I liked yesterday's list so much I've decided to make a follow-up: all the Caldecott Award-winning books I have ever read! (Yes, I did stop giving a darn about what people think a long time ago.)

CALDECOTT MEDAL WINNERS:
"Joseph Had a Little Overcoat", by Simms Taback (2000)
"Snowflake Bentley", by Mary Azarian (1999)
"Rapunzel", by Paul O. Zelinsky (1998)
"Golem", by David Wiesniewski (1997)
"Officer Buckle and Golria", by Peggy Rathmann (1996)
"Mirette on the High Wire", by Emily Arnold McCully (1993)
"Lon Po Po", by Ed Young (1990)
"Owl Moon", by Jane Yolen and John Schoenherr (1988)
"Hey Al", by Arthur Yorinks and Richard Egielski (1987)
"Ox-Cart Man", by Donald Hall and Barbara Cooney (1980)
"Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears", by Verna Aardema and Leo & Diane Dillon (1976)
"Sylvester and the Magic Pebble", by William Steig (1970)
"May I Bring a Friend?", by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers and Beni Montressor (1965)
"Where the Wild Things Are", by Maurice Sendak (1964)
"The Snowy Day", by Ezra Jack Keats (1963)
"Time of Wonder", by Robert McCloskey (1958)
"Madeline's Rescue", by Ludwig Bemelmans (1954)
"Many Moons", by James Thurber and Luois Slobodkin (1944)
"Make Way for Ducklings", by Robert McCloskey (1942)

CALDECOTT HONOR WINNERS:
"Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type", by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin (2001)
"Olivia", by Ian Falconer ('01)
"When Sophie Gets Angry - Really, Really Angry", by Molly Bang (2000)
"No, David!", by David Shannon (1999)
"Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin", by Lloyd Moss and Marjorie Priceman (1996)
"Time Flies", by Eric Rohmann (1995)
"In the Small, Small Pond", by Denise Fleming (1994)
"Yo! Yes?", by Richard Jackson and Chris Raschka ('94)
"The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales", by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (1993)
"The Talking Eggs", by Robert D. San Souci and Jerry Pinkney (1990)
"Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins", by Eric Kimmel and Trina Schart Hyman ('90)
"Free Fall", by David Wiesner (1989)
"Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters", by John Steptoe (1988)
"The Relatives Came", by Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammell (1986)
"Ten, Nine, Eight", by Molly Bang (1984)
"On Market Street", by Arnold and Anita Lobel (1982)
"Truck", by Donald Crews (1981)
"Freight Train", by Donald Crews (1979)
"The Amazing Bone", by William Steig (1977)
"Strega Nona", by Tomie dePaola (1976)
"Anansi the Spider", by Gerald McDermott (1973)
"Frog and Toad are Friends", by Arnold Lobel (1971)
"In the Night Kitchen", by Maurice Sendak ('71)
"Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse", by Leo Lionni (1970)
"Frederick", by Leo Lionni (1968)
"One Wide River to Cross", by Barbara and Ed Emberley (1967)
"Swimmy", by Leo Lionni (1964)
"Anatole", by Eve Titus and Paul Galdone (1957)
"Play With Me", by Marie Hall Ets (1956)
"If I Ran the Zoo", by Dr. Seuss (1951)
"Bartholomew and the Oobleck", by Dr. Seuss (1950)
"Blueberries for Sal", by Robert McCloskey (1949)
"Stone Soup", by Marcia Brown (1948)
"McElligot's Pool", by Dr. Seuss ('48)
"In the Forest", by Marie Hall Ets (1945)
"Madeline", by Ludwig Bemelmans (1940)


TODAY'S BOOK: "Hot Fudge Hero", by Pat Brisson ((c) 1997)

Labels: lists lists lists

Well, List Month is here again, so let's get cracking! What's that, you say? It's not Tevet yet? Ha! Well, if one year I can randomly not observe List Month, it logically follows that in a different year I can randomly push it up one month to Kislev! Right?
Today's list is not numbered. In fact, it's a two-part list detailing all the books I have read that won the Newbery Award.

