Towards A Virtual Williamsburg!

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally Posted by Not Bob

You are awesome. And you have nice hair. Thank you.

Apropos of Nothing, I plan on using Mr. Grimm's line to my idiot cousin-in-law at Thanksgiving dinner when he talks about abolishing the FDIC, SEC, OSHA and the Fed:

“Enlightened self-interest” is a goddamn oxymoron
Used by lazy-thinking douchebags to be narcissistic pricks

(That being said, I think that the poor dude wrote the song because he got dumped by the girl "from the gritty streets of the northshore burbs." Been there, amigo. Been there. I still have emotional scars from being (politely, bien sur, but still) shot down by a Betty Draperesque Tri-Delt at the Rathskeller during a Bucket of Rocks happy hour.)

Mr. Grimm is an old friend, and I cannot recommend his new album strongly enough.

Seriously. Go buy it.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

It's not important (anymore). It's an unrelenting horrorshow without even gallows humor to redeem it. I guess it's interesting as an example of writing a book about one thing only to have your readership mistake it as a book about a different thing. But we already had the Bible for that.

Still, if you read it as a kid there are scenes you never forget.

It's also a good read for learning what a shit-show the immigrant experience could be.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

"Sure, every generation to read it up 'til now it mistook it for a book about food handling practices, but I just know the workers' revolution is just around the corner."

That's part of the lesson from the book. As Upton Sinclair said, "I meant to hit America in the head and I hit it in the stomach." Or words to that effect.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Still, if you read it as a kid there are scenes you never forget.

This is true, but is equally a reason not to read it.

It's also a good read for learning what a shit-show the immigrant experience could be.

My great-grandfather brought his family from Ireland then dropped dead in a copper mine within two years. I turned out fine. Those Ukrainians need to nut up and wade back into the pickling brine.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

This is true, but is equally a reason not to read it.

No doubt. But it does say something about the writing, no?

My great-grandfather brought his family from Ireland then dropped dead in a copper mine within two years. I turned out fine. Those Ukrainians need to nut up and wade back into the pickling brine.

Seriously, don't you think there is some benefit to having kids/teens understand just how hard people worked to build what we have today? I make all new associates read The Jungle, so when they whine about working late I can say things like "here, let me rub your ears for you and see if they snap off."

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Seriously, don't you think there is some benefit to having kids/teens understand just how hard people worked to build what we have today? I make all new associates read The Jungle, so when they whine about working late I can say things like "here, let me rub your ears for you and see if they snap off."

I thought the question was whether Ty should read it. I read it in high school history class, and I suppose I have only a weak objection to it being taught there since it was indisputably influential on historic events. But I think it has been surpassed as fiction and I have some hesitation about using fiction in a history class. But I'm also opposed to presidents appearing in SNL sketches and news anchors doing cameos in films as themselves, so I recognize I've got a stick up my ass about mixing fact and literary "truth."

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Here's an interesting piece on race and Obama (that you will do your damnest to explain away):

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/op...P_DRA_20131118

TM

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally Posted by Sidd Finch

Seriously, don't you think there is some benefit to having kids/teens understand just how hard people worked to build what we have today? I make all new associates read The Jungle, so when they whine about working late I can say things like "here, let me rub your ears for you and see if they snap off."

I bet an average day working for you is like getting mugged.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall

Here's an interesting piece on race and Obama (that you will do your damnest to explain away):

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/op...P_DRA_20131118

Interesting. After the 2008 election I saw a heat map of counties where Obama/Biden's vote share was lower than Kerry/Edwards's. It doesn't measure the portion of the GOP hate solely attributable to race, but it convinced me that there were in fact people who would never bring themselves to vote a black man into the White House, no matter what they claimed in exit polls.

That, and Chris Matthews pointed out in a local radio interview that Obama was everything the GOP claimed it wanted for black youth (no criminal record, college, marriage, kids) and they STILL hate his guts. Whites at the same place on the political spectrum are more readily accepted by the right. To be liked as a black man, you need to be a Clarence Thomas, an Allen West, a Thomas Sowell — an extremist ideologue — before you're considered safe to them.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

I thought the question was whether Ty should read it. I read it in high school history class, and I suppose I have only a weak objection to it being taught there since it was indisputably influential on historic events. But I think it has been surpassed as fiction and I have some hesitation about using fiction in a history class. But I'm also opposed to presidents appearing in SNL sketches and news anchors doing cameos in films as themselves, so I recognize I've got a stick up my ass about mixing fact and literary "truth."

I haven't heard Ty whining about work, so I don't think he should read it. Also, Ty prefers more serious tome-like novels. So, if that's the question, the answer is "no."

As for the rest of your post, I will only say that the number of sticks up your ass would likely make a deluxe Lincoln Log set. I say this in a friendly and caring way.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Hank Chinaski

I bet an average day working for you is like getting mugged.

People used to compare it to anal rape, so I'm improving. I got that goin' for me.

[Sidd Finch]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

Interesting. After the 2008 election I saw a heat map of counties where Obama/Biden's vote share was lower than Kerry/Edwards's. It doesn't measure the portion of the GOP hate solely attributable to race, but it convinced me that there were in fact people who would never bring themselves to vote a black man into the White House, no matter what they claimed in exit polls.

Maybe they were just lazy. Sometimes it's more comfortable to vote for a guy who has the same color skin.

[Greedy,Greedy,Greedy]

Originally Posted by Atticus Grinch

To be liked as a black man, you need to be a Clarence Thomas, an Allen West, a Thomas Sowell — an extremist ideologue — before you're considered safe to them.

You think the average Tea Party Republican actually LIKES those guys.

If you're looking for a black guy a tea partier likes, think about the caddy who just says Yes, Sir when listening to their diatribes about the burdens of being a well off white guy.

[LessinSF]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

Curious -- why did you decide to read that book? I thought it was important, but nothing I've ever heard made me want to spend time with it.

There were three categories of English language books available at an Albanian bookstore: (1) airport bestsellers; (2) vampire books; and (3) classics. I don't read the first two, so I tried to find some things more palatable to me than Tolstoy, Bronte, Dickens or Livy. I also picked up Gulliver's Travels and the Complete Collection of Sherlock Holmes (Part 1) because I had never read those either.

[Replaced_Texan]

Holy fuck. France may actually pull this off.

Call off the riots.