# Adolf Spongebob and the End of Civilization



## Ysarex (Jul 31, 2012)

OK, I'm old and naive and I'm overreacting, but OMG!

I had to drive out to campus yesterday to run an errand and I did something a bit uncommon for me. I stopped at a McDonalds for a quick snack.

I see what appears to be an unusual interior decorating item right between the order counter and the seating section -- a bookcase. I walked over to check out some of the book titles and OMG! They had taken real books and sawed off the splines and glued them into the case. After a few moments of stunned disbelief I took a photo.






So all the way driving back I just kept repeating this thought in my head:

The Nazi's burned books, the Bolshevik's burned books, the Red Guard burned books and they all failed, but the real enemy is turning them into cheezy interior decorations and they've actually got a shot at success. Civilization finally collapses under the laughing face of Adolf Spongebob! I have hundreds and hundreds of books. I revere them and cherish them and I read every day. This brought tears to my eyes!

When I get home my wife tells me it's real common and lots of people decorate with fake bookcases -- I'm so naive!

Joe

P.S. Many of you know I'm a retired college professor. I've taught for over 30 years. A decade ago we suffered through a crisis at my college when we had to face the fact that a large percentage of our incoming students couldn't read. Some of us wanted to institute an intake reading placement test and remedial action. Others wanted to sweep it under the rug. Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.


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## pic_chick (Jul 31, 2012)

This hurt my heart. I love books, my husband and I both enjoy going to resale shops and the 1st thing we look at are the books. We are building our collection and I could NEVER cut one to make a fake bookcase. I think that the fake bookcase would in fact be more work to make and look real cheesy. People do some of the dumbest things. :scratch:


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## Jaemie (Jul 31, 2012)

Couldn't the franchisee have found a better prop than one which uses real mutilated books? It's just so ...viscerally repugnant.


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## MK3Brent (Jul 31, 2012)

People are admitted to college without the ability to read? 
Who let them graduate high school?


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## 12sndsgood (Jul 31, 2012)

im kind of on the fence on this one. I like to read as well. I geneally buy my books, does that make me better buying my couple books a year versus my wife who buys about a book every other week on her ipad, she reads 10x as much as i do but never picks up a book. when was the last time you listened to an 8-track tape, or a real to real? doesn't mean music has gone by the wayside nessicarily. Granted stupid people abound. but cutting up books for a fake bookshelf isn't the reason, nor will it be any reason to cause illiteracy.


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## Derrel (Jul 31, 2012)

OMG--my son and I stopped at McDonald's this weekend after a day spent on my family's heritage farm...and they had the same Spongebob display. I bought him a Happy Meal, and he received the Spongebob-on-purple-skateboard pull-n-go toy as the Happy Meal prize. Oddly...another McDonald's located here, some 60 miles from farm, has some wallpaper that is...a fake bookcase pattern...


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## Jaemie (Jul 31, 2012)

12sndsgood said:


> ...but cutting up books for a fake bookshelf isn't the reason, nor will it be any reason to cause illiteracy.



For me, the mutilation of books and illiteracy are different issues. Book destruction, as mentioned by the OP, evokes images of fascism, intolerance, and censorship.


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## 12sndsgood (Jul 31, 2012)

I agree bit this wasn't done to ban books because they were evil or wrong. it was done to make a fake bookshelf, two completly diffrent things.


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## 12sndsgood (Jul 31, 2012)

I need to remember to check my spelling and punctuation, I'm starting to look illiterate here.


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## pic_chick (Jul 31, 2012)

12sndsgood said:


> im kind of on the fence on this one. I like to read as well. I geneally buy my books, does that make me better buying my couple books a year versus my wife who buys about a book every other week on her ipad, she reads 10x as much as i do but never picks up a book. when was the last time you listened to an 8-track tape, or a real to real? doesn't mean music has gone by the wayside nessicarily. Granted stupid people abound. but cutting up books for a fake bookshelf isn't the reason, nor will it be any reason to cause illiteracy.



Reading is Reading. A digital book is still a book in my eye.


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

Reading is good.. no matter how you access the material!  

Destruction of books for any reason just seems wrong to me... especially for decoration. I have held and loved too many books, for them not to be special to me. Some people will understand that... some people wont!


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## sm4him (Jul 31, 2012)

MK3Brent said:


> People are admitted to college without the ability to read?
> Who let them graduate high school?



