hellobeautifulcreatures

Creigh Deeds, Virginia state senator . (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) He wakes up, and even before he opens his eyes, he can see his beautiful, delusional son . Gus , Creigh Deeds thinks . He lies in bed a few minutes more, trying to conjure specific images. Gus dancing. Gus playing the banjo. Gus with the puppies. Any images of Gus other than the final ones he has of his 24-year-old, mentally ill son attacking him and then walking away to kill himself, images that intrude on his days and nights along with the questions that he will begin asking himself soon, but not yet. A few minutes more. Gus fishing. Gus looking at him. Gus smiling at him. Time to start the day. He gets out of bed, where a piece of the shotgun he had taken apart in those last days of his son’s life is still hidden under the mattress. He goes outside to feed the animals, first the chickens in the yard and then the horses in the red-sided barn. He leads the blind thoroughbred outside with a bucket of feed, t...

Long live the public library ! It’s not dead yet. The internet hasn’t rendered physical reference centers obsolete , thanks to millennials. According to a new analysis of Pew Research Center data on US library attendance , millennials more than other generations appear to have a use for physical libraries . They may not always come for the books, but the country’s youngest adults show up. That works out well because librarians have been designing with them in mind. Pew researchers surveyed a nationally representative population of 1,600 Americans in 2016. It found that millennials—arguably the first generation to grow up online—use public libraries more than other, older adults. More than half—53%—of survey respondents ages 18 -35 visited a public library or bookmobile within the previous year. That’s not bad for a tech- obsessed bunch deemed lost to the screen. It’s notable too that the results did not include attendance at academic libraries. That means millennials answering ...