Cyber Scare

This morning I went to take pictures at a local school. They were having "Cyber Day" where local college representatives had been invited to come speak to the kids about cyberspace. Kids ranged from 2nd grade to 8th grade.

It started off well, the principal noted that some kids parents had paid a small fortune for her son to be principal for the day, so she was "handing things over to him" for the day. And with that she handed him a blank clip board.

Then, some folks from BPCC stood up and started telling these kids that there are no secrets anymore. Anything they say or write can be picked up with computers... that people can come behind them and scan their desks to see what they've been writing. I understand the need to protect yourself, but this whole "Big Brother is Watching You" thing to scare the kids was not done well.

This was followed up by telling them about Second Life. A web space where they can create their own avatars and make themselves look like they want to... where they can create their own lands and get rid of people they don't like. Again, do second graders need to get in on this?

Then the speaker asked if anyone was scared of this. Nearly all the teachers and a hand full of kids raised their hands. She told them there was nothing to be afraid of. I was scared.

Then, to change the tempo they started shooting puppets with laser beams and mirrors.

If my kids were there (if I had kids)I don't think I would have been very pleased with them viewing that horrible presentation.

Writers Strike and Ways to Cope

So with the writers strike in full swing and nothing but reality TV, Netflix and HBO re-runs to fill my time, I picked up the copy of Entertainment Weekly that we've started receiving for free for some reason. They have a great spread on ways to overcome this strike, my favorite of which was a suggestion by Nicholas Fonseca to start a Pulitzer Prize Book Club. The gist is to read, chronologically, all the Pulitzer Prize books since 1917.

I decided to look up this list and was somewhat saddened when I realized that I haven't read the majority of these books - and actually had not heard of very many of them. So... here they are. Read any of them? Interested in reading any of them? Interested in starting a club?

The Pulitzer Prize has been awarded by Columbia University since 1917. The awards are given on the recommendations of a board of jurors for Journalism, Letters, Music and Drama. The awards for Letters include Fiction, which is listed here, Nonfiction, Poetry, Biography or Autobiography, and History.

2007 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2006 - March by Geraldine Brooks
2005 - Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
2004 - The Known World by Edward P. Jones
2003 - Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
2002 - Empire Falls by Richard Russo
2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
2000 Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
1999 The Hoursby Michael Cunningham
1998 American Pastoral by Philip Roth
1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
1996 Independence Day by Richard Ford
1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
1993 A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike
1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
1989 Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison - Look, one I've heard of. Thanks Oprah!
1987 A Summons To Memphis by Peter Taylor
1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry Mcmurtry - I know this one's a song.
1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker - Man, I think that Oprah may be the only reason I've heard of any of these.
1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
1981 A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1980 The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
1978 Elbow Room: Stories by James Alan Mcpherson
1977 No award was given. - Must have been a bad year for literature.
1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
1975 The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
1974 No award was given.
1973 The Optimist's Daughter (large Print) by Eudora Welty
1972 Angle of Repose by Wallace Earle Stegner
1971 No award was given.
1970 The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford - How Original
1969 House Made of Dawn by N Scott Momaday
1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
1966 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
1965 The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
1964 No award was given.
1963 The Reivers: A Reminiscence by William Faulkner
1962 The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
1961 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee- Hey, FINALLY one I've read.

1960 Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
1959 The Travels of Jaimie Mcpheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor
1958 A Death in the Family by James Agee
1957 No award was given.
1956 Andersonville by Mackinlay Kantor
1955 A Fable by William Faulkner
1954 No award was given.
1953 The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway - Heard of this one too! Sweet.
1952 The Caine Mutiny: A Novel of World War II by Herman Wouk
1951 The Town by Conrad Richter
1950 The Way West by A B Guthrie
1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
1948 Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
1947 All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
1946 No award was given.
1945 A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
1944 Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
1943 Dragon's Teeth I by Upton Sinclair
1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
1941 No award was given.
1940 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
1938 The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
1937 Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell - Considering how abysmally long this movie was, I may consider skipping over this one.
1936 Honey in the Horn by Harold Lenoir Davis
1935 Now in November by Josephine W. Johnson
1934 Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
1933 The Store by Thomas Stribling
1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck - The second one I read... was kind of frightened by those opium smoking, having babies in the field moments.
1931 Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge
1929 Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis - For the pathetic reason that this book shares a name with a legend rock band, I'm interested.
1925 So Big by Edna Ferber
1924 The Able Mclaughlins by Margaret Wilson
1923 One of Ours by Willa Silbert Cather
1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
1920 No award was given.
1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
1918 His Family by Ernest Poole

So I have my work cut out for me, but at least Arrowsmith and that one about Dragons sound interesting...