TV Guide ran a special “Closeup” feature to announce the debut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in December 1965. From A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making of a Tradition, Lee Mendelson, Harper Resource, New York, 2000 (p.25). This is a wonderful book. Every home– with or without children– should have it on the shelf. The first half
of a White Christmas, … .” As far as I’m concerned, white Christmases can stay in Vermont but I want you to have that tune in your head as I tell the story of little Israel Baline, and the man he came to be. Israel was born in Temun, Russia in 1888. His family was
When we hear Uncle Sidney tellAbout the long-agoAn’ old, old friends he loved so wellWhen he was young–My-oh!–Us childern all wish we’d ‘a’ binA-livin’ then with Uncle,–soWe could a-kindo’ happened inOn them old friends he used to know!–The good, old-fashioned people–The hale, hard-working people–The kindly country people‘At Uncle used to know! They was God’s people,
I’ve never gotten over growing up. I must’ve longed to grow up at some point, I suppose, fantasizing about unknown, illicit future pleasures as all kids do—but once I’d done it, I quickly wished I hadn’t. When I see a pair of third graders slumping home after school with backpacks and sneakers trading meaningless conversation,
Love, as all men and women learn, is often only for a season, but a mortgage is for 30 years. Gerard Van der Leun, The Man Who Loved Not Wisely But at Least Twice Chuckle out loud. Please do read the story of Carl– the man who loved not wisely but at least twice. Delightful!
All the while I was wasting so much time engrossed with Volume Eight of Our Wonder World, I had in the back of my brain something I’d read a long time ago. I could paraphrase it well enough, but that wasn’t good enough. And then… “He welcomed the story as an old and dear friend.”
We live in an amazing time. On my desk are my phone, my iPad, two portable batteries that combined will turbo charge four devises, two external hard drives for backup, my laptop, a printer that talks to my phone, iPad and MacBook Pro without having to be physically connected to them, and a 3x5x0.5 inch
HOMEMAKING A happy home is one in which all the members of the family take pleasure in sharing their experiences and their abilities. Your home may be one room, a small apartment, a modest cottage, or a large house with many rooms. Whatever the size, the happiness of the home depends upon the skill and kindliness
Heaven gives our years of fading strength Indemnifying fleetness; And those of youth, a seeming length, Proportion’d to their sweetness. final stanza of Thomas Campbell’s, “The River of Life,” as found in Book Fourth of Palgrave’s Golden Treasury (Longmans, Green, green, and Co. (1905) Lines chosen while perusing because I can’t believe November’s almost over, and because I
Technically, this is not a repost because the original was in Blogger format converted to WordPress and it looks just awful. So this is a recreation of a post from ages ago. “Black Friday” Thoughts: Pt. 2 (November 25, 2011). Today I remember that the years have rewarded me for every talent I possess, and
As found at WikiArt. Also in the crappy old book, Grandma Moses, Otto Kallir, (Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, New York, 1973) which lays open on the Big Book podium to [Humm. Something is amiss in the formatting. Sorry. I’ll work on it.]
I was examining one of the — I’ll actually count, hold on– eight (not counting the 18 which are assigned) crappy old books on my desk. Seventy Years of Textbook Publishing: A History of Ginn and Company 1867-1937 (1938) may not be for you, but it’s perfect lunch reading for me. That, of course, got
We have a houseguest! And if you’re thinking, “Then, I bet they went to Oxford,” you are correct! First Square Books, then Off Square Books. What a find I found! A ninth edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (1891). The 1st edition, 1855, John Bartlett self-published. The ninth edition, I learned, was the last that Bartlett
Gerard VanderLeun, of Paradise, California, is the proprietor of American Digest. AD is a blog I just recently discovered. It’s everything a blog I like should be. This is his most recent comment on the post titled, Site Notes: There’s a Substantial Fire to the East (Evacuation Orders Issued for Town) I tear up just thinking
Again– reposting from October, 2013 The picture book is for the children. In reading about Columbus over the last few days, I’ve come across this sentiment more than once: Every school kid knows the story of Columbus. That got me to wondering what school children might really have known about Columbus back in the crappy
[Again, from when BigFoodetc was hosted by blogspot so excuse what need to be excused.] That’s correct. Herbert George Wells, the “Father of Science Fiction.” The Outline of History Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind was first published in 1920. (This is the revised edition of 1961. Both sub-titles are correct.) Reviews were
Here’s the first of a series from 2013. Bigfoodetc.com was still on the Blogger platform so I’ve cleaned it up a bit. At the time, I captioned this thusly: “No. It’s not an obsession. It’s a mission.” Michael H. Hart’s The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History has good ole’ Christopher
Smaller than half a sheet of 8½ x 11 paper. Fewer than 70 pages! And for real printed in the USSR (second printing, 1984). Look what poor quality paper. I even inserted a blank sheet of paper under that page to get rid of some of the bleed through. I do believe it’s the only
It is not intended that this book be a substitute for nor a condensation of a textbook. … [T]his book’s purpose is to teach the high school student in Physics how to solve problems: the kind that are encountered in real life as well as on examinations. Graphic Problems in Physics (with Answers), James E. Frazer,
I doubt whether we are sufficiently attentive to the importance of elementary textbooks. C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, 1944 I share this concern, but I have a question. Who is “we?”