I was going to read Santorum's "Letters to Gabriel," which deals with the same subject — the death of a baby — that Alan Colmes crudely mocked the other day. But not only is there no Kindle version, it's only available as a $130 hardcover book or a $192 audiobook. By the way, it has a Foreword by Mother Teresa.
Looking on to other works by Karen Santorum, I saw that "Good Manners" book, which sells for a reasonable $16.50, but unfortunately is not available for Kindle. I love the idea of teaching children manners. (Maybe if Rick Santorum wins the presidency, Karen — as First Lady — would make teaching manners her special issue. Michelle Obama gets away with insinuating that our kids are fat, so it would be fine, I'm thinking, for Karen Santorum to insinuate that are kids are rude. Or would that be rude?)
But what's with Joe Paterno writing the foreword? I know, Pennsylvania. It just seems so bizarre now.
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69 comments:
So a book published in 2003 should be vilified in 2011 because of the foreword? How ridiculous can you get?
This kind of review upsets me:
I bought this book as a bedtime storybook for my 11-year-old stepson. Not only can he not follow the stories because of the out-dated language but I, as an adult, can't even follow them. I had bought this book to replace a different book with which I had the same issue. If you have the time, energy and patience to translate the wording into modern, understandable verbiage, then you may appreciate this great collection of worthwhile classics. I returned this book and will be looking for something with stories that a child can understand as I read them.
Oh well.
Everyday Graces is recommended by a major homeschool curriculum supplier. Looks like it's going to need a new foreword.
JOePa is a big Republican. No surprise he'd write a forward for Santorum's book.
*2012, Sorry still in the old year
@Freeman,
If you have the time, energy and patience to translate the wording into modern, understandable verbiage..
I mean, this shit's as tough to read as Bill Shakespeare & John Milton! What's with those guys? Didn't they know English, or what?
And finally, kids, don't drop the soap.
Who knew in 2003 that Paterno would be associated with a child sex scandal? Who know in 2008 that Obama was an incompetent ideologue?
"Hard to see, the future is."
But what's with Joe Paterno writing the foreword?
Just bend over and take it.
I think Althouse sees the Paterno endorsement with 20/20 hindsight.
"So a book published in 2003 should be vilified in 2011 because of the foreword? How ridiculous can you get?"
I didn't "vilify" it. I'm just amused.
It's just unfortunate, like an old Hertz ad with OJ Simpson.
JoPa has one of the biggest Republican fundraisers in Pennsylvania for the past 35 years.
Remember when Tom Ridge was rumored to be the new President at PSU after Spanier was fired? Guess why that didn't happen.
Every major Republican politician in the state is tarred by previous association with Paterno, including the current governor.
Someone who uses the word "verbiage" to complain about a book's supposed "out-dated language" is an obvious troll. Unless she wrote the whole thing in Elizabethan prose. (Amazon doesn't give a look inside so I can't tell.)
You can't use this against Karen Santorum. It's not her fault, she had no idea about Paterno, no more than anyone else did. She may ask for a reprinting with a new forward from someone else however, but I expect on cue that the leftards are going to use this against the Santorums in general. After all, Ann, it amused you, so think of the boulderdash that a leftard will whip this up into.
I've bought several out of print books through Amazon and the pricing can be amusing. I bought one book that was offered by two different sellers. One seller was asking $10. The other, $999.
But what's with Joe Paterno writing the foreword?
The Santorum's are PSU alumni.
Who knew in 2003 that Paterno would be associated with a child sex scandal? Who know in 2008 that Obama was an incompetent ideologue?
The innocents who had already been violated by the organization he controlled (and a whole lot more people would have known sooner if the press had, you know, pressed).
Same goes for Paterno.
Sandusky is a Republican as well.
According to our resident Jay, this means EVERY SINGLE Republican is a child molester.
@Freeman Hunt said...
This kind of review upsets me:
Check the rest of her reviews. She pans quite a few books based on the "Look Inside" excerpts.
Books like this are such bullshit. They take almost zero talent to create, though do provide a nice source of income for a sitting politician's spouse.
@bgates - Chuckle.
Please, Meade, delete anything with Alan Colmes in it. What could be more offensive?
"Books like this are such bullshit. They take almost zero talent to create...."
Because we all know good manners without being told?
"Letters to Gabriel" has a sales rank of 27,000, which is actually pretty low for a book on Amazon (the highest is over 10 million). If I list a book with a similar sales rank, I can expect to sell it within a couple days.
