resulted in murder all these years later. At the same time, she becomes involved in the story of a missing Egyptian boy whose possible terrorist connections make him very much sought after by the government. Shockingly, the two cases tumble together. Before everything is over, at least two more people will lie dead ... and V.I. might even be one of them.
