Amy, whatever happened with the barbecue wafting into your place?

I was trying to find reviews for an obscure edition of Gulliver's Travels (I don't know why I bothered; if there's no extra keyword in the TITLE, you likely won't find any reviews related to that edition - in Goodreads, anyway).

And then I found this. Keep in mind, when you read her last sentence, that the book was published in 1726.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24240825-gulliver-s-travels

Lori:
"Oh man.

"This book was sheer torture.

"The writing was dry and bland and boring.

"Swift had some really interesting ideas - An island of people no larger than your finger. Another island with people that are 60 feet tall. A floating island, an island of scientists, the island of Yahoos...but the execution was hard to appreciate.

"I came very close to putting this novel down many many times.

"I admit to not being a fan of early, victorian literature, but this was just painful."

And, from Calista (talk about being too lazy to Google):

"...the first two parts are interesting. Starting in Part 3, things get very slow and somewhat miserable. Jonathan is a wonderful writer and that is something, but it was miserable trying to get through the end. I can't believe I got through this as a kid.

"By the time we were in the land of the Houyhnhnms and he was describing the hair around their beasts anus and their utters, I was just done. It was horrible. The end became a torture. I was so glad to be done with this book. I'm surprised I don't give it a lower star.

"I know this is supposed to be satire, but I don't know what was happening back in the 1700s enough to get the references. I can't really enjoy the satire.

"One thing, I will never read this book again. If anyone asks. If you know European history and love Satire, then you might enjoy this book. All others should read the first two parts and put the book down.

"The last two parts would be a good torture devise for someone you don't like. Just make them listen to it."

It feels like most every woke person is capable of this.

When Gulliver's Travels was published (1726), the novel, as a form of English literature, was less than 50 years old. Prior to that, travelogues were the most popular form of English literature - even if mostly full of made up nonsense - like Gulliver's Travels.

That said, we really are becoming an ignorant nation, as the reviews and comments Lenona provided attest.

Some would argue to dismiss such errors as mere typos, but to see them day in and day out in social media posts and in comments reminds one that our public education system no longer educates, no longer inculcates students with a consistent standard for written communication.

To watch the cashier at the local market struggle with making change when you throw her a curve and add currency after she's rung up the order is to realize that our high school graduates are being sent into the world ill-prepared, despite the diploma telling them they are prepared and ready to take on life's challenges. We are not doing them any service with social promotion and low expectations.

A society that loses its words loses the ability to think at a higher level, to express higher ideals. It loses the ability to aspire to higher things, to dream. We are in danger of becoming that lost society as we not only accept, but laud, lower standards and mediocre results.

All the more reason to do what writer Amy Dacyczyn did when she and her Navy husband were raising six kids in the 1990s; they firmly taught, with actions rather than words, that useful activities were typically more fulfilling and happiness-inducing than useless activities, and that less is more. Quote, from 1993:

"...the 'excess' problem is not just toys. The average kid spends more than 4 hours parked in front of a TV each day...they (also) have an unlimited supply of video movies and games. As a result of all this stuff and stimulation, kids regard overload as a normal condition. Anything less...a walk in the woods, making cookies, or sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher...is boring. In contrast, using a concept I call 'creative deprivation,' is, in my view, a healthier way to raise children...saving money is NOT the main reason. I just feel there's nothing sadder than a jaded 8-year-old...if you limit passive entertainment, kids eventually get beyond the boredom and begin to be creative...Lao Tzu wrote: 'Guard the senses/And life is ever full.../Always be busy/And life is beyond hope.' "

Of course, since she's the author of The Complete Tightwad Gazette, she made sure her kids grew up with a good grasp of math - and made a game of it whenever they went yard-saling. And, from the same year:

"...consider that useful hobbies can either be fun or boring, just as frivolous hobbies can be fun or boring. When most of us have such busy, compressed lives, why not choose hobbies that are both fun and useful? For example, why do we think assembling scale-model airplanes is more fun than tinkering with broken toasters? Why is hitting the malls America's #1 pastime while yard-saling remains the sole province of the frugal minority?"

And, as she pointed out, useless hobbies typically cost money, time and energy, while useful hobbies can easily SAVE you money. (Even daily walks can lower not just your medical bills, but your clothing bills, after all.)
__________________________________

To watch the cashier at the local market struggle with making change when you throw her a curve and add currency after she's rung up the order
___________________________________

Since cashiers, understandably, tend to move fast, I learned long ago (pre-pandemic, when I always used cash) to hand them the nickels and pennies BEFORE handing them the $20 bill. That way, they seldom make mistakes. Occasionally, they might ask "why are you giving me these coins?" The answer is, I need quarters for laundry. I suppose, even pre-pandemic, most customers would just take home any small coins they got and put them in a coin jar - and then lose whatever the fee is when they brought the jar back to the supermarket!

Oh, yes, not to mention - parents need to read aloud books of THEIR choosing at least half the time. That way, not only will the parents be less likely to think of reading aloud as a chore, but the books will likely be truly CHALLENGING to the listeners' brains!

After all, candy does not lead to a love of vegetables, and letting preteens wallow in hours of screen time or trashy comics just because they finished their day's work won't help them to like school any better. (Or even gym, for that matter, if they get no exercise at home!)

we really are becoming an ignorant nation
_______________________________

I HOPE, at least, that the real problem is the relatively new insecurity among the young, caused by the Internet. As in: "better to flaunt my ignorance online and get laughed at than not to say anything online at all." So the level of public ignorance gets exaggerated.

