Banned from US textbooks: owls, ketchup, dinosaurs and old ladies with cats

The Sunday Telegraph ^ | May 4, 2003 | Julian Coman

[tortoise]

Coffee? What the heck is unhealthy about coffee?

Not much. Habitual drinkers have a third to a half less renal system disease than non-drinkers, and a few studies have shown unusually potent anti-carcinogenic effects in mammals (though not tested in humans that I recall). Generally though, yeah, unless you have a particular sensitivity to coffee (many of the "side-effects" are actually caused by compounds and stimulants other than caffeine), it is hard to paint it as "bad" for you. Habitual drinkers also do not have the cardiovascular reaction that occasional drinkers do, the body quickly learning to ignore many of the bioactive chemicals in coffee.

So drink up. Don't let the killjoys spoil your fun.

[geopyg]

I just got done reading Huckleberry Finn to my eight-year old boy - we both loved it. I changed the "N word" to "slave" as I figured my eight-year old didn't need to go to school with that in his vocabulary. I also had to cut down a litle bit on the slave dialect which if left as it was he wouldn't have been able to understand. (Heck, I had trouble sometimes "Mas Tom iz goin side asn gitz dem cobs...). What a great book though with adventure, morals, etc.

[Cowboy Bob]

The state of California, the biggest buyer of education textbooks in America, has instructed publishers not to include references to unhealthy foods such as "french fries, coffee, bacon, butter, ketchup and mayonnaise".

Last I heard, the State of California was a chunk of land on the western part of the US. Land does not speak, nor does it give instructions.

Obviously, what the author of the article meant was that some Bureaucrat is calling the shots.

What I wish is that someone, Fox News, O'Reilly, Rush, whoever, would identify these people (by name!). Liberals always operate in the dark. Once they are exposed, and shown for what they are, their agendas always fail.

[eddie willers]

"french fries, coffee, bacon, butter, ketchup and mayonnaise".

I guess Little Black Sambo's out....
(what with all that butter and pancakes and such)

[Darksheare]

Heck, I say we INCLUDE all the banned stuff there and offend any an everyone who'd be offended by history anyway.
'Cause let's face it, if they're gonna be offended, they'll be offended anyway due to the fact that they'll FIND something to be offended by.

Besides that, they ban that stuff from textbooks, yet will teach third and fourth graders how to masturbate and do S&M..

[cgk]

Riverside Publishing, which provides tests for children throughout America, rules out references to abortion...

Excuse me? There had better NOT be any references to abortion! Talk about something that doesn't belong in school books. That should go without saying, not as passing in how they are "appeasing" "right-wing fundamentalists"! I have no problems with dinosaurs, and I believe in God. What a crock.

[kayak]

Little Black Sambo has been out for quite a while now, regrettably .... as have the Uncle Remus stories ...... :-(

Just tonight we were watching the NASCAR race on tv and one of the sponsors was Michelin. Has anyone noticed how the Michelin man has been slimmed down? I think the Pillsbury Doughboy has been put on a diet, also.

Of course, there may be a whole lot of parents glad to see Barney the Purple Dinosaur phased out ..... *grins*

[Brad’s Gramma]

If anyone out there can find a copy of that book, I'll BUY it and gladly read it to my grandson.

G-L-A-D-L-Y!!!

[kayak]

The Story of Little Black Sambo

Amazingly, it's listed at amazon.com! And here are some very interesting comments from a reviewer .....

The story of little black Sambo is truly a classic from all who remember it from our childhood.Helen Bannerman wrote this story for her two little children while traveling with them by train across India. If people would LOOK AT THE ILLUSTRATIONS they would see that Sambo is a little Indian boy from India, continents away from America and the Cival war and or South. I ran 2 independant bookstores some 12 to 14 years ago and when I finally found THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO in print again I'd order maybe 60 copies a week and could not keep this wonderful little storybook in stock. Almost every buyer were grandparents who could not wait to introduce their grandchildren to a book we all knew and loved. It is a must have for all collectors of wonderful literature!

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Boy, you got that right.

I am so SICK of this PC crap.

I am glad I grew up in a time where we read everything from the "scared to the profane," and were allowed to make our own choices and decisions (along with good parental guidance) about right and wrong.

Liberals are so strange..

Protesting everything about the very country that gives them the right to do so..

Having zero tolerance for "drugs" including Advil or aspirin, but fighting for the right for your daughter to get an abortion without parental consent or knowledge..

Decrying meat eating, but wearing Birkinstocks..

They put up STUPID flags of the earth, peace signs on American flags, and so on

I will not be beaten into anonymity, we are not all the same and aren't meant to be.

It is only by looking at life from all angles, and living the highs and lows, that we learn to appreciate what we have, and to live life to the fullest.

It is not accomplished by whitewashing life, denying kids of the mechanism of coping, the ardor of striving, the pride in reaching goals, and the tempering of life with compassion, which can only be taught if all aspects of life are presented honestly.

[F16Fighter]

"No more 'OTIS..the town drunk!'"

And in keeping with the twist of the times, 'Otis' becomes 'Jerry...the town Right-Wing Christian fanatic.'

[kayak]

Well said, Ms.B! Well said!

[F16Fighter]

"And no more Aunt Bea either..."

Oh yeah, there's still an 'Aunt Bea'...

But this 'Aunt Bea' has a rather large adam's apple, sports a Betty Grable tattoo on her hairy forearm, and insists both Andy and Opie wear little pink aprons around the house because, "America has changed, d@mmit!"

[lafroste]

No more "OTIS..the town drunk!"

I guess they now insist (get it? NOW? I crack me up) it's "Philis... the town drunk"?

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Oh wait, this is a British lefty publication. Never mind.

Huh? The Telegraph a lefty publication?

[MS.BEHAVIN]

Thanks so much Kayak...

Ms.B

[MS.BEHAVIN]

scared=sacred..

Sorry about that..long day.

Ms.B

[cookcounty]

" The Harry Potter series...........has been listed by the American Library Association as the "most attacked" book in the US."

No, That would be the Bible, which, despite its being the basis for much of western literature and thought, is rigorously kept out of all government classrooms.

[nopardons]

This is just bloody insane ! In one fellswoop, these Comstocks of the left, have wiped out just about EVERY litterary novel, novella, short story, that has ever been written, for adults or children, as " impropper " for consumption.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

[Happygal]

I still have my childhood 'gollywog'. And my future daughter (Kit) will have it too.