Angering Pet Lovers Everywhere

For the Love of Pigs
I continue to hold forth that PETA has no connection to reality. They especially don’t understand the crucial role of the farmer and his implements (animals) in bearing the burden of feeding the world. Most recently PETA is crying foul because a pig castration was performed as part of an agriculture class. Folks, that’s just life.

I suppose the class could’ve followed an Israeli zoo’s recent example. Zoo tenders put an over-fertile female giraffe on birth control last week because they simply have no more room. You can believe that wasn't cheap.

All Rodents & Insects Created Equal?
You know at some point you can take the whole animal rights thing way too far. I just wonder if PETA preaches against (love that A/P vernacular) exterminators. I mean, think about it. Technically, if you protest hunting and fishing but then have an exterminator spray your house/workplace with chemicals to basically “gas” any insects, you’re showing favoritism and preferential treatment to animals based on prejudices. So I think it would be hypocritical of PETA to protest extermination. In which case, I vote we capture all the little critters normally killed by exterminators and deliver them to the PETA headquarters so they can all live in one big happy world together.

Ninetyandnine Blogger Update

She's Back!
Our long-time friend and a pillar of the ninetyandnine community has returned for a month of blogging. That's right, Wendy is taking on the monthly guest blogger role! Be sure to check it out.

Hats off to the Bookfan/Fireman/Nurse/Nic Cage Look-Alike
We bid farewell to Stu and offer a kudos for a job well done. Stu returns to saving lives and campaigning for Curry 2008. Good luck!

September 11 and Books

Several months ago I pondered the effect of Hurricane Katrina on literature. My point was that it would only be natural that contemporary books reflect upon the storm since it so deeply impacted the lives of so many people. I expect that it will affect the writers of this generation the way the Great Depression and other major phenomena affected writers of yesteryear.

The Good Life
For some reason I never thought to apply that same logic to the September 11th terrorist attacks. Recently, however, NPR interviewed Jay McInerney, author of The Good Life. This new novel is set in Manhattan only days after the tragedy. The book is largely about the transformation that takes place in the lives of four New Yorkers in the aftermath of 9-11. This transformation, however, is demonstrated in the characters via an extramarital affair, leading to an exploration of the concept of “romance.”

How Good Is It?
I suppose it is the age-old “art mimics life” argument, but I am disappointed that the great transformation in the characters has to center around something Christian readers will judge as immoral. Couldn’t we explore the mental psyche of the characters just from their reflections and dialogue, or at least non-controversial moral actions?

The Sensitive Reader
That is an argument all its own. Suffice it to say, as a Christian reader, I find myself sensitive to certain content and so, based on the excerpt from the NPR article, I probably won’t get around to reading The Good Life. But I do wonder if this is an accurate reflection of post 9-11 transformations and if other 9-11 fiction reflects immorality as an outcome of 9-11’s aftermath?

In Summary
Either way this is a case in point that indeed 9-11 is becoming a setting, if not subject, of American contemporary fiction.

Other Related Articles
http://abbookman.com/ABBookman_F050704a.html

http://collectedmiscellany.com/archives/000117.php

http://www.ljhammond.com/phlit/2001-09b.htm

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras is wrapping up in New Orleans. Police on horseback will push crowds out of the French Quarter promptly at midnight. What can we say about Mardi Gras? Lewdness is the norm. Success will be measured by the amount of garbage collected (in tons).

The morality issue aside, this year was a newsworthy carnival because of the recent Katrina plight. An article in USAToday notes:

Crowds were smaller than in other years but still substantial, considering more than half the city's residents have not returned home since Katrina....

Revelers wore costumes poking fun at some of the hardships endured since Katrina left New Orleans sitting in floodwaters for weeks. People wore hats resembling storm-damaged, blue-tarped roofs; they drew dirty flood lines on their pants like those on the sides of thousands of homes, and one man wore a T-shirt that read, "The city where a day at the lake comes to you," referring to the levee breaches along Lake Pontchartrain.

Others celebrated a city on the mend: a member of the Zulu parade wore a T-shirt that read, "Katrina didn't wash away our spirit." There was a profusion of costumes from The Wizard of Oz; because of Dorothy's mantra, "There's no place like home."

Home or not, truly, there is no place like New Orleans.

Various pictures of Mardi Gras revelry; Source: USAToday and CBS News

Ninetyandnine News and Books

Ninetyandnine.com – Don’t Miss
A friendly public service reminder to make sure you caught last week’s “Nothing Can Compare to First-hand Experience in the Holy Land” on Ninetyandnine. Roy Fisher will be teaching a class in Israel. It’s very affordable and offers a once in a lifetime experience. Check out the full interview.

New on Ninetyandnine.com
This week’s Ninetyandnine issue features a wonderful article titled “Books You Should Have Read in School Had You Been Paying Attention.” I’ve actually read all but one of the reviewed books, and I echo Alison Andrews in that these classics deserve a second (or seventeenth) read.

Contemporary Book News
Speaking of books, Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is in hot water today. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who wrote The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in 1982 are suing Random House, Inc. on the grounds that Brown lifted major elements of his book from theirs. Fortunately plagiarism is taken seriously these days. However, ideas can’t be copyrighted, and I remember claiming that Brown’s premise is by no means original. We will see if London courts agree that there is no new thing under the sun….

Lundi Gras and Oatmeal

Throw Me Somethin' Mister
Well, it's Lundi Gras in Baton Rouge--that is, the day before Fat Tuesday. Schools and many businesses are closed as good Catholics (plus party lovers everywhere) gear up for their final fling before Lent. Baton Rouge actually only has one major parade, but New Orleans (less than 2 hours away) has been running various parades for days now. Everything has been affected by Katrina, but though the city is only a shell of its former self, it hasn't stopped the Mardi Gras tradition. And of course, the annual chicken chase in Mamou will go on as usual as revelers reenact an old tradition of going house to house asking for a chicken to put in the gumbo pot.

The Fun Rolls on at Work
Meanwhile for those of us still at work, the fun of breakfast awaits on this exciting Monday morning. Have you ever noticed that all oatmeal tastes the same? It doesn’t matter what flavor it is, it tastes like oatmeal. Forget all that “Spicy sugar cinnamon vanilla maple” stuff. It’s oatmeal. It doesn’t have a flavor. (Can you tell I’ve never been an oatmeal fan? I’ll have a ham & cheese omelet and a waffle myself.)

Fun with Oatmeal
However, oatmeal’s single redeeming quality is how much fun it is in the microwave. I kid you not. I make oatmeal just to see it erupt. I never got to do the “volcano” science fair project as a kid, so this is my grown-up way of wreaking the havoc I was denied in my childhood.

Revised Instructions for Oatmeal in the Microwave:
1. Dump 3 multi-flavored oatmeal packets into one small cup.
2. Document “before” shot.
3. Ignore instructions to add 2/3 cup water per packet and fill cup to just under brim.
4. Ignore instructions to microwave for 1-2 minutes. Set micro timer for 7 mins.
5. Just for fun, put a piece of aluminum foil in the corner of the microwave.
6. Push start and stand back. Far back.
7. Name the mutant creature that is created before your eyes.
8. Document the “after” shot.