Don't EVEN get me started!! Our high schools have TEACHERS who can barely put together a grammatically correct sentence! ENGLISH teachers who can't (or don't bother to) spell correctly, and who couldn't diagram a sentence if their life depended on it.  I have several friends who are teachers in our area (at least three of them teach high school English) and they could tell you HORROR stories--not just about papers that students have written, but about the other English teachers who grade those papers and simply *dismiss* problems with punctuation, even spelling errors sometimes because "it's not that important." Seriously???

Okay, I'd better step down off THAT soapbox before I blow an artery. 



12sndsgood said:


> im kind of on the fence on this one. I like to read as well. I geneally buy my books, does that make me better buying my couple books a year versus my wife who buys about a book every other week on her ipad, she reads 10x as much as i do but never picks up a book. when was the last time you listened to an 8-track tape, or a real to real? doesn't mean music has gone by the wayside nessicarily. Granted stupid people abound. but cutting up books for a fake bookshelf isn't the reason, nor will it be any reason to cause illiteracy.



No, reading a paper book does not make one "better" than reading via any other means available, and I applaud the fact that there ARE so many options today. I have a Kindle Fire, my laptop and my smartphone, all of which are loaded with a myriad of books and magazines, so that I am never without reading material.  Still, on a rainy evening or a lazy Saturday morning, I would MuCH (sorry, this keyboard will NOT make a cap "u") rather curl up under the covers with a REAL book than with any of my electronic options. There is just something soothing and magical about turning those pages! 



cgipson1 said:


> Reading is good.. no matter how you access the material!
> 
> Destruction of books for any reason just seems wrong to me... especially for decoration. I have held and loved too many books, for them not to be special to me. Some people will understand that... some people wont!



^+1. I'll join that club!! 

That said, I *have* used books as decoration; but ONLY if the original book was already damaged to the extent that it was no longer useful as a book.  But, except for a flood in my basement a few years back (shortly after moving, so some boxes were still being stored down there) I can honestly say that no book of MINE has ever been allowed to get damaged to that extent!


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## pgriz (Jul 31, 2012)

Yeah, but....  Ah, I'm just old-fashioned.  There's something tactile about reading a physical book.  And there's more to it than just the pages.  Sometimes you pick up a second-hand book, and discover bit and pieces of the lives of previous owners, in the form of underlined passages, or notes in the margins, or slips of paper can be as intimate as forgotten love letters, or as functional as a shopping list.  And when you pick up a well-used book, with corners a bit dirty and slightly curled, you get to share, through the book a connection to another person.

Even the physicality of a book gives a different experience.  The creaking of the binding if it was cheaply made, or sheer texture of fine paper if it was a heritage hard-cover book, make the experience of opening and holding a book more than just the reading of words.  And to know that people just use the spines of books to give the appearance of culture, without any foundation behind it, emphasizes the shallowness and vapidity of much which passes for "modern" culture.  In my family, we revere books.  There are bookshelves with classics and sci-fi, and crafts and self-help books, with books on cooking (crammed with additional recipies and notes on what worked and what didn't)...  The kids, now grown up, refuse to give up the books which we read when they were young - they are mementos of moments of childhood when reading a book before bedtime was as much part of the ritual as brushing the teeth.

Even now, if we exchange gifts, the gifts most anticipated and appreciated are books.  They allow us to discover new passions, and relive old moments.  We like our physical books.


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

pgriz said:


> Yeah, but....  Ah, I'm just old-fashioned.  There's something tactile about reading a physical book.  And there's more to it than just the pages.  Sometimes you pick up a second-hand book, and discover bit and pieces of the lives of previous owners, in the form of underlined passages, or notes in the margins, or slips of paper can be as intimate as forgotten love letters, or as functional as a shopping list.  And when you pick up a well-used book, with corners a bit dirty and slightly curled, you get to share, through the book a connection to another person.
> 
> Even the physicality of a book gives a different experience.  The creaking of the binding if it was cheaply made, or sheer texture of fine paper if it was a heritage hard-cover book, make the experience of opening and holding a book more than just the reading of words.  And to know that people just use the spines of books to give the appearance of culture, without any foundation behind it, emphasizes the shallowness and vapidity of much which passes for "modern" culture.  In my family, we revere books.  There are bookshelves with classics and sci-fi, and crafts and self-help books, with books on cooking (crammed with additional recipies and notes on what worked and what didn't)...  The kids, now grown up, refuse to give up the books which we read when they were young - they are mementos of moments of childhood when reading a book before bedtime was as much part of the ritual as brushing the teeth.
> 
> Even now, if we exchange gifts, the gifts most anticipated and appreciated are books.  They allow us to discover new passions, and relive old moments.  We like our physical books.




