December is here, bringing with it International Calendar Awareness Month, National Stress-Free Family Holidays Month, National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month, and Safe Toys and Gifts Month. This, the first week of the December baking season, is also Cookie Cutter Week.

Today is Computer Security Day, so remember to protect your computers, programs, and data at home and at work. Thursday is the anniversary of the day in 1901 when American King Camp Gillette patented his design of the first razor with disposable blades. Up until this time, men shaved with a straight edge razor that they sharpened on a leather strap.

Sunday is Bathtub Party Day. Many people nowadays take showers, so here's a day to recall some of the luxury of days gone by. Immerse yourself in a long, hot bath and get rid of some stress before the holiday stresses start!

Wednesday's 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. storytimes feature penguins in stories and a penguin picture craft. At Saturday morning's 10:00 storytime, polar bears are in the spotlight with stories, activities, and a mask and stick puppet crafts.

Librarian Barbara Harris provides this week's library information. Biographies are many people's favorite reading, and the library's extensive Southwest collection is home to accounts of the lives of the famous, infamous, and merely routinely heroic folks who have contributed to our region. Here are some recent books to try.

The movers and shakers include Santa Fe grand dame of the 1920s to 1950s, Elizabeth White, whose magnificent estate "El Delirio" is also the title of a new biography. Another frequent Santa Fe resident, former governor Bruce King, provides his own account of his political career in "Cowboy in the Roundhouse." David H. Stratton has written a new biography of an earlier and much less honest politician, "Tempest over Teapot Dome: The Story of Albert B. Fall." Jose Angel Gutierrez sets the record straight on the Chicano rights movement in South Texas in "The Making of a Chicano Militant." For a new biography of an earlier Southwestern leader, check out "Mangas Coloradas: Chief of the Chiricahua."

Few Southwestern lives were or are ordinary, as the fascinating memoirs of unknown folk attest. "My Remembers: A Black Sharecropper's Recollections ofthe Depression" brings to life Eddie Stimpson's childhood on a farm near Plano, Texas. El Paso in the 1920s and 1930s is the setting for Mary King Rodge's recollections, "Where the Creosote Blooms." "A Personal Country" is A.C. Greene's memoir and love song to the West Texas prairie. "Letters by Lamplight: A Woman's View of Everyday Life in South Texas, 1873-1883" introduces us to a young ranch woman. Finally, "Shelter: One Man's Journey from Homelessness to Hope" reminds us that not everyone shares in the economic boom of today's urban Southwest."

According to "Bottom Line Personal," a dollar saved is more than a dollar earned - much, much more. If you spend just a little less now on a home, car, or other high-ticket items, you will have substantially more money later, thanks to the miracle of compounding. For example, if you choose to save $100 a month ($3,600 over three years) by leasing a cheaper vehicle and the money earns 9% annually, the $3,600 will compound into an astounding $28,000 after 24 years. To determine how long it will take to double your money, divide 72 by the interest rate. Money earning 9% annually will double in eight years; money earning 6% will double in 12 years.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: "Invest time in your family. The dividends are great!" (unknown)

JUDY ARMSTRONG, 624-7276

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