HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: rcrowley@donne.zso.dec.com (Rebecca Crowley)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Homeschooling
Date: 4 Jan 93 20:35:56 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

Barbara Hlavin (twain@milton.u.washington.edu) wrote:

: If I demur at any aspect of home-schooling, it would be on Mark's 
: ground of insufficient socialization.  

: Most articles I've read about successful home-schooling have been about 
: families who have 3+ children, and the parents seem to feel that 
: sibling contact  is all the socialization their children need. 

Shortly after the birth of my nephew, my sister told me she was 
interested in anything I could find out about homeschooling.  She lives
in a rural area, and was far from impressed with the local public schools.

In the course of some reading, I ran into a fascinating article (I
suspect it was in the Puget Sound Business Journal, because a friend who
works there got it for me) on the subject of homeschooling in the Seattle
area.  According to it, many parents who homeschool their children
regularly get together to take their kids roller skating, mini-golfing,
etc., en masse, specifically to take care of that missing social 
contact.  Many are also religious, and, to one degree or another, the
children have social contacts through church related organizations.

As a result of this thread, I got to discussing schooling/homeschooling,
when-you-have-kids-what-will-you-do with a largish group of friends (life
imitates Usenet?).  None of us were very happy with our experiences
in public schools (or private schools, in one case), feeling that
we'd wasted an amazing amount of time.  All of us could cite instances
of missing a week or more of school due to illness or vacation, getting
the homework, spending a 2-8 hours on it, and returning ahead of the
class.

But our primary beef was with the age-determines-curriculum nature of most
schools.  We thought that was awfully silly.

Obbooks:  My parents always made sure there were plenty of books to read
around the house, (correctly, imo) concluding that children who read a lot will
not grow up ignorant.  Among the books they acquired at garage sales over
the years was a largish collection of school text books -- primers, readers,
you name it.  One of the ones acquired comparatively late focused on American
folklore:  Paul Bunyan and the like.  I'm interested in finding other
sources for these tales.  Any info you could email me would be 
appreciated.  I'll post a summary if I get anything.
--
Rebecca Crowley	 --  spreading memes in .sigs  --  Standard Disclaimers Apply	
	    Safety or self-determination.  Choose one.  NOW.
	rcrowley@zso.dec.com	selene@blegga.cac.washington.edu
From: cramer@optilink.COM (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Reading as an addiction (Was: 92 in rabreview)
Date: 5 Jan 93 17:48:14 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA

In article <1993Jan4.181110.9747@ncar.ucar.edu>, chucks@uars2.acd.ucar.edu (Chuck Smythe) writes:
> In article <1i1sh9INN3ru@FRIDGE.AI.CS.YALE.EDU> engelson-sean@cs.yale.edu writes:
# #A related phenomenon is the reverse of the above---does anyone else,
# #when entering someone elses house, automatically form a somewhat
# #negative opinion of them if there *aren't* reasonable quantities of
# #books in evidence?  I suppose that my unconscious reasons that either

Perhaps it's the circles I move in, but there are precious few people
I know whose houses are suffering from book drought.

# I find it depressing; what a barren mental life he must have.  In a few
# cases it is shocking; e.g. the principal of my wife's middle school has a
# large, expensive house - without so much as a magazine in evidence.  What
# the hell is a man like that doing in _education_, for christ's sake?
# 
# 			Chuck Smythe

Passing on the high value which he gives to reading, of course.
Why do you think public schools are so bad in this country?  I have
a relative who is an elementary school teacher.  He's a nice person,
but not spectacularly smart, and more important, not terribly
interested in reading.  By his own admission, when not preparing
for classes, he reads the Bible and a magazine on studio music
production -- and seldom anything else.  Alas, I know plenty of
other teachers (or former teachers) in the same position.

Of course, maybe my wife and I are just weirdos, misfits in the
post-literate society.
-- 
Clayton E. Cramer {uunet,pyramid}!optilink!cramer  My opinions, all mine!
"When freedom destroys order, order will destroy freedom." -- Eric Hoffer
Not a goal, just a statement of reality.
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Homophobia
Date: 9 Jan 1993 17:22:28 GMT
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
NNTP-Posting-Host: oas.stanford.edu

Mike Morris asks:

	Tell me whether or not you think affirmative action, and its 
	legal sanction, awards special privileges to blacks because
	they are black.

