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Archive forSeptember, 2005

An Old-Fashioned Book Burning

A Bookish Meme

I first saw this at Cottontimer’s blog, but I’ve been seeing it other places since. It’s an interesting Meme.

The American Library Association has come out with the compilation list of The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000.

Here are the ones I’ve read (click the link above for a complete list):

  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
  • Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
  • Forever by Judy Blume
  • Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
  • The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
  • The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
  • A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
  • Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
  • Blubber by Judy Blume
  • Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  • The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
  • Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  • A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
  • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  • Cujo by Stephen King
  • Lord of the Flies by William Golding
  • Carrie by Stephen King
  • The Dead Zone by Stephen King
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
  • Where’s Waldo? by Martin Hanford
  • How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
  • I read many of these ages ago and they are lost in the crowd of books that live in my head. I am proud to have read so many of them. My opinions on book-banning rank right up there with my opinions on Nazism. ‘Nough said.

    24 isn’t too shabby, I don’t think.

    How many of them have you read?

    Comments

    Well There’s a Total Shocker

    At least they’ll say I’m consistent

    You are a
    Social Liberal
    (80% permissive) 

    and an…
    Economic Liberal
    (25% permissive)

    You are best described as a:

    Strong Democrat

       
     
       
     

    Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid
    Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

    Comments

    Succinct

    Summarize the feelings, emotions, mindset and difficulties of being pregnant in one sentence:

    I am wearing pants that do not fit me and this has become very distracting. - MoVo

    Comments

    Spare Dog

    Seeing as I broke our dog, and yet still have a gigantic ass, I needed a loaner dog to go running with in the mornings. Our neighborhood is pretty darned safe, but like everywhere else in the world in the dark of 5:00am it’s too risky for a woman to go running alone. What with the rapists and such.

    So Fingers and Mo (and baby boy Bean) have a Good Dog named Sandy. Sandy is a very Good Dog and when I showed up at her house this morning, quietly used my spare key to open the front door(1), and called her to me, she thought all her Christamasses and birthdays had come at once.

    I’m entirely serious. She ran around the front yard like a rabbit with vicious hemorrhoids(2) sending telepathic doggy thoughts like “A WALK? A VISIT? A WALK? A VISIT? A WALK? IN THE MORNING? IS IT MY BIRTHDAY? OH MY GOD! A WALK!”

    Then she pulled me along on my jog for the next 45 minutes solid. Joey is about 70 in dog years. Sandy is in her early 20’s and it shows. Joey was a calm jogging companion, you know, before I totally crippled him. Sandy is 30lbs heavier with a much broader chest and about six million times more energy.

    To say we had fun is to seriously understate the situation. Good dog, Sandy. Good girl.


    My new jogging buddy!

    (1)With express permission, of course. I am not a rapist.

    (2)How happy am I that this word is in spellcheck. I never get it right. Maybe it’s all part of the denial process.

    Comments

    Where’s That Baby?

    THERE’S the baby!

    We have 55 new photos of Wallace posted on his website! Some of them are generic, some are of my 30th birthday party and a few are of a wedding we attended. Click the picture above to see all of his new photos!

    If you want to see how his walking is going, and believe me fabulous reader when I say he is all about All Walking All the Time, Click Here to see a video taken this morning.

    To get an idea of just how badass his dancing is, and oh is it badass shutcho mouth, Click Here.

    Warning: Smugmug hates RealPlayer. Do not use RealPlayer to view the videos or your browser will crash!

    Comments (2)

    Legless Joe

    I broke the dog

    Remember how I told you I jogged yesterday? Well, in a move that rivals “threw a rock at a hornet’s nest” for dumbass summer craft ideas, I took our nine-year-old dog with the heart condition.

    To be fair, the dog has never shown any real sign of being sluggish or old. He bounds in and out of the house a thousand times a day and will obnoxiously pull you on an entire mile-long walk. Also the jog, if I’m honest, was not really all that. I’m following a training course, and the first week is a lot more walking than jogging.

