The Economist reports that Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s president, wants to give a box of up to nine books to 400,000 of the country’s poorest families.
After much pencil-chewing, a jury of literati this month selected a list of 49 works, from which officials will then choose those books they think appropriate for each family (each will get an encyclopaedia and/or a dictionary).
Mike Nizza at The Lede (New York Times) asks readers: “If you had to fill a box with nine books that everyone ought to have, what would they be?”
My list:
Pilfered from Charlie’s Diary and courtesy of the Independent:
Sammy Duddy was a colourful Belfast character who combined membership of one of the city’s most lethal paramilitary groups with a career as “Samantha”, a highly suggestive drag act.
In the 1970s, he was by day a propagandist for the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the extreme Protestant group which was responsible for the killings of hundreds of Catholics. By night, however, he appeared on Belfast’s limited but vibrant cabaret circuit, presenting a ribald act in loyalist pubs and clubs dressed in fishnet tights, wig and heavy make-up.
Coming soon to a novel near you. . . .
Sean gets his rant on about this incident at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Perhaps the most damning comment on the incident was delivered by the Finn who was strip-searched. On a couple of occasions prior to 1991, he was detained by the KGB and interrogated. Compared to the ICE agents here in the Twin Cities, the KGB operatives, he says, “at least acted like human beings. Not a bunch of animals.”
(more…)
Even though I have very little contact with the outside world (especially, thank God, the next generation of snot-nosed children), I have no reason to doubt San Francisco Gate columnist Mark Morford’s teacher friend:
It’s gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking—and nearly hopeless—dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.
One of the most important things a parent can do is to instill a love of reading in their children. And by “instill” I mean force if need be. You’re the parents; your will must be paramount. Your kid wants an iPod, a cellphone? Pick up a book, Johnny. One day Johnny will thank you.
Thanks mum & dad.
I’m becoming increasingly convinced the majority of work writers do is on the subconscious level; that the physical act of writing transfers the otherwise unreportable from the subconscious onto paper.
For prog-rock fans only: UKZ.
For Los Angeles area prog-rock fans: 25 January 2008. UKZ with Tony Levin’s new “Project Sticks” opening.
Yes, I am a 21st century schizoid man.
The smoke is getting worse by the hour, creeping off the ocean and up the canyon outside my office doors. I’m thinking this is from the San Diego fires.
Not only has the smoke smothered the ocean, it’s beginning to smother the houses on the hill below. And when I went outside to meet the UPS driver a few minutes ago I realized it was raining ash.
Thank God I don’t have asthma.