It's a very safe bet that if you bought the book for $130 you could easily recover the cost by selling it back--and probably even make a profit.
But none of it means Sandusky is gay.
Karen Santorum describes herself as a mother of 7, including Gabriel (deceased). Reminds me of the lovely Wordsworth poem "We are seven" about the small child who insists that she is one of 7 brothers and sisters, although "two of us in the churchyard lie".
Feh
Children should hear Mark Twain stories! They'll get an idea, early, of what tricks you can play with your imagination ... using words.
Manners?
If the kid's still enough to read to ... what's to teach? You've got the good manners right there.
Santorum for President? The GOP has a death wish.
"The Santorum's are PSU alumni."
Rick graduated from PSU. Karen from Duquesne U. in Pittsburgh.
[I]t's only available as a $130 hardcover book or a $192 audiobook.
Hardly. Amazon isn't the universe, much as it would like to pretend so. Despite its beginnings as a super online bookstore, always also check ABEbooks.com (the Advanced Book Exchange, an association of ∼10,000 used book stores) before concluding that Amazon is the “only” choice.
The book in question, for instance, is available at ABE in hardcover for $49.99, and another copy for $76.75.
You can expect that Romney with the help of his friends in the liberal media will try to destroy the Santorums by attacking their deeply held personal religious beliefs. They will then turn around and cry foul if anyone raises the question about Romney's membership in a religious cult.
Ann is delighted to jump on this bandwagon just like she was in 2008 in jumping on the Obama bandwagon.
And you lemmings are happy to follow Ann and the liberal mainstream media's anointment of Romney as the patsy for another Obama win.
Ann, how did that Obama vote work out for you?
I'm with Original Mike. Who knew? And getting a ghost writer to pen some insipid, fluffy preface/foreward/intro for some famous face to sign is awful. Mark Twain didn't do that.
Abebooks has Letters To Gabriel Santorum for 49.99.
You know what that means.
It means it's almost fifty dollars!
"Michelle Obama gets away with insinuating that our kids are fat..."
Why would she have to "insinuate" this? Doesn't it fall under the heading of "established fact?"
Experts have been talking about child obesity in America for what seems like a couple decades now, long before I had even heard of Michelle Obama.
Experts have been talking about child obesity in America for what seems like a couple decades now, long before I had even heard of Michelle Obama.
True, but is it any of her business?
Dear BBKingFish,
Ann is just throwing out some chum to her Althouse Hillbillies. She needs to step this up because she is supporting liberal Republican Mitt Romney.
BTW, I just switched my party identification today so I can vote in my state's primary for Romney. I am glad that the Republican Party has come to its senses and are most likely to pick a reasonable candidate in the vein of Ford or Daddy Bush and not some wacko crazy like Reagan or W. Bush. I am going to help the GOP by voting for Mitt.
EMD Wrote:
True, but is it any of her business?
Unfortunately, it is. When the state pays for your healthcare, they have a financial interest (or business) in keeping costs down.
Unfortunately, it is. When the state pays for your healthcare, they have a financial interest (or business) in keeping costs down.
Which includes denial of care and deliberately killing you.
Welcome to our Brave New World.
'Manners with a forward by Joe P.' does kind of remind me, thinking of the Christian context, and all, of this candidacy, that Jesus while he was evidently interested in morality could despise manners.
I bought one book that was offered by two different sellers. One seller was asking $10. The other, $999... supoosedly is the result of the algoritm the sellers use to sell the book.
There is a book that cost 100k . It is famous .it is about chemistry or mining.
Well, Euwwww on the present association with Paterno's legal troubles...
But..........
There is something "John Edwards-like" about Santorum. Holmes is not totally off-mark. Apparantly, Santorum has woven his dead child going home story and the currently dying child into every stump speech he does..useful as political props.
Edwards, famously, loved to tell pity tales of how he sought justice for hurt little children from his side of the "Two Americas" in Court. And started his "dead son Wade" tale as a feature on his Senate run. Later, we got into the whole mawkish "Poor Dying Saint Elisabeth wants you to put me in the White House before she passes" ads and speeches.
There is a difference between divulging a strong character trait based in biography and harping on it at every opportunity as a useful political prop.
You barely knew it from hearing it straight from the pol - but Nixon, McGovern, Ford, Dole, Bush I were bona fide, decorated war heroes. They were like lots of WWII vets, some I knew who I only learned had done stellar military service AFTER they died. Men modest about it, or not inclined to see tragedy and victimhood as personally enobling. Bill Clinton, to his credit, barely mentioned the part of his bio of standing up to, beating his stepfather as an older teen after the man battered his Mom.