Friend request sent... after reading this.. I had too!    lol!


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## sleist (Jul 31, 2012)

Jaemie said:


> Couldn't the franchisee have found a better prop than one which uses real mutilated books? It's just so ...viscerally repugnant.



What makes you think it wasn't a mass produced prop?  (i.e. not real books)
Franchises are usually very strict about what you use for promotional material.


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## pgriz (Jul 31, 2012)

> Many of you know I'm a retired college professor. I've taught for over 30 years. A decade ago we suffered through a crisis at my college when we had to face the fact that a large percentage of our incoming students couldn't read. Some of us wanted to institute an intake reading placement test and remedial action. Others wanted to sweep it under the rug. Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.



The illiteracy is not limited to reading, unfortunately.  Too many people can't do basic math, don't know anything about science, have no understanding of even basic economics, and have no curiosity about how the world works.  Critical thinking, examination of assumptions and cross-checking facts seem all to be skill areas that people don't put any value in.  We call ourselves "democratic", but seem more and more inclined to shut out real debate and deep examination of the facts.  If I ask the question of someone "How do you know that?", I often get a hostile rejoinder that "that just common knowledge!".  Eh.  Forgive me for being a skeptic, but I'm really not into group-think.  Yet when masses of people don't know how to verify what they are told, don't examine the mythology behind much of popular culture, then those masses are susceptible to being swayed by various interests.  And perhaps that is what we are witnessing - the deliberate dumbing-down of the population to allow easier influence.


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

pgriz said:


> > Many of you know I'm a retired college professor. I've taught for over 30 years. A decade ago we suffered through a crisis at my college when we had to face the fact that a large percentage of our incoming students couldn't read. Some of us wanted to institute an intake reading placement test and remedial action. Others wanted to sweep it under the rug. Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.
> 
> 
> 
> The illiteracy is not limited to reading, unfortunately.  Too many people can't do basic math, don't know anything about science, have no understanding of even basic economics, and have no curiosity about how the world works.  Critical thinking, examination of assumptions and cross-checking facts seem all to be skill areas that people don't put any value in.  We call ourselves "democratic", but seem more and more inclined to shut out real debate and deep examination of the facts. * If I ask the question of someone "How do you know that?", I often get a hostile rejoinder that "that just common knowledge!". * Eh.  Forgive me for being a skeptic, but I'm really not into group-think.  Yet when masses of people don't know how to verify what they are told, don't examine the mythology behind much of popular culture, then those masses are susceptible to being swayed by various interests.  And perhaps that is what we are witnessing - the deliberate dumbing-down of the population to allow easier influence.



You just being a *HATER*.. that's all!  lol!


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## 12sndsgood (Jul 31, 2012)

Kid's arn't being taught to think. They are being taught to pass a test. Learning how to troubleshoot, to see the problem and try to find a solution. To have a question and to seek the answer isn't being taught. And to many families out there that just don't care wether little Timmy is learning or not.


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## 12sndsgood (Jul 31, 2012)

cgipson1 said:


> pgriz said:
> 
> 
> > > Many of you know I'm a retired college professor. I've taught for over 30 years. A decade ago we suffered through a crisis at my college when we had to face the fact that a large percentage of our incoming students couldn't read. Some of us wanted to institute an intake reading placement test and remedial action. Others wanted to sweep it under the rug. Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.
> ...




God there is a word that I wish would not have become popular, Now everyone want to get in arguments just so they can call someone a hater then run around saying how they have haters.


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

12sndsgood said:


> cgipson1 said:
> 
> 
> > pgriz said:
> ...



That was my POINT! It is a word so often used by the very people who don't read, can't do math, will probably never have a decent job, "the Illiterate", etc.... or am I picking on stereotypes here?  It too is a common rejoinder to the "Why do you do that", "how do you know that", "don't you want a real life" questions!


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## 12sndsgood (Jul 31, 2012)

I'd say your being a bit stereotypical, but I hate the word so much I'll let it slide. lol.


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## Derrel (Jul 31, 2012)

Seems like Ysarex has come down with a case of the...

