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It's cheesy and corny, sure, but I like it. Mostly. This time they have a dead body in a garbage chute. How do they find it? Some girl tried to put a pizza box in it. The cops come, they talk about the event, we even see a picture of the sign on the chute - NO RECYCLABLES. In NYC, you have to recycle your glass, metal, plastic, and paper. It's the law, and it has been since I moved to Staten Island, some 16, 17 years ago. I just went online and checked - yup, on the little fliers they hand out every school year, it says pizza boxes are recyclables. You can get a ticket for this! And here's these cops, and last episode they just had a budget cut, and they don't say anything? Don't they have a quota? (Of course they have a quota, everybody knows they have a quota!) Oh, I know - they're homicide. Listen, dead bodies aren't recyclable. You don't get a ticket for that. You get a ticket for not recycling your pizza boxes. *sighs* Ignorance. Tags: castle, nitpicking, nyc, television
I'm feeling:  amused
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Who owns lesson plans? Is it the teacher who wrote them? Well, most of us would say that if you spend hours of unpaid labor doing work to make you better at your underpaid job, you get to own what you make then. And apparently some teachers would say so too, which is why you can buy teacher-made lesson plans online. (Of course, you could always buy lesson plans somewhere, but some teachers are cutting out the middle man and selling their own plans.) And then - shock and horror! - they're spending the money they earn. Oh, sure, mostly that money appears to be going towards classroom supplies, which I would think the state should pay for, but sometimes - terrible! - they're paying for things like mortgages and home repair and the occasional dinner out. Yes, they're living the high life and it's WRONG WRONG WRONG. Lemme tell you something. If teachers have to resort to selling the fruits of their hard (and otherwise unpaid!) labor online in order to pay off their mortgages (or, worse, purchase the supplies that should have been provided for them and their students already), there's room for outrage, sure, but not at the teachers. (For that matter, even if they're spending that money on fast cars and trips overseas in first class, who gives a fuck? This is a capitalist nation, isn't it? Can't they spend the money they earned from their time however they like? If we're gonna get all "socialist" about our public school teachers, well, I may just move! To Canada!) Of course, the comments are a pain. Some people are under the impression that buying and selling lesson plans is EXACTLY THE SAME as buying and selling tests. Stupid. We don't expect surgeons to re-invent the art every time they pick up a scalpel, do we? No, we tell them how the procedure goes when they're in school (and still being tested on these things) and then we let them do it. Why should teachers spend hours of their own (unpaid!) time writing up a lesson plan on something they have to cover when 50 other people have already done it? They've already passed their tests, we assume they know how to teach (if they don't, well, then they need all the help they can get, don't they?), so let's help them do it already! ( Read more... )Tags: articles, education
I'm feeling:  aggravated
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Thanks... I think.The man's doctors think that locked-in syndrome may be much more common than anybody realizes, which is pretty horrific.Now, some people are saying "God, if that happens to me I hope they pull the plug", but I find it interesting that the person this did happen to - who spent half his life with everybody assuming he was comatose! - isn't saying "Kill me now" or "I wish I'd died back then" but "Hey, now that you all know I'm alive, I want to live my life again!" He's got far more experience with this than I do, so I'm going to go ahead and assume there's a lesson in those words. With that in mind, I'm teaching myself Morse Code right now*, and I hope people think to try it with me (or even "one if a yes, two if a no") if this fate should ever befall me. It's easy to say now "Gosh, that sucks, I'd hate to live like that", but when push comes to shove I'd really hate to change my mind right as my loving family, trying to respect my wishes, comes along and kills me. That'd really suck. Although that sort of dramatic irony would at least be darkly funny... you know, from a distance. Morse Code. It's the wave of the future. And if, god forbid, you all think I'm comatose - please, somebody suggest to the doctor that I might not be! (Also? Even if I can't even communicate, I'd appreciate volunteers to read to me and play some nice classic fannish works on TV for me. Just in case.) *Remember how in Cheaper By the Dozen the author describes their father's mnemonic for learning Morse Code? Did the whole mnemonic ever get written out anywhere?
