Category / Bill Bickel

by CIDU Bill

OT, but worth noting

Yesterday, I happened to read something Norman Vincent Peale wrote in 1957 for Look magazine, regarding school boards banning books like Huckleberry Finn “because of inappropriate language and ideas” (yes, as far back as 1957).

He referred to “the peculiar notion that all ideas in fiction must be good,” and predicted that in the future “supernervous boards might drop Merchant of Venice or the Bible because some characters are depicted unsympathetically or in a way that some people might find disturbing [we’ve already gone there, of course]. If children’s minds are to be shielded from conflict and social change, it might be better to keep them away from reading entirely.”

by CIDU Bill

Frazz Math

jan28 frazz point and actually his ninth

Okay, if Random-Child-Who-Isn’t-Caulfield is eight, then this is his ninth spring melt-off.

Though actually, based on what Frazz is saying about the first two years of his life, seventh actually is accurate.

Though since Frazz doesn’t mention The Diaper Years to confirm Random-Child-Who-Isn’t-Caulfield’s use of “seventh,” why is he even mentioning it? And what is the alleged point that Random-Child-Who-Isn’t-Caulfield is allegedly ignoring?

by CIDU Bill

Synchronicity

First of all, I want to stress this is a systemic issue, nothing to do with anybody in particular…

I’ve been getting a lot of Synchronicity submissions lately. A lot. And since they’re by far the most time-consuming submissions, I just can’t keep up and most of them sit unread for far too long, which isn’t fair to everybody sending them in.

So… I’m not going to ask people not to send them anymore, merely to confine them to the truly extraordinary: same-day similarities that defy logic.

It remains open season for everything else, and I thank you for all your support.