Paper Books - a DANGER to Children!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I'm rather surprised that I managed both to reach adulthood and to grow taller than Zelda. She can't have read more than I did.

i don't know... i probably could at least have tied you. i was notorious at my library when i was a child.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by DTM

What we're making fun of is the very thing that you agree is ridiculous.

... When the real concern is that a few children still go outdoors to read and play in the sunshine and fresh air. Both are known causes of good health and good social interactions with other children, yet a very few parents continue to take the risk and encourage their children to play outdoors. Luckily, most children are kept indoors under the warm benign glow of a television set.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i don't know... i probably could at least have tied you. i was notorious at my library when i was a child.

I was notorious at the school library also, for being a monkey. Me and my friend (who would kill me if I used her name here) would shimmy up to the top of the stacks and stretch out to read Nancy Drew Mysteries and talk about boys. Scared the librarians poopless whenever they caught us up there, but we were hard to find once we got up that high, so it was a pretty safe hiding place. They either had to spot us going up or down, or hear us giggling. Ah, the trips we made to the Principal's office for punishments. Good times!

[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.

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.

[pshrynk]

Originally Posted by rebarnmom

Bookarexia/Bookalemia: a newly catagorized disease (eating disorder) for those who consume vast quantities of books... literally.

(I'm sure someone can come up with a better, technically accurate word or name for this than I.)

It's called pica, and applies to all sorts of things, books included.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Justy

Wow, I can see this having some lasting fallout as the ramifications become more widely known.

I would say the primary fallout is that more people who have embraced everything green in their politics without critical circumspection will find themselves subject to well deserved ridicule.

Which is as it should be, and which will not be deflected by dodging or changing the subject.

[rebarnmom]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

It's called pica, and applies to all sorts of things, books included.

Somehow, I knew you might have the correct term for this!
It's interesting to note that the other definition of the word deals with the size of print. "She has pica for consuming books with a pica of nine."

Maybe that can be the next Thursday's Word of the Week Wetdogeared!
Well, except that we've already talked about the definition.

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by rebarnmom

Somehow, I knew you might have the correct term for this!
It's interesting to note that the other definition of the word deals with the size of print. "She has pica for consuming books with a pica of nine."

Maybe that can be the next Thursday's Word of the Week Wetdogeared!
Well, except that we've already talked about the definition.

I'm keeping notes.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by rebarnmom

Somehow, I knew you might have the correct term for this!
It's interesting to note that the other definition of the word deals with the size of print. "She has pica for consuming books with a pica of nine."

Maybe that can be the next Thursday's Word of the Week Wetdogeared!
Well, except that we've already talked about the definition.

She has pica for picaresque novels, in Pica 9, illustrated by Picasso, to be consumed with picalilli."

[DTM]

Originally Posted by Patricia

She has pica for picaresque novels, in Pica 9, illustrated by Picasso, to be consumed with picalilli."

But "piccallili" has two "c"s. (I hope you don't mind my picayune criticism.)

[ProDigit]

perhaps they will need to change the glue and round off the corners in books!
And make fluffy cover editions as well!

[Taccy]

"get back, he's got an uncertified book"
"It's OK folks, my mistake, it's not a book, it's just a gun"

How can a country have rules where guns are OK, but reading books could be dangerous.

Are there any recorded deaths from reading? (excluding Umberto Eco, and black fingers)

[Patricia]

The composer and pianist Charles-Valentin Alkan supposedly died as a result of reaching for a tall book on the upper shelf of a large book-case which collapsed on him.

But recent research suggests that it was actually a heavy coat-stand.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Valentin_Alkan
(So remember to screw large items of furniture to the wall.)

[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...

[desertgrandma]

[QUOTE=Sweetpea;350064]

Originally Posted by Patricia

Ah.


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...

Yeah, well. Spend time in a Kindergarden room and you'll be all for these kids washing their hands more often!!! Apparently, no one is teaching them to wash after using the restroom, and its okay to take food with you........ICK ICK!!!
Luckily, the restroom is in the room itself, so we can monitor........