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( Same old, same old )They're talking about Weslandia. Although the thing Wesley does with one plant (two different food sources, shade, ink, fabric, mosquito repellent and sunblock) he's just discovered are improbable, it's not actually impossible. The fact that he turns from being an outcast to a major trendsetter is much more fantastical, but still, it is not beyond the realm of possibility for this to happen. Of course, let's continue with the reviews... ( Read more... )Tags: books, picture books, rantlings
I'm feeling: aggravated
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We were walking, and I bumped her. As I bumped her, I said "Excuse me", to which she replied "You're welcome". Well, she said more like "Do welcome", which she doesn't do anymore :( I tried asking her today so I could get the pronunciation just right, but now she says it right, like a big girl. (That was the only place she didn't say "your" the way she was supposed to.) Me: I'm welcome? Huh? I said Excuse Me! Evangeline: *giggles* I'm sorry. Me: It's all right. I'm sorry, I bumped into you! Evangeline: I said you're welcome. I say that when you say... when you say... Me: Thank you? Evangeline: Thank you. I say you're welcome when you say thank you. Thank you! You're welcome! Evangeline: Thank you, you're welcome, thank you, you're welcome. Me: Yep. Evangeline: You said sorry. Say sorry, Connie. Me: Sorry? Evangeline: It's okay. Sorry, it's okay, sorry, it's okay, sorry, it's okay. I'm glad she has a grasp of the basic manners she's been learning for the past 4 years. Today, she was speaking and I noticed that she said "nothing" like "nussing". Intrigued, I started bombarding her with say-this, coming up with all the words with th- in them I could (and making a few up). I alternated between voiced and unvoiced, but the pattern I eventually heard (before she got bored) was consistent... so if the unvoiced becomes -s, the voiced becomes -z and so on. Th at the start of a word (this, then) becomes a stop (dis, den). Th between vowels becomes an alveolar fricative (nothing becomes nussing, mouthing with a voiced th becomes mouzing) unless it's before -er (or probably -ar, I have try that out!) (and she still turns -er into -or most of the time, which yes, does problems with the word "her"!) in which case it becomes a stop (mother becomes mudder). Th at the end of the word is a bilabial fricative (teeth becomes teef, bathe becomes bave). There's a few exceptions (anything becomes anyting... though it's possible she's thinking of it as any + thing, two words, which makes sense because thing is usually ting, that's why nussing caught my ear), but it seems pretty consistent, although I really have to start listening better instead of waiting for a quiet moment and pouncing. As near as I can tell, she's essentially covered all her bases with regard to this weird th thing, except for the correct one! She knows how to make a th, I explicitly taught her one day when I was bored, she just doesn't unless I sit her down and exaggeratedly do it first and ask her to copy me. And I don't expect her to do it when talking either, it's one of the lastest sounds kids learn, isn't it? Ana now has all her cursive lowercase letters down. I really didn't want to tackle z, it being a difficult and uncommon letter that looks nothing like its print form (apparently, it comes from the medieval form of the letter), but I built it up to her by saying that it's worth learning because it's fun to do, so she took to it relatively well. Today we wrote the week's sight words in cursive, and I wrote out a sentence for her to read. I think we'll just try for a word a day for next week, and then I'll teach her capitals. Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, language
I'm feeling:  accomplished
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Here's a nifty trick. I often see people who have tantrummy kids trying, frantically, to keep them from kicking either the parents or the seat in front of them. And this is what they do. If they're standing, they hold the kid under the armpits and put their other arm on the top of the kid's knees, and if they're sitting they do the same thing, but, you know, sitting. This isn't very effective. The kid is still able to get in a few good kicks, and if you're standing they're also able to wiggle down and possibly out. If they fall and bump their butt in a tantrum they're REALLY be unhappy. Hopefully, this doesn't come up very often, but sometimes you have to get from here to there without being kicked - either in the shins or off the bus. So this is what you do: Put ONE arm around the kid's chest, under the armpits. Put the OTHER arm *under* the kid's legs. If you're walking, put them directly under the kid's knees so that the knees are higher than the butt. The kid can't wiggle out this way, and kicks will go harmlessly up into the air. If you're sitting, put that arm slightly lower, under the kid's calves. Kicks will go harmlessly up into the air (and not rebound onto your legs), and you'll also be able to maneuver better to avoid being headbutted. Evangeline eventually did calm down, though this time we never did find out what was upsetting her. She kept saying NONONONONONONO!, but it's hard to deal with that when you don't know what she's saying no to. In other news, Ana currently has 4 teeth out of her mouth, and another one or two loose. This has got to be some kind of record. The teeth that are coming in are HUGE. She already had big teeth! I suppose it's going to compensate for the few weeks she's spending more or less toothless. She just came into my room to inform me that the Tooth Fairy can take a vacation, LOL. I told her it's her mom's turn to be the Tooth Fairy. Tags: 'cdotes, advice, daily stuff, kids, thoughts
I'm feeling: accomplished
