What's Wrong With This Picture?

  Allow me to get a bit political for a moment.

  I receive a daily political cartoon via e-mail from Slate.com (sidebar:  I did a project on political cartoons in high school and have been interested in them ever since).  Yesterday's cartoon upset me for some reason:



  Now, I am most definitely NOT a fan of Dick Cheney or his politics, but the woman's response to him irks me because this is exactly what is the problem with politics in America.  People on both sides of the fence have no desire to hear the other's viewpoint; and while certainly you can't agree with everyone on everything, I think it's also impossible to disagree with everyone on everything, and that is what is happening, if only in principle.

  Last week when I was back "home" in Canada, the Leader of the Official Opposition, Jack Layton, passed away after a battle with cancer.  He was mourned by the entire country, regardless of political leaning, and was given a state funeral.  Many people disagreed with his politics, but they all respected him.  Perhaps I'm too idealistic, but I feel that is what is lacking in US politics these days; I certainly don't think a Democrat would honor a Republican in this manner, and vice versa -- at least not in public.

  And to show I'm not a complete hypocrite:  While I had no intentions of reading Cheney's memoir, In My Time, after seeing this cartoon I went to my library's website and put a reserve on the book.  I don't know when it will be available to me, but I'll keep you posted.

*getting off my soapbox now*

The Plight of Independent Bookstores

  I buy books everywhere -- in the chains, department stores, online -- but ever since I discovered an independent bookstore in my area a few years ago -- Read Between the Lynes -- I have made a more conscious effort to give them my money, which when it comes to books is not an insignificant amount.  Their prices are more expensive than other retailers (though as a member of their loyalty club one receives a discount) but as I've become a frequent customer I am on a first-name basis with the owner I  feel truly appreciated when I make a purchase (you just don't get that at the Big Stores).

  So it was disheartening to receive a letter in the mail yesterday from the owner of the store describing the difficulties the store is going through and how close they seem to closing their doors.  Along with details of the changes the store will be making  it also includes a request for loyal customers to make a pledge to spend an additional $35 per month at the store over the next 60 days. 
 
  I want to do this -- I mean, I spend a lot at the store already (my last two visits to the store resulted in purchases of over $50 each), and asking me to spend more on books is a bit of a no-brainer.  But I am only one person, and my extra $35 is not going to mean anything if other loyal customers don't step up and if avid readers in the area do not also patronize the store.  I appreciate that times are tight and saving money is important to all of us, but the personal service provided to customers and the service to the community is something at which indies excel, and I believe that is worth the price.

  Wherever you live -- please support your local independent bookstore.

Secret Santa Meets the Grinch

*sigh*

 I wasn't sure if I was going to write a post about this, but I thought it might turn my lemon into someone else's lemonade so here goes.  (and I know I'm going to sound petty and selfish -- I do apologize)

  I signed up for a Secret Santa gift exchange on The Neverending Shelf's blog.  I received the name of another blogger with a list of books they had on their wish list and - though the books weren't familiar to me at all - I searched around to find a few on the list and had them sent.  Not a huge amount of time spent in the process, but enough (I felt) to make sure that I was choosing something this person would like.

  So a few days ago, my Secret Santa package arrived in the mail, and I was very excited to open it and see what treasures awaited (don't we all turn back into children at Christmas?).  Alas, my husband had a good laugh at my face when I had my first look, because the books weren't what I was expecting at all:

I certainly appreciate the effort that my Secret Santa made to package and send these books to me, and I don't remember exactly what I put on my wish list; but these don't even come close to anything that I would have chosen.  I did page through each of them to get a feel for the stories and I know that I am not going to ever read any of them.

I know -- Bah Humbug indeed.  And I feel rotten because of it.  But I do want to see these books go to someone who are genuinely interested in reading them, so if you would like any of these books please comment below and I will gladly send them to you.

Murder on the Orient Express on Masterpiece Mystery

Did anyone watch Masterpiece Mystery's presentation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express last night? 

This is one of my favorite Poirot mysteries (recently reviewed here) so I was interested in seeing how this version was done (I haven't seen any movie versions of Christie's novels up until now).  It was good and portrayed the "whodunit" piece well; but I was disturbed by something that I don't recall reading in the novels:  Hercule Poirot's devout Catholicism.

Not that I'm against Catholicism or any religion -- far from it -- but since I don't recall reading about that in the Poirot stories I've read (and I've read quite a few) I'm not sure why they chose to include this in the movie.  They made it have a bearing on Poirot's decision-making and it didn't sit well with me -- Poirot is all about logic and his "little gray cells", not emotion.

I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts about this.

Censorship to the extreme

In the news: School bans dictionary in classrooms because a parent complained of a graphic entry (link to article )
Allow me to get upon my soapbox for a moment: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is wrong on so many levels:
1. Aside from the particular phrase in question I have no doubt that there are many other "graphic" words in dictionaries, thesauruses (I don't know if that is the correct plural, I'm afraid my dictionary has seemed to have banned itself and disappeared) and encyclopedias -- so we should ban all reference material?
We could just eliminate everything in these books that people might find offensive -- let's get rid of anatomical terms, descriptions of famous battles, explanation of religions, that will be very helpful.

2. Isn't it somewhat encouraging to see a child look up an unfamiliar term in the dictionary? Yes, I realize that this particular term is not age appropriate, and so they learn what it means -- does that cause the child to immediately go and try it out? (I'd think that a majority of kids would be grossed out by this particular act). I'm not a parent so I can't begin to understand how to talk to kids about these topics, but isn't this an opening to a conversation?

When I was a kid, we all looked through different dictionaries in our class and in the library to see if we could find "bad" words. Most of the time we came up empty. But we were curious, a natural childhood instinct, and I think that by banning the most basic of information sources is a great way to stunt this curiosity.

Rant over. Thank you for paying attention.