Jimmy Wales (Mr. Wikipedia) and Ward Cunningham (Mr. Wiki) in Portland at the same time – it almost makes librarians weak at the knees. (Wales was in town, with other luminaries, for the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. Cunningham lives here.)
Librarians are thought to be little bit odd in some towns but we fit right and tight into the Portland Metro Area (PMA?), where we recently learned that at least one of our local icons (and I’m sure more of them too) like to read:”Book ‘em, Danno”, a 7/27/07 Oregonian editorial and a smile-worthy followup to the 7/21/07 New York Times story deserving of its own blog entry, “CEO Libraries Reveal Keys to Success.”
None of us should be surprised to hear that these titans, including Phil Knight, are bibliophiles, but we are! And it is beyond charming to hear that some of them think of reading and book collecting as guilty pleasures. Multnomah and Washington County residents love and value their libraries, and their books, so toss that guilt out the window, or at least recycle it with your old sneakers. Some people out there do need to feel a little guilt, maybe for not supporting reading and libraries.