Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

One-third of American high schoolers think the First Amendment goes "too far" and only one-half think newspapers should be allowed to publish without governmental approval, according to an AP news article. Three-quarters believe it's illegal to burn the flag. (CNN)

Ye gods. And we all already knew they didn't think too highly of the copyright provisions in the actual Constitution either.

Random quotes. . .

scrawled on bits of paper and found on the bookshelves this weekend:

A Postmortem Guide
by Stephen Dunn

Tell them I had second chances.
I knew joy.
I was burned by books early
and kept sidling up to the flames.

And

Literature annuls the borders drawn on maps, and also the borders that cut through our consciousness. Literature builds a bridge to one's other self, the alienated self. It throws us together. It turns us into accomplices. It evokes empathy in us.

--Gunter Grass

And

the suspicion or shiver of intimation

--J. Crowley

And

Henry James' most basic assumption: "life is in essence consciousness and interpretation, not action" and the fight for commercial advantage.

--Stephen Metcalf

And

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: The only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

--George Orwell

A publishing house in Maryland, PublishAmerica, is taking heat for presenting itself as a traditional publishing house while it acts as a vanity press. A group of science fiction and fantasy writers deliberately wrote a bad novel and had it published by PublishAmerica as part of a sting operation. The second chapter from the novel is available on Making Light; my favorite example of bad writing is, of course, the use of "y'all" as singular.

In which I am still so easily amused

Calvin and Hobbes snow goons! Real ones inspired by Bill Watterson's! (Scroll down, you don't have to register.) Via The Bookshelves of Doom.

Sports on Sunday

I am so easily amused. The concluding chapter in Love and Hate in Jamestown is concerned with John Smith's unsuccessful attempts to return to the New World and all that he wrote and foresaw about how things would progress there. While we don't recall much about the man these days, the founding fathers' generation regarded him as a distinctively American hero: "resourceful, of humble origins and high achievement, inclined toward action rather than reflection, peaceable when possible, warlike when necessary." His common sense, his "ardent and active genius," were praised in both biographies of Smith himself, and histories and biographies of others. He offered to come over on the Mayflower, but the Separatists opted to take Smith's books and maps and engage Miles Standish as their military leader instead.

But the reason I am easily amused. King James, of course, disliked religious nonconformity in general and the Puritans in particular. David Prices writes: "What the Puritans sought went beyond freedom of conscience in the modern sense; a number of their disagreements with Anglicanism reached into the civic sphere of English life, including their opposition to theater and to the custom of playing sports on Sundays."

Sports on Sundays in the 1600s? Who knew? Man, the more things change. . .

"In 1618, King James overruled local Puritan magistrates who attempted to ban Sabbath day sports. 'When shall the common people have leave to exercise,' he demanded, 'if not upon Sundays and holidays, seeing they must apply their labour, and win their living, in all working days?' "

Oh. People played sports in the 1600s instead of watching it on TV. Man, things have changed dramatically since then.

So. Who do you think the Puritans would have rooted for in the Super Bowl?

My hold on Frankland came in and I picked it up yesterday on my way out to dinner with C. and A. Here's an article about James Whorton, Jr., in the Baltimore City Paper (via Bookslut). His earlier book, Approximately Heaven, sounds interesting, too.

I'm going to wait to read this review of Joy Comes in the Morning until after I've read the book. Sigh. My February tbr pile is growing larger and larger. Must. read. faster.

Also, very interesting review by Greg Easterbrook that explores both the pros and cons of Jared Diamond's latest, Collapse, as well as his earlier Guns, Germs and Steel. One of these days. . .

In fact, everything in the "Sunday Book Review" this week appeals to me. Must. read. much. much. faster.

Another book meme. (Shelly's Book Shelf)

1. We've all heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Have you ever picked up a book based solely on the title or the picture on the cover?

I bought Penelope Lively’s Spiderweb solely because of the cover. I still love this Richard Maury painting.

2. Along the same lines, do you ever look at whichever book someone else is reading in public or whatnot, and based on that make a snap judgment about their character or literary taste?

Truthfully, I don’t run across too many people reading in public since I live in the South where everyone generally travels by car instead of public transportation. Even doctors’ offices aren’t good places to spy on people’s reading choices because most people either glue their eyes to the TV or read the magazines provided in the office.

Someone once made a snap judgment about my character because of what I was reading out in public. My daughter and I were at the doctor’s office, waiting for her to get an allergy shot, and I was reading a book on the history of witchcraft in Europe (not a how-to-manual by any means). The woman next to me was clearly upset to find herself next to such a wicked woman and kept trying to edge her chair away from me. I thought R. was going to have hysterics.

3. Do you buy books online? If so, where is your favorite place to find them?

Online, offline, I would mainline them if I could. But I’m trying to keep from buying many at all this year, so I’m not spending anymore time answering this question.

4. From someone who's had more than her fair share of library fines... what is the largest late fee you've ever incurred at a library for returning a book past the due date? Have you ever borrowed a book from a library and never returned it?

I have no idea. Library privileges are cut off completely when fines reach $10, and I’ve reached that number many times. After I found a library discard of an E.C. Spykman book in a library book sale several years ago I deliberately checked out the remaining two Spykmans in the library and the fourth Spykman from the library in the next county (I signed up to get a library card there for just that purpose) and then declared I’d lost them all. I no longer go to such lengths since I can find out-of-print books online.


5. What is the first book that you can remember reading by yourself as a child?

Green Eggs and Ham. I still have my original copy.