Thursday, September 27, 2007

Jumping the Shark

I'm just minding my own business, doing one of my favorite activities, cruising around the 'net, looking at the wealth of educational materials for my girls. Today I'm looking specifically at reading material. Haven't been at Scholastic's site in a while; go to check it out. See nothing but Democratic presidential candidates on their front page in one of their flash pictures. Have flashbacks to when I discovered that Dorling Kindersley had John Kerry on the cover of their U.S. Presidents book. Getting a Bad Feeling about Scholastic. Decide to go over to the Scholastic Store anyway. See The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming by Laurie David and Cambria Gordon. Okay, it's official. Scholastic has Jumped the Shark. I mean, Laurie David, who helped produce An Overblown Inconvenient Truth! Who got busted by Newsbusters when she pushed her, you know, very, you know, important book on the Today Show. Who lives in a huge house in Martha's Vineyard (language warning for the sensitive). Check here for some good humor by Jules Crittenden to get a good laugh, if you need it.

Aww, Scholastic kid reporters covered the Democratic debate on MSNBC. Wonder if they're going to cover any Republican debates? (crickets chirping) Holy cow, the questions and answers are so freakin' ridiculous! I really think you ought to go read for yourself. Okay, these are kids, and school is one of their biggest concerns right now, but someone ought to tell them that the federal government ought to get *out* of schools! Personally, I think we ought to vote for Mike Gravel. He says, and I quote: "I will end wars and you will have a world in peace. I will end the whole problem we have with the environment. We are cooking ourselves off the planet, and we've got to solve that problem now and we cannot do it with the leadership we have." Gee, can you also fix everyone's eyesight without that bothersome Lasik surgery, cure cancer and give everyone in the U.S. a flying car while you're at it, please?

I'm thinking of writing my own children's books. There's too much slop out there right now. Anyone want to join me?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Preach it, sister!!! John Kerry on the cover of a book about Presidents? If you hadn't said anything else, I'd NEVER think of having anything by Scholastic in my home again, but the other stuff just is more amazing!!! How in there world do half of the people in the world sleep at night? Aren't you glad we have heaven to look forward to?

Barb the Evil Genius said...

Actually, the John Kerry thing was a Dorling Kindersley thing. It was not on the book in real life, but it was on the book cover shown on the website, which they have since fixed after complaints were lodged. I imagine the paste-up guys probably put that together in anticipation and it accidentally got put online.

I guess we could say DK are the British children's books for the Democratic Party, and Scholastic is the American children's book publisher for the Democratic party.

Des_Moines_Girl said...

"Gee, can you also fix everyone's eyesight without that bothersome Lasik surgery, cure cancer and give everyone in the U.S. a flying car while you're at it, please?"

HA! While we're making a wish list can I add bigger boobs, a smaller butt and a larger bank account? ;-)

Darling Daughter doesn't have any text books yet - soooo looking forward to that some day. Her kindergarten class, however, made "Pinwheels for Peace" to place out front of the school. I would dearly love to know what the talking points in the lesson were for that one.

Gino A Melone said...

Ahem. I must take exception to this wishlist: "HA! While we're making a wish list can I add bigger boobs, a smaller butt and a larger bank account? ;-)"

I have no problem with the other items, but I must protest this ongoing effort by women to eliminate proper rear-ends. Its not supposed to be flat. It is supposed to, er, protrude.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Barb. I'm the one who checked in at Debbie's blog. And I see you're an Ohio gal as well. Found her via Sniz, and I see Miss Sniz's tracks are here too. Tight circle, blogland.
Blessings,
~Toni~

Barbara Frank said...

I stopped going to the Scholastic warehouse sales when I couldn't find enough books not linked to licensed tv show characters (despite the incentive of everything being half-price).

Speaking of wishlists, did you hear that Hillary Clinton wants to give each baby born in the US $5,000? If that's not considered buying votes, what is?

Have a great day,
Barb

Rick said...

I want reparations. I shouldn't suffer the loss of $5,000 just because I was born before Hilary thought she would become president.

That would be $20,000 for my family, thank you very much.

Barb, Scholastic has been a problem for over a decade now.

silvermine said...

I often think I should write kids books, just to counteract the giant piles of nonsense out there right now. But I can't draw. ;)

I can't believe those horrible candidate interviews. The answers seem to be written at a 3-years old's level. And not a very smart 3 year old either. (NCLB makes me feel bad! And kids feel bad! It is bad! See Jane cry. Cry Jane, Cry!)