    And yet, this morning when we were out for a walk poor Joey Jojo stopped cold after about two blocks and was entirely unable to go one more step. I had to carry him home. And he’s laying very quietly and yelps whenever he gets up or sits down and shook for an hour solid.

    He’s gotten better since 7am this morning and Andy says that I’ve just knackered him. I think we’re going to talk about putting him on some aspirin. And poor Joe, as much as he’d love it, will not be jogging in the mornings. He has a doctor’s appointment at 3pm and is trying to recuperate under the dining room table right now. Easy access to dropped Chex Mix, don’tchaknow.


    They also make me wear hats. HELP!

    Comments

    Running On Empty

    Living in a box

    When I went jogging this morning-

    AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! HA HA HA HA Hee heee heeeeeeeee heee heh. Hah.

    No, seriously, I did go jogging this morning. There are several reasons for this unusual turn of events:

  • 1) Recent fatty talk. Not the fatty talk of others, but my self-fatty talk. I’m not gross or anything, and am still flirt-worthy, but in looking at what I say about myself I think I just need to do something to make myself feel better about myself.
  • 2) The dieting, which was going so well, is no longer going well. Between two weddings and eleventymillion birthdays, my new daily lunch consists of cake, cake and cake. If I need something sweet I’ll chase it with some ice-cream. So I’m back to the mood swings and all the accompanying crap that comes with the fine, white powder. It’s time to knock that shit off again. Sometimes physical activity can jumpstart a diet the way that nobody else can. The only thing worse than jogging is pointless jogging.
  • 3) As a free gift for something we did we get Newsweek at home. I’m embarrassed to say that I read their Special Report on heart-health and it made me feel guilty for never moving off my fine, white ass. It’s pathetic. That’s like being moved to reduce sodium in your diet because of a Dateline Special Report.
  • 4) I’m 30. Have I told you that I’m 30 mutherfucking years old?
  • 5) The biggest reason is because Andy said he came home the other night and I was on the couch sleeping, I mumbled to him and went down to bed. All I remember of that night is falling asleep in bed at 10pm. Which means that my body has been up and doing things without my brain’s permission. The only proper response to keep that from happening in the future is to wear that fucker OUT.
  • So, anyhow, as I was saying, when I was jogging this morning some cops drove by and whistled at me and laughed. I was very good and did not mention the squad car their fat rears were jammed into, or yell anything involving the word “doughnuts”. I thought that showed impressive restraint.

    BEAN IS A BOY!!!

    That’s right! Last night Fingers and MoVo found out that their small person owns a penis. This means that there will be a little Vo cousin down the street for Wallace to play with; it means that the hand-me-downs will abound; and it means that Fingers can breathe again because he’s dodged the “that little shitloaf wants to touch my daughter’s butt” bullet.

    Congratulations on your baby boy, Fingers and Mo! We’re very happy for you!

    Everybody Loves the Cubs

    Thanks to Cubbiegirl and Geo, Andy and I got to take a date night last night and go to Wrigley Field and watch the cubs lose. It was a gorgeous night, and Lordy Mama did we have some capital-F fun.

    Thanks, guys!! You kept our 5-year-in-a-row attendance record going strong!

    School? What a great idea! If only it hadn’t totally fucked us.

    Fabulous reader, I’m worried with a capital W. It’s safe to say that our money situation is falling under the heading of “not so good”. Due to circumstances that are totally not his fault, a gig of my husband’s fell through and now we’re in a bit of a panic. I also made a major financial mistake. That did not help.

    Right now I spend every day hoping that my decision to go back to school won’t, you know, eventually render us homeless.

    If you’d be so kind as to send good financial thoughts, that would be wonderful.

    And P.S. - Fill out the song question already! I know that you’re thoughtful and interesting, dammit. Plus I had to write the fucking thing three times!!

    Comments (2)

    Sing Me the Song of Yourself

    So, we had a strange occurrence here a few seconds ago. I came back to my blog and saw crazy-ass Austrian dudes everywhere. As in, this post was filled with pictures of a crazy-ass Austrian dude and his friends. I’m not sure that it was a hack, because if it was a hack, why the crazy-ass Austrian dude? But what I am sure of is that it was weird. Really weird.

