Meet the Staff - May 2023

Each month, we will be highlighting different members of our staff so you can get to know us. This month, we'll introduce you to Susan and Laura, who both work at Ida Rupp. You can find both of them at our circulation desk. Susan is always happy to help you find your next read or help navigate the Genealogy & Local History section. You can read her findings from there in our Local History newsletter and on our blog. Laura is always happy to stop and talk movies, especially Marvel!

Susan

I had to retire to find my dream job: working at the library. I get paid to look stuff up, answer questions, and help people find things. And I get to go on treasure hunts for 'on shelf' items, and then put things all in a line, all in order. Who could ask for anything more?

What I'm reading right now:

Povery, by America by Matthew Desmond; The Verifiers by Jane Pek; Smitten Kitchen Keepers by Deb Perelman; and Clarkesworld and Lightspeed e-magazines.

Favorite TV show

It varies from time to time, but always something that pays more attention to writing and character development than to special effects. And the leads have to be basically decent people, not lovably quirky asassins or thieves.

Favorite book/author

Hard to pin down to just one. I have several I revisit when I need a bit of a mental break or vacation. One of them is The Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters; the stories follow a predictable pattern, but the development of characters and of a feel for a very different time and place make rereading them feel like visiting an old friend. I didn't think that Derek Jacobi was the best choice to play Cadfael in the BBC TV adaptation, I saw Sean Connery in the role as I was reading the books, but I've grown to like him.

Dream vacation & Celebrity or historical figure you'd like to meet and why

Let's combine dream vacation and historical figure and send me on a trip with Mark Twain: down river on a steamboat, on his stage coach journey west, or as he was writing Innocents Abroad.

Do you have any collections

Yarn, yarn, and more yarn. And tools to work with yarn: needles, crochet hooks, and looms. Oh, and old hand tools, just because I like the look and feel of them.

What do you use as background noise, if anything: audiobook, music, podcasts

WGTE radio first thing in the morning, then BBC4 extra throughout the day. I love the mix of radio dramas, panel shows, and on line adapations of classic and current novels.

Laura

I have been here at Ida Rupp since 2012. I started out as a sub, filling in when needed, and now I’m your friendly neighborhood Marketing Coordinator and movie guru. I love talking movies with patrons, and if you bring up Marvel, I might never shut up. I take this love to our Movies and Television newsletter where I do a monthly movie review.

Outside of the library, I love going to try new foods, embroidering, and watching movies and TV. Movie nights at home with a bad movie are amazing. If I can get to the movie theater, I’m especially happy. I love the whole experience: the energy, the dark room and large screen, and of course the popcorn.

Currently Reading Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance by John Waters

Currently listening to Aurora – Daisy Jones and the Six; anything and everything Hozier

Favorite TV show Scrubs! It’s both hilarious and real when it comes to the medical drama. So many episodes will have me crying after making me crack up and vice versa. My favorite episodes are “My Screwup”, it’s one that hits me every time I watch it, even though I know exactly what’s going to happen by the end of the episode, and “My Fallen Idol”, which sees Dr. Cox dealing with the guilt of three patients dying over a choice he makes and J.D. grappling with his view of his mentor in the fallout. Both are excellent examples of that perfect mixture comedy and real life drama.

Along those lines, I also love Ted Lasso. Co-created by Scrubs creator, Bill Lawrence. It’s about an American football coach who goes to England to teach European football (or soccer). While on the surface, it’s a sports show, like many great sports media pieces, it delves deeper into other things. The Ted Lasso way is to uplift and bring out the best of the young men on the team off the field, not just on the field (he is, after all a coach that knowns nothing about European Football). I love it so much, I ended up getting a tattoo inspired by the show; a couple goldfish referring to his mantra of “be a goldfish”. Similar to Scrubs, it mixes comedy with heartfelt realism.

Favorite Movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is my go-to movie that I both love and have seen several times and makes me seem sort of “cool”. My less-cool answers: Deadpool and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (there will never be a trilogy that beats it, I refuse to watch The Hobbit trilogy ever again though).

And since I mentioned my love of Marvel and my favorite character is Spider-Man (I have a Spider-Man/Stan Lee tattoo on my wrist), my favorite Spider-Man movies: Spider-Man 2 (Alfred Molina as Dr. Octopus? Come on!), Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Miles Morales is an amazing Spider-Man and the animation is fun and feels like a comic come to life), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (all 3 of the Spider-Men! Past villains! It’s a ton of fan services but I fell for it and love it).

Favorite food I love so many different kinds of food. Some of my favorite nearby restaurants are Twin Oast (especially their fries and garlic aioli!), Small City Taphouse, Everwild Spirits, and Great Lakes Grinders. The latter three are in Sandusky. A couple things I really wish we had around here are Indian and Mediterranean. I’d love some curry and shawarma or gyros!