Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, but first I need more coffee.
This picture was taken in 1987. When I was stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS, I went to the BX and there in the lobby was full sized cutout photo of Ronald Reagan. And they were taking pictures of you with it for 5 bucks. It was taken after Labor Day because I was wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt I’d bought at Disney World in Sept.. I was 23 when this pic was taken.
This is so totally airwolf. Watch this slideshow with audio presentation, We are all just monkeys. Sometimes you see and hear something that so totally hits the nail on the head no commentary is necessary. I’m jealous.
I just finished reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma and so far I’ve learned American’s are indeed Children of the Corn, Carbon-13 based life-forms, or walking corn chips. Maize has a special ability to absorb more carbon-13 isotope than other plants. Corn pervades our entire food chain from the high fructose corn syrup in our soft drinks to our corn-fed hamburgers.
Because of Corn’s ability to metabolize Carbon-13 it leaves an unmistakeable, mass-spectrometer fingerprint over our entire food chain in the US. Anyway, read the book. I will continue to remain an omnivore, though the book certainly explains why some people go vegan.
Just watched this talk given by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms. His farm and philosophy were covered extensively in The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
I have a traditional view of comic books. Comic books are for kids. And are a good way to get them to read. I read comic books when I was a kid and I grew out of them. I have expressed this opinion on numerous occasions and I get dirty looks from adult readers of comic books. Then they ask me what I read? I’d say DC comics. And they would say “Oh, well that explains everything.” I get the same response from Christians who ask me what I was raised as when I tell them I’m no longer a Christian. I’d say I was raised Catholic and they would invariably respond “Oh, well that explains everything.” Other than annoying me it explains nothing and all it does is reinforce my opinion of both groups.
I’ll save my comments about religion for another blog entry, so back to comics. I lived to read the Sunday comics in the newspaper. I’d read them everyday in the newspaper. I’d get newspapers from my grandmother and aunt who had comics that weren’t in our local newspaper. I watched Saturday morning cartoons when they were only on Saturday. I still watch animated cartoons. My current favorites are SpongeBob and Angry Beavers.
So why don’t I still read comic books then? I outgrew them. I think that response is what annoys the adult comic book fans. I have an exception rule. There are certain genres and kinds of foods I don’t like, but I’ll make an exception if they are really good. I have read a few X-Men compilations. I’ll watch a horror film if it’s really good. I’ll eat chocolate cake or ham if it’s really good as well as Tex Mex. Yeah, I’m a snob when it comes to certain things. I’ll watch mysteries and westerns but not read them. I’ll read the ocasional mystery. I’ll even watch comic books that were turned into movies.
There are just some things I won’t invest too much effort or time in. I don’t expect comic book fans to like other genres or medias. So it bothers me when they say I haven’t read the right comic. That may be true, but I’m not interested. So what prompted me to write this blog entry?
I read an article on the Christian Science Monitor website about graphic novels. Graphic novels are book length comic books. And how it was getting tweens to read more. Tweens are pre-teen children 8-12. And you know what, that is the perfect demographic for comic books. That’s when I read them. It was about the sixth grade when I discovered book science fiction and started my transition to the books.
It’s not about what to read or what format to read. It’s about reading. It’s getting kids to read. So there.
Tweens curl up with graphic novels.
I was reading about The Republican War on Science, a book I’m likely to read. I was reminded of a talk that Feynman gave now preserved in a book. He said that science was irrelevant. Unfortunately, I have to agree. How else could we let this war on science be winning? He said that we allow it to be irrelevant. Unfortunately it is very relevant, but everywhere it is has become highly politicized. Things like the conclusion from climate research that man is responsible for global warming; Embryonic stem cell research; food safety; the overprescription of antibiotics, bird flu and other pandemic threats. The list goes one.
In a talk that Feynman gave at the Galileo Symposium in Italy in 1964, he captures this aspect of scientific ignorance in his unique way. “I want to answer the question as to why people can remain so woefully ignorant and not get into difficulties in modern society. The answer is that science is irrelevant. And I will explain what I mean just in a minute. It isn’t that it has to be, but that we let it be irrelevant to society.” [source: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, Perseus Publishing]
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