Alas, this is too simply put a question to which the classic answer is
no. Affirmative action does not award special privilege to blacks, but
merely in part redresses a wrong of long standing. This thread might
become more interesting by referencing a book *Faces at the Bottom of
the Well* (?) by Derek (?), an ex-Law Professor from Harvard who has
managed to inject some interesting and novel arguments into the general
discussion of the past, present, and future place of Blacks in America.

							RABworm
From: choy@dvinci.USask.Ca (Henry Choy)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Is a bimbo the modern name for hussy?
Date: 10 Jan 1993 22:56:14 GMT
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
NNTP-Posting-Host: dvinci.usask.ca
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

Anita Graham (anita@devvax.mincom.oz.au) wrote:
: In article <BzqD92.In7@ns1.nodak.edu>, hennebry@plains.NoDak.edu (Michael J. Hennebry) writes:
: > 
: > On the rare occasion that I feel the urge to refer to someone as the
: > male version of a bimbo, I usually say "bimba". On the even rarer
: > occasion I might otherwise have gotten the urge to refer to a female
: > as a bimbo, someone else, usually another character beat me to it.
: > I don't know any non-fictional bimbos or bimbas.
: > 

Girl says to Milo Bloom: I want to grow up to be ... a bimbo.

Milo: Ya gotta chase your dreams, baby.

--
Henry Choy
choy@cs.usask.ca

What rolls down stairs alone or in pairs            This has been brought to 
Rolls over your neighbor's dog?                     you by the numbers 4
What's great for a snack and fits on your back?     and 9 and the letter P.
It's Log, Log, Log!  -- "The Log Song", from            -- Big Bird
                         Ren & Stimpy

Math is tough!       -- Barbie
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: nadel@attatash.aero.org (Miriam Nadel)
Subject: Re: Reading as an addiction (Was: 92 in rabreview)
Organization: /usr/lib/news/organization
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 00:30:57 GMT

In article <6919@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca> schuck@dciem.dciem.dnd.ca (Mary Margaret Schuck) writes:
>
>Do others have as hard a time as I do figuring out what types of books
>to pack?  I find it extremely frustrating when I finish a book which
>has put me in just the right mood for another, only to realize that
>the other is 2000 miles away.  On the other hand, I have become adept
>at finding libraries all over the continent.  And on at least two
>occasions I've bought a copy of the book I crave, even though the
>original was at home.  For the price of a restaurant dessert, it
>always seemed worth it.

I find that figuring out what books to pack is no problem.  It's pretty
rare for me to go somewhere entirely without bookstores (though I have
spent a few weeks here and there in places where books in English were
not widely available) and I assume I can always find something I want to
read.

I also tend to take short, frequent trips rather than rare long ones, so
that may make a difference.  I did discover one bookstore I now purchase
from through the mail (The Rue Morgue in Boulder, Colorado) when I was
making weekly business trips and the owners commented that they saw me
more often than they saw many of their local customers.  

I have been known to select hotels based on proximity to bookstores.

My usual travel tendency is take something long and/or something which has
to do with my destination.  Thus, I took Mark Twain's _The Innocents
Abroad_ to Bermuda only to discover that he has just a handful of pages
on Bermuda and those at the very end of the book (which I ended up 
reading in the Philadelphia airport waiting for my connection home).

Of course, I also take along a book or two of crosswords and/or logic
puzzles and some needlework so I do have other things to occupy me if
I run low on readingmatter.

Miriam Nadel
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: CP or not PC (is that a question?)
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 15:41:27 GMT

In article <C0HLGB.Kpw@news.iastate.edu> s1mbm@isuvax.iastate.edu writes:

>I wonder who the proponents of a "risk free" society might *be* that
>you're thinking of . . . I frankly have never met any of the sort of
>folks you're talking about.

I've known folks who think rape is an ideology or social construct, so
that if you "cure" society, you could eliminate rape altogether. (Hence
the reference to "risk free" society.) Paglia takes the position that the
impulse to rape is constrained by society rather than created by it, and
that, because it is a function of very basic drives (sex and aggression),
neither rape nor date rape can ever wholly be eliminated. Moreover, she
says that male-female sexual and romantic interactions partake of a lot
more ambiguity than the "No Means No" ideology contemplates or allows.

