Pollyanna Rainbow Sunshine and the Needles of Doom

Lyda here.

This article got my attention. Shesh! Junie B. Jones - she’s hysterical! And yes, grammatically incorrect and all the rest she is accused of. (Oh, I just ended a sentence with a preposition - come get me!!) Junie’s appeal lies as much in her flaws as in her virtues. Ain’t it the true for all of us? 

I find it weird that these people get so upset about grammar when there are so many other, more sinister things to be upset about.

Besides, have they listened to our president? (I mean his grammar, I’m not even talking about his name-calling.) Or seen I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER ? Or watched TV lately?

Who decided that Paris Hilton is a role model and Junie B. isn’t?

I’ll take Junie B. any day, ya’ll.

And she’s in good company. On the ALA’s The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books list for 1990-2000, I find so many of my dear friends. (And yes, that’s 1990, not 1890.)

Harry Potter is here, of course. And my ol’ buddy Huck Finn is still getting in trouble. (I can’t imagine Samuel Clemens would want it any other way.)

Also on the list: Judy Blume. Maya Angelou. J.D. Salinger. R.L. Stine. Robert Cormier. How dare they write about kids as if they are human beings? How dare they expose our deepest fears and darkest longings? How dare they challenge readers to think and, perhaps, even dream?

HOW DARE THEY WRITE THE TRUTH!

Jean M. Auel????!!!! Madeleine L’Engle????!!!! I know I am a delicate flower of the South, but now I have to smack someone. Hand me my parasol, ya’ll.

And seriously, how can you object to “The Night Kitchen”????

Oh right, nudity, heavens!

“According to ALA, at least 42 of the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century have been the target of ban attempts.” 

I’m proud to say that I have read many of these books. It’s horrifying to think that the so-called PATRIOT Act has been used to subpeona library patron records. [Watch "V for Vendetta", and see if it doesn't give you chills of recognition.]

Think I’ll go to the library this weekend and check out some of these books I missed. Why wait until Banned Books Week (Sept. 29-October 6)?

Ya’ll wanna come with?

I was wandering the web and found this knit blog: Sarah’s Threads. She has a journal part, which is a blog, and also a craft part with projects and stuff. She knits, she crochets, she spins, she cross-stitches… It is apparently not safe to leave fiber of any kind in her general vicinity because she will turn it into something cool right before your eyes. Be warned. Also, I like her site because she has lots of unfinished projects. ’Cause I don’t want to be all alone in my unfinishedness… Not that I am but still, the more the merrier here in Incomplete Project Land. (And she’s got a cute toddler and two adorable dogs, so there are bonus cute photos.)

I have also (and long overdue, sorry about that, Jane!) added a link to Jane’s Jots. Yes, the very Jane of the Bumpy Scarf and its pattern fame. Ya’ll go leave her a comment or two. Okay, Jane, you’re famous now. Go write more posts! (”Pollyanna Annoys Fellow Knitters, Gets Stabbed by dpns - film at 11.”)

Of course, ya’ll know that I’ve been stalking Laurie aka Crazy Aunt Purl since this whole thing started. She was my first stalk on the Inner-netting, ya’ll. I became obsessed and read her entire blog, from the beginning to present day, in about a week and a half. Not at work, though. Really. (Go buy her book. It’s okay, I’ll wait. You know she’d buy yours.) The other Pollyanna actually met Laurie, but I’m waiting for the restraining order to expire   bidding my time. Some day I’m going to be in LA on a Wednesday night and I’ll surprise her at her Bitch ‘n Stitch. Or else I’ll lure her into Orange County. Oh Laurie! We’ve got cashmere!

Marin aka AntiM was my second cyber-stalking victim. ‘Course, she lives on the other side of that mountain range so she’s safe from in-person stalking. (Stupid pointy mountains!)

And I love Red’s blog. And Frank’s. And Franklin’s, which he shares with Delores who is a sheep after my own heart and spangles [go buy something from his shop, it's awesome!]. And…

So, do you have a blog? Do you have a favorite that we don’t have on our blogroll?