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For Ana's birthday, I got her class a wooden birthday cake. Evangeline was there. And for Evangeline's birthday I did the same thing. After her party at school, as the class was leaving, Evangeline began to cry. And cry, and cry, and cry, and she would not be consoled. If we asked her what was wrong, her reply was a furious, frustrated "Nothing!", which wasn't very helpful. So I picked her up and walked homewards with her while her mother went around the side to pick up Ana. And Evangeline eventually calmed down a little, but she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. We went through the churchyard and hit all their windchimes and yelled Boo! at her mom, and Evangeline still wouldn't tell me what was wrong. She was calmer, but she was still upset. To make her stop crying after she started up again, I started walking backwards. ( Read more... )But you know, even after that, she was still a little on edge, so finally, after I crossed the street, I sat right down on the sidewalk and put her on my lap and asked again what was wrong. ( Read more... )I can see what happened from here, of course. Evangeline didn't ask because she assumed she'd get to play with the cake that day, and she didn't, and then when everybody packed up to go and she realized her teacher didn't know she wanted to play with the cake at all she also realized it was MUCH TOO LATE to ask. Which is why she kept telling us nothing was wrong when something obviously was. Poor honey. We explained the problem to her teachers later, they'd been concerned. Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, school
I'm feeling:  satisfied
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My sister lost her job a few weeks ago, which means *I* effectively lost my job a few weeks ago. Also? Everybody's going away for Thanksgiving and I'm bombing the house, so my holiday is largely going to suck. *sniffle* Oh, well, that's what bookstores are for, right? Beats me why B&N would be open on Thanksgiving, but I'm pretty sure they are, so I might as well make the most of that. Monday is our library day, and yesterday I managed to get Jenn to come along... and she didn't get to meet either of the usual librarians as they were out again. The substitute librarian wasn't very effective at getting the loud kids to shut up and stop being so loud during storytime (the normal ones aren't superheroes at this either, but they're better than he was). The kids weren't badly behaved, per se, they were just loud. Even when they shushed each other, they were loud! Fascinatingly, though, I got to hear them use the word "flamed" in spoken conversation to mean a. insulting people in real life to their actual faces and b. having fun going back and forth insulting each other in real life. They were preteens. I was dying to go up and ask if they normally used this word in real life like this and if they'd first heard it spoken or if they'd first seen it on the internet or something, but mostly I just wanted them to shut up, so I didn't. On our way home from the library, we stop at Subway and pick up two cookies and two boxes of juice, for the girls. (We don't stop at the ETG because the ETG is closed Mondays.) I usually get them oatmeal raisin, but sometimes they get chocolate chip and I just *tell* them it's oatmeal raisin. I ran off after leaving the library to go to a protest that turned out to be Tuesday, and somehow Ana managed to convince her mother that I *always* get them double chocolate chip instead! Oh well, Ana lost another tooth (it had been twisted sideways in her mouth, ugh!), so that deserved a celebration. Tags: daily stuff, language
I'm feeling:  calm
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I noticed that my nieces' library had a serious lack of biographies, so I decided to remedy that situation, and I started, actually, with Amelia Earhart. Actually, that was a little disappointing. What I found on her looked very... done. Like everybody expected children to read biographies on famous Americans, and she's a famous American (and a woman, so double points there!) and they just churned out the same old stuff, year after year. Not very inspiring, but I figured I'd grit my teeth and look harder... and I found a few books on Bessie Coleman instead! Who's Bessie Coleman?Well, let's put it this way. She was the first African-American period to have a pilot's license, and the first American of any race or gender to have an international pilot's license. She had to go to Paris to learn to fly because over in the US the flight schools wouldn't take black women as students and the black aviators wouldn't train women at all. And she did this two years before Earhart started flying, too. (Died sooner as well, but at least everybody knew how she died.) So I decided to get one of two books about Bessie Coleman. I could get one that appears to be based upon eulogies, or I could get one that more specifically focuses on her life, Nobody Owns the Sky. And I did. GOD, what a mistake that turned out to be! Being the daughter of a famous aviator apparently does not make you qualified to write about... well, anything. Here's a sample page: Bessie's life was not long, but she flew far and wide
In Chicago she showed off a Richthofen Glide
Her air shows in Boston left crowds starry-eyed;
But in Jacksonville, Florida, everyone cried
Because Bessie's plane failed, and she fell, and she died
"Farewell to Brave Bessie", they sighed It goes on like that for the entire book... though it also has a random little poem-let (in the same style) that just generally talks about how Flying is Great, sorta at the start and sorta at the end of the book. I don't know if I'm keeping this one. Bessie Coleman. Great woman. Deserves to be better known, and really deserves to be one of the standards of the Woman's History Month and the Black History Month line-up. (Admittedly, teaching history properly instead of resorting to themed months would be better still, but let's not talk crazy talk now.) She really didn't deserve to have a book written so badly. Tags: books, rantlings
I'm feeling:  annoyed
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Free Onions (for a Buck)
Q. On several occasions riding the Times Square-to-Grand Central shuttle, I have encountered panhandlers holding a stack of The Onion, the satirical weekly that offers free copies from many Manhattan news boxes. The street people were selling them to riders for a dollar. One man said The Onion gave him the papers to sell. Is that true, or are they just taking them? How does The Onion feel about this?