NEWBERY MEDAL WINNERS:
"A Single Shard", by Linda Sue Park (2002)
"A Year Down Yonder", by Richard Peck (2001)
"Bud, Not Buddy", by Christopher Paul Curtis (2000)
"Holes", by Louis Sachar (1999)
"Out of the Dust", by Karen Hesse (1998)
"The View From Saturday", by E.L. Konigsburg (1997)
"The Midwife's Apprentice", by Karen Cushman (1996)
"Walk Two Moons", by Sharon Creech (1995)
"The Giver", by Lois Lowry (1994)
"Missing May", by Cynthia Rylant (1993)
"Shiloh", by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (1992)
"Maniac Magee", by Jerry Spinelli (1991)
"Number the Stars", by Lois Lowry (1990)
"The Whipping Boy", by Sid Fleischman (1987)
"Sarah, Plain and Tall", by Patricia MacLachlan (1986)
"Dear Mr. Henshaw", by Beverly Cleary (1984)
"Dicey's Song", by Cynthia Voigt (1983)
"A Gathering of Days", by Joan W. Blos (1980)
"The Westing Game", by Ellen Raskin (1979)
"Bridge to Terabithia", by Katherine Paterson (1978)
"M.C. Higgins, the Great", by Virginia Hamilton (1975)
"Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH", by Robert C. O'Brien (1972)
"Summer of the Swans", by Betsy Byars (1971)
"Sounder", by William H. Armstrong (1970)
"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler", by E.L. Konigsburg (1968)
"Up a Road Slowly", by Irene Hunt (1967)
"It's Like This, Cat", by Emily Neville (1964)
"A Wrinkle in Time", by Madeleine L'Engle (1963)
"Onion John", by Joseph Krumgold (1960)
"Rifles for Watie", by Harold Keith (1958)
"Miracles on Maple Hill", by Virginia Sorenson (1957)
"The Wheel on the School", by Meindert DeJong (1955)
"...And Now Miguel", by Joseph Krumgold (1954)
"Secret of the Andes", by Ann Nolan Clark (1953)
"Ginger Pye", by Eleanor Estes (1952)
"Amos Fortune, Free Man", by Elizabeth Yates (1951)
"The Door in the Wall", by Marguerite de Angeli (1950)
"King of the Wind", by Marguerite Henry (1949)
"The Tewenty-One Balloons", by William Pene du Bois (1948)
"Strawberry Girl", by Lois Lenski (1946)
"Rabbit Hill", by Robert Lawson (1945)
"Johnny Tremain", by Esther Forbes (1944)
"Adam of the Road", by Elizabeth Janet Gray (1943)
"Call it Courage", by Armstrong Sperry (1941)
"Thimble Summer", by Elizabeth Enright (1939)
"The White Stag", by Kate Seredy (1938)
"Roller Skates", by Ruth Sawyer (1937)
"Caddie Woodlawn", by Carol Ryrie Brink (1936)
"Invincible Louisa", by Cornelia Meigs (1934)
"The Cat Who Went to Heaven", by Elizabeth Coatsworth (1931)
"Hitty, Her First Hundred Years", by Rachel Field (1930)
"Smoky, the Cowhorse", by Will James (1927)
"Shen of the Sea", by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (1926)
"The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle", by Hugh Lofting (1923)
"The Story of Mankind", by Hendrik Willem van Loon (1922)