Ceadrford said: Men modest about it, or not inclined to see tragedy and victimhood as personally enobling.
Of course John McCain III is your favorite punching bag for making this point.
How does your man Mitt measure up against say, Rick Perry in this regard? Any thoughts?
You know, it's an interesting thing with Jesus, here. 3 candidates said "they were told by the good lord" ... to run for the presidency:
CAIN. BACHMANN. And, PERRY.
Seems like yesterday though Jesus took the day off.
I dunno, I think the idea of the book is fine, and so was the Paterno contribution until a little while ago. Shit happens.
"I am glad that the Republican Party has come to its senses and are most likely to pick a reasonable candidate in the vein of Ford or Daddy Bush and not some wacko crazy like Reagan or W. Bush. I am going to help the GOP by voting for Mitt."
/facepalm
Now there's some 'laserlike' analysis right there. This message, brought to you by the proud family of distillers at Jim Beam.
wv - reepul
I hope the OWS crowd don't start throwing beanie babies at Santorum and yelling play with these. That would be in bad taste. Not as bad as a children's book of manners with an intro by Joe Paterno, but, still, bad taste....Perhaps the price is so high because it figures to be a collector's copy. Probably worth a fortune if you could get both parties to autograph it. Pee Wee Herman could read chapters from it on his Playhouse.....This isn't Santorum's fault, but it's ridiculous enough to become his defining moment for late night comedians--in who are mostly out to get Republicans anyway.
chickenlittle said...
Ceadrford said: Men modest about it, or not inclined to see tragedy and victimhood as personally enobling.
Of course John McCain III is your favorite punching bag for making this point.
How does your man Mitt measure up against say, Rick Perry in this regard? Any thoughts?
====================
My point is that personal loss, suffering, being captured by the enemy, growing up poor as "a mill worker's son" or whatever, can give you a bit of insight into character.
But under the cult of victimhood, biographical bits become main props...dead or dying wives or children featured as a "main event" in each speech or ad.
Santorum is apparantly "John-Edwards-like". Each audience he speaks to evidently has to hear about his dead child. His dying family member. His moral superiority as reflected through biographical pathos.
Sorry, I vote on the person and on the issues. I am not Oprahfied.
Think Freeman's verbiage reviewer had a couple things wrong.
1) Why on earth would someone yse this to talk about manners with an *11 year old BOY?*
2) No appreciation of literature outside of rap and Zelda dialog?
The kid needs exposure to real reading & writing. (Start with WWII stories and history if he's a boy.)
My youngest daughter & I slogged through reading the unabridged Robinson Crusoe out loud when she was in middle school. Consequently she picked up on Jane Austin and Shakespeare all on her ownsome. (!)
Son read Pat Conroy & others hidden in his desk at school. Not highbrow, but he could read big words.
For manners we used this. Fun. (Take a look, Freeman.) Worked pretty well for us for the little ones. Language easy.
Book of Virtues not too shabby. But one has to be able to read. :-)
JAL, ha. We have the Please and Thank You Book as well as The Book of Virtues and the related Children's Treasury of Virtues. We also like Polite Elephant.
We don't have Everyday Graces, so I don't know if it's any good.
Freeman -- have you read Cars and Trucks and Things That Go?
Don't know about the manners, but we loved finding Goldbug.
And we still note the "Richard Scarry trucks" when we are out and about! :-))
wv frogedi
amphibious jedi
I read Letters to Gabriel several years ago. It was well done. I would have written the same tender words to my child. Thankfully, I have had three living babies.
It's so ironic that a little boy named Gabriel, whose two-hour life was so callously dismissed as insignificant by the self-important Mr. Colmes, may, in some way, determine the fate of an election and perhaps in some way the future of millions. It's a good reminder that God's economy stands ours on its head. "The last shall be first."
Thank you Jane. That was very heartfelt and moving.
I have a close family member who worked for Rick. He's a good guy.
He started out in politics at Penn State too, so as a fellow alum, I'm a little partial.
He's a pro-life, pro-troops, cultural conservative and a practicing Catholic...which of course is anathema to many voters (and makes him an object of derision for the Left). Real cultural conservatives came out in Iowa for him, I think in part because Iowa's like Pennsylvania in many ways.
Never met his wife nor read the book.