    What I’m also sure of is that the crazy-ass Austrian dude ate my perfectly good post. BASTARD!

    I don’t think I can re-create the magnificence, but I will let you know what the post was about and why I need your responses.

    Long story short - Yesterday my song came on the radio. The one that I identify with. The one that represents me. It represents me because MoVo once said that it made her think of me. Then after that it made me think of me.

    To note how I’ve changed: When I was in high school my self song was Brown Eyed Girl. Oh, how the children grow.

    Cake - Short Skirt, Long Jacket

    I want a girl with a mind like a diamond
    I want a girl who knows what’s best
    I want a girl with shoes that cut
    And eyes that burn like cigarettes

    I want a girl with the right allocations
    who is fast and thorough and sharp as a tack,
    She is playing with her jewelry, she is putting up her hair
    She is touring the facility
    and picking up slack

    I want a girl with a short skirt and a
    looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong jacket

    I want a girl who gets up early
    I want a girl who stays up late
    I want a girl with uninterrupted prosperity
    Who uses a machete to cut through red tape

    With fingernails that shine like justice
    And a voice that is dark like tinted glass
    She is fast, thorough and sharp as a tack,
    She is touring the facility and picking up slack

    I want a girl with a short skirt and a looooooong,
    loooooooooooooooooooooooooong jacket

    I want a girl with smooth liquidation
    I want a girl with good dividends
    At Citibank we will meet accidentally
    We will start to talk when she borrows my pen

    She wants a car with a cup holder armrest
    She wants a car that will get her there
    She is changing her name from Kitty to Karen
    She is trading her MG for a white Chrysler LeBaron

    I want a girl with a short skirt and a
    looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong jacket

    I do have eyes that burn like cigarettes. I’m known at work as the person who uses a machete to cut through red tape. I also used to wear short skirts and long jackets.

    Someday soon I’m going to lose enough weight that I can wear short skirts again. Then I’m going to go as this song for Halloween. The clothes; the pockets stuffed with fake bills; the nametag that says: Hello My Name Is: Kitty Karen.

    It’ll be sweet.

    As I asked before, what is your song? The song that represents you? The one that when they make a movie of your life should be playing as you enter the story for the first time. Did you give it to yourself? Was it acquired at camp? In jail? Does it represent your inner you or the you you want to be? If you don’t have one, what do you wish your song was?

    Talk to me, baby. Sing Me the Song of Yourself.

    P.S. - You can still leave a message if you aren’t a registered Blogger user. Simply post as Anonymous and sign the message!

    Comments (6)

    Your Puny Underpants Cannot Save You Now, Mortal!

    Muuuuhahahahahahahahahaha!

    No, Lex Luther! Not a C! NOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!

    It’s true. I got a “C” on my first Intro to Communications test. Which is, frankly, all kinds of ridiculous. In Anatomy I’ll take any A and consider it good, but for my intro class there’s no reason I shouldn’t be pulling a 98% or above.

    Still, it could have been worse. And please believe me when I say that it could have been MUCH worse. A C is recoverable. Not anything to be proud of, but recoverable.

    Stoopid Kryptonite Test of Death.

    Comments

    I’m Afraid that it’s Idiot Bitter Bitch Day Tomorrow

    Please come back and spew then

    I’d just like to give a shout out to the person who so very bravely posted anonymously in my gaucho pants post. Not because she (or I suppose he, but really, that comes across as stone-cold bitch, don’t you think?) upset me, but because it’s very, very funny. Let’s break it down, shall we?

    Boy do you sound bitter.
    The model in the picture looks like she has cankles because she HAS cankles. The pants have nothing to do with that. And if you actually think the body in that image looks like it has an eating disorder, you must be obese and desperately trying to make yourself feel better. It’s bitter jealous bitches like you that make thin people look down on and despise fatties so much. Just some food for thought, pork chop.