NEWBERY HONOR WINNERS:
"Al Capone Does My Shirts", by Gennifer Choldenko (2005)
"Hoot", by Carl Hiaasen (2003)
"A Corner of the Universe", by Ann M. Martin ('03)
"Because of Winn-Dixie", by Kate DiCamillo (2001)
"Joey Pigza Loses Control", by Jack Gantos ('01)
"Getting Near to Baby", by Audrey Coloumbois (2000)
"26 Fairmount Avenue", by Tomie dePaola ('00)
"Ella Enchanted", by Gail Carson Levine (1998)
"Moorchild", by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (1997)
"The Thief", by Megan Whalen Turner ('97)
"Belle Prater's Boy", by Ruth White ('97)
"The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963", by Christopher Paul Curtis (1996)
"Catherine, Called Birdy", by Karen Cushman (1995)
"The Ear, the Eye and the Arm", by Nancy Farmer ('95)
"Nothing But the Truth", by Avi (1992)
"The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle", by Avi (1991)
"Afternoon of the Elves", by Janet Taylor Lisle (1990)
"On My Honor", by Marion Dane Bauer (1987)
"One-Eyed Cat", by Paula Fox (1985)
"The Sign of the Beaver", by Elizabeth George Speare (1984)
"Doctor DeSoto", by William Steig (1983)
"Ramona Quimby, Age 8", by Beverly Cleary (1982)
"The Fledgling", by Jane Langton (1981)
"The Great Gilly Hopkins", by Katherine Paterson (1979)
"Ramona and Her Father", by Beverly Cleary (1978)
"Abel's Island", by William Steig (1977)
"A String in the Harp", by Nancy Bond ('77)
"The Hundred Penny Box", by Sharon Bell Mathis (1976)
"Dragonwings", by Laurence Yep ('76)
"My Brother Sam is Dead", by James Lincoln Collier (1975)
"Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe", by Bette Greene ('75)
"Frog and Toad Together", by Arnold Lobel (1973)
"The Headless Cupid", by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1972)
"Knee Knock Rise", by Natalie Babbitt (1971)
"Sing Down the Moon", by Scott O'Dell ('71)
"When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories", by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1969)
"The Black Pearl", by Scott O'Dell (1968)
"The Egypt Game", by Zilpha Keatley Snyder ('68)
"Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories", by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1967)
"The Noonday Friends", by Mary Stolz (1966)
"Across Five Aprils", by Irene Hunt (1965)
"Rascal", by Sterling North (1964)
"The Golden Goblet", by Eloise Jarvis McGraw (1962)
"The Cricket in Times Square", by George Selden (1961)
"The Gammage Cup", by Carol Kendall (1960)
"The Perilous Road", by William O. Steele (1959)
"Gone-Away Lake", by Elizabeth Enright (1958)
"The Great Wheel", by Robert Lawson ('58)
"Old Yeller", by Fred Gipson (1957)
"The House of Sixty Fathers", by Meindert DeJong ('57)
"The Corn Grows Ripe", by Dorothy Rhoads ('57)
"Black Fox of Lorne", by Marguerite de Angeli ('57)
"Courage of Sarah Noble", by Alice Dalgliesh (1955)
"Banner in the Sky", by James Ramsey Ullman ('55)
"Charlotte's Web", by E.B. White (1953)
"The Defender", by Nicholas Kalshnikoff (1952)
"The Light at Tern Rock", by Julia Sauer ('52)
"The Apple and the Arrow", by Mary and Conrad Buff ('52)
"Tree of Freedom", by Rebecca Caudill (1950)
"Misty of Chincoteague", by Marguerite Henry (1948)
"The Avion My Uncle Flew", by Cyrus Fisher (1947)
"Fog Magic", by Julia Sauer (1944)
"Rufus M.", by Eleanor Estes ('44)
"Blue Willow", by Doris Gates (1941)
"The Singing Tree", by Kate Seredy (1940)
"Mr. Popper's Penguins", by Richard and Florence Atwater (1939)
"ABC Bunny", by Wanda Gag (1934)
"Swift Rivers", by Cornelia Meigs (1933)
"Calico Bush", by Rachel Field (1932)
"Millions of Cats", by Wanda Gag (1929)
"The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles", by Padraic Colum (1922)


TODAY'S BOOK: "Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers", by Dav Pilkey ((c) 2003)

YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR TODAY: Leo - This is my sign and I'm giving myself a million dollars, so there ; Virgo - Your bank balance has inexplicably dropped sharply.

Labels: lists lists lists

Two hundred CC closed caption TV or not to be Hamlet little town Little House on the Prairie pioneers settlers settlement settled out of court judge Judment Day end of the world nukes newts amphibians amphibian vehicles cars trains smoke cannons siege starvation hunger empty stomach intestine intestinal fortitude courage "Ain't it the truth!" Say it ain't so Joe Joe the Plumber plumbing pipes piping hot steaming steam engine motor pool water wet willy Slick Willy president CEO in charge electric charge shock shocking amazing The Amazin' Mets David Wright Dudley Do-Right Mounties Rockies mountains high tall big Notorious BIG outlaw illegal confiscated locked up prison jail striped suit zebra horse mule stubborn pigheaded piggish greedy moneygrubber dollars cents two cents opinion pinion feather wing bird flip the bird curse filthy dirty bath shower rain storm lightning electricity lightbulb Edison inventor genius Mensa Man of La Mancha Don Quixote cuckoo cuckoo clock time hard time escape freedom free time vacation holiday Thanksgiving Indians India Mumbai hostages rescue Entebbe 1976 bicentennial two hundred.

