Books

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House on the Prairie books to preserve the stories of her childhood for a younger generation of children and to help them to understand how much America had changed during her lifetime.  I’m working on compiling a list of things that I remember from my childhood that make me feel old. (“What’s a VCR, grandpa?”) What makes you feel old?  Here’s a list of defunct sports teams I remember to get this thread started:

• Montreal Expos
• St. Louis Cardinals (the football team)
• Miami Redskins
• Quebec Nordiques (what the h is a Nordique?)
• A crapload of men’s college teams (thanks, Title 9)
• Ohio Glory
• Tidewater Tides
• Washington Bullets (the murder rate in D.C. has dipped significantly since the name change)
• Capital Fighting Lutherans (I don’t really remember that name, but it did exist

I recently read a Yahoo article/slideshow on their top-rated sci-fi movies of all time. By the time I got to the end I was crying in horror. Movies that I did not even consider being sci-fi made the list (i.e. The Incredibles). This was by far the most inaccurate “list” I’ve ever seen. So I thought that instead of complaining to Yahoo like those poor saps who leave angry comments but go unheard, I could begin this thread where we can create our own list and allow for comments/suggestions/opinions. ‘Ere goes:

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So we’re into our final week before Christmas. There’s probably a lot of shopping yet for some of us, cooking, entertaining, traveling, and certainly eating. We have a couple Christmasy threads on the site, for Christmas movies/cartoons/specials, Christmas carols, and just general Christmas humbuggery. But this here shall be the official Christmas catch-all for years to come, or at least until my site breaks completely and laziness prevents its resurrection.

Some things that I don’t think have been brought up elsewhere:

Favourite Christmas memories (or worst, I suppose)
The typical Christmas gauntlet for you and yours
Preferred holiday foodstuffs
The glorification of obesity through Santa Claus imagery
Thoughts on decorations/using mistletoe to snare love interests
The effects of unregulated toy factories on the polar ice cap
Advances in caribou nasal oncology

These subjects should be discussed in great detail, as well as any other related topics you can think of. Holiday well-wishing and general online merrymaking is encouraged here, and of course links to anything humorous that in some small way can be connected to Christmas.

I seem to remember hearing that it’s the little things that make you the happiest. That in this world of colour TVs, stereo boom boxes, and fashion knickers, it’s the simple, often overlooked things that produce real joy in you. I know that sounds lame, and it probably is to some degree, but this is the thought I’m going with so lay off.

I have no intention of getting philosophical or deep, or breaking it down to simple things like basic food or clothing that we American fat cats take for granted. I know we suck here in the take-it-all-for-granted Western world, but that’s a rant for another thread (that I’ll probably never start, so what do I care, talk about it here if you really want). I just wanna know what little things get you every time, which often-overlooked things in life make you happy.

And since all of us here are quirky in our own special ways, I’m guessing our various simple, “little” things are probably pretty different or unique. Or maybe you’ll find that you really love something that someone else here enjoys, but it’s so little that you’ve overlooked the beauty of its wonderful simplicity.

Let me give you an example:

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I’m not much of a reader. Well, I like to read, I enjoy reading… I have an English degree… but I’m still not much of a reader. Maybe that just means that I’m not good at it.

I think my problem is that I’m a slow reader. I read and re-read things; I’m afraid I’m going to miss something. This is much more of an issue if I really respect the author. If I appreciate the writer’s style, their wording, their thought process, I’m afraid I’ll miss something. I’m the same way with music. If I’m listening to an artist, producer, or player I’m particularly impressed with, I’ll listen (and re-listen) very, very closely to make sure I don’t miss anything. And so when I’m reading — even when it’s just whoever — I generally take a long time to get through it.

But enough about the details of my own reading process. I wanted to start a general thread about reading, books, authors, magazines, columns, comic books, etc. Anything you enjoy reading. For a site with a lot of text, we don’t talk about reading much…

And speaking of the Bookmobile… I have fond memories of our local Bookmobile. I don’t know if we were genuinely excited about reading, if it was some infatuation with a specialty vehicle, or if we just wanted to get out of school for a while, but we loved seeing that book-toting bus pull into port (pun?).

And on a related note, the Simpson’s idea of a Book-Burning Mobile is hilarious on a couple levels. Obviously the thought of a van/bus that drives around collecting racy books to burn is funny, but the idea of a flaming, gas-powered vehicle full of old paper is really amusing.

So there you have it. A half-hearted effort to get some book talk started. Actually I just had a couple comments to post but no place to put them…

Yet another ground-breaking story from the pages of the medical journal, “Duh.” I was reading the news the other day and this article I came across struck me as amazing: Two Women Sue `Girls Gone Wild’ Creator

This is about two girls who were invited onto the Girls Gone Wild (GGW) bus, given free drinks — which they didn’t complain about at the time — and did sexual things on tape and didn’t think that the tape would be seen by anyone else. All I am thinking is no matter how bad a person the creator of Girls Gone Wild may or may not be, these girls have no right to sue him because they are stupid. This is a frivolous lawsuit. If you don’t want to be on the Girls Gone Wild DVDs then don’t go on the bus and let someone tape you having lesbian sex. I’ve never done that, therefore I am not on the dvd.

Anyway, this post is for articles of things you find stupid, such as girls going onto a GGW bus and doing lesbian acts without thinking it would get out. And possibly discuss the issue(s) at hand.

And hopefully you all recognize the Norm MacDonald reference.

I’m a huge fan of silly names. So often that is the cornerstone of a good character. I don’t know, a good name really gets me off on the right foot… Perhaps it can be traced back to the eighth grade when Kyle & I spent all of our time making up fictional basketball players with humorous names & outrageous back stories. At some point I should get around to posting those here, if it doesn’t embarrass Kyle too much…

But anyway, I keep thinking of good character names from shows, movies & books, so I figured I’d better start a thread so I can jot down favourites as they come to me. Feel free to do the same, of course. They don’t necessarily have to be silly names; I appreciate names that are simply good as well, like one of my favorite character names of all time, Neal Page, from Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

This is just one of those lists that I keep meaning to start so I can keep chipping away at it. So while it may be slow-going, it’ll be good to start compiling…

I wanted to encourage you all to read this book by my uncle, Coach Dave Daubenmire.

I have been reading it this past week and am really being inspired to become closer to the Lord.  The info is listed on the minutemen link on Bill’s website.  Or you can go to www.ptsalt.com.  Dave battled for Christ in our schools a few years back with trying to defend students the right to pray during high school sports events.  The story was on Fox news and CNN and the ACLU wanted to take him to the Supreme Court.  Utimately the ACLU backed down but prayer is not allowed in any arena of the high school sports world to this day.  This story is the beginning of Dave’s journey at London High School, also the place where my brother Pete graduated from.  Please make sure to read this story, it is awesome.

Okay, I’m not completely convinced that you all realize the importance of next month’s release of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. If you haven’t read the book, I’d encourage you all to do so & then see the movie on December 9. Trust me, you’ll have *no problem* reading the book by then; it’s a children’s book, really. But don’t let that stop you. C.S. Lewis is the man in so many rights (but not as in, “me & my people have been beat down by The Man for too many years…”), and the Narnia series is no exception, regardless of who the audience *appears* to be. I say it that way b/c the work is very much a Christian allegory, so while it’s a series of children’s books, it’s also very interesting and moving from a religious perspective. But I’m sure you’ve heard about all of that…

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