tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11628754.post100055525401737285..comments2024-03-29T09:09:45.490-04:00Comments on Fat in Indiana: Books, Books, BooksJoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17269114655802698386noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11628754.post-78414072433589049242011-03-10T22:56:49.579-05:002011-03-10T22:56:49.579-05:00I have a trove of 4 books I'm reading concurre...I have a trove of 4 books I'm reading concurrently, "Smart Kids, Bad Schools," "Angry Parents, Failing Schools," "The Conspiracy of Ignorance," and "From Crayons to Condoms." I have a goody number of people around me, including one school board member, who think what Mr. Bennett is doing with vouchers and diminishing the power of the teachers' union is horrible, that the schools are wonderful the way they are.<br /><br />Funny, these people thought the schools were terrible when Bush or Reagan were in. And all my adult life I've heard from the media, from people in business, from my time in the Army, the same broken record that Johnny can't Read and Suzy can't add, and we're passing dummies through an attendance party. Misspelled resumes, business e-mails with the spelling and grammar of a 4th grader. But now someone has the gumption to grab the third rail of school reform, AAAAA!<br /><br />I was run through the parochial school system with excellent results for me and my classmates, so I can't say from experience what public school is, except from the people I meet. I don't say a word until I have knowledge, so I'm arming myself with one fact bullet in the magazine at a time. I'm a competitive bastard, even if it's sitting by the grill discussing schools.<br /><br />But yeah I have the same thing with getting hooked on an author and running through his book-ography. Eugene Izzi was getting very bad with sick violence (he was doing more asides about atrocities than keeping the story going) before he hung himself, Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker trilogy just got more and more strange, but Tom Robbins and PJ O'Rourke keep on keepin' on, dependable as a Timex, and all you have to say they have new work out and I buy it site unseen, so to speak. All of Bill Zehme's bios were great, and I am very disappointed his "Carson the Magnificent" never came out.<br /><br />My next read for fun will be "Two Years Before the Mast," another classic from the mid 1800's. I last read it when I was in my teens. I have "My Year in Iraq" by Ambassador Paul Bremer on CD in the car. I cannot inhale enough books about the war, for I'm no longer nearly pinning every vet I run into and pumping him for information.mts1http://mts1.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11628754.post-37869181619416222692011-03-10T21:06:18.952-05:002011-03-10T21:06:18.952-05:00Just finished 'Eleanor and Franklin' by Na...Just finished 'Eleanor and Franklin' by Nash. Now reading his book of her letters.Jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02099808690177823190noreply@blogger.com