Don't read this

This week is the American Library Association's 23rd annual Banned Books Week. Every year during the last week of September, the ALA reminds people about the dangers of censorship, and encourages everyone to read books that some people would rather destroy. In an age when world's largest country has "only 'healthy' news on the Web", it's always helpful to have a reminder of what censorship can lead to.

Because I'm such a helpful person, here are my top 10 suggestions (in no particular order) on how you can celebrate Banned Books Week:

• Go to the ALA's official Banned Books Week website to learn more. I especially liked the World War II era poster about Nazi book burning.
  
• Learn about the history of censorship and read some Banned Books Online at this excellent web exhibit, hosted by U. Penn's awesome Online Books Page.
  
• Read "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. What could be more appropriate than a banned book about banning books?
• Read Aristophanes' Lysistrata, Chaucer's The Miller's Tale, or Voltaire's Candide. Realize that your ancestors were perverts.
  
• Read Fanny Hill by John Cleland, and marvel at the terrible glory of 18th Century porn.
• Let Harry Potter turn you to the dark side: go join a real Satanic cult, and see how many times you can use words like "Muggle" and "Death-Eater" before they kick the crap out of you. For bonus points, ask them to show you a Cruciatus Curse and see what happens.
• Read anything by James Joyce and see if you can figure out what the hell he's talking about.
  
• Find an online edition of Gray's Anatomy and skip ahead to the naughty bits.
• Find the people who put Where's Waldo at #88 (just below Howard Stern!) on the ALA's list of 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books. Laugh and poke them with a stick.
• Find the people who put Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, Madeline L'engle, Shel Silverstein, Aldous Huxley, Roald Dahl, and Harper Lee (among many, many others) on that same list. Feel a great swell of pity for them.
  

Follow the leader

A very quick post - I just thought this needed to be shared with the world. I'd love to know where they found that picture of Tony Blair.

All good things

The Frau and I watched Gremlins the other night. I hadn't seen it all the way through since I was a kid, and it was actually better than I'd remembered. Gremlins has Steven Spielberg, wacky inventors, brave comic-book-loving teenagers, synthesizer music, fake Chinese folklore and Corey Feldman. It's the perfect 80s movie.

While going through some old bookmarks on my computer the other day, I stumbled across a great but long-forgotten website: ape-o-naut, a tribute to famous monkeys, which sadly seems to be down at the moment. However, it was working before, and it had a link to The Most Beautiful Thing I Have Ever Seen.

I also found a link to the usually-entertaining Encyclopedia Obscura, which apparently hasn't been updated in about a year. I really need to clean out my bookmarks file more often. Anyway, as a special welcome-home gift to the Marmoset, I am here posting the entry on a personal old-school favorite of ours: the NES version of Superman. It is required reading for all lovers of bad video games.

Finally, in a weirdly touching news story, the Bosnian city of Mostar is building a monument to symolize ethnic unity and the common humanity of all mankind. A noble idea anywhere in the world, and doubly so in a place like Bosnia. And what, you might ask, is this symbol that the people of Mostar can all get behind and be proud of? None other than 1970s Kung-Fu movie god Bruce Lee.

The organization sponsoring the monument said, "At a time when politics and ethnic ideology have occupied and poisoned everyday life, we want to show that there are true values that have nothing to do with politics." Truer words were never spoken. No matter who you are, where you live, or what you believe in, one thing unites us all: Bruce Lee could have kicked your ass.

Waffle me this

Yes, it's true. Your Marmoset has been overseas, basking in the European goodness. In the course of my travels, I made my way to Brussels, Belgium, where I experienced a culinary delight: the actually-Belgian waffle.

Should you find yourself in Brussels, staring at the famous peeing child fountain, take a left and buy a waffle at the first wafflery on your right. Touristy? Yes. The greatest waffle of all time? Also yes.















Our dear reader might also be interested to experience a bit of German-language-based hilarity. Your word of the day is:

Wafflewerfenwaffen

Which translates into "Waffle throwing weapons." As you can imagine, this proved useful several times in the course of a one-day trip to Belgium, and our threats to employ said weapon had the Flemish bellowing for mercy.

Tune in later, to learn about fun with the Dutch language. Dutch: like German, only even more whimsical and ridiculous sounding.

Godspeed, Mail Carrier

So I got a postcard from the Marmoset in Germany yesterday, addressed to "Scoobert P. Johnson", one of the many idiotic nicknames he has cursed me with over the years. This was very nice of him to do, but it also raises a strange question. After we got married, it was weeks before the Post Office stopped losing mail addressed to the Frau by her new married name. However, they apparently know me as Scoobert Johnson. The Postal Service is a strange creature.

The Marmoset should be back in this country tomorrow, barring any of the freak accidents of bad luck that seem to haunt him recently.

In other news, I have no other news.