Best Kids Books Ever!

Nicholas Kristoff from The New York Times has a column today about what he considers to be the best kids books ever. Here are his top 10:

1. Charlotte's Web
2. The Hardy Boys series
3. Wind in the Willows
4. The Freddy the Pig series
5. The Alex Rider series
6. The Harry Potter series
7. Gentle Ben
8. Anne of Green Gables
9. The Dog Who Wouldn't Be
10. Little Lord Fauntleroy

Um. Ok. So Nick Kristoff is obviously in a whole different generation than me. While I appreciate the classics he has on here (who doesn't love Charlotte's Web?) I think he is really missing some crucial titles and authors....like....

1. Anything by Roald Dahl. My favorites are The Witches, Matilda, George and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The BFG. Wonderful imagination and storytelling and the most creative set of characters.


2. The Little House on the Prairie Series. How could Kristoff have missed these books! I had to read the whole series when I was in 4th grade and fell in love with them. Especially Laura Ingalls. I wanted to live in a log cabin in the woods and play with a blown up pigs bladder, eat smoked meat, and run around barefoot all summer.

3. Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson. This book was one of my favorites growing up. I even did a 20 minute long book report presentation on it...the longest in the class. I liked it's setting, mostly, which while it takes place in Maryland off of the Chesapeake Bay was a lot like Maine.

4. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. This book started my fascination with the stories of Jews during WWII. This book is about the evacuation of Jews from Denmark -- a country many of us don't think of when we look back at that time in history.

5. Holes by Louis Sachar. What a hilarious book! My friend Jill teaches this book in her 4th grade class and to this day I still like it. It was made into a pretty good movie, too, but read the book first!

What would your top five list look like?

iPhone hatred

I loved reading this piece in The New York Times today about why this woman hates her iPhone.

At 4 in the morning, I was in bed, fighting rage. I couldn’t stop thinking about that device’s tarty little face and those yapping “apps” you can download for it. The whole iPhone enterprise seemed to require so much attention, organization, explanation, praise, electricity. I know — I know: in the morning, Apple’s latest miracle machine would fill my palm with meaning and magic. So why couldn’t I contain my annoyance? I had no new-thing excitement. It dawned on me: I hated my iPhone.

I do not like the iPhone for many reasons.

1. I can't afford it or the phone plan.
2. I live in Maine where you have to be choosy about your carrier if you want to actually use your phone.
3. The fact that you can read The New York Times on it is cool if you have magnifying lenses attached to your eyeballs.
4. It looks like it's going to break easily.
5. With the way Apple works, a new one will come out every 6-months to a year. I can't keep up with technology.

I had my first cell phone for 4 years. It was a Samsung and my carrier was Sprint. The only reason I got a new one was because after dropping it a dozen times it was breaking. Other than that it worked fine.

Of course it didn't take photos, send text messages, or allow me to send emails. That was ok with me. I carry a small digital camera with me at all times anyway that has video capturing capabilities.

The more your cell phone can do for you the more you will rely on it. I have a friend who texts me constantly asking me silly questions. His phone is his crutch. He no longer has to make decisions for himself -- he can just text or twitter all his friends and they'll tell him what to buy, see, do. His phone is turning him into a robot.

I am on the computer all day long. Literally. The last thing I want to do is watch a video on my tiny little phone. Or read a book on it. Or play a game on it. IT'S TOO SMALL! My eyesight is deteriorating at it's own pace, thank you very much.

I have the most simplest cell phone out there. It still takes photos, but I don't use that feature. And I don't connect to the internet on it because it costs too much money. I am a creature who can sit still and observe and listen to what's around her. I don't need to be constantly entertained by an iPhone.

Photo by Kevin Van Aeist, NYT

Mapping out Unemployment

The New York Times has a nifty interactive map of unemployment rates in the country. A screen grab of the map is below but to get to the real one click here.

It really puts into perspective how hard hit some states are -- like Michigan, Alaska, Oregon, and California, for example. Mackinac County, located on the tip of that funny part of Michigan, seems to be the highest with a 24.2% unemployment rate. It looks like they should all move to the plains states like Kansas or to New Hampshire where the rates aren't nearly as bad.

How does your county fare?

Dating a Banker Anonymous

Have you heard about these girls? It's a group of girlfriends in NYC who have created a website to commiserate about how the economy is ruining their relationships with Wall Street bankers.