On both of these points, I think she's closer to the truth than the
post-Brownmiller rape theorists.



--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,    |"I'm waiting for the one-man revolution
mnemonic@eff.org| The only one that's coming."
(617) 864-0665  |                           
EFF, Cambridge  |                   --Robert Frost 
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jorn@chinet.chi.il.us (Jorn Barger)
Subject: Re: lost joyce / byron?
Organization: Chinet - Public Access UNIX
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 01:07:52 GMT

The word I've got is that Danis Rose's edition of "James Joyce's
*Finn's Hotel*" will be published by Penguin, internationally,
more like June than March as previously announced.

Rose has also announced a 'corrected' edition of Finnegans Wake
to be published in several volumes beginning 1994, *using the
same methodology used by Gabler for the 1984 Ulysses* (the one that's
been getting nothing but flak ever since.

So expect to see a rising hubbub of attacks, protests, etc.

Jorn Barger
jorn@chinet.chi.il.us

(ask me about the Finnegans Wake mailing list)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: kamorgan@athena.mit.edu (Keith Morgan)
Subject: Re: Which Shakespeare works to buy?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 17:30:53 GMT

Steven Chung writes:

	Keith Morgan writes:

								  Yes, the
	 Oxford Shakespeare was very controversial when it began to trickle
	out. As I remember it was *Hamlet* especially that arose the critic's
	ire. The editors reinserted scenes that the Shakespearian
	establishment had discarded some years ago.

How about the case of the two Lears?  Is conflation generally accepted then?

	No, it's actually exceedingly controversial. There was a good
review of the Oxford Shakespeare in either Shakespeare Survey or
Shakespeare Quarterly where the problems were discussed. I don't have
a cite for it at hand.

	I've now decided I want a copy of the Oxford Shakespeare to
put next to my copy of Ogburn's The Shakespeare Mystery.

	Keith




--

Keith Morgan kamorgan@athena.mit.edu
In the end nothing could be said of his work except that it was
preposterous and true and totally unacceptable. Edward Whittemore
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: ve3pak@micor.ocunix.on.ca (Alayne McGregor and Brett Delmage)
Subject: Re: Confirmed Biblioholics
Organization: M.B. Cormier INC., Orleans (Ont)
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 03:35:45 GMT

In article <1i9r2mINNok6@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> mworley@mathcs.emory.edu (Meg Worley) writes:
>
>In all this discussion of biblioholics' bedrooms, I don't
>recall having seen anyone admitting to incorporating books
>and/or reading creatively into their sexlives.

However, there is a problem with the (umm) literary quality
of much of the explicitly-sexy material. The writing (apart from
the sex descriptions) is so bad in these as to immediately turn me
off.

I think sexy scenes out of literature (Anais Nin, maybe) might work
better.

Alayne McGregor
alayne@ve3pak.ocunix.on.ca
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox)
Subject: Re: Dean R Koontz
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 22:32:21 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.154212.10913@ericsson.se> Thomas.Enblom@eos.ericsson.se writes:
>P.S. We have Dean R Koontz, Steven Coontz, Steven King so where the
>     heck is Dean King? D.S.  

	You forgot Stephanie Coontz--not a novelist but a writer of books;
most recently of _The Way We Never Were_, a history of the American family;
from Basic Books.

	[to Fido:  this is another instance of r.a.b. log-rolling; Stephanie
teaches at Evergreen and is an acquaintance of mine].

 
-- 
				Tom Maddox
		    	    tmaddox@netcom.com
	"That's a bird bone chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				Tom Waits
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (John McCarthy)
Subject: Re: SF + PC
Reply-To: jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University
	<JMC.93Jan4235352@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> <1993Jan8.061941.2532@netcom.com>
Date: 7 Jan 93 23:03:11

In article <1993Jan8.061941.2532@netcom.com> tmaddox@netcom.com (Tom Maddox) writes:

   In article <JMC.93Jan4235352@SAIL.Stanford.EDU> jmc@cs.Stanford.EDU [Scrooge 
   McDuck] writes:

   >Bah, humbug.  Science graduates write as well as graduates in English,
   >and include far less nonsense in what they write.

