July 1 is also the anniversary of the First Adhesive US Postage Stamps, issued in 1847; the 125th anniversary of the First US Zoo, opened in Philadelphia with an admission price of 25 cents for adults and 10 cents for children; and the anniversary of the first income tax levied by the United States, a 3% tax on incomes of $600-$10,000 and a 5% tax on incomes of more than $10,000. That law, enacted in 1862, was rescinded in 1872.

Friday is I Forgot Day, a day to make up for all the birthdays, anniversaries, new births, graduations, and other events that you forgot to acknowledge. Saturday is Compliment Your Mirror Day, so if you haven't told your mirror what a wonderful owner it has lately, you should do so then.

Sunday, of course, is the Fourth of July. The library will be closed on Sunday, July 4, and Monday, July 5, in observance of Independence Day.

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

At Wednesday's 10:00 a.m. storytime, Judy Powers, award-winning science teacher from Berrendo Middle School, will present an exciting program about reptiles, featuring a large variety of live snakes, lizards, turtles, and other reptiles. The presentation will be repeated at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday afternoon's 3:30 storytime features UFOs and space aliens in stories and puppetry and UFO crafts. UFOs, outer space, space aliens, and space crafts are featured again at Saturday morning's 10:00 storytime. Participants are encouraged to bring their space collectibles to display at the program.

BOOK TALK

Children's Librarian Mary Stickford provides this week's book information. Looking for some new recipes that take advantage of the abundance of inexpensive produce this time of year? Try "The One-Dish Vegetarian." It offers 100 recipes for quick and easy vegetarian meals. In addition to the expected salads, you can enjoy soups, stews, chilies, pasta and rice dishes, casseroles, sautés, and curries. All are healthful and nutritious and take only one pot, so there are fewer dishes to wash!

If it is just too hot to think about cooking, escape to the frozen North with "North to the Night - A Year in the Arctic Ice," by Alvah Simon. Simon lived alone, except for a kitten, through the long polar night in a 36-foot sailboat. He was at the mercy of weather and polar bears. He even went blind. Yet, he survived and even reached greater spiritual understanding. If nothing else, "North to the Night" will give you a greater appreciation of New Mexico's sunshine and hot weather!

DID YOU KNOW?

Here are some interesting tidbits about words in the English language. "Facetious" and "abstemious" contain all the vowels in the correct order, as does "arsenious" (containing arsenic). The only 15-letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is "uncopyrightable." "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt," and "underground" is the only one that begins and ends with the letters "und."

The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language, while the combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different ways. The following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."