TODAY'S BOOK: "How to Eat Fried Worms", by Thomas Rockwell ((c) 1973)

YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR TODAY: Gemini - Mars and Venus are in conjuction, and your wallet's in Las Vegas ; Sagittarius - That Cancer you ran into yesterday? He's on America's 10 Most Wanted.

Labels: free association

ThirtyTwo.com, a website for advanced snowboard footwear
The year 32 AD
32-bit computer architecture
WLKY.com, Louisville's news website, on channel 32
WeatherView32.com, peddling WV software
Route 32 of the Dulbin Bus
Activity ID No. 32, proposer information for the International Polar Year's website
32Poems.com, homepage of a poetry magazine
UltraEdit.com, for no apparent reason
The Watt-32 tcp/ip Homepage
OSHA.gov's 32nd Sampling & Analytical Method, "Phenol and Cresol"
32-bit Catalyst drivers, on GAME.AMD.com
The USAF's factsheet for the C-32 plane
Messier 32, a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy
Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory 2008-32
Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manuals
Section 32 of the Copyright Act of 1968
The Bochs IA-32 Emulator Project
Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 32, on Amazon.com
New Zealand beats England 32-22 in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup
Chicago's WFLD-TV FOX 32
NASA's STS-32
"32 Reportedly Trapped In China Coal Mine", 11/17/08
The ESO's Science Release 32/08
Installing Debugging Tools for the 32-bit Version of Windows
PL32.com, thus named for no apparent reason
Screen Print & Capture 32 3.5 from CNET's Download.com
"Coleman Campaign Questions 32 Ballots in Close Race With Franken", 11/19/08
The 32nd International Public ICANN Meeting
Title 32 of the US Code Collection: The National Guard
An article from TheStar.com, for no apparent reason
32 photographs of Antarctica on Boston.com

These were the top 32 results for a Google search for "32", and a pleasingly random selection it is too. Thank you and good day.
PS - Did you know that Google limits queries to 32 words? Bet they knew a good thing when they saw one.

TODAY'S BOOK: "The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery", by Jerry West ((c) 1961)

YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR TODAY: Gemini - If you don't send me $15,000 I shall tell everybody exactly what you did that night at Aunt Gertrude's house ; Capricorn - Hire the next person to walk through your door. Fire the next person to walk through your wall.

Labels: 32, random

Aaand, once again the UNCG blowfish photo has reverted its source page back to me on Google Images. When I was planning to write this post, it was still attributed to the Benjamin Chinn blog, yet I was still getting hits via searches for the word. In fact, a worrying large percentage of recent entry pages for GBFOS are the archive page containing the pic, or in other words Google Images searches for "blowfish"--45%, in fact. Only 18% are for the homepage, plus another 18 in total for Wieners screw ass. (my most and only successful "bait 'n' switch" post) and the keyword-heavy The last 30 days' etc. (no, you would not believe how many people google the word "boogers" and its attendant permutations and additions). Unfortunately, I can only guesstimate at this stuff because Google changed its algorithms or something, the upshot of which being that Sitemeter can no longer tell what words were fed into the search engine to raise images linking back here--and Google I. accounts for well over half my hits.

TODAY'S BOOK: "The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart", by Lawrence Block ((c) 1995)

New feature! It may be a regular, may be a semi-regular like the Website, may die a quick death. (Two signs at a time in the interest of brevity.)
YOUR HOROSCOPE FOR TODAY: Taurus - Buy somebody you love a chocolate ice cream cone and shoot their dog ; Pisces - Throw out that spinach in your fridge. Seriously.

Labels: the blog

High hoe! Time to revive this aspect of GBFOS and bring you another greatly random song, but with a twist--it's in Hebrew. Fear not, though, translation is provided by yours truly.
The first time I--and the rest of my family--heard this song, the whole car burst out with laughter after the very first verse...












