Did you know that this week is Read Across America week? Thursday, March 2nd is Theodor Seuss Geisel’s birthday. Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) was born in 1904 and would have been 102 this year. He authored and illustrated forty-four children’s books. The first one was published in 1936. Not only have our children grown up with his books, but we did and our parents did. Maybe even some of our grandparents.

Today was “Crazy Socks Day” at my school in honor of Fox in Socks, one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books. Children and teachers wore their craziest socks. For me, that meant some Rudolph-the-red-nosed-Reindeer socks. Yes, Christmas was over two months ago, but my Rudolph socks are the only unusual socks I own.

Fox in Socks is a tongue-twister of a book that the children LOVE, and it’s great reading practice for them. They have to read THROUGH each word carefully to get it right. I used the book with a small fifth grade reading group yesterday, and I used it with first grade, second grade and fourth grade groups today, and they all loved it. I even read it aloud to the entire third grade yesterday. With a room full to bursting with children, it held each one’s attention. In the small groups, it was fun to watch the children’s faces as they struggled through the tongue twisters. There was laughter. No one realized they were getting some high quality oral reading practice. The introduction to Fox in Socks warns

Take it slowly. This book is dangerous!

And it is! Dangerous for anyone who doesn’t want to smile. Here’s a sample:

Let’s do tricks with bricks and blocks, sir.
Let’s do tricks with chicks and clocks, sir.
First, I’ll make a quick trick brick stack.
Then I’ll make a quick trick block stack.
You can make a quick trick chick stack.
You can make a quick trick clock stack.

Or how about this one?

Bim comes.
Ben comes.
Bim brings Ben broom.
Ben brings Bim broom.
Ben bends Bim’s broom.
Bim bends Ben’s broom.
Bim’s bends.
Ben’s bends.
Ben’s bent broom breaks.
Bim’s bent broom break.
Ben’s band. Bim’s band.
Big bands. Pig bands.

Tomorrow evening I will stop by Sam’s Club to pick up NINE sheet cakes so that each child at my school can celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday on Thursday with a piece of birthday cake. I’ll be wearing a Cat In The Hat hat as I dish out cake slices.

Your assignment: If you know a child, read a Dr. Seuss book to him or her this week.

A mix of reading for your Tuesday morning: This is an open trackback post. Trackback to this post, and it will be displayed here and reciprocated.

The Black Republican looks at the hypocrisy of the left on the ports deal - and how the WSJ has come to the president’s defense.

Let’s face it: our borders are as porous as a spaghetti strainer, our State Department hands out visas like they’re chocolate mints, and Aunt Bessie is being strip-searched at the airport while Hassan and Mohammad walk right past the security checkpoint. Does it really matter who negotiates longshoreman contracts, as long as the federal officers who have prevented further plots on our soil continue to provide port security?

Blue Star Chronicles also looks at the cowardess of the MSM.

California Conservative was interviewed on the radio about the Dubai Ports deal.

Atlas Shrugs has what the Danish Prime Minister said about the cartoon controversy.

Why are we not getting the FULL story from our news sources? Why does the MSM not report this?

Ruthlace tells us about this week in Christianity.

Daddy’s Roses suggests some reading that will uplift and/or interest you.

Blue Star Chronicles offers a movie review that’s frightening (the movie, not the review).

Michelle Malkin shows us how censorship is being used in the UAE.

And the Captain’s Quarters has given us a little chocolate heaven.

Stop the ACLU has an eye-opening post that sheds light on hypocritical behavior.

“Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte” takes on sinister connotations in this story at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

If you want to talk about arena football, Basil’s Blog is the place for you!

Enough for now. Unfortunately I have to go earn a living. Happy Tuesday.

TRACKBACKS:
Disrespecting The Fallen Excerpt: Due to the ridiculous flap over the cartoons there has been a lot of talk and debate over what is and isn’t properly free speech. Let me share two examples that fall outside of the rubric of free speech to me at least…Weblog: Freedom Folks
Tracked: 02.28.06 - 8:51 am

The Emporer’s New ClothesExcerpt: With an air of authority and superiority, he portrayed the Danes as child-like and living in a land of fantasy. He implied the whole affair had been set off by the naivete of the Danish nation.Weblog: Blue Star ChroniclesTracked: 02.28.06 - 3:42 pm

There is an unexpected plus side to all the rioting, burning, killing and general mayhem caused by the radical Islamists as a result of their supposed anger at the publication of some cartoons depicting their prophet Muhammad. And that plus side is that it forces Christians (speaking for myself) to examine their own beliefs.

I was listening to a talk radio show awhile ago, and there was a discussion about how Christian holy places and shrines were planned targets of Muslim violence. I started thinking: What would Christians do if the places where Jesus lived and taught were destroyed by terrorists? Would we feel that it was an insult to Jesus? Would we feel compelled to avenge the desecration of our Christian holy places?

I tried to think of what some of our Christian holy places are: Bethlehem - where Jesus was born? Where the Sermon on the Mount occurred? The location of the Last Supper? Where the crucifixion occurred? What ARE Christianity’s holy places? My mother will be aghast at my ignorance. My belief, though, has never been tied to physical locations or items. Any damage to those places would be a tragedy, but I would have no need to retaliate. God knows who did it. He knows their hearts. He will handle it.

How about desecration of The Bible? Would I consider that something that must be avenged? Again, my answer is no. It is just a book that contains the story upon which my beliefs are based. It is paper and ink, published by massive printing machines. My belief isn’t based on physical places and items or other people’s attitudes or actions towards God. God knows our hearts. He can handle any desecration or abuse directed towards him. He doesn’t need my help in avenging Him.

