[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

it's just amazing the human race has survived as long as it has. my god, when i think of the exposure to paper books i had in large quantities *every* *day* when i was a child !! that's probably why i didn't grow any taller, i'm sure. it's just a miracle i'm not dead.

Originally Posted by Patricia

Ah. Now I went there to read (and to get away from home for a bit, but that's another story). After I finished the school library and the local branch library's stock of children's books I was allowed to go to the main library in the town centre. There I first made the acquaintance of Arthur Conan Doyle, Dickens, and Baroness Orczy, at the age of about 9.

At our local library, I was only allowed to bring 3 books home, so I had to go there every week. So, when my (2 year) older brother went the big library in town I just had to go with him. And we were allowed to bring 6 books home with us! I'm not sure I ever really seen the juvenile department of that library though... (I must have been 10 or 11).

We never could understand our little brother, who never read a book unless it was for school...

Originally Posted by Patricia

It will be a great pity if this American law puts children off literacy. I'm also sorry for all the very small businesses and local craftspeople, who can't afford to have their goods tested.

That's one part those legislators never think off.

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

I'm keeping notes.

Not on paper, I hope? You'll never know if it will contain lead... Or maybe the ink you use contains it...




But this reminds me of a piece I once read in an American magazine. It was about kids, washing their hands with bacterial killing soap. It turned out those kids got sick more often than kids that didn't always wash their hands before dinner after playing outside, and especially not with bacterial killing soap.

Living in a sterile environment isn't always healthy, especially as most of the environment you live in, isn't sterile by a long shot...