"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. My local school district in Tucson, Arizona is at the center of a growing national and international scandal over the racially-motivated confiscation and banning of textbooks, novels, and plays. I wrote about the district’s actions here and here. To reach […]
Two days ago I wrote about the cancellation of Mexican American and Native American Studies classes in Tucson high schools, and the large-scale book banning that followed. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) officials confiscated books and other materials used in the cancelled classes, boxed them, and shipped them to a storage facility. Local, national, and […]
In May 2010 Arizona banned the teaching of ethnic studies in the state’s public school classrooms, specifically targeting Mexican-American and Native American studies. The new law forbid elementary and secondary schools to conduct classes “designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group” or that advocated “the overthrow of the United States government” and “resentment […]
When I grew up merchants and advertisers respected non-Christian customers by using Xmas instead of Christmas. Today, Xmas has been replaced by “the holidays.” That’s the spirit in which I use the word, to acknowledge the fact that, in the words of President Obama, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus […]
It’s been overcast, rainy, and gloomy outside since I rolled out of bed this morning. The payoff came a few minutes ago with this, the first sunlight of the day … and just in time for sunset! I’m told there’s snow higher up on the Santa Catalinas, but from where we live it’s still hidden […]
We’re spending Thanksgiving in Las Vegas with our son and his family. We won’t hit the road until next Wednesday … which means we weren’t there yesterday for our grandson Quentin’s 9th birthday. Gregory and Beth hired an animal wrangler to entertain Quentin and his guests. What a great idea! There were snakes, snapping turtles, […]
One Friday night, back when buffalo wings first became popular, I decided to make them at home. After cutting the wings, I breaded them by shaking them in a paper grocery bag filled with flour, a little paprika, some salt, and pinch or two of powdered cayenne. Then I deep-fried the wings and dipped them […]
This old-school political cartoon nails it: The media ignored the Occupy Wall Street protest for almost two weeks and only reluctantly began to cover it when it became impossible not to in the wake of YouTube videos of police brutality, and … of far greater importance … the presence of celebrities among the protesters. Once […]