"Yechezkel Ben Buzi/Sits in a Jacuzzi/And fires with an Uzi/In every direction
And his wife Tzipporah/Her mouth is like a sewer/She dances a Hora/Awfully
Very soon you will dance/The future is pink/The sons are in India/And the daughters in China What a fantasy/Soon will be Messiah/The forecaster promises/Snow and a heatwave

It's simply unthinkable/It's simply unthinkable
The country's going mad/And from this my heart bleeds
The country's under hypnosis/With no anaesthetic or narcotic
Give some Valium or Prozac/I feel bad, I'm fainting

Toto, Lotto, Payis/All of the homeless/Will clap their hands/They'll receive a million
Two thousand years have passed/Let's drink a "L'Chayim"/And meanwhile cast/An eye on Zion
The eye is viewing/The eye is crying/The eye is waiting/For the other eye
Let us all jump/Young forever/And in our heart a wound/And a fresh bruise

It's simply unthinkable/It's simply unthinkable
The country's going mad/And from this my heart bleeds
The country's under hypnosis/With no anaesthetic or narcotic
Give some Valium or Prozac/I feel bad, I'm fainting

The land of the panana/And the insanity/The land of the banana/And the red cherries
Soon's the Fast of Gedaliah/You'll all get a medallion/This is actuality/It's unacceptable"


TODAY'S BOOK: "For Mets Fans Only", by Rich Wolfe ((c) 2006)

TODAY'S WEBSITE: www.authentichistory.com/2000s/20010911/comics/01.html September 11th continues to be my biggest obsession of American History That Occurred In My Lifetime (partly because my uncle used to work at the WTC--he's fine). Here you'll find how 9/11 played out in comic books during that period.

Labels: song, translation

With no real country willing to base its embassy in the capital of Israel, Busiek places a superhero embassy in Jerusalem. (Trinity #23, Nov. '08 (I))

TODAY'S BOOK: "The Mad Scientists' Club", by Bertrand R. Brinley ((c) 1961)

Labels: picture

"Yawn... wstfgl... What time 's it? 3:00 AM... huh.
Boy I'm thirsty.
Yawn...
*pad pad pad pad*
Turnin' handle...
*sklrtch*
Huh? Wha's going on here? Th' cup's only half full. C'mon, you stupid faucet. *tug tug tu--*
GLOOSH!
Whoa! Hey! Oh, yuck, what is this stuff??? And--*sniff*--YEESH! What in the name of Marv Throneberry is that godawful smell?
BANG!
'Menachem Jerenberg?'
'Uh...'
'Menachem G. 'Mac' Jerenberg, of Nahal Dolev 46, Ramat Beit Shemesh?'
'Yeah, yeah, that's me. Who're you? What the heck's going on here?'
'This is the press. Sir, at 3:01 AM this morning, you, Menachem G. Jerenberg, used up the very last drop of water in the Kinneret.'
'What!!'
'The pipes have gone dry. The salination plants are all busted. There's pandemonium in the streets. And all because you took the last drop.'
'Oh my God!'
'Outta the way, Marty, it's my turn. You there, young man, what do you have to say for yourself?'
'Uh...'
'Remember the whole world is watching.'
'Yaagh! It's wasn't me! I swear it!'
'What's going on in there??'
'Sir, your son just personally emptied the Kinneret.'
'You gotta be kidding me.'
'Scout's honor. Can you give me a quote?'
'Um, "in this hour of need--"'
'Good enough. Hey, Al, you want a crack at him?'
'Sure, thanks. So kid, what made you do it? Drugs? Alcohol? General debilitative depravity?'
'Aaaaarghh!!!!'...
.
*pant pant* It was only a nightmare. Phew. Only a nightmare...
*knock knock knock*
Eep! 'Y-yes?'
'You okay in there? Only I heard you screaming a little.'
'No, I'm fine, Mom. Say... do we have any bottled water handy? I'm thirsty.'