In other words, in the past, it's likely that far more people followed the following advice without even knowing the exact quotation: "better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt."

No, Twain apparently didn't say that. More here:

https://www.npr.org/2017/04/04/522581148/hemingway-didnt-say-that-and-neither-did-twain-or-kafka

I should have said "the RISE in the level of public ignorance gets exaggerated."

I should have said "the RISE in the level of public ignorance gets exaggerated."

Do you want to build a snow man?

https://mobile.twitter.com/RoonKolos/status/1345239666446970881

Here's some snow and here's an Octopus.

Put 'em together and what do you get?

…This blog comment!

About the blanket octopus - wow. I can't believe the fashion industry - or Disney, for that matter - hasn't already found a way to make use of it!

For that matter, why don't marine biologists use it to promote interest in marine life in children?

Canada looking more like East Germany every day:

https://mobile.twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1345413604787544066

"Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood insists he is not insane after tweeting that Mike Pence should face execution by firing squad."

https://sports.yahoo.com/pro-trump-lawyer-lin-wood-123415836.html

"Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood insists he is not insane after tweeting that Mike Pence should face execution by firing squad." ~ Lenona at January 3, 2021 10:46 AM

Why is that a Yahoo! Sports article? What does it have to do with sports?

Yes, it's weird. I was going to say, at first, that maybe Yahoo dumps all its Lifestyle articles and frivolous articles under the sports banner, but this is clearly not a laughing matter.

Jeez, I can't believe I forgot to mention THIS great review...

From Kalliope, March 15, 2014:

"...The introduction in my edition by Michael Foot was almost as funny. For Foot surveys the history of the reaction to Swift’s book, from its immediate huge success and popularity during the Enlightenment to the deprecating opinion shared by many, but not all (John Keats was one of the exceptions), in puritanical Victorian times. They were affronted by the shameful indecency their own minds projected onto Swift’s lines.

"Some of the quotes from Victorian responses made me laugh as heartily as Swift’s words.

.. a monster, gibbering shrieks and gnashing imprecations against mankind – tearing down all shreds of modesty, past all sense of manliness and shame; filthy in word, filthy in thought, furious, raging, obscene.

"His rehabilitation started during WW1, beginning with a lecture in Cambridge in 1917. Gulliver’s attacks on war and the idiocies of nationalism would have met welcoming ears in that university hall. Some rejection still lingered for a while and surprisingly both George Orwell and Aldous Huxley were highly critical of Swift.

"Nowadays, many aspects of this book appeal strongly to our more cynical and detached age. What we have now is filtered by the Disney Cartoons and The Economist has chosen Gulliver as the title to its Travel Section. And of course, the company Yahoo also got its name from the most detestable of Swift’s characters..."

Looks like our Goddess has a sister in the UK:

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/fashion-beauty/make-up-artist-dresses-ballgowns-23251746?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

"To watch the cashier at the local market struggle with making change when you throw her a curve and add currency after she's rung up the order"

In all fairness, I, too, struggle with doing math quickly on the spot. When I worked as a cashier, I always dreaded moments like these. I knew how to make change just fine with or without the register's automatic calculations, but if I'd already started the process and a person was like, "Ah, I found this extra coin" and added it on, I had to be like, "OK...just a minute...." and start counting under my breath. If the person got impatient with me and eye-rolly and tried doing the math for me, well... I'd get flustered.

But math illiteracy is a problem, I agree. The other day, at work, I had to explain to a coworker (in her 40s) that there's a difference between saying "60% of women do ABC" and "60% of those who do ABC are women."

> our public education system
> no longer educates

It always did okay with people who wanted to learn, and who were capable of learning in schools.

One early lesson of 2020 was that much of the work of a typical classroom was babysitting. Kids with the candlepower and supportive homes did just fine at 60 - 90 minutes of Zoom instruction per day, with the rest of their time productively spent in other worldly investigations.

> why don't marine biologists use
> it to promote interest

Halitrephes Jelly.

Sea Angel.

We've all heard, by now, I assume, of the 22-year-old Miya Ponsetto attacking a black teenager for HIS phone, claiming it was hers, without evidence? Plus, maybe, about her past DUI and so on?

I found this at The Root - and I thought "wow, I hadn't thought of that."

lacking: "...(she) thought that someone stole her phone to... do what with it? It’s not like you can pick up someone else’s phone and just magically have a shiny new phone. There’s passwords and thumbprints and facial recognition... Did she think that someone was just ------- with her and hiding her phone?"

crouching tiger: "She was probably committing crimes with her phone. Otherwise, why be so worried? Occam's Razor and all..."

soybeanarson2: "Yeah when I worked in the hotel industry I witnessed this as a strategy by thieves first hand. Claim theft and demand so see someone else’s phone then walk/run away the moment its in their hands. More often walk because they knew once they had it it would be pretty hard to get anyone with authority to force them to show the phone when the victim claimed it was theirs (Luckily we had witnesses that allowed security to get the authority to search the thief a couple times this happened, but others got away with it because they noped out smoothly once they had the phone in hand). That’s why the hotel managers reaction confused the ---- out of me. I had that job in VERY similar circumstances and the number one thing you don’t do is what he did. You DONT empower crazy."

Also, the music in the Halitrephes is the least obnoxious in the last 5,000-7,000 video clips we've seen on the internet. Unobtrusive, melodic, evocative... It deserves special mention. People almost *always* bungle the music.

And here's a cute dog. You just know that the tail, though bobbed, is going to be wagging furiously.