My niece, Emily, expressed surprise that we’re still able to find new and compelling examples of female health care worker fiction. But, the fact is, we’ve only scratched the surface. While the Tiny Pineapple Nurse Book Collection has received quite a bit of exposure lately, our collection pales in comparison to a few others.

For instance, the Special Collections library at The University of Wisconsin-Madison features a Nurse Romance Cover of the Week with examples from its collection of 425 nurse books.

The collection of nurse romance novels was donated to Special Collections in 2005 by artist, photographer, and former UWM Art Professor Leslie Bellavance (currently director of the School of Art and Art History at James Madison University). Professor Bellavance started collecting these publications as part of her own research on popular-culture presentations of nurses for her visual work. The Nurse Romance collection augments the UWM American Nursing History Collection in Special Collections, which was established in 1995 through a donation from the UWM Center for Nursing History.

Ms. Bellavance was actually in Utah last year when she exhibited at Weber State University. If I’d known, I would have invited her to lunch so we could swap exciting stories of nurse book acquisition. Oh, the tales we could tell!

Even more impressive, however, is Gregory Tulonen’s collection of nurse books, which stands at 453 volumes. (Interestingly enough, Mr. Tulonen’s reasons for starting his nurse book collection were about as arbitrary as our own.)

So, as you can see, Emily, we’ve only just begun. In fact, at the rate we’re going, I’m pretty confident that we can reach the 500 volume mark by the end of 2008…at which point I will have officially made that difficult transition from merely having “misguided energies” to being truly “pathetic.”

I’m pleased to announce that on May 27, 2007, the Tiny Pineapple Nurse Book Collection was inducted into Coudal Partners’ Museum of Online Museums (MoOM).

(Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the induction ceremonies because Steve Perry borrowed my power blue, velvet-lapelled tuxedo in 1981 and still hasn’t returned it.)

The tpNBC can be found in the Museum’s Galleries, Exhibitions and Shows wing, just 43 spots below The Smithsonian. But those Washingtonian dandies better watch their government-subsidized backsides because I’ve posted Nos. 275 and 276 since then, and I’m knocking them out of the Top 20 if it’s the last thing I do!

All of us here at Tiny Pineapple are thrilled nigh unto incontinence to announce the new home of Maria Samuelson’s fantabulous Blobbies: BlobbyFarm.com

“Where,” according to the press release, “frumpy, free-range plush toys roam the countryside of Newbraska. You’ll also find bibs, finger puppets, cards, buttons, and whatever else we can come up with to entertain you. Peruse the site, buys a little something, and spread the word.”

(I’m not sure how Emma’s Lady Skewampus would feel if she knew she was being referred to as “frumpy,” but we’ll just skip some of the less-flattering adjectives when we read her the news.)

To celebrate the launch of the new site, Maria is sponsoring a “Design a Blobby” Contest, for which Emma and Zoë have been preparing for the last two weeks, so you’d better get to work.

The character descriptions alone are worth taking a lunch hour to browse. Take, for instance, the following for Blobzilla (which I should have snapped up when I had the chance):

When dark clouds of foreboding settle over Newbraska, tiny twins who live in a matchbox sing a siren song over the still waters of the sea to awake Blobzilla from his slumber in his tent at the public campgrounds. He gets up, scratches, stretches, tests his flaming belch and sets off to save the land.

…or this for Martin Sheen, Jr.:

Martin was found in the crack of a thrift store couch along with $1.37 in change, a pink barrette, and Burt Reynolds. Mr. Sheen is currently watching Stakeout 2.

Go! Browse! Buy!

I was just resting, I promise.

Sorry about the extended silence. I ended up going two weeks without a computer and now that it has arrived I’m off to Disneyland for a week with the girls. Just a few things before I go:

• I’m painfully behind in responding to email so I apologize to anyone who has written recently. I hope to get caught up during the trip.

• Comment spam has gotten so bad that I’ve had to close comments for the time being.

Anyway, I gotta go. The Enchanted Tiki Room is calling…