Do Robot Balls Dream of Hex Bugs

 I was playing with a Sphero robot ball which arrived recently as part of a tech toy order here at the Libby Library. Suddenly, I was startled by a loud “harrumph” coming from directly behind me. I turned around, and saw our mascot Libby Lobster studying the box the in which the Sphero arrived.  

“I see you humans are just catching up with us lobsters.” he said somewhat blandly.

“Lobsters have already developed the robot ball?!” I asked with more than a hint of disbelief.

 “Lobsters may not have haunches, but you do. So sit on your’s while I tell you about my Uncle Laertes. He was an incredible inventor. He built one of these balls years ago. Being nuclear powered, his robot ball had a lot more get-go than this thing, too.”

“What became of Laertes and his invention?” I asked. 

“Let’s just say a few problems arose during the test run. You see, Laertes wasn’t just a famous inventor, he was a famous lush, too. It’s led to his assigning the acceleration commands to the Stop button. Not only that, but he managed to snag his suspenders on one of the rivets,too.”

“I know better than to ask, but what happened next?” I hesitantly inquired.

“Well, everything was going fine, until Laertes saw that he was approaching a custard pie bake-off. Naturally, he hit the Stop button, which only caused the ball to go faster. He barreled through that bake-off, becoming thoroughly custard covered, and sending numerous contestants fleeing in the process. "

 "He was then able to narrowly avoid an oncoming train, only to plow through a pile of organic fertilizer being loaded on to to a truck. In his panic, poor Laertes had his claw firmly pressed on that Stop button, which only resulted in an ever increasing acceleration."

"Soon he crashed through the door of a truss factory, and ran straight into a strip of elastic being stretched as part of a stress test. The elastic acted like a slingshot, sending Laertes and the ball hurling through the air for miles, until he landed on a pile of tires located near a warehouse in Iceland."

 "The force of his landing caused him to bounce off the tires, and become airborne yet again. He next came to a landing on a barge load of trampolines. This sent him bouncing skyward until he came to a final landing in the middle of Champs-élysées. Unfortunately, Laertes wasn’t awarded the honor of being recorded as the first one to complete an aerial crossing of the Atlantic, as he didn’t use an airplane. The honor went to that cheating plane-user, Charles Lindbergh, who arrived a few days later."

 "It wasn’t a total miscarriage of justice, however. Being the first to cross the Atlantic  while completely covered in custard, Laertes was at least awarded a culinary prize. That’s something Lindbergh couldn’t take away from him. I mean, look at those pictures of him! Not a speck of custard or meringue in sight, not even a hint of tapioca! Laertes, on the other hand made that crossing looking like a blancmange.” Libby then reclined in exhaustion after completing his lengthy recitation.

 Would you, unlike Libby Lobster’s Uncle Laertes, want to learn how to do science properly? Then come on by  our Tech Toy Tryout being held Saturday August 19th from 10:30am - Noon. The Libby Library is co-sponsoring this event with the Ocean Park Memorial Library. It’s being held at the Ocean Park Memorial Library’s location on Temple Avenue in scenic Ocean Park. There’ll be a lot of tech type fun activities featuring Snap Circuits, Robots, HexBugs and, yes, Sphero… but, thankfully, not the one built by Libby’s uncle.

 Also, in time for school, the Libby Library has three STEAM-related backpacks available for loan in our Children’s Area.  Each of them is filled with books, games, puzzles and activities built around a certain STEAM theme. The themes are Early Math, Building and Geometry and Art. Each bag is available for a two week loan period. There is a ten dollar fine for each day they are overdue. If they’re overdue three weeks or more, we’ll send Uncle Laertes to fix your microwave. The last time he attempted that is known to history as the Tunguska event.

 Listening to Libby’s tale of yore, I’m reminded  that I should tell you that there is still time to take in the more than 60 historic photographs of famous Old Orchard Beach locations on display in the Libby Library as part of the Museum of the Streets Project. These fascinating photos. dating from the early 1900’s through the 1970’s, are sure to evoke some vivid memories of time spent here in our town. We also have some attractive forms you can use to write down those colorful memories. The photographs will be on display until Labor Day. After that, the memories contained on those forms will be collected and published in a highly attractive volume.

 Before this article becomes long enough to cross the Atlantic, I’d like to mention that there’ll be a celebration of that famous ocean crosser, Lindbergh, not Laertes, here in Old Orchard Beach on Labor Day weekend. We’ll have more information about that event available in our next article. Be sure to check back then.