The last day of March marks the first part of Straw Hat Week, a time to put aside your winter hats and plan hat-related activities. Wednesday, of course, is April Fool's Day, a day to be wary of tricksters trying to catch you in a ludicrous situation. Appropriately, Wednesday is also National Fun at Work Day, a day to increase morale with fun, laughter, and a playful attitude.
    Thursday is Reconciliation Day, suggested by columnist Ann Landers to "write that letter or make that phone call and mend a broken relationship. Life is too short to hold grudges. To forgive can be enormously life-enhancing."
    Thursday is also the 92nd Birthday of your Roswell Public Library, so stop by to celebrate by checking out what's in the library's great collection of materials and services!
    Sunday is Palm Sunday, and it is also the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. Set your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night! Just in case you forget and miss a really important appointment, Monday is Plan Your Epitaph Day!
    All this month you can celebrate Golden Rule Week, National Humor Month, National Lawn and Garden Month, National Occupational Therapy Month (visit the program at ENMU-Roswell), National Poetry Month, Stress Awareness Month, and ZAM! Zoo and Aquarium Month.

WHAT'S HAPPENING?
Wednesday's 10:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. storytimes focus on ducks in stories and puppet plays, and participants will make a duck paper bag puppet. National Humor Month is recognized with goofy stories at Saturday morning's 10:00 storytime, and participants will make a balloon big foot.

BOOK TALK
    This week's book information is provided by librarian Barbara Harris. Jean Auel's novels, beginning with "Clan of the Cave Bear," created an enthusiastic audience for fiction set in prehistoric times. We can't report that Ms. Auel has a new book coming out soon, but while her fans are awaiting that happy day, they can try the works of other authors whose research and imagination recreate the world of our early ancestors.
In the adult collection, aficionados of the Ice Age and Stone Age will enjoy books by Joseph Bruchac, W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear, Sue Harrison, Bjorn Kurten, Mary Mackey, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, and Joan Wolf. In the children's fiction collection, young readers can explore the distant past in novels by J. H. Brennan, Ruth Craig, and Justin Denzel.

DID YOU KNOW?
    Here's some more "Trivia for the Completely Bored!" taken from the Internet. For instance, here's some animal trivia. An ostrich's eye is big, in fact bigger than its brain. However the giant squid has the largest eyes in the world. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds (I think that's longer than mine is lately). Cats have 23 muscles in each ear, and tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
    Mr. Rogers, of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, is an ordained minister. Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's movie "It's A Wonderful Life."    The name for Oz in the "Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z, hence "Oz." And if the Barbie doll were life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK:
Here's another thought from "A Cowboy's Guide to Life": "After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut."

JUDY ARMSTRONG, 624-7276