*Spongebob Blues !*


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## pgriz (Jul 31, 2012)

Demonizing the opposition is a favourite activity of those who seek influence.  It stops any attempt to see the underlying principles that are the foundation of a given position, and makes it easy to dismiss - "they" are evil!  Calling someone a "hater" doesn't really convey anything except that the person is not sympathetic to a certain viewpoint.  It is interesting to watch a conversation where one person epouses some political or social theory, and another challenges that person with "Why?".  And to that answer, another "Why?".  and so on until veins pop and voices scream.  Very few people can justify their positions when pressed to do so to the basic level.  Which is unfortunate since it removes a key element of intelligence - examination of the bedrock facts and the structure of beliefs and conventions that is built upon them. 

But this is a photography forum, and presumably many people here understand the "visual shorthand" that is present in many of our compositions and images.  Yet the art of seeing requires us to move away from the facile labels we put on everything, and go back to the underlying elements of line, curve, texture, shape, colour.  Or if we're into shooting people, their unstated story, their emotions, their moments of life.  When we can peel back the facade, we start approaching the truth.  To me, that is one of the promises of photography, and why I try to get better at it, even though I have a very long way to go.  I want to see what's lying under the surface.


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## jake337 (Jul 31, 2012)

Ysarex said:


> OK, I'm old and naive and I'm overreacting, but OMG!
> 
> I had to drive out to campus yesterday to run an errand and I did something a bit uncommon for me. I stopped at a McDonalds for a quick snack.
> 
> ...



About a decade ago huh?  Isn't that about the same time the initiated the "no child left behind" bs......


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## jake337 (Jul 31, 2012)

MK3Brent said:


> People are admitted to college without the ability to read?
> Who let them graduate high school?




I thought they would be held back from 3rd grade or something......


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

jake337 said:


> MK3Brent said:
> 
> 
> > People are admitted to college without the ability to read?
> ...



High School is 3rd grade now!! lol!


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

pgriz said:


> Demonizing the opposition is a favourite activity of those who seek influence.  It stops any attempt to see the underlying principles that are the foundation of a given position, and makes it easy to dismiss - "they" are evil!  Calling someone a "hater" doesn't really convey anything except that the person is not sympathetic to a certain viewpoint.  It is interesting to watch a conversation where one person epouses some political or social theory, and another challenges that person with "Why?".  And to that answer, another "Why?".  and so on until veins pop and voices scream.  Very few people can justify their positions when pressed to do so to the basic level.  Which is unfortunate since it removes a key element of intelligence - examination of the bedrock facts and the structure of beliefs and conventions that is built upon them.
> 
> But this is a photography forum, and presumably many people here understand the "visual shorthand" that is present in many of our compositions and images.  Yet the art of seeing requires us to move away from the facile labels we put on everything, and go back to the underlying elements of line, curve, texture, shape, colour.  Or if we're into shooting people, their unstated story, their emotions, their moments of life.  When we can peel back the facade, we start approaching the truth.  To me, that is one of the promises of photography, and why I try to get better at it, even though I have a very long way to go.  I want to see what's lying under the surface.



Well put!


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## Ysarex (Jul 31, 2012)

12sndsgood said:


> I agree bit this wasn't done to ban books because they were evil or wrong. it was done to make a fake bookshelf, two completly diffrent things.



You're absolutely right and as I said I overreacted. No question the post is over-the-top, but the naughty me inside wasn't about to pass on the chance to put a stash and swastika on Spongebob.

However, as Jamie and Pic-chick noted, I did have a reaction of hurt and violation. Most of the books were old encyclopedias and out-dated stuff, but there were some genuine classic good books there. It hurt to see a name like Somerset Maugham on the back of a sawed off spline and glued into that case. And there's this nagging note that continues to disturb me. It's the note of disrespect for what I recognize is a revered symbol of culture and civilization. So I understand that some people have no respect for books and can I say that's OK? I'm not sure I can. When I see books treated with such disrespect I've got to ask what the bleep bleep is wrong with whoever did that and I'm left feeling just a little uneasy. It's kinda like people who throw trash out of their cars -- no respect.

Joe


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## Designer (Jul 31, 2012)

Ysarex said:


> Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.



I believe it.  I've been attempting educational outreach for 20 years.  Nobody wants to read.  Fake books lend all the atmosphere most people will tolerate.


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## Ysarex (Jul 31, 2012)

Designer said:


> Ysarex said:
> 
> 
> > Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.
> ...