Freeman: Have you ever heard of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle? One of my favorite baby-sitters as a very, very, very young child had a copy, and I loved it. It was one of the first "full-length" books I ever read.
Many, many years later I spent a lot of time trying to unearth a copy, which I eventually did and bought--and kept it and eventually read to my child, who also to this day picks that copy up himself, from time to time, and re-reads it.
It was re-issued some years after I tracked it down.
And now you can find the whole series/collection on Amazon!
I know it's not for everyone (for me, those very things are part of the charm, though, of course, most of it has to do with my loving it so much as young kid). However, Freeman, I think you might enjoy it, and, perhaps, enjoy sharing it with your own young 'uns.
As a general rule (with the obvious exceptions, of course!), I think kids almost universally can figure out how to read language that they've heard.
To be clear, my second comment had absolutely nothing to do with first. Each was in response to a separate thing.
"Who know in 2008 that Obama was an incompetent ideologue?"
I did. It was fairly easy to see.
Too bad Ann couldn't see the obvious.
Santorum's chances of winning the election are, as "they" say, Slim and None - and Slim is nowhere to be found.
My mother read to me beginning when I was a toddler and continuing until I was seven or eight, but she didn't just read modern children's writers like Geisel, Milne, Brunhoff and Saint-Exupéry. She mostly left it to me to puzzle out those famous illustrated works on my own, with a bit of coaching.
What she really preferred was to read from some classic work of her choice, a chapter or two a night. Sometimes she read from an edition which had illustrations, but usually not. I particularly remember a color plate showing the South Sea cannibals attacking the Nautilus. She read aloud beautifully, and made characters come alive with intonation and gesture. One of my favorites was The Gold-Bug by E. A. Poe. I vividly recall her acting out Jupiter's dyslectic mistake. "Yes, Massa Legrande, I put de shot through de leff eye" she read aloud in dialect while putting her hand to her right eye.
Sometimes she chose classic works for young readers, though truth be told most of these are challenging for many adults today and are shamefully out of reach for most children and teens -- works like Stevenson's Treasure Island and Kidnapped -- tales that enthrall me even now. I assume Mother selected these for the episodes of suspense and daring-do which would thrill and captivate a boy who trotted his pony waving a stick-sword over his head. Whatever her reasoning she graduated me to real literature. By the time I was eight we were wending our way through Moby Dick, bit by bit, Mother reading mostly, but some chapters I read aloud to her.
In remembering the adventures of imagination in which my mother was mentor and guide my emotions run back and forth and back again between love and pride and shame and regret -- love and pride for mother who so valued her son -- shame and regret for a culture so decayed in my lifetime.
Quaestor. Very nice. I read The Illiad to my son over the course of a year or so when he was five. He would fall asleep after a few stanzas but the rythym of the poem stuck with him. We still talk about the violent imagery.
"Letters to Gabriel" has a sales rank of 27,000, which is actually pretty low for a book on Amazon (the highest is over 10 million). If I list a book with a similar sales rank, I can expect to sell it within a couple days.
It's a very safe bet that if you bought the book for $130 you could easily recover the cost by selling it back--and probably even make a prof
Or you could, you know, like, read it.
@"Santorum's chances of winning the election are, as "they" say, Slim and None - and Slim is nowhere to be found."
I said the same thing in 2008 about a guy who middle name was Hussein - a few years after 9/11. Still mystifies me.
"...Michelle Obama gets away with insinuating that our kids are fat..."
Why would Michelle have to "insinuate" something that's been widely reported as established fact for 20 years?
This was always a pretty tough book to come by.
There's a special edition cover that's metal and comes with a digital clock embedded in it. Maybe that's the "unknown binding" version for $5k.
Also, hilarious to note that while the book is going for $80.00 (hardcover) on Amazon, it's trade-in value is a whopping $2.37!
EMD wrote regarding My Pretty Pony by Stephen King:
There's a special edition cover that's metal and comes with a digital clock embedded in it.
WTF? Why a clock? So the reader can measure how long he's able to tolerate King's overwrought characterizations?
Joe Paterno??
As my good friend Jerry Sandusky once said, you gotta train the little angels to be obedient servants of Jesus--and you can do that via homeschooling, and apply that teaching to their grooming habits, even at the level of showering. . Fuggetaboutit
Quaestor praising EA Poe's blatantly racist tale the "Gold Bug." (EAP's step-pappy Allan was a Richmond slaver). EAP however talented was also a Whig and anti-abolitionist (most say...pro-confederate).
WHat a shocker.
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