   >The literacy level
   >of the PMLA isn't as high as that of _Science_ or _Nature_.

	   I find myself wondering what the esteemed Prof. McDuck means by this.
   Surely the literacy level among (a) editors, (b) writers, and (c) readers 
   of all three magazines is *very* close to one hundred per cent.  

	   Perhaps he simply means that he prefers to read the latter two
   magazines, in which case he should simply say so.  Particularly since, as
   a "science graduate" he doubtlessly writes very well.


   -- 
				   Tom Maddox
			       tmaddox@netcom.com
	   "That's a bird bone chair, Bob.  I don't know if I should sit there."
				   Tom Waits

Perhaps "literary level" would have been more precise than "literacy
level", although there are literacy levels above those required to
read magazine articles.

Quack, quack.

--
John McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford, CA 94305
*
He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense.

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books,rec.arts.sf.written
From: johns@bounty.slb.com (John R Schectman)
Subject: Re: OZ books?
Reply-To: johns@mailhost.billerica.applicon.slb.com
Organization: Applicon
	<1993Jan8.161748.2149@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 16:40:23 GMT


While not exactly about OZ books, has anyone run across another
Frank L. Baum book, _The_Magical_Monarch_of_Mo_, it's a bunch of
short stories about, whatelse, the land of Mo.  I had a copy when
I was MUCH younger (20years ago?), and I don't think I've ever seen
it in any bookstore (new or used).

--
----------------------------------------
johns@mailhost.billerica.applicon.slb.com

"No fish were harmed or killed during the composition of this email."
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Subject: Political Correctness in the Dark Ages
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 22:29:48 GMT

They're at it again in rec.arts.sf.written:  The perennial and unkillable
were-Heinlein's-politics-acceptable debate, from the stable next to the
is-Huckleberry-Finn-racist debate.

In one sense, it's not a fair question.  Writers from fifty and a hundred
years ago are assailed for not making their female characters more
independent, for not giving their cast a more international flavor, for
assuming that characters are heterosexual, for callously diregarding
the environment.  It's nice to find authors who are decades ahead of
their times, but it's not reasonable to demand it.  Nor is it reasonable
to demand of those authors styles and conventions which either didn't
exist or didn't sell at the time.

In another sense, it is a fair question, because it affects the ability
of modern readers to enjoy and appreciate the books.  If we read these
books today, we have to do so on two levels; we have to both enjoy them 
on their own terms and read them in "period piece" mode.  

Was X racist/sexist/whatever?  "Not for his time" is a reasonable answer.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

Roses red and violets blew
  and all the sweetest flowres that in the forrest grew -- Edmund Spenser


Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: marcy@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (Marcy Thompson)
Subject: Re: Homophobia
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Surrey, British Columbia, CANADA
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 19:58:53 GMT

In a recent rec.arts.books article, Mike Morris wrote:
>
>I believe such a clause in other
>words *would* become standard in this society if there were no
>non-discrimination law. 

Why do you believe this?

Is it because previous to the enactment of non-discrimination laws, 
employee/employer relations were handled by such contracts? 

In which case, why were the laws enacted in the first place?

Marcy

-- 

Marcy Thompson		
  SoftQuad (West)			
    marcy@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (preferred) or marcy@sq.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: jeffj@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (jeffrey.n.jones)
Subject: Wanted: Mad Scientist Club books
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 16:32:22 GMT

Wanted: Mad Scientist Club books. When I was a kid I loved reading 
the only MSC book that I had. I have heard that there are more books in
this series available. I still read that book at times and would love
to get some for me and my kids. Does anyone have any that they would 
like to sell or know where I could buy them. They were published by 
Scholastic Books and the local bookstore said they can't order them.
I would love to have more in the series. Thanks!

