Of Computers and Capitonyms

I was in my gmail account moments ago and went into my spam folder. At the very top of the window was a link to a recipe for spam "fajitas."

The Way We Live Now

This morning I was searching for web sites that provided solid background on Adolf Hitler. I found a biographical sketch on a British website by a company called Spartacus Educational. On the left side of the screen was a column of Google-generated ads. The top three were:

"Meet Jewish Singles."

"Earn a Political Science Degree."

"Get German Citizenship."

Oh, That'll Satisfy the Angry Mobs....

Goldman CEO bonus only $9 million in nod to public ire

Because $9 million is such a paltry sum....

Just ask someone who really understands money. Like Michael Steele.

Misleading Headline of the Week

Sarah Palin to Speak at Faulkner Dinner

Unfortunately it's just a benefit at an Alabama school called Faulkner University and not an academic conference on old Nobel-prize-winning Billy.

That's too bad. I was imagining the Q&A after the speech:

Question: "Does Benjy in The Sound and the Fury ever remind you of Trig?"

Answer: "Trig is beautiful and adored by us and I'm sure the Compsons felt the same way about their little blessing."

Question: "How many stream-of-consciousness novels by writers influenced by the French Symbolists have you read?"

Answer: "All of them."

After Long Silence....

Oy. It's been a month since I've blogged. That's a new record even for me. In my defense I've been busy with some Globe book reviews, and in my librarian life I've been taking a distance ed. class on archival materials that in terms of intellectual excitement is right up there with watching ice melt.

But speaking of library work, one of the things I'm supposed to keep up with are efforts to ban books. And I learned of one such campaign recently. It seems one of the good people of Culpeper County Virginia have successfully bullied, I mean persuaded, the spineless idiots, I mean officials, of the local school district to stop assigning the definitive edition of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl to their students. Apparently the definitive edition includes Anne's struggles with her own burgeoning sexual desires and even what this protesting parent called "homosexual themes."

I'll have to admit I'm shocked: a teenage girl confused about sex? And confiding her feelings to her diary? That never happens.

Nevertheless, I support this parent in her effort to keep the youth of Culpepper County unspotted from the world. By keeping that edition of Anne Frank's diary out of the schools, she saved the young from corrupting influences.

Because the movies never deal with teen sexuality. And I'm sure none of these kids have ever seen an episode of The L Word. Or Will and Grace.

Ever.