Are you or someone you love dating a banker? If so, we are here to support you through these difficult times. Dating A Banker Anonymous (DABA) is a safe place where women can come together – free from the scrutiny of feminists– and share their tearful tales of how the mortgage meltdown has affected their relationships. DABA Girls was started by two best friends whose relationships tanked with the economy. Not knowing what else to do, we did what frustrated but articulate girls have done since the beginning of time - we started a blog. So if your monthly Bergdorf’s allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life, lighten your heart with laughter and email your stories to dabagirls@gmail.com. Warning all stories sent will be infused with our own special brand of DABA Girl humor.

Good God.

The New York Times wrote a story on the clan, citing that the economic downturn only became real to them when their financial boyfriends started becoming depressed. Between you and me I think they realized there was an economic crisis when their boyfriends stopped giving them money to spend on Fifth Avenue stores.

Once it was seen as a blessing in certain circles to have a wealthy, powerful partner who would leave you alone with the credit card while he was busy brokering deals. Now, many Wall Street wives, girlfriends and, increasingly, exes, are living the curse of cutbacks in nanny hours and reservations at Masa or Megu. And that credit card? Canceled. -- NYT

If you click on the link to the story above you'll see an Editor's Note in italics at the end of the first page. It seems that the reporter, Ravi Somaiya, didn't "find out" that the group was less of a support system and more of a fun way to bitch about their Wall Street relationships. I think Somaiya got caught up in the ridiculousness of it all and WANTED the girls to be more credible than they are. Hopefully Somaiya learned a lesson in skepticism. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

“We put two and two together and figured out that it was the economy, not us,” Ms. Petrus recalled at a recent meeting in the lobby bar of the Bowery Hotel. “When guys in banking are going through this, they can’t handle a relationship.”(She and her boyfriend split up last year; he declined to discuss it.)

Many of the women said that as the economic crisis struck last fall, they began tracking the markets during the day to predict the moods that the men they loved might be in later. On big news days, like when the first proposed government bailout failed in Congress, or when Lehman went belly-up, they knew that plans to see their partners would be put off.

Thank GOD it's the economy that is ruining their relationships and not these obviously thoughtful, insightful, and caring ladies.

NYT photo by Rob Bennett

College isn't grade school....

....you don't get an A for effort.

This New York Times article couldn't have been written at a better time. I was just talking with a fellow adjunct professor about the entitlement, lack of ownership, and sheer laziness college students have these days. I don't know if it's my age (I graduated college in 2000) or my upbringing, but these kids seem to think that professors OWE them good grades just for putting in the minimum amount of effort.

In my book, a minimum amount of effort is a C. Anyone can get a C if they show up to class and pay attention more than half the time. Half of my current class blatantly didn't follow instructions on an assignment and I still gave them a C-. I should have failed them but I didn't have the heart.

Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

He attributes those complaints to his students’ sense of entitlement.

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.” - From The New York Times

I earned every single A i got in college and grad school by hard work and going above and beyond what was expected of me. College kids seem to think they start a class with an A and work their way down when, really, they need to work their way up.

I teach an undergraduate journalism class and frequently have my students write stories on deadline, which is by the end of class. I know this is stressful -- I went through the same thing in college -- but it's practice. It's the real world. One of my students complained that my comment of "blah" on a particularly cliche sentence hurt her feelings. If I had shown her some of the comments my professors and editors had given me maybe she would have felt lucky to have only gotten a "blah."

College students these days are being sent out into the world with no clue as to what it holds for them. They believe that putting in a lot of effort merits a good grade. And while I take hard work and progress into account, it doesn't matter if they work all semester on a story about the effect the economy has on small area businesses if I asked them to cover a local high school basketball game.

I love teaching on the college level, but I'm frequently frustrated. This article gave me some interesting insight into a group of people I'm trying hard to understand.

Susan Collins shakes things up...

Oh Susan Collins! How I can't wait for our interview in your kitchen on Thursday. There is so much I want to ask you.

This article in The New York Times about Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe was a joy to read. These ladies have a tough job. First, they are Republicans in liberal New England. Second, they're women in a world dominated by men. Lastly, they are voting outside of their party lines for a bill they both strongly believe it, a vote that is making them extremely popular with the Democrats and extremely unpopular with the Republicans.

The two Maine senators acknowledged that some of their Republican cohorts might be disenchanted. But they say they are simply doing what the pragmatic and independent people of Maine sent them to Washington to do.