Jeff

-- 
 Jeff Jones  AB6MB         | Hooker        : I'll do anything for $50! 
 jeffj@seeker.mystic.com   | Henny Youngman: Will you paint my house?
 Infolinc BBS 415-778-5929 |    
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: scottj@magic.dml.georgetown.edu (John L. Scott)
Subject: Re: Shouting at robots
Followup-To: rec.arts.books
Organization: J. Random Misconfigured Site
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 16:18:22 GMT
X-Posted-From: iamac-1.dml.georgetown.edu
NNTP-Posting-Host: sol.ctr.columbia.edu

In article <C0Fu9o.8n@news.iastate.edu>, s1mbm@isuvax.iastate.edu (michael
bruce mcdonald) wrote:
> This is a beautifully worked-up little conspiracy scenario, but are you
> serious about "inscrutable foreigners" being the culprits?  All you have
> to do is consider the history of North America from an American Indian
> point of view to see that those inscrutable foreigners 'R us!
> 
> jes another inscrutable foreigner,
> mbm

*sigh*

In article <JMC.93Jan2141039@SAIL.Stanford.EDU>, jmc@SAIL.Stanford.EDU
(John McCarthy) wrote:

# A $25 prize is offered for the best posting in the next week viewing
# this development with alarm, i.e. children shouting at robots.

'Nuff said?

--John L. Scott
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: Paul Johnson (was Paglia)
Originator: news@nimaster
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 17:23:10 GMT

In article <1993Jan9.072008.29213@genie.slhs.udel.edu> starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr) writes:
>In article <1993Jan8.181604.8821@Princeton.EDU> roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig) writes:
>}In article <1993Jan8.074913.3098@genie.slhs.udel.edu> starr@genie.slhs.udel.edu (Tim Starr) writes:
>}>In article <1ih01dINNh29@phakt.usc.edu> rhogan@phakt.usc.edu (Ron Hogan) writes:


>}So, if Johnson writes a book about intellectuals who were social misfits,
>}and calls it "intellectuals" -- thereby at least insinuating that he 
>}is making some comment about intellectuals as a class -- why are we wrong
>}to call him on this bias?

>This insinuation seems far-fetched to me.  If it's there, then there's nothing
>wrong with "calling him" on it.

Far-fetched?  What the hell else would you conclude from seeing a book
titled "Intellectuals"?  That it was about football players?

>}>It's like the Albert Goldman school of
>}>}intellectual history-- not so much sunlight being the best disinfectant
>}>}as dragging historical figures through the mud.

>}>They dragged themselves through the mud.  Johnson just exposed it.

>}Horseshit.  Johnson told us nothing new about any of these people.

>Perhaps I'm not an expert on the biographies of Johnson's subjects, but he
>certainly told me news about them.  Is your criticism that his research
>was general overview rather than narrow, specialized, original work?

No, my critique is that his writing -- research??? -- was a muckraking
rehash with little perspective and little consistent point other than
making these people out to be monsters.  

Now, why would anyone want to do a thing like that?

>He
>}did, however, pluck out certain aspects of the lives of these people,
>}ostensibly to prove some point about the value of their work and about
>}a larger class of people.  

>Ostensibly?  I read nothing in the book that would discredit the work of
>Shelley, Ibsen, Hemingway, Russell...  This, too, is far-fetched.

Oh, for crying out loud.  Why did he write the book?  Why *bother*
with such a topic, if not to discredit their work with ad hominem
arguments?

>}>"True greatness consists in the use of a powerful understanding to enlighten
>}>oneself and others." - Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire

>}Right, and isn't diminished if one's an asshole.  

>Maybe.  Newton's greatness is no less due to his dictatorial conduct, but
>this isn't always the case.

Well, then, how can we tell?  Or should we, as a rule, even consider 
the private life of one whose ideas we find interesting?  

Or, for that matter, even his *public* life?  Insofar as Heidegger's
political philosophizing is related to his aspirations vis-a-vis Nazism,
we should consider the two together.  Is his critique of Aristotle 
necessarily affected?

>Tim Starr - Renaissance Now! - Think Universally, Act Selfishly

Speak fairly.

Roger

Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
From: wismith@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (William R. Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Last call (e: Child molestation & celibacy
Date: 12 Jan 93 20:48:46 GMT
Organization: NAS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Jeff Davis writes:

	I think the tenuous link here is the connection between
	Chastity as an ideal and the notion that Chastity is so
	far from an ideal as to be some kind of breeding ground
	for sexual deviance.



I think Chastity, as in abstinence, is a sexual deviation.




William Sburgfort Smith
Intel, SSD