TODAY'S BOOK: 'Obadiah Comes Fourteen', by Elizabeth Spring ((c) 1976)"
--148th post, 7/18/08

Labels: reprint

It is rare that I write a post like this. In fact it may be unique in the history of the blog. But I feel it has to be said.
Normally, I do not visit the website FanFiction.net. I tend to despise fanficton in general, and this website in particular, due to it being an ocean of mediocrity dotted with cesspools mainly of the Rule 34 variety. True, there are some islands of goodness here and there, but they're very small ones.
And then there is the shining beacon of supercompressed carbon called "Family". To summarize quickly, it's an Animaniacs-based fic that takes a look "behind the scenes" at the lives of the Warner siblings before, during and (at a later date) after the filming of the show. What the author does is take the concept of ToonTown from Who Framed Roger Rabbit and run with it, adding concepts of her own that will often make you blurt out "How did she think of that?", creating a world as detailed and real as your own neighborhood. While the language of the narration is frankly unadorned and pedestrian, what it lacks in style it makes up and substance, conveying in simple words the depression and the despair, the love and the laughter of the characters, whose backstory has to be read to be believed--and once you read it, you'll believe nothing else. The brain simply refuses to accept that it's all a work of fiction.
This story has the capacity to make you laugh and cry, sometimes at the same time, and regularly leaves me with a grin plastered on my face for hours after reading a chapter. Indeed, some plot points and twists continue to do so whenever I think about them. This is the work of a genius.
After first discovering it a few months back, it's safe to say that I'm completely addicted to it. When I first chanced upon it, I began reading mildly, as every other good fanfic I have read before and since was either too short or petered out before reaching completion. Then, after 15 minutes of nonstop amazement, I glanced at the vertical scrollbar to see how much farther this went... and it was only a fifth of the way down the page. And this, mind you, in a story that was already about 25 chapters long. So, when I saw that the author was still active when more chapters were added, my happiness knew no bounds. Each successive update has been a cause for celebration. So just imagine my joy when, along with the latest chapter, she has also begun a companion story called "Friends"--now I get to read double the awesome! In fact, when I saw it, I started to cheer out loud at the computer screen, and boy howdy was I lucky I was alone in the house because I was ecstatic.
And as if all this wasn't enough, how about some proof that you can have your cake and ice cream too: high-quality illustrations of different scenes and/or situations in the story found by total accident on DeviantArt.com (a website I detest even more than FF.net, because it's a visual medium, and--as I learned the hard way--there's no filtering for what I regard as objectionable content. When I access it, it's in the manner of a man about to swim in the biggest, most spectacular pool ever, except that there are schools of piranha inside, and he has no idea where they are. The idea is to tread carefully, and minimally. Which is a shame, because there really is some mind-blowingly good stuff hiding amid the dreck there). Follow the links in the journal of the author's DA account.
So hurry on over to the FF.net profile of The Middle Warner Sibling and read! Read! Read! I'd advise you to try and savor it at a pace of one chapter per day, except I know that you won't be able to control yourselves. In fact, I'll permanently add the "Family" story to my Links List (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3703685/1/Family). That's how good it is.
This has been an incoherent public service announcement. Thank you and good day.

Labels: something completely different

Well, the residents have won--not that it would have made an etymological difference with alternate results. Moshe Abutbul is mayor of Beit Shemesh, with 46.42% of the vote; Shalom Lerner ended up second out of three with 28.74%.
As if to add insult to injury, the paty I voted for for city council wound up missing getting in by a measly 15 votes.
This has not been a politically good year for me.

TODAY'S BOOK: "To Absent Friends", by Red Smith ((c) 1982)

TODAY'S WEBSITE: Obviously, this space is used to remove ShalomLerner.com from the list. What's the point?

Labels: empty-headed people

First time ever! Shalom Lerner F.T.W. hopefully. (That's my voting instructions I'm holding in front of the booth sign. I'm a noob at picture taking.)

TODAY'S BOOK: "The Hardy Boys #40: Mystery of the Desert Giant", by Franklin W. Dixon ((c) 1960)

Labels: biographical, photo

This was actually the first time I exploded over the Internet, but the anniversary is later than the last one--November 8th, to be exact, two years ago. No one specific incident triggered it, but the anger built up gradually, mainly centered around the point raised in the last paragraph. But it's all from the heart.

"I come from a small country that has a population that is smaller than New York City's, and every single day we are under attack. Rockets, arm-smuggling, kidnappings. And who is to blame for all this? Why, WE are, of course.

Never mind that there never was any such thing as a 'Palestinian'. Never mind that the term was invented in the 1960s and based on the ancient Roman name for Israel. Never mind that they have always rebuffed offers of statehood in favor of bloodbaths. Somehow, according to the rest of the world, we are the ones at fault here.

