For some reason you have chosen to visit the site that represents me and my work here at Penn State.

First, the reason I work. My family site can be found at Pickleladyfarm.com

www.flickr.com More photos

The other reason I work is for the books. I love books. Always have. Grew up down the block from our local library and knew the librarians better than I knew most of the other kids on the block. Back in Illinois: Elgin, Streamwood, Chicago.

I've also lived in Carbondale, Madison, Wisconsin, and now I'm in Pennsylvania. Linden Hall, Pennsylvania.

I have an Associates degree in communications and a B.A. in English. Before, during, and after my education I worked in bookstores.

First, Kroch's and Brentano's at Woodfield. Looks like it's a Hawaiian jewelry store now.

A stint at a Walden's.

Then Four Star Fiction and Video, which is now Four Star Video Heaven.

Then some B. Dalton.

Then I came to happy valley and started working at Svoboda's Books. Worked there for a little over ten years. It was a 2,500 square foot store. Scholarly books, technical books, sushi.

After that I came to work for Penn State, here at the Penn State Press. I've been doing this for five years and I really enjoy it.

Currently, I'm involved in the Google Print Books Libraries debate. I hope we do the right thing.

11/21/2005

We publish Congressman John Murtha's book.

This is another reason I love what I do.

3/22/2006

A neighbor and member of the University community may have died down the road tonight.

http://www.mne.psu.edu/Faculty/bio/kulakowski.html

This has made my wife and I very sad. Before my kids were born, I commuted to State College for over seven years on my bike. At least twice a week. From where Dr. Kulakowski was hit to the University is about 10 miles. It's really not that hard to bike to State College. But it does save a lot of gas. I knew of only a couple of us on Brush Valley Road who did it.

He was hit at about 5:45. I know because my wife was the fifth car on the scene. She checked Dr. Kulakowski for a pulse and covered his broken legs with a coat. She found his wallet in his backpack and gave it to the medics. She held his hand. He was life-flighted to a trauma center. She didn't find a pulse.

We don't know anything right now so I hesitate to speculate, but I'm very angry. My wife heard the man who hit him tell the police he doesn't remember going off the road, but I've seen Dr. Kulakowski on his bike many times on that stretch, and he's never on the road. The person who hit him unfortunately veered off the road. This seems to have been confirmed by the man behind the driver. Damn it.

I asked my wife when it happened because she was there for over two hours. I asked because it was dark when she got home. This time of year, the sun is still up at 5:45.

To be honest, I didn't personally know Dr. Kulakowski, but I did pass him on my bike once, maybe a couple of times. And even after I stopped riding my bike to work this last year, I saw Dr. Kulakowski many times going to and coming from work.

I hope he's okay.

I'm very upset.

3/25/2006

Dr. Bohdan T. Kulakowski was pronounced dead at  6:45, an hour before Kate got home.

Dr Kulakowski’s death has left me extremely sad. He knew the same path I did. Though it seems, much better than me. According to his Obituary he’d been riding the route for 27 years. Only 20 more than me. He also rode most the winter.

I rode my bike out there this afternoon. It was very sad. A roadside memorial has started there. Where the police paint indicate it occurred.  I wept a lot and laid the small offering I had brought.  I took a picture. I saw where the firemen had kicked some stones over blood.

His son came by.

I was very surprised and didn’t mean to bother anyone, but his son wanted to talk. He introduced himself as Dominik Kulakowski and asked who I was. I told him I was another bike commuter, and though I had never formally met his dad, we kind of knew each other. We only lived about a mile apart and we were the only ones who biked to the University from Brush Valley Road. We had both seen each other, rather often. His son and I both fell apart and ended up crying on each other’s shoulders. I am so very sorry for their loss.

His son told me he had mentioned me. That he had noticed someone else riding into work. A younger man.

There will be a service at Our Lady of Victory tomorrow morning and a memorial service at  Koch’s at 1. I think I’ll go.

Because I’m in publishing, I looked up Dr. Kulakowski’s publications. What becomes clear at reading the list is that he did a lot of work to make roads safer. And he practiced what he studied by taking one more car off the road, his own. When he rode his bike, he always had his helmet on, he had a light but seldom rode after dark, he had all the proper reflectors. He was a safe and cautious rider. This is a terrible loss. The world is noticeably smaller for it.

This was my biggest fear, and it happened to the other guy. And he was an amazing guy.

4/5/6

The weekend was odd. On Friday night I participated in a memorial ride for Dr. Kulakowski. It ended at the small shrine by the underpass. Kate and the girls saw it on the way home and stopped. There were probably in the neighborhood of 200 riders. They closed the road to accommodate us. His family and friends and fellow cyclists were all there.

On Saturday we went shopping. We did our taxes, cleaned the house, and bought a new camera.

On Sunday it was beautiful and warm. Ironically the Penn State bike team was having a tournament all day. Every fifteen to twenty minutes two  or three bikes would speed by and a few seconds later a pack of thirty bikes would follow. The girls were amazed.  So fast and strong. We cleaned the flowerbeds and raked the yard, turned the compost and took a walk.

Today one of my neighbors came by to ask me to sign a petition to forbid the township from allowing another race on the loop. The Linden Hall-Oak Hall loop is about five miles. It’s a beautiful ride. I told him we enjoyed the race and tried to figure out what about the races he was concerned with. It seemed the intrusion.

There is an assumption that the roads are ours. That we on the route own the route. The road wasn’t closed, it was changed to one way on the route. No one was stopped, just inconvenienced.  The speed limit on the route was already 25 mph. At that speed, cars could be released after the pack passed and the pack would stay ahead of the car. If the car drove the limit.

What ever happened to toleration? Why are we so disinterested in making such a small sacrifice? For some reason I connect the death of Dr. Kulkowski to this attitude

On an entirely different topic, a colleague at the press is leaving. He was pretty important in making the press what it is today. I really enjoyed working with him and wish him well in his new position at Cornell. Congratulations, Peter. You’ll be missed.

 Things I've said recently.

• in Library Journal
• On All Things Considered
• In PW or not
• A letter in the Wall Street Journal
• Taken to the woodshed on BB
• My unposted response
• Lessig's blog
• The ACRL's Blog
• About Katrina, and on the radio

What am I reading now?

• Too much internets ‡ links
• The Last Witchfinder
• Books in the Digital Age
• In the Night Kitchen
• Flora of Louisiana
• In Katrina's Wake
• Yum Yum Dim Sum
• Deer Wars