A. Joe Randazzo, editor of The Onion, replied to our query, Onion-style: “While The Onion is entirely unsympathetic to the problem of homelessness in America, we are all too happy to exploit the miserable condition of our city’s derelict for the express purpose of disseminating our newspapers. May the paltry wage they’re able to swindle from New York’s guilt-ridden bourgeoisie keep them adequately soused until the morrow!” Asked if he would care to rephrase any of that, Mr. Randazzo added: “We don’t have any deal with the city’s homeless to sell our paper, which is distributed free throughout New York (as well as Chicago, Boulder, Madison, and Milwaukee). Thus far, though, the practice hasn’t interfered with the Onion’s heartless corporate agenda or its inconceivably massive business dealings.”
From the NYTimes FYI column, of course.
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Ana: Connie? *sticks out middle finger* Olivia says this is like cursing. Me: Huh? Oh, yeah, it sorta is, don't do that. Ana: But why? I mean, I'm only pointing at things. Me: Yeah, but it's a little rude. Most people just use their point fingers, not their middle finger. Ana: But... Me: *sighs* See, Ana, because the middle finger is longer than the other fingers, some people think it's kinda like a penis, so they consider it rude to stick out your middle finger like that. Ana: o.O ????? Me: Yeah, I never said people were very smart or that this made sense. Ana: *carefully holding down every finger but the ring finger* I could point like this! Me: Yeah, I guess so, with your- Ana: With my... my RING finger. Me: Yeah, you could, that's fine. Most people use their point fingers. Ana: Or I could use my pinkie. *demonstrates* Me: Sure, you could do that. Most people just use their point fingers. Ana: I guess I could use my thumb. Me: Absolutely. Most people just use their point fingers. Ana: People might think I'm giving them a thumb's up, though. Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling:  cheerful
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And once again we're forced to confront the myth of lefty-righty scissors. So listen up! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS LEFTY-RIGHTY SCISSORS. THEY ARE A LIE. THEY DO NOT EXIST.Scissors have inherent handedness. Left-handed scissors are designed with the correct blade on "top". This allows for a more natural movement and it also allows the child (or adult) to see what they're cutting. Compare this picture of left-handed scissors with this picture of right-handed scissors. Do you see the difference? It's not just about handles. And if you still think it's not a big difference, I suggest you go ahead and buy a pair of left-handed scissors anyway. And when you get them, take them out of the box, get an old magazine, and cut out a picture with them. Put yourself in your kid's place for a minute. It won't be as easy as you think. In fact, I suggest this to anybody who may ever be around small children. Try it out. It'll open your eyes, that's for sure. Note to self: I promised the school last year to get lefty scissors for them, I should do that. I think I'll pick a grade a year, stock them, and keep moving up. Tags: left-handedness
I'm feeling: aggravated
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No doubt she'll have to do so again this year, because instead of teaching anything straight out in math, in the US we tend to "spiral" and teach ever advancing versions of the same concepts year after year. I've read that this is an inefficient method of teaching math, but I only read it once. The stated goal of Ana's homework on measurements last year was, repeatedly, basically to learn that standard measurements are "better" than measuring through nonstandard units like thumb-widths or human feet... which of course were in many ways the origins of our standard units today, unless you use metric. This annoyed me at the time, because it made no acknowledgment of the fact that, actually, nonstandard units are, in some ways, superior to standard ones. We're so used to our standardized world that we don't think that way, but I can think of one easy advantage to measuring by hand and thumb instead of by inches - if you're counting out five thumbs of space on your fabric, or two handfuls of pepper in your peppergrinder, or three paces to bury the body, you NEVER have to resort to tools to figure out if you have the right amount. Instead, all the tools you need are right here on your own body. There are definitely disadvantages to this system, sure, but that doesn't mean that the standardized systems are the best. They each have their pluses and minuses, whatever the homework might state. Which leads me to Wikipedia, and to shoe sizes. Listen! barleycorn
Basic Anglo-Saxon unit, the length of a corn of barley. The unit survived after 1066, as the base unit from which the inch was nominally defined. 3 barleycorns comprising 1 inch was the legal definition of the inch in many mediæval laws, both of England and Wales, from the 10th century Laws of Hywel Dda to the 1324 definition of the inch enacted by Edward II. Note the relation to the grain unit of weight. This archaic measure is still the basis for current UK and U.S. shoe sizes, with the largest shoe size taken as thirteen inches (a size 13) and then counting backwards in barleycorn units,[4] although the original derivation was: less than 13 barleycorns: infants with no shoes; 13 to 26 barleycorns: children's sizes 1 to 12; 26 to 39 barleycorns: men's sizes 1 to 13.Yes, you heard it here first. WHY are shoe sizes so weird? Because, unlike anything else on this good green earth, they're based upon a unit that's a third of an inch. Sheesh. (And listen, while we're on the subject. For all the easy math of the metric system, I've always had a real fondness for our system and all its halves and doubles.) Tags: links, school, thoughts
