Reading Rambo

Lucretia Mott was not the only one fighting for abolition in Philadelphia. There was also: I love this picture because underneath their severe hairstyles this looks like any social justice group photo I know what you're thinking: "Wait...is their acronym...PASS?" And YES. Yes it IS. As in "How about some slavery?" "Mm, PASS. Get it? Like the society name and also I don't want any because it's terrible." Mott and her husband James were co-founders of the American Anti-Slavery Society in Philadelphia in 1833 (AASS -- no, the acronym is not as good, and yes, there were a lot of anti-slavery societies), and Mott helped craft this line of theirs, also mentioned in the previous post about her life : The building in this picture is Pennsylvania Hall. Pennsylvania Hall was built by the badass SJWs in the first photo, aka the members of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, as a place to hold meetings, preach, teach, whateve

Lucretia Mott, guys. Damn. I've always just kind of thought of her as one of those older suffragists who probably wrote some things for ladies and then Elizabeth Cady Stanton went charging forward with it. WELL THAT'S WHAT ELIZABETH CADY STANTON WANTED YOU TO THINK. One of the main reasons we don't hear much about Mott is that Stanton and Susan B. Anthony literally wrote the book on the history of women's suffrage. Also Mott had other fish to fry. Abolition fish. Abolitionists had been organizing since 1775 and they were not only determined to stop slavery, but were becoming radicalized in their efforts as the battle for America's future seemed to grow more and more pressing.  Lucretia Mott was a Nantucket-born Quaker (did you know Nantucket used to be a Quaker island?) who then moved to Philadelphia with her husband James Mott and KICKED ALL THE PRO-SLAVERY PEOPLE'S ASSES. Through, like. Earnest discussion, peaceful boycotts a

Jean Shepherd is a writer who revels, bathes, and frolics in the English language. You have all sorts of writers: utilitarian, plot-driven, wanting-their-prose-to-be-poetry-without-writing-poetry, and you have writers who just obviously love words so DAMN much. William Styron is one of these ("the quagmiry but haunting monochrome of the Narew River swampland") and Jean Shepherd, famous for In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash , the basis for the fan-damn-tastic film A Christmas Story , is another. I have made quote graphics for your reading ease, since it seems all wish to be visually entertained nowadays. Also I like making quote graphics. Onward!: FROM THE SUN-DRENCHED SHORES OF GREECE REDOLENT OF THE EARTH'S BOUNTIES. I'm super-into how he uses the English language. While Jean Shepherd was a man very much of his time (that time being 1921-1999), he was also a man who knew his way around a dictionary, if you know what I mean.

Stephen Leacock was a silly Canadian man who lived from 1869-1944. At some point in his life, he decided to write a book making fun of all the other books. The forward to the modern day edition of Nonsense Novels is written by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket of Series of Unfortunate Events  fame, which absolutely makes sense when you read lines like: I saw before me a fine sailor-like man of from thirty to sixty, clean-shaven, except for an enormous pair of whiskers, a heavy beard, and a thick moustache That is pure Lemony Snicket right there. Or pure Lemony Snicket-written-by-Daniel-Handler-inspired-by-Canadian-humorist-Stephen-Leacock. Nonsense Novels  covers most if not all genres of novel. Each "novel" is v. short. It goes from detective novels to seafaring novels to Lorna Doone On the Moors-type novels (I've never read Lorna Doone , but I'm making some guesses that she stands on moors) to a sci-fi sort of ender that I loved the most by far (except f

You guys. Here's the thing. I don't even LIKE guinea pigs. I think they are pointless animals. But maybe that's why I find Guinea Pig Pride and Prejudice  and now A Guinea Pig Oliver Twist  so completely hilarious and delightful. All guinea pigs that I have been exposed to were lumps of fur with no personality. Which makes it extra funny when they're wearing stocking caps to sleep in. ahahaha anxious guinea pig I, for one, want Bloomsbury to guinea pig-up all the classics.  Dickens's Oliver Twist  isn't one of his best novels, but it's got enough culturally recognized moments to make it worth this version. You get Guinea Pig Oliver, the Artful Dodger, Fagin, Nancy, and even those boring characters no one cares about, like Mr Brownlow. It's not fair to him, because he's very nice, but nice people don't sell books, Brownlow, gotta move with the market, chop chop, keep up. No one's going to remember you but they will rem