More Follow-up For Rocket Transport Traffic Log-Jams

Yesterday's Mooresville-Decatur Times had another follow-up story to the huge rocket booster transport log-jams that tied-up traffic near my Library last Tuesday (9/27/11) (see my blog post and follow-up for my eyewitness reports).

The semi-tractor trailer whopper truck that got stuck at the Main-Monroe Streets intersection was supposedly carrying "an empty tanker usually filled with food products."  That smacks of governmental cover-up and conspiracy to moi.  Obviously, it was a huge rocket ship booster stage for that super-secret slobberdog space station project.  I became certain when those two Men in Black dudes appeared and took my digital camera.  Fortunately, Agents J and K didn't remember that their neuralyzer "flashy thing" doesn't work on us felines, so I recollected the whole episode.

According to yesterday's and last Wednesday's newspaper, the routes of these whopper trucks are set in stone by the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and cannot be changed once carved into the map.  Now, however, big rigs will not be allowed to take State Road 267 through Mooresville until that route is reevaluated.  Apparently, news travels slowly to INDOT, because this traffic log-jam occurred before (last February), but no route reconsideration had been planned until last week's five-hour traffic snarl.

Okay, let moi set things straight.  Hey, INDOT bigwigs:  those whopper trucks cannot negotiate the turns as S.R. 267 slitherdarts its way through my hometown.  Find another path, okay?  Just saying.

There is this to say for those traffic log-jams at Main and Monroe:  It has provided cheap entertainment for our Library patrons and passersby.  But I'm glad that INDOT is evaluating the whopper truck routes, and I'm confident that an excellent solution will be eventually forthcoming.

Hoping All Unstuck Trucks Can Make Tight Turns in My Town,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Transportation Follow-up News Beat

P.S.  James Taylor's "Traffic Jam," from the album JT (1977), seemed appropriate for our discussion about traffic jams caused by those big trucks in my town.  Family warning:  James sings the "D-word" (that rhymes with "jam"), because the character he's singing about is angry about being stuck in traffic.

More "D"elightful "E"arly Literacy Fun

Wild Thang (Miss Jaymi) and Sammy the Toucan have posted a new blog and two new videos (featuring the letters D and E) on their early literacy blog and brand-new YouTube Channel, The Miss Jaymi.

I've blogged about both "breaking news" stories on my Cauli 4 Kids blog, Catch It @ MPL.

Breaking News to My Readers 24/7,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Early Literacy News Beat

P.S.  Be sure to follow Wild Thang and Sammy's early literacy blog by clicking the blue "Join this site" button under the "Followers" heading on the blog's right side.

Winding Up ALA Banned Books Week 2011

Now that ALA Banned Books Week 2011 has ended, I hope that everyone has enjoyed reading a banned or challenged library book.  I hope you enjoyed our many book trailers featuring some censored reads.

Bringing things full-circle, I'd like to reprise my Library's promo trailers for ALA Banned Books Week for this and last year.

Keep Reading What You Choose,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

BBW News Beat

P.S.  Reading calls to mind "Between the Lines," by Janis Ian, from her album by the same name (1975).

More Birthday Fun

Sparkle the Designer Cat, who has been a loyal long-time reader of my blog and is a world-famous author to boot, offered an '80's-style New Wave rendition of "Happy Birthday" by Devo.  If you never saw any Devo videos back in the day, then you missed some clever, funny performances and quite innovative music.

So, as a present to Morgan the Library Bunny, who celebrates the "terrible twos" next Friday, October 7, 2011, here's Devo singing "Happy Birthday."

Also from roughly the same time period, Stevie Wonder released his uniquely upbeat version of "Happy Birthday" on the album Hotter Than July (1980).

Then there's a cute kitten "singing" "Happy Birthday."

I'm hoping to have my human minions attend Morgan's birthday bash to take photos and interview attendees, but I probably won't be able to go myself, because Boss Lady has me pounding the library news beat 24/7.  However, "flat Cauli" might make an appearance in my stead.  We're still in the planning stages, but I'll see what I can arrange.

When's My Birthday Bash, Boss Lady?  Just Asking,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Birthday News Beat

P.S.  Devo's biggest hit was probably "Whip It," from the album Freedom of Choice (1980).  What an appropriate title for the end of ALA Banned Books Week.

P.P.S.  Devo felt "out-Devo'ed" by "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody, "Dare to be Stupid," from the album by the same title (1985).

Banishing Zombies & Other Fantasies From Library Shelves

As ALA Banned Books Week draws to a close for this year, we complete our week-long look at challenged or banned library books with a couple of fantasy heavyweights.

It's easy to guess why would-be book censors target zombie novels.  The graphic violence.  The obsession with the undead that is part-and-parcel of the subject matter.  The smell!  (Well, perhaps only felines notice that.)  The usual justification offered for zombie book removal is to protect children from such monstrous literary representations.  Surely, this would hold true only for children under age 10 in today's American society.  Young adults, whom people as old as Scowl-Face called teenagers, would not be easily shocked or offended by reading about such fictitious creatures.  Considering that many challenges of zombie books have occurred in secondary school library settings, the argument about protecting our young children falls rather flat.  We may safely counter that teens are old enough for such fare, so leave those books in those library sections catering to readers ages 12 and older.

One particular censorship target in this genre is The Zombie Survival Guide, by Max Brooks.  The book is clearly satirical; it is pretending to talk about zombies as if they were real and living in our everyday world instead of our imaginations.  It is a pastiche of "how-to" manuals and brilliantly sends-up both zombies and user guides.  Read it for laughs.  Book banners, consider my advice:  Don't take it so seriously, for crying out loud.  It's harmless fantasy, like rooting for the Chicago Cubs to reach the World Series.  (JUST KIDDING!)  Poor Cubbies.  They get no respect.

The Cloak of Dreams: Chinese Fairy Tales, by Béla Balázs; illustrations by Mariette Lydis; translated by Jack Zipes (Princeton Univ. Press, 2010), was originally published in 1921.  The author is best remembered today as a movie screenwriter, but this collection of "oddly modern fairy tales" (as the current publisher's book series declares such works) is filled with strange characters living anachronistic lives in pseudo-Asian cultural locales.  Everything seems slightly off, and yet there are recognizable themes working here--friendship, alienation, the meaning of life and death, Taoism, to name a few--wrapped around and between peculiar characters and situations.  It is a fantasy that is fantastic, in the sense of being larger-than-life and surreal.

Why has Cloak of Dreams been challenged or banned from schools and libraries?  Presumably, critics don't understand its complex philosophical underpinnings and odd plot twists.  Like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, opponents don't comprehend the stories, but they assume something undesirable is in there somewhere.  Better safe than sorry, they think, so off the shelves with the book.

Cloak of Dreams is fiction that primarily appeals to college academics.  It takes significant effort to plough through these fairy tales, and one needs a considerable understanding of historical contexts and social conditions in the early 20th century to "get" what's really going on.  If that's your can of tuna-in-oil, then give it a try, by all means.

Time For a Nap, After All That Analytical Stuff,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

BBW News Beat

P.S.  "Zombies Ate Her Brain," by The Creepshow, from the band's debut album, Sell Your Soul (2006), seemed like a good fit for this posting.  It's all in good fun, especially if you like the "psychobilly" sound.