I'm feeling:  pensive
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Now they want me to get more people on their email list, and are bribing me with money For The Kiddies. (Not, mind you, MUCH money, but the idea is that we do it in bulk.) If anybody's willing to be signed up for this, you can post your email here, it's all screened. Also, if anybody routinely shops online at any of these stores, and doesn't have a school for it to go to, I'm glad to volunteer the niece's school - I'll email you about it if you post for that. Incidentally, I have a membership to B&N, but I tend to buy books as impulse buys. You know, in person. I'd love it if the membership card could be linked to the boxtops thing so in-store purchases could have the same small percentage go to the school. When I emailed about this, I was told "your more than welcome to contact our Corporate office at 212-633-3300 with any ideas you may have". I intend to do so, stat.
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(And I still want to see more examples - charts, I guess - of how script is taught in other countries. Just because.) One thing I keep seeing is the statement that up until the 30s or so, cursive was what was taught in the first grade - not print. (And of course some schools changed over sooner than that, and some later - or not at all!) Many of them also say that that's how writing is taught in other countries as well, with the possible exception of Great Britain. Any insight here from people who know what they're talking about would be useful :) If this is true, all of a sudden that scene in To Kill a Mockingbird makes sense! See, it was weird enough that Scout's father was criticized for "teaching" her to read when he'd done no such thing (she picked it up on her own), but I never understood the bit about how she was taught to write. It seemed strange to me that they taught her to write in script but not print (and that this was referred to as writing but print wasn't), but stranger that this should be a problem. But now it makes sense, if teaching print first was somewhat novel - the teacher, new to teaching, felt she'd just had her pedagogy insulted. She's got this idea of how you're nowadays supposed to teach reading and writing, and they did this old-fashioned thing that was ditched to make things easier for kids, this being the newish era of look-say reading as well, I suppose, though technically Scout learned that way anyway. (And it had worked, too!) ~~~~~~~~~~~~Today, as we walked to the library, I noticed some rosemary in another person's yard, and challenged the kids to find "a plant we can eat" in there. (They did!) I also pointed out that person's impatiens. Evangeline: Why are they called that? Me: I don't know. Evangeline: Maybe they don't have patience? Now, you all saw that coming, but listen. I don't think we've ever expressed patience as having or not having it. We tell them to BE patient, sure, but not to have patience. I would have expected her to say "Maybe because they're not patient" or even "Maybe because they're impatient" instead. So now I want to gather up im- words and see what she makes of them. This is probably a bad idea. Tags: 'cdotes, books, daily stuff, education, thoughts
I'm feeling: cheerful
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She's taking a break from learning new letters to review the ones she already knows, because we're (just over) halfway through the alphabet. She has a - l and q, t, u, and w. We're using worksheets from here, although I modified the b so that she curlicues it back instead of just dipping down at the end. It's easier for her. Tomorrow we'll do another bit of review, just the letters she's having trouble with (b, f, k and the ha combination) and move onto the next set of letters - n, m, v, x. And then another week and a half for the last of them and she'll have her lowercase letters down. Then I'm thinking a few more weeks of review before we start on capitals? As a side effect of all this, my *own* handwriting has improved. Ana showed one of her worksheets to her teacher (f - and let me tell you that her fs are beautiful, she just has to think too much to make them) and we got a little note going "Well, we're still working on print letters". For crying out loud! If you were an early elementary teacher, or have been an early elementary teacher, and your kid showed you something extra they did on the side, would you be "Well, we're not doing that" or would you stick a sticker on it anyway? And I'll tell you... I tell Ana that I want her to learn cursive now because it's easier to learn it at 6 than at 8, and that I know it'll be more frustrating for her in two years. And this is true. But the reason I don't tell her is that we only started with cursive learning because after doing print all through kindergarten and September of this year she still had no idea how to hold a pencil properly, nor that it mattered *how* you formed the letters so long as it looked more or less