Banned Books Week, September 23-30, 2006

These are a few of the challenged books I've read and enjoyed:

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain


• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling


• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle


• In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak


• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes


• Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

DON'T JOIN THE BOOK BURNERS

Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book, as long as any document does not offend our own ideas of decency. That should be the only censorship.

How will we defeat communism unless we know what it is, what it teaches, and why does it have such an appeal for men, why are so many people swearing allegiance to it? It's almost a religion, albeit one of the nether regions.

And we have got to fight it with something better, not try to conceal the thinking of our own people. They are part of America. And even if they think ideas that are contrary to ours, their right to say them, their right to record them, and their right to have them at places where they're accessible to others is unquestioned, or it's not America.

—Dwight David Eisenhower

From the remarks of the President of the United States at the Dartmouth College Commencement, June 14, 1953. Courtesy of Dartmouth College Library.

This quote by Eisenhower reminded me of the book-burning episode of The Waltons.

44 New Things #12 - High Desert Museum

Yesterday, I made my first visit to Bend, OR. I spent most of the day at the High Desert Museum south of Bend.

The outdoor grounds of the museum had many cute ground squirrels and chipmonks. According to the museum signs, this is a ground squirrel - the local chipmonks have a stripe across their eyes. I was surprised at the number of ponderosa pines at the museum - when I thought of a desert museum in eastern Oregon I pictured sagebrush and more bushes than trees. This desert reminded me of the area around Spokane.

They were very entertaining - much better than most of the exhibit animals - there was a sleeping otter, a rather sad-looking porcupine, and a few frogs and snakes. There was an attractive lynx that I didn't get a picture of and they have a very nice birds of prey exhibit.

Overall, the natural history part of the museum didn't impress me very much, especially compared to the desert museum I am more familiar with - the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. I was much more interested in their history exhibits - the Robbins homestead reminded me of my great-grandparents first homestead in Washington (except theirs had a mother-in-law suite (lean-to) attached). They also had interesting exhibits on the history of the US Forest Service, the history of the plateau Indian tribes, one on trappers & immigrants, and one on maps of the Pacific Northwest after Lewis & Clark.

Scattered on the grounds are a number of artworks - this horse & foal made of barbed wire was my favorite. It reminded me of a few of Deborah Butterfield's works.

Overall, a very nice museum I enjoyed visiting.

44 New Things #11 - Read a graphic novel

I just finished reading my first graphic novel - Alison Bechdel's memoir Fun Home. The "fun home" in question is the funeral home her dad ran while she was growing up. The focus of the memoir is the intertwined stories of Alison's coming out as a lesbian in college and then learning her dad is a closeted gay man, a few months before his death. I really enjoyed it.

I first read about it in this Powell's author interview with Alison Bechdel and Craig Thompson, another graphic novelist. I'll definitely be checking out his novel Blankets next.

TV I'm enjoying on DVD

First up is Mulberry, a British import. I saw a couple of episodes a number of years ago on PBS. It's finally out on DVD so I can enjoy the whole series. It's a little slow to start (it's not until episode 5 that you find out the real reason Mulberry has gone to work for the elderly curmudgeon, Miss Farnaby) but is a charming comedy.

I missed the first season of Numb3rs, the show about two brothers, a math genius and an FBI agent, and am glad to get caught up. The relationship between the two brothers (and their father, played by Judd Hirsch) is great, and the mysteries are interesting.

I don't get Showtime, so I didn't see Penn & Teller: Bullshit! until recently, when I finally got around to watching the DVDs. I like their skeptical look at various scams and frauds. Not for those who don't like a lot of bad language.

I've been enjoying all of these shows with my Netflix membership. I like just getting the DVDs in the mail and having a queue I can reorder at any time.

What I'm currently watching: my favorite TV shows

I do watch a fair amount of TV and I'd like to celebrate some of my favorites that are currently on the air:

Project Runway on Bravo is my favorite reality show. Would-be fashion designers competing for fame and glory and a place at Fashion Week. Tim Gunn makes the show as the mentor - I never miss Tim's Take, his weekly blog and podcast. Television Without Pity recaps each episode in a nicely snarky fashion and Blogging Project Runway keeps up with bloggers' takes and other news related to the show.

I'm also a fan of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. I have a geek crush on Jamie Hyneman and his walrus moustache (he's smart, too!).

Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on BBCAmerica is another favorite. Gordon Ramsey is a British celebrity chef; in this series he goes into failing restaurants and tries to turn them around. His brutal honesty is great. I'm also a fan of Cash in the Attic and Bargain Hunt on BBCAmerica.

I'm b-a-a-a-c-k!

Haven't posted for a while - work was a real bear while I was working on the budget. Having completed that, I'm feeling really good and am ready to think about things besides numbers.

I did manage a week's vacation in July (spent it camping with my cousins & sister and a few days with my folks on their farm). I love visiting them in the summer - the weather is always great and I love seeing my cousins. Of course, I also like visiting them in the fall - the weather may not be as good, but the apples are ripe.