Even according to about half of us we're at fault. Until 1993, Israel's responses to terror was unequivocal and exacting. Entebbe, the Yom Kippur War, the Six-Day War. We always knew that the only good terrorist was a dead terrorist. Come '93 and--well, what do you know! Turns out those bigoted creeps from beyond the Green Line are actually a bunch of really swell guys, 'freedom fighters' all, just sticking up for the poor 'little guys' and desperate for a peaceful end to this COMPLETELY unwanted conflict. Terrorist? No, no, Yasser Arafat was never a terrorist! He was a freedom fighter, and now he's a pioneer of independence. (Cue applause track as the Nobel Piss Prizes* are given out.)

BULL****.

Rabin gave them Oslo. Netanyahu gave them Oslo II and Wye and Hebron**. Barak offered 98% of their demands including the Temple Mount. Sharon pulled out of Gaza and Northern Samaria. And all this can be summed up in the words of our current Prime Minister, Mr. Olmert: 'We are tired of fighting... [W]e are tired of winning.' None of this has been enough for the Arabs. They want Jewish blood, and failing that, they want their land. It's not OUR land, you understand. It never HAS been. And to get their point across, they are destroying all the Jewish antiquities they can find (including those on the Temple Mount itself), and educating their children that our presence here dates back only to the Ottoman Empire--that is, when they're not teaching math using equations like, 'If 1 bomb kills 3 Jews, and you kill 1/2 of a group of 12 Jews, how many bombs did you use?'

But the French and the Germans and the Irish and the Italians and the Russians and the Chinese and the Libyans and the Dis-United Nations say we mustn't grumble, because all of the Palestinians' demands are true and require honoring. And if they kidnap us and kill us and maim us, we still mustn't grumble, because they are merely freedom fighters, doing what all peaceful freedom fighters around the globe do. (Besides, we deserve it, uppity stiff-necked people that we are.) 'Terrorism'? NO, NO, NO! Mustn't use the T-word! Mustn't grumble too loudly else the oil-bearing Arabs might cut off our precious flow! Ahamdenijad [sic]--eh, he's full of hot air, just ignore him. Remember, Hitler was in power for only 12 years, and he didn't reach his goal of killing all of you, right? So all's well, eh? That's right! We're all happy chums now, just so long as you never mean it when you say 'We will not capitulate.'"

* When Arafat was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, one of the committee's members had the guts to resign in protest.
** Various "peace" agreements which, naturally, never panned out.


TODAY'S BOOK: "The Seventh Game: The 35 World Series That Have Gone the Distance", by Barry Levenson ((c) 2004)

TODAY'S WEBSITE: www.zootorah.com Rabbi Nosson Slifkin is one of the leading Jewish lights in the battle to show that science and religion are not irreconcilable. This is his website.

Labels: rant

Labels: left-handed people

These are the baseball cards I have in my collection that show Uniform Number 32. One Danny Gladden card gets displayed back and front to show the 3 and 2, one Dennis Martinez card has only the back displayed because you can't see the 32 on the front, and two cards (Andy Van Slyke and Benji Gil) have players other than the "focal" one with my favorite of numbers. (The Van Slyke card features Gene Lamont, but I don't know who's wearing it on the Gil card.) Plus eight team cards that you can see a 32 on somebody if you squint hard enough.

TODAY'S BOOK: "Thud!", by Terry Pratchett ((c) 2005)

Labels: 32, baseball, cards, picture

...16 movie DVDs, not including 12 TV season DVD collections.
...69 original (non-recorded) VHS movies, none rated above PG-13.
...2 computers.
...1 scanner and 1 fax, both in the same machine.
...18 books by Dick Francis, 7 books by Alistair MacLean, and 6 books by Dorothy Gilman.
...9 Harry Potter books and 6 Artemis Fowl books.
...4 subscriptions at the local library.
...26 socks.
...5 winter shirts.
...2 television sets, 1 not in use.
...2 windbreakers.
...1 jacket.
...3,000 Trivial Pursuit cards from 3 different sets.
...9 basketball cards.
...Lord knows how many baseball cards.
...6 Shabbos shirts.
...1 pair of Shabbos pants.
...6 Capitol Steps albums, 3 on cassette.
...2 remote controls.
...0 life.

TODAY'S BOOK: "The Celery Stalks at Midnight", by James Howe ((c) 1983)

Labels: biographical