August 2026
Top Fermentation by Tom Schlafly
Forty-two years ago, in December of 1984, I was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of The St. Louis Public Library. Since then I have served under seven mayors of The City of St. Louis and during the administrations of seven US presidents.
Over the next 42 years libraries changed dramatically. When I joined the Board we still had card catalogs in the Great Hall of Central Library. The St. Louis Public Library, like most libraries, consisted primarily of printed materials housed inside four walls. In that respect it wasn’t much different from the famous library in Alexandria, Egypt over 2,000 years ago; or the Independence, MO Public Library, where a young Harry Truman famously read every book in the collection.
Not too long after I joined the Board the Library, like our counterparts everywhere, had to adapt to the so-called digital age. The information our patrons wanted and needed was no longer confined to the books on our shelves. And access to our collection was no longer limited to people who walked through our doors during business hours. People from all over the world began utilizing our materials 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
With the advent of artificial intelligence the role of libraries has grown exponentially, almost like the universe expanding at the speed of light.
I realize that some alert readers (ARs) of a certain age associate the year 1984 with the dystopian novel by George Orwell. As these ARs will recall, the protagonist Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth, one of the four ministries whose names are the exact opposites of their actual functions. The Ministry of Truth is in charge of lies and propaganda; The Ministry of Peace promotes endless war; The Ministry of Love practices torture and brutality; and the Ministry of Plenty is responsible for economic shortages and starvation.
Recalling these Orwellian ministries brings to mind two commonly used phrases are used to express the exact opposite of what their words actually say. Consider, “I could care less,” which many people say to mean, “I could not care less.” How can “caring less” reasonably be interpreted to mean the same as “not caring less”?
The Great Hall St. Louis Public Library
Also consider the phrase “centered around.” Huh? The center is by definition the point in the exact middle of a circle. The circumference is what’s around the circle. It’s a geometrical oxymoron to describe the center of anything as its circumference.
As all ARs know, George Orwell’s Ministry of Truth is totally fictitious. What is not fictitious, however, is Executive Order 14253 “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Like the Ministry of Truth this order dated March 27, 2025 has the stated purpose of eliminating “improper ideology” from the telling of American history.
Some ARs may also recall the episode in Chapter 8 of 1984 when Winston Smith drops into a pub after leaving his job at the Ministry of Truth. He witnesses an older customer trying to order a pint of beer, only to be told by the barman that pints, quarts and gallons have been abolished and officially replaced by liters.
I can say from personal experience that this particular aspect of Orwell’s vision had not been realized in 1983, when I was at Oxford, not far from where Orwell had grown up. As I have written in this space before, my experience of drinking English ales in pubs that summer (always in imperial pint or half pint glasses) eventually led to opening The Schlafly Tap Room eight years later in 1991.
The process that led to my appointment to the Public Library Board was much more abbreviated. I got a telephone call from Mayor Vincent Schoemehl’s office asking if I was interested in serving on the Library Board; and I said yes. The duration of the phone call was less than three minutes versus the eight years it took to open the brewery.
My service on the Library Board finally came to an end on July 15, 2026, when my successor, appointed by Mayor Cara Spencer, was sworn in. While self-styled ministries of truth have succeed in banning George Orwell’s 1984 in other jurisdictions in the United States and around the world, they have not succeeded in banning it at The St. Louis Public Library. I have confidence that my successors on the Library Board will ensure that is always the case.
Tom Schlafly
Chairman
