Ed, ever walk down Mulberry Street?  I remember being told by a teacher in class that the Mulberry Street in the story is the one in Springfield.  Nowadays, I don't think you'd want to walk, run or even drive down Mulberry Street!  It's fun to see the Quadrangle have the "sculpture garden" of different Dr. Seuss characters.

Outside of that, not a whole lot to beam with pride in that area.  Downtown is just way to rundown now.

Just read a great series of kids books for boys called Ranger's Apprentice. Fun, good lead and supporting characters, action and adventure with none of the nonsense I've come to expect.

Like from Evil Genius and Genius Squad which I also just read. Both well written books with an engaging main character but me and the author of the Genius books just disagree too much on what boys should grow up to be. Not that she's wrong exactly as it pertains to her character, but that her definition of what it means to grow up to be a good man is vastly different from mine. Her opinion is as valid as mine, my only problem with it is that it is the dominant position (which I think comes down to a change in how kids read; parents - usually mothers - reading the books first and then deciding if they want their kids to read them) in kids publishing and it's hard to find an alternate viewpoint. Basically it boils down to her saying 'this is what a good man is', and me saying; 'no, that's not what a good man is, and while your lecture is cleverly disguised it remains a lecture aimed at boys and one that boys will not read when they realize it's a lecture.'

Though to clarify; her version is valid for some men. My problem is when people think that all boys should be like that version instead of using books to... mold boys into the best possible versions of themselves. If they're competitive show them how to use that competitiveness while stressing good manners and sportsmanship. If they're stubborn, show them how to use that in a positive way, don't tell them not to be stubborn (that really hits home with me, as someone who has been accused of stubbornness since I could walk. To me stubbornness is when you're wrong and you still won't admit it and give in. With me I was right, I knew I was right, usually my adversary - teacher, parent, brother, authority - knew I was right, and they still wanted me to admit I was wrong and give in. I don't consider that stubbornness, I consider that standing on principle. Stubbornly). And for gods sake stop hectoring them. Christ if every book meant for girls was a thinly disguised treatise on how to be a proper girl I have a feeling girls would stop reading too.

To be fair though, and to Don and his wife's point, after doing my research I've found there ARE books now being made for boys that do not lecture and would be appealing to boys, but I wonder if the intervening dry years has so salted the water that boys are unwilling to dive in for fear they'll float. It takes a long time to make a reputation, but it takes an even longer time to live that reputation down.

Ah, summer reading programs, always loved those. We lived a half block away from the town library so everyone we knew was in the same program. My last year the librarian put up a series of posters with ten planets and we'd have a rocketship cutout that would advance to the next planet when we read ten books. So to get to pluto we'd have to read 100 books in two months. They didn't expect anybody to do that but I saw that and just smiled. In the end I read over a hundred and twenty books, with the last twenty or so being adult books.

Lets all plan a Big Fat Gay...GET TOGETHER in NY this fall gang!!! Who's in???

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I'd love to visit NY again but it isn't a possibility now.

Lets all plan a Big Fat Gay...GET TOGETHER in NY this fall gang!!! Who's in???

Let's have it at Talley's house!