What? What'd I miss?? I tried to Google and it did not help!

I see different numbers on the NYT article than are currently on the Panera app nutritional information. I wonder if they reduced the size of the cups since the lawsuit. They might also be allowing for ice. There would be precedent for that kind of thing. It's still a LOT of caffeine. Here's what I'm seeing on the large cup description this morning.

I have no expertise, just two kids that are slightly advanced. However, these are things that have played well here and I think get overlooked: Miquon math as a prequel to Beast; popular science trade books as read alouds and independent reads (Bill Bryson's book on the human body was great for dd at 14), and using a big, fat, coffee table book as a spine for a rich history study via the library. Ds loves reading the DK History of the World aligned with the DK Battles book and a ton of stuff from the library. I know it's classic WTM, but it's working.

I don't care. Why not? Those books aren't likely to incite violence among the preschool set. Frankly, I don't think the preschool set will really get into them; they seem clunky. I say, if the people request them or the librarians think they'll be enjoyed, they should be free to buy them, just like anything else. If no one checks them out after the initial fluff dies down, they'll wash out of the collection just like any other books. If they are beloved, they can stay.

I bought a Christmas sweater one year on sale in early January. It has horizontal black and white stripes and a really colorful Christmas tree on the front. It's not hideous, but it's sort of wild. I keep it just for Christmas sweater events.

The situation that led this article is so bizarre and horrifying, I think it's throwing me off any solutions. Torturing a kid... that's not something you fix with a better poverty support system, is it? It's like rabies or something. Neglect, food insufficiency, exhaustion due to working too many underpaid jobs, these we can definitely do things about. Whether we will is hard to predict. But torturing and starving a kid? I need to set that diseased extreme aside to even think.

Holy crap. So... this book? Really? Man, I hope her 45-year-old self isn't incredibly embarrassed.

I don't think the lady was saying that this particular book made her addicted. I think she said that a kissing scene in a book published and marketed at her childhood school (via a Scholastic bookfair) was some sort of a trigger for her, so all books with that type of scene should be withheld. The book the district removed, Drama, is more recently published. It wouldn't have been the one she read as a teen. I think she's a modern-day puritan with an anti-sex obsession. A number of people are like this now. I think some of them genuinely feel that all teenage attractions are bad (sin) and that ongoing desire must be an addiction. And the idea of gay youth is beyond endurance for them. They're terrified. It's awkward, because it's so wildly unhealthy, obviously, but I grew up with folks who genuinely believed a lot of similar things. Not all of them were power-hungry. They became monstrous from a place of genuine belief. They are being manipulated.

Let me add something, just for clarity. There was no sex in that graphic novel. There was no mention or image of any body parts related thereto. There was no discussion of sex, sleeping together, or anything like that. There was only kissing.

Ok. I read it. It took me about 30 minutes. It was cute, and I enjoy theater people so I liked that set-up. I didn't see anyone behave aggressively toward anyone. What am I missing? There's that sort of dynamic friendly shoulder-pushing which I'm used to seeing in Manga stuff. It's not supposed to be hitting; it's conveying movement. But I didn't see anyone be abusive or aggressive. People argued, and hugged, and weren't mature about expressing their crushes. I did see gay people (you gotta whisper that like the kid from Sixth Sense.) There were several kisses, straight and gay. It wasn't prurient. I don't know, guys. It was about teens and relationships. I don't encourage an obsession with dating in the early teen years, because I want my kids to own their own personalities before they shape themselves around someone else. I don't think I'd hand this to my particular 12 year old. However, I wouldn't swoon if he read it. It's fine to me. It's certainly not p#%&.

I'm laughing, but that's horrible!

(Does anyone else run right out and read whatever books hit the news as controversial?)

Wow. What a lot he saw in his lifetime!

Depending on the surface, Bar Keeper's Friend is pretty amazing. It might scratch glass, though. I also like the Scrub-Daddy stuff.

Holy crap! I'd never be able to do that job!

"What do they teach them at these schools?" CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe "Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore? But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shoreless, indefinite as God - so, better is it to perish in that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the lee, even if that were safety!" Melville, Moby Dick

It wouldn't have a sexual or overly intimate connotation for me. I'd think that person is very motivational and keeps others moving forward.

I read something important once about this, and I really wish I could give the citation. The gist was that the ways we know someone is being deceptive rely on them feeling uncomfortable lying. Most people are uncomfortable being untruthful, so most of the time they show that in some small way and we pick up on it. Truly horrible people don't feel uncomfortable lying. They're good at it. They don't care, and are not uncomfortable. So we don't get the same radar ping. I think the book i read was right. No, we can't usually detect true deceivers. I can't decide if that makes these situations better or worse. (If anyone knows where I read this, please tell me! I would like to look into it more.)

That would be a crummy end to Thanksgiving weekend!

I always make pumpkin pie and cranberry apple pie, but this year I'm adding a small chocolate cheesecake with tart cherries to spoon over. My 5yo niece said it was her favorite, so. 😁 I love having little nieces around to spoil rotten.

Do you feel that it has any particular political leanings, or is anyone left out of the story that you thought should have been more included? I love the idea of integrating geological history. And camping!

That is too cool. I'm getting dh one of those for Christmas. Thanks!

I'm so sorry.

The day is marked on my calendar. Thanks, Sid!

Wow. I hadn't heard of Brave Books. Those picture books are...not subtle.