    Boy do you sound bitter.

    I do? I DO? BITTER? WHAT? Everyone knows I’m all sunshine and light. Every day I get up and look in the mirror and blow myself several thousand kisses and say to my rubenesque reflection: “Well, no need to diet today, dear! You’re PERFECTION!”

    Anyone who reads this blog regularly is well aware of the fact that I luuuuuurve my body. With just oodles and oodles of warm, fuzzy thoughts and kittens. (My love handles are where the sunshine lives.)

    Meanwhile Nonny there exudes self-confidence. She trolled around until she came to my blog (which she has obviously never read before) and thought to post a scathing, if moronic, diatribe chastising me for a point I didn’t even make under a pseudonym. Bravery and self-assurance abounds.

    So we continue.

    The model in the picture looks like she has cankles because she HAS cankles. The pants have nothing to do with that.

    And thus, my point is made for me in stunning style. The poster herself assures us that the model has cankles. Assures us that it’s the model and not the pants. Because the kind folks in the publicity department at Target said, “You know, I’m tired of all those thin, pretty people modeling pants. Let’s get us a chick with cankles to model the gauchos. Yeah.”

    It’s the model. Not the pants.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahem. Hee hee. Moving on:

    And if you actually think the body in that image looks like it has an eating disorder, you must be obese and desperately trying to make yourself feel better.

    Let’s go back and take a look at what I actually said, shall we? Run the video tape:

    I mean, Christ, you know that the model in that photo has an eating disorder and is, like, 70lbs and -20% bodyfat and they give her a hint of cankle.

    This was not used to actually suggest that those poor pixillated legs have an eating disorder (poor pixillated, anorexic legs), but to point out through the use of sarcasm and exaggeration that models are often thinner than the normal population by a fairly extreme degree. However often I’m assured that the pixillated legs contain cankle, I’m still convinced that the model is probably a healthy, gorgeous, but thin women, whom those pants do nothing to flatter.

    Exhibit A:

    but I have seen them on the thinnest, loveliest women and they look terrible. They give even thin women bellies and butcrack issues and fat thighs.

    Please note the use of the word “They” to indicate that the women wearing them do not have bellies and huge butts or fat thighs, but these pants play up things like crotch fat, so much as a hint of thigh fat, and make the most pert and beautiful buttocks look like two dinner hams shaking in a hammock made of gauze.

    To clarify for the chronically slow of thought: It’s the PANTS I was insulting, dipshit, not the women.

    It’s bitter jealous bitches like you that make thin people look down on and despise fatties so much.

    Yeah, or a self-confidence problem. Or terror. Or vanity. I happen to like thin women just fine, but you certainly gave away an awful lot there, dear. Maybe it’s because you call people “fatties” that nobody likes you. Just a suggestion.

    And finally:

    Just some food for thought, pork chop.

    rebuttal:

    I hate to think what they’d do to a pork like me.

    Newsflash: If I say “Hey, I’m fat” and you say “Hey, you’re fat”, it’s not really an effective insult, is it? I suppose that it’s the height of insult for someone to call you “pork chop”, but it’s not really an insult to call a pork chop a pork chop. Particularly if the pork chop doesn’t go around calling itself a salad, you know what I’m saying baby?

    In conclusion: That was easily the most idiotic miss-the-point comment I’ve ever had and I’m kind of proud of it. Nonny was the perfect definition of the kind of person out there that can’t understand why people hate them, even if they are thin and don’t smell too much. Our next lesson will be on procuring and exploring a personality, as well as utilizing what little brain Nonny possesses, but I think we’ve introduced enough difficult concepts for one day.

    Postscript: Nonny found Speckblog, by the way, by googling “Thin Women”. First of all: HAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahaha! Second of all: Obsess much? Or was she just looking for other worthy folk? Or perhaps hoping to find somewhere to make fun of the fatties? We may never know.

    Comments (4)

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    Dooce takes pictures every day with a Nikon D70

    I take pictures occasionally with a Sony Ericsson wireless phone.


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