okay. Because you *can* print with your pencil in your fist, and you *can* print if you write your a backwards or if you do a lowercase h and then add the rest of it to make an H. (It took the better part of two weeks to convince her that the tails on letters aren't just decorative, that you can't just do most of the letter and add the tails after the fact!) But you can't print very well or efficiently that way, and it's sure to tire you eventually. Of course, there was no convincing her until she had enough letters in cursive that she could write real words and see and feel the difference doing it right makes. Ana's teacher has 24 students. I don't know how she teaches penmanship, or if she has time to do so in her day, or if she's able (or willing) to correct things like grip when the kids are writing in class, or... any of this. But if I really felt Ana were being taught to write properly, in a comfortable and efficient way (printing is writing! - and while we're on the subject, don't listen to the people who swear your signature isn't legal in print. It most assuredly is, and I've been doing it for years!), I would never have ended up doing cursive with her. (Ana's cursive letters are lovely, btw. Her bs are a bit sloppy, and sometimes her ws or us are a bit looser than I'd like, but she's just learning. If only I could get her to write on the line...! Do you think raised line paper would help?) Tags: education, school
I'm feeling:  busy
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Ah, let me explain about the sucky candy. The sucky candy is the stuff I give to the kids with sucky costumes. Not little kids, but teenagers. The ones who didn't even PRETEND to try. YOU know the types.
And to hear them complaining after they leave! Listen, I've been saying this to you guys every year for the past decade. Or if not you, then your big brothers and older cousins. Get with the program, stick your mask on before you come up the stairs. I'll pretend to be impressed, you'll pretend to care, and we'll all be happy. (Barring that, I'll accept a good excuse. However, as you all ARE students, you can not DRESS UP as students. It's not a disguise if it's real! Make something up that's a little better than that, thanks.)
At my discretion, I give double doses (of the good candy) to kids who are exceptionally polite, exceptionally overburdened (it's hard to be 15 and having to chaperon 4 kidlets under the age of 8 while your mom pushes the 5th in a stroller), or who make their own costumes.
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So, I left this review for a seller of a book on Amazon. The book was listed in good-used condition, but every page was ripped. EVERY page - and most of them, I had to tape up myself. Some of the rips were quite substantial, too. I understand that when you buy used you get what you get, but I felt - and still feel - that the damage should have been disclosed on the information and that it should have been rated as acceptable instead of good. I didn't contact the seller, but when prodded to leave review, I did so. Three stars (it came on time and, like I said, it *is* a used book), but there we go. And today I get this email. ( Read more... )You know, I feel some sympathy, but I don't like being manipulated. All this talk about her sick husband (which I don't even know if it's true) is there to hide the fact that she wants me to, basically, not be honest. The book came with every page ripped. Her husband's health isn't my fault. Her bills aren't my fault. Her problems aren't my problems. This could have been avoided much more easily if she'd just noted in the description when she put the book up that it was ripped on several pages. Then, when it came in the mail, I could have honestly said "Yup, I got what I paid for" and rated it my standard five-stars-no-comment. (And if she'd just emailed and said sorry, whoops, it was an accident instead of all this "everybody is sick and dying and poor" business, true or not, I would have been more likely to just roll my eyes and remove the review. I don't care whether it's true or not, I don't like feeling manipulated.) Tags: rantlings
I'm feeling: annoyed
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Judging by the reviews I'm guessing this is the exact same words Helen Bannerman used, but different illustrations. Well, even before recently her words were tied to many different sets of pictures, something people don't often realize today. Here's one review that I'm looking at right now: First of all I think that racism is learned. I found nothing wrong with this story and in fact it was one of my favorites as a kid. Many a time you would find us playing tigers running around a tree and melting into butter. To me, it is a story about a little black boy who has two parents who love him very much and give him gifts. The tigers try to eat him, he gives them his clothes and then, while they're fighting, he gets them back. I loved how the tigers turned to butter and Sambo got to eat 169 pancakes! Wow, a huge stack of pancakes loaded with freshly melted butter. I know my kids would love that. I asked my kids 12 and 10 what they thought of the story. Did they think it was mean to black people. We all agreed that it was a good story and could be written with any race and still be good. As for their names-since we haven't studied the history of how hated dark skinned people across the world have been in such depth, they don't mean a thing to us. Why wait 100 years to read the story just because some people can't get over the past? I hope you'll read the book and enjoy it with your children-that's what it was written for-and when you're done go make some pancakes together:)Her kids are TEN and TWELVE. When on earth did she intend to teach them about racism? Do they know anything about the world around them? (Oh wait - it's all in the past. GOT it. Of course, it still sounds like they're ignorant of any form of recent history....) Tags: books
