4 ms·

The Boston library where you still can borrow a giant puppet

82 points by gnabgib 6mo ago

semiinfinitely 6mo ago
as a child I found puppet exposure disturbing and semi traumatic
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- all2 6mo ago
  I'm on the opposite end of this spectrum. Puppets are absurd, hysterical, and it used to be a family thing to get together and make puppets every Christmas. I'd try to make the goofiest looking puppet possible. The last one I made has a wide brimmed hat, blond hair, glasses, and the weirdest looking braided mustache. Oh, and ping pong balls for eyes. It makes me chuckle every time I see it.
- Loughla 6mo ago
  I have an old puppet of animal from the Muppets. He's wearing a skateboard shop shirt and has a little skateboard. Just the sort of thing you could picture sitting in a window in the late 70's. My oldest was FUCKING TERRIFIED of the puppet out of nowhere when he was like 5. He wouldn't sleep unless we could prove that it was no longer in the house. You just never know what's going to make a formative memory until it's far too late.
objclxt 6mo ago
> Beneath the Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street in Boston, tucked away in the basement, sits a library This is underselling it: it's in a side street off Newbury, where nobody would have any reason to go, with a tiny little door about half the size of all the other doors marked "Puppet Library"[1]. I visited many years ago by complete accident: I was out running with some friends on a Tuesday afternoon, we were going down the public alley because Newbury was heaving, and saw this sign. We wandered in, and...yeah, there's a lot of puppets. [1]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pa6sTiQ1cFsp2mqcA https://maps.app.goo.gl/pa6sTiQ1cFsp2mqcA
- wincy 6mo ago
  Thanks for that link. I love the sign, it made me laugh. The sign is hand written, stating: the PUPPET free LIBRARY open TUESDAYS 2-7 so it looks like it’s advertising a puppet free library, as if they had to ban puppets from this particular library.
  - jhbadger 6mo ago
    There is actually a phrase "free library" commonly seen in older libraries often called a "Carnegie Free Library" because they were created as a philanthropic project by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. They are called "free libraries" because many libraries in the 19th century were businesses run rather like video stores (if you can remember those) where you had to pay to check out a book, while Carnegie's were free of charge.
    - naniwaduni 6mo ago
      Indeed, the Romance cognates of "library" even usually mean bookstore (or maybe bookshelf...etymologically it's just a thing that does something vaguely related to books). Most languages where a cognate of "library" rather than "bibliotheque" means primarily a lending library (which still might be paid) picked it up as a loan from English.
      - bombcar 6mo ago
        Many original “libraries” ran on the idea that a book is valuable and rarely new - you’d buy your used copy of Plato, read it, and sell it back for almost what you paid for it. This is infinitesimally different from just renting.
  - saghm 6mo ago
    I thought technically a library without puppets would be "puppet-free", but I'm not sure if that's a rule people follow enough to be a rule anymore.
- RobRivera 6mo ago

82 points by gnabgib 6mo ago

semiinfinitely 6mo ago

as a child I found puppet exposure disturbing and semi traumatic

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
all2 6mo ago
I'm on the opposite end of this spectrum. Puppets are absurd, hysterical, and it used to be a family thing to get together and make puppets every Christmas. I'd try to make the goofiest looking puppet possible. The last one I made has a wide brimmed hat, blond hair, glasses, and the weirdest looking braided mustache. Oh, and ping pong balls for eyes. It makes me chuckle every time I see it.
Loughla 6mo ago
I have an old puppet of animal from the Muppets. He's wearing a skateboard shop shirt and has a little skateboard. Just the sort of thing you could picture sitting in a window in the late 70's. My oldest was FUCKING TERRIFIED of the puppet out of nowhere when he was like 5. He wouldn't sleep unless we could prove that it was no longer in the house. You just never know what's going to make a formative memory until it's far too late.

objclxt 6mo ago

> Beneath the Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street in Boston, tucked away in the basement, sits a library This is underselling it: it's in a side street off Newbury, where nobody would have any reason to go, with a tiny little door about half the size of all the other doors marked "Puppet Library"[1]. I visited many years ago by complete accident: I was out running with some friends on a Tuesday afternoon, we were going down the public alley because Newbury was heaving, and saw this sign. We wandered in, and...yeah, there's a lot of puppets. [1]: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pa6sTiQ1cFsp2mqcA https://maps.app.goo.gl/pa6sTiQ1cFsp2mqcA

wincy 6mo ago
Thanks for that link. I love the sign, it made me laugh. The sign is hand written, stating: the PUPPET free LIBRARY open TUESDAYS 2-7 so it looks like it’s advertising a puppet free library, as if they had to ban puppets from this particular library.
- jhbadger 6mo ago
  There is actually a phrase "free library" commonly seen in older libraries often called a "Carnegie Free Library" because they were created as a philanthropic project by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. They are called "free libraries" because many libraries in the 19th century were businesses run rather like video stores (if you can remember those) where you had to pay to check out a book, while Carnegie's were free of charge.
  - naniwaduni 6mo ago
    Indeed, the Romance cognates of "library" even usually mean bookstore (or maybe bookshelf...etymologically it's just a thing that does something vaguely related to books). Most languages where a cognate of "library" rather than "bibliotheque" means primarily a lending library (which still might be paid) picked it up as a loan from English.
    - bombcar 6mo ago
      Many original “libraries” ran on the idea that a book is valuable and rarely new - you’d buy your used copy of Plato, read it, and sell it back for almost what you paid for it. This is infinitesimally different from just renting.
- saghm 6mo ago
  I thought technically a library without puppets would be "puppet-free", but I'm not sure if that's a rule people follow enough to be a rule anymore.
RobRivera 6mo ago