"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." —Mark Twain
Fighting for hearts and minds
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. Arizona: That rumor I mentioned in my last YCRT! column? The one about the racists going after ethnic studies at the universities, now that they’ve “fixed” the high schools? Looks like there’s some truth behind it. Here’s another disturbingly Orwellian […]
When I read The Hunger Games last year, one game contestant from the first book stood out from the others: Rue, the 12-year-old from one of Panem’s agricultural districts. Katniss, who volunteers for the games to protect her own 12-year-old sister, forms an alliance with Rue, even though they both know that if it comes […]
The end of the week has come again. The world’s most interesting couple doesn’t eat much steak, but when we do we eat it on Friday night … and with that in mind I took a flank steak out of the freezer this morning. This afternoon I’ll put it in a marinade of soy sauce […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. In Arizona, the banned book debate rages on. Tucson school district officials insist they didn’t ban any books. A local paper, the Tucson Citizen, asks why then did Tucson school district officials interrupt Mexican American classes in mid-session, confiscate students’ […]
Who’s the guy running behind her? That’s race official Jock Semple, trying to tackle her and pull her out of the marathon, yelling “Get the hell out of my race and give me that number!” The men running with Katherine blocked him and she was able to finish the race. Click here for the full […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic roundup of news about banned and challenged books. Arizona: Last month I wrote about various groups planning to make banned Mexican American studies books available to Tucson area students. Since then I’ve been receiving daily updates on one such group, the Librotraficante Caravan … so many updates that […]
Consider the great gains we’ve made in this country: from universal suffrage to civil rights, from labor unions and protections for workers to minimum wages and unemployment insurance, from Social Security to Medicare, from free public education to womens’ athletics, from good highways to the postal system. If you follow the news you know that […]
First of all, I apologize for the blogging slowdown. Over the weekend the fan in the back of my CPR started howling; Monday I took it into the shop to have a new one installed. They’re running behind and I may not have my computer back for a few days yet. I’m posting this from […]