He DOES need my help in spreading the word of our loving God - a god who wants the best for us and who takes us as we are and helps us to help ourselves and others: A joyous contrast to what we are seeing in Islam.

I was at Sam’s Club awhile ago and saw some frozen fish that looked really good. The picture on the box showed what appeared to be filets with a light breaded crust. It vitually screamed good health and nutrition! Well, OF COURSE the packaging would show something that looked delicious! So I bought them, brought them home, and popped two in the oven for my dinner. 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Ten minutes, and there was a definitely unappetizing aroma filling the house. That’s just the way fish smells, I told myself. Would that I was so lucky. Basically, what was pictured on the package as fish filets with a light breaded crust ended up being gross fish-flavored bread. There was no recognizable fish in it. Just breading. One bite, and I threw it all away. Absolutely the worst meal I’ve ever prepared. And the house still reeks!

OK, I KNOW you’ve probably gotten this in your email. It’s making the rounds right now. However, I liked it enough to copy it to THE MEDIAN SIB. If you haven’t seen it yet, enjoy. . .

Why education is important…

Random 2005 journal entries from a “less-than-slightly educated”:

January: “Took new scarf back to store. Too tight.”

February: “Got fired from pharmacy job. Couldn’t get labels to print correctly. Duh… bottles won’t fit in typewriter!!!”

March: “Got excited…finished jigsaw puzzle in just six months. The box said 2-4 years!”

April: “Trapped on escalator for hours. Power went out!!!”

May: “Tried to make Kool-Aid. Disaster. Eight cups of water WILL NOT fit into those tiny little packets!!!”

June: “Tried to go water skiing. Never could find a lake with a slope.”

July: “Lost breast stroke swimming competition. Learned, later, the other swimmers cheated–they used their arms!!!”

August: “Got locked out of my car in rain storm. Car got swamped, because the top was down.”

September: “The capital of California is ‘C’! Isn’t it???”

October: “Learned that I hate M & M’s. They are so hard to peel.”

November: “Baked turkey for 4 1/2 days. Didn’t turn out well. The instructions said one hour per pound, and I weigh 108!!!”

December: “Couldn’t call 911. ‘Duh’…there’s no ‘11′ button on the phone!!!”

“What a year!!”

Blogging time has been scarce the past few days - and so for my readers who are trying to adjust to a mere one measly post a day at THE MEDIAN SIB after months of multiple posts each day, let me direct you to two sources of great blog-reading.

First there is the Carnival of Blue Stars - devoted to posts about our soldiers and their families.

Then there is the Carnival of Insanities where the bizarre, ridiculous and insane happenings of the week are highlighted.

Happy reading.

Last night Sweet Stuff (4 years old) and Sunshine (2 years old) spent the night with me. When I was tucking them into bed, I asked if they wanted to say their bedtime prayers. Sweet Stuff immediately said she did. So we bowed our heads, and this was her prayer - very quiet voice, rambling on a bit, hands clasped tightly and head bowed:

I want to spend the night with Grandma Carol. . . . until it is wake-up time . . . . and uh. . . .I’ll see mommy and daddy. . . . 

(Then she seemed unsure of how to end it but obviously realized that she needed to be a little more religious, so she took a couple breaths and blurted out . . .)

JESUS! 

I think that was her version of “Amen.” I wanted so badly to laugh, but I was a good grandma and held it in and took my turn at saying my prayers instead. Sunshine declined to pray. Guess she felt that Sweet Stuff’s and my prayers were sufficient for all three of us. Maybe I need to give them some lessons in praying?

Thirteen Words that THE MEDIAN SIB thinks make people sound smarter than they are 1. unobtrusive: Instead of “Would you just shut up!” you could say “Please be unobtusive so you won’t disturb everyone.” 2. maladroit: “I can’t believe I was so clumsy!” will become “Goodness gracious, that was maladroit of me to knock that urn off the mantle!” 3. cacophony: “All this noise is driving me crazy!” will be “The cacophony in here is somewhat overwhelming.” 4. retribution: Replace “I’ll get you back, you scumbag!” with “I will exact retribution for your misdeeds.” 5. fatigued: “I’m so tired.” will become “I’m feeling a bit fatigued this evening.” 6. insipid: Instead of “That speaker is boring me out of my mind!” substitute “That insipid speaker is giving me the vapors.” 7. dishevelled and 8. manifestation: “Lord, I’m a mess today!” will be replaced with “My dishevelled appearance is a direct manifestation of an alarm clock malfunction this morning.” 9. sagacious: Instead of “He thinks he’s so smart!” would be “His perception of being sagacious is flawed.” 10. wretched: “Omigod, after that party last night, I’m wasted!” is replaced with “The excess libations last night along with a paucity of slumber have rendered my countenance quite wretched.” 11. conundrum: “These directions are totally confusing me!” becomes “These directions are a conundrum from which there is no escape.” 12: restitution: Instead of asking for a refund, I’ll say, “I demand restitution for the time and money this defective merchandise has cost me.” 13. inexorable: “Monday morning always gets here too quickly.” will be “The inexorable nature of the passage of time is an undeniable reality.” Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Joan (Joan, let me know if I used any of the words incorrectly!) 2. Jane 3. Terrell 4. Mel 5. Uisce 6. Nicole 7. Jill 8. Norma 9. Lazy Daisy 10. Nancy 11. Shash 12. Karen 13. Chickadee 14. Melissa 15. Leesa 16. Dariana 17. Ruth 18. Kelly 19. Dana   (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The 55th edition of The Carnival of Education is up at The Education Wonks. One of my favorite parts of each week is reading all the posts that are highlighted in each week’s carnival. There’s everything from the philosophical to the political to the practical. Make sure you check it out.