“This crisis is extraordinary, and my constituents don’t expect me to stay on the sidelines,” said Ms. Collins, a onetime Senate aide who easily won re-election last November in a terrible year for Republicans elsewhere. “They expect me to jump in. People don’t want us to be the party that says no, just no.”

Susan Collins was the only Republican I voted for in September. I like her because she doesn't do what is popular with the rest of her party. She does what she believes is best for the people she represents.

It also reflects the political reality that the nature of a Republican from Maine, a state where President Obama received almost 58 percent of the vote, is much different from that of the conservative Southern and Western lawmakers who constitute much of the rest of the Senate Republican side.

“I think it is safe to say that Republicans in the Northeast are not exactly the same as Republicans in the Deep South,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

The fact that she is not afraid to vote outside of party lines and to voice her opinion shows her true Maine roots. Thank goodness we have someone in Washington who is ready and willing to cross party lines if it's in the interest of their constituents. Whether I agree with this economic stimulus package or not (I haven't decided yet) Collins' hard work and determination to work on a team to solve this crisis makes her my hero. We need more people to cross the line and extend a hand in the other direction...even if it makes other people angry.

NYT Photo by Doug Mills

Annoying Nuptials

Every Sunday the New York Times posts a video on their website about a couple profiled in their Weddings section. It's no secret that the couples profiled in the Times are privledged in some way. And since I find most overly privledged people out of touch with reality, their wedding videos are particularly annoying.

This one takes the cake.

Everything had been great except for that black silk shirt he was wearing. To Ms. Griffin, an interior designer who lives and works in Harlem, it looked like something guys wore when “Miami Vice” was popular. She hated it and wasn’t shy in telling him. Oh yes, and then there was that bit at the end of the evening when her fear of commitment got the better of her and she said they should just be friends.

Still, she was disappointed when he left right after that on a sailing trip, and didn’t call.

She offends the guy by ridiculing his clothes, tells him that they should just be friends, and then is surprised when he doesn't call?

Really?

If you watch the video (and you should if you enjoy laughing at people) you'll find the 40-something Elaine Griffin to be as annoying as a 20-something at the mall with her parents credit cards. If I could have reached into the screen on my laptop I would have smacked her.

Common Sense

Thank God the new leader of the free world has some common sense! A little quip from the New York Times story...

WASHINGTON — President Obama announced on Wednesday a salary cap of $500,000 for top executives at companies that receive the largest amounts of money under the $700 billion federal bailout, calling the step an expression not only of fairness but of “basic common sense.”

The entire article is a good read and you can find it here.

It's straight forward, no nonsense talk like this that makes me feel good about my citizenship....FINALLY! A leader who not only gets down to business, doesn't handle top execs with kid gloves, and doesn't make up words when he speaks. Refreshing.

What Mimi Saw

If you haven't checked out 2008: The Year in Pictures from The New York Times you are missing out. They're amazing. Here are two of my favorites:

Francophiles Beware...

Smoking bans have made it to France and it's causing havoc for French bars and cafes, owners say. Telling the French they can't smoke while drinking their coffee is like telling a hippie to cut their hair. French cafes are supposed to be smoky! That's the allure, right? Here's a quip from the New York Times article:

Daniel Perrey, 57, owner of the Café du Crucifix in Crimolois, blamed social change, saying: “Sadly, it is the end to a way of life. The culture is changing, and we feel it.”

People are drinking less, smoking less and spending less, and even those who drink are newly wary of the local police, who now hover near the bar, especially at night, to test the sobriety of drivers. President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked the police to crack down on drunken drivers.

Granted I have never been to France. But my idea of Paris includes little cafes where women French inhale their cigarettes through their bright red lipstick covered lips while wearing a beret and drinking a latte. It seems, though, that the culture is changing and so too will my romantic perception of the entire country.

Secrets of Stretching

I read, in awe, this article on the New York Times website today. Here's a tidbit from the story:

If you’re like most of us, you were taught the importance of warm-up exercises back in grade school, and you’ve likely continued with pretty much the same routine ever since. Science, however, has moved on. Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them.

Seriously? I vividly remember our high school field hockey stretching routine. We'd run a lap and all sit down facing the goal and stretch. Our arms, our legs, our butts, everything! Same goes for every other sport I ever played.

I have recently been going back to the gym. Winters in New England are notoriously long. When the sun sets at 4:30 pm my mamalian body says it's time to go to bed. Exercising literally keeps me awake. I guess I'll only be stretching after my workout from now on.