I'm feeling:  predatory
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The entry is here.At the time, I mentioned Pancakes for Supper, which I hadn't yet read. As I recall, I noted that the protagonist in *this* version is a blonde-haired white girl, and... to tell you the truth, I'm quite uncomfortable with the concept of erasing racism by erasing race (and yes, erasing race *does* mean everybody looks like me but with still more blond, how could you tell?) I actually got a chance to read the book today at the bookstore, though, so I did - eagerly! (It's on sale at B&N, just $6 for hardcover.) And I have something more to be annoyed at. The review at Amazon points out clearly that it's a rewrite of Little Black Sambo. The other rewrites I've seen make this point clear in forewords, explaining that the authors liked the story but that they felt it wasn't going to be shared in its older format, so they rewrote this and that aspect of it. This book? Doesn't actually say anywhere on it that it's a rewrite, not that I saw. No foreword. No afterword. Nothing on the bookflap, or on the front or back cover. And it's not *much* of a rewrite either. The setting (and race!) change, but the story hews pretty closely to the original. Look, I get the fact that a little black Indian non-white boy was changed into a white girl. I'm not happy about it, but apparently we're living in this brave new color-blind postracial world that coincidentally puts white kids into protagonist roles where black kids used to be and we're not supposed to notice that because it's racist to see race. Fine, whatever, I'm sure the author and illustrator had no malicious intent. But copying another person's work - even work in the public domain! - without explicitly crediting them? NOT COOL. At all. I mean, sheesh, people sometimes add dissertations to their reimaged versions of Cinderella, and these guys can't manage to put a little line "Based upon the book..." under the title? Unless you can stick it to the man by buying it used, I wouldn't get a copy. For my rewritten needs, I stick with Sam and the Tigers. It's funny; it doesn't have creepy race issues in the old, racist way or the new, postracial way; and both the author and illustrator thought it was appropriate to, gosh, credit the source. Tags: books, race, rantlings
I'm feeling: aggravated
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Don't read TV Tropes. Seriously, that's a bad idea. But I was reading TV Tropes, and I read the most *astounding* news. Apparently Stephanie Meyer is coming out with a new book series? About time-traveling cannibal mermaids? Why has nobody told me about this??? Okay, okay, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking: "We didn't tell you because it's gonna suck and we hope it's not true". But think a little harder. Really envision the concept of time-traveling! cannibal! mermaids! Think about it. Isn't that just the most awesomest thing you ever heard? It is! It's fantastic! They're mermaids... that travel through time... and are cannibals. No word yet on whether they sparkle, but I'm betting yes. Sparkly time traveling cannibal mermaids! OMG! There's only one teensy tiny little PROBLEM. And that's kinda Stephanie Meyers. But not to worry. She can be replaced. For example, we can have this series written by that one who ghostwrites the V. C. Andrews books. Then we could have sparkly incestuous time-traveling cannibal mermaids! Maybe they can be their own grandpas. Or we could get Lurlene McDaniels to write it. Then they'll be meaningful sparkly incestuous time-traveling cannibal mermaids, which is bound to be an improvement. Or we could ask Ann M. Martin. Now, stop for a minute and picture this: Sparkly incestuous time-traveling cannibal mermaids who babysit (in a meaningful way). C'mon. TELL me that's not awesome. Because me? I think it's pretty awesome. Jenn thinks I ought to do this for NaNoWriMo. And the more I think about it, the more awesome I think it is. Except I don't do NaNoWriMo... and good thing too, because this concept needs a special touch. No hack writing for me. No, for my own little version of sparkly incestuous time-traveling cannibal mermaid babysitters I'm going to have to break out... the haiku. Oh yeah. All that awesome, condensed into 30 brief (and meaningful!) haikus. There's absolutely no way this can go wrong. C'mon. Tell me I'm awesome. I'm so excited. This is the bestest idea I've had all year! Tags: books, nahawrimo, thoughts
I'm feeling: cheerful
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Here I am, in the B&N the other day, and I urgently had to run in, pee, run out and go home to pick up the nieces. I was on a Very. Tight. Schedule. And as I was going up the escalator I saw a woman on the first floor with her baby in a sling. Something about how she was holding the sling made me notice her. Soooo... I turned around and went down the *down* escalator to confirm she had no idea what she was doing and to fix her sling for her. *sighs* Two things: 1. When you're adjusting your ring sling, pull the tail *out*, not *down*. If you pull the tail down you increase the risk of your sling twisting, you move the rings from their ideal spot, and you shove the sling up into your neck. Not comfy. 2. If the sling moves away from you when you bend over or walk, it's not tight enough. People are always reluctant to tighten their slings at first, but the tighter it is (more or less), the more secure the baby is - and the happier you'll both be! The baby just spent nine months INSIDE you (or inside SOMEbody, anyway), they don't want to be free and easy just yet! After the first few minutes using a new sling (when you feel awkward and weird and it's expected) you shouldn't feel like you have to constantly put your hand there to keep your kid safe. The whole point is that your hand doesn't have to be there. Also? Keep the kiddo's head where you can kiss it. If you can't kiss the top of the sweet little head, the baby is too low. I explained all this to her and managed to make it to the toilet before peeing on myself, but really, no matter how much she thanked me I know the truth: I am, in fact, kinda a buttinsky. Tags: babywearing, thoughts
I'm feeling:  bored
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Didn't get a chance to pick it up until Saturday. Well, you know, it was raining. All day. I grabbed my mom's unlimited and headed into the city. First I went up to Union Square. The B&N there was sure to have my book... right? Not in the kid's section... not in new fiction... not in new kid's... not in YA. I ask for help. "Nope, none of our stores have it, do you want to order it?" Well, the *last* time I ordered a book at the store (another Hilari Bell book, funnily enough - it's lonely being a fandom of one. *sniff*) I ended up picking it up somewhere else the next day and feeling really guilty, so I said no and ran off to the Borders instead. Borders by the boat - I should've stopped there first! On the way, I turn to avoid a puddle and step in a much BIGGER puddle instead... and my shoes having holes in the heels means I'm stuck with soggy socks. So I go to payless and get new shoes, same type. I'll wear the holey ones most of the time so as to make the new ones last longer. Go to Borders - that's where I got the book last time, they're sure to have it this time! Not in new fiction, not in kids... not in new kids... not in YA... not in fantasy... I ask for help. "Nope, we don't have it, not in any of our stores, wanna order it?" At this I was really annoyed, because I WANTED to read the book NOW NOW NOW, but it's not the poor help person's fault. Luckily, she took pity on me and looked it up... at the Strand! I can go to the Strand! Which is... way back... up... at Union Square. God DAMN it. So I go back UP to the Strand, and it's half price. Do I remember that I bought new shoes and save the money? No, of course not! I'm in a fucking big bookstore! There are REASONS I never go to the Strand. 18 miles of books isn't a promise, it's a trap - I'm lucky to get out with any cash left on me! I leave the Strand after the thunder stops. The rain isn't THAT bad, so I head to the store to get my favorite potato chips. Middle of the street - MIDDLE OF THE STREET! - with the train station so far behind me, it starts pouring pouring POURING down on my head. I can't see through my glasses, but that's all right - the rain is so strong I can't open my eyes anyway. No way I can turn back now, I'm in the middle of the street! And I can't see! Nothing for it but to struggle on and hope I make it to the store before I drown. My shoes? My new shoes and socks? Soaking - even lacking holes, NOTHING could survive that downpour without making my feet wet. And then I was stuck 15 minutes in the door of the store poking my head out to ask "Is the rain dying down yet?" And you know, it's a good book, and I sure looked forward to it... but... I don't think it was so good it was worth getting soaking wet for. Tags: books, daily stuff
I'm feeling:  wet
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Seriously, did anybody NOT see that coming? You'll notice I didn't even bother with a spoiler warning. Here's a hint. If the big reveal is going to revolve around somebody's baby not being their biological kid, stop doing that "light-haired parents, dark-haired kid" thing. Everybody does that when doing adoption or switched at birth or whatever, and it's cool, except that it ruins the twist ending. So if we're not intended to figure out the plot of the episode 10 minutes in, sacrifice convention and have everybody running around with the same color hair for a change! Also? Everybody and their dog knows that two blond parents don't have brunet kids. Of course, everybody knows a lot of things that don't turn out to be true, granted*, but all the same - with that bit of knowledge firmly implanted in the cultural consciousness, how can these people be so! shocked! to find out that their kid isn't genetically their kid? Why isn't this up on TVTropes on their entry on "Switched at birth"? *I don't even know if it's true or not anymore. Sorry. Tags: television, thoughts
I'm feeling: bored
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retreat.... 
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
shocked
sleepy
ecstatic
pissed off
angry
contemplative
excited
chipper