It's disturbing. I read this last year and it scared the p*ss out me: Amazon.com: The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don&#39;t Trust Anyone Under 30) (9781585426393): Mark Bauerlein: Books

Joe


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## KenC (Jul 31, 2012)

The parents of people who can't read and/or can't assemble a coherent thought and support it have to bear a lot of the blame.  My parents, who had minimal formal education, never would have put up with my not being able to function.  They would have harassed the schools and teachers to be sure, but they also would have made sure I had basic skills necessary to survive in the world.


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## Jaemie (Jul 31, 2012)

sleist said:


> Jaemie said:
> 
> 
> > Couldn't the franchisee have found a better prop than one which uses real mutilated books? It's just so ...viscerally repugnant.
> ...



The OP's description says they were real books:



Ysarex said:


> They had taken real books and sawed off the splines and glued them into the case.


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## sm4him (Jul 31, 2012)

Ysarex said:


> Designer said:
> 
> 
> > Ysarex said:
> ...



Yet, there is hope. Despite the fact that it seems the younger generations have become entirely self-absorbed and illiterate--and indeed, many of them have--there IS hope. I know this because I know my children, and I know some of their friends.
My sons, 19 and 21 years of age, have been reading since they were four years old. They were being read to long before that. My eldest, in particular, was almost NEVER without a book in his hand, even before he could read it himself.  
The eldest was reading adult-level books by third grade. He read, and mostly understood the adult version of "The Way Things Work" when he was eight years old--he probably understood it better THEN than I do now!
As a result, they are incredibly literate, learned individuals. They both read a myriad of different genres, and they have both read more of the classics than almost any adult I know (outside my own family).  And some of their friends are also pretty voracious readers.

I believe that their reading habits have not just made them smarter, but less self-centered, more aware of the world around us, the needs of others, the HISTORY of how we came to BE in this mess.  
One wants to be a rocket scientist, one wants to be an artist--both are highly intelligent, both are respected not just by their peers but by the adults who know them.

I don't say that to brag on MY kids (though I'm happy to do so!) but to say that there ARE younger people out there who are not falling into the "dumbing down" black hole that is the digital age.  This "minority" among the younger generation still love their technology, but they also know how to survive in the wilderness, how to grow their own food, and how to put others ahead of themselves.  It's encouraging to see, and it is what gives me hope.

The "Greatest Generation" had the same dismal, hopeless feelings about the future as they watched the "Baby Boomers" reach college age and then adulthood. There was little hope for a bright future when adults looked at the rebellious draft-dodging, flag-burning, free-loving, pot-smoking young boomers.  And yet, looked how we turned out...okay, BAD example.


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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

sm4him said:


> Ysarex said:
> 
> 
> > Designer said:
> ...



We're DOOMED!


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## rexbobcat (Jul 31, 2012)

Ysarex said:


> Designer said:
> 
> 
> > Ysarex said:
> ...



Every generation glorifies their generation and looks in disdain at the current generation.

Currently it's "Back in my day before the internet. Those were the days."

Before that it was "Back in my day we had to walk to school. Those were the days." 

And before that it was "Back in my day we didn't let no negros subjugate our authority. Those were the days."

That's been the case since the beginning of forever. What's past is always "golden" because everybody only remembers the good stuff. I personally find it ridiculous to say that this current generation will destroy America. That's what they said about generation X and generation Free Love as well, and...well...we're still here.

I don't think very many people under the age of maybe 70 would say that they think a world without the internet would be better. All of this stupidity and "bad news" that's floating around on the internet has always been there. It's always been around. It's just never been this accessible. I do understand that the digital age is supposedly shortening attention spans, but saying that it's making people stupider is just stupid in itself. The hardest way isn't always the most effective way.


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## jake337 (Jul 31, 2012)

An old friend of mine used to always tell me this......

"Some people are born with a book in their hand, some are born with a hammer."


My old friend who would say this dropped out of school at 12 years old, has been homeless, has lived in a van in the woods and more recently started/owns a multi-million dollar tree removal business that started from a simple lawn care service company.

Never judge a book by it's cover....and books can't read either.


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## durhamskywriter (Jul 31, 2012)

Ysarex said:


> &#8230; P.S. Many of you know I'm a retired college professor. &#8230; Hard to believe but the US is becoming increasing illiterate.



Psst! The next time you tell people you were a college professor, remember to add the *ly* to the end of "increasing." (I'm sure you meant to say "increasingly illiterate.") Thanks!

But seriously, I agree that, at first glance, that display might be considered despicable. However, I wouldn't expect to pick up a book at McDonald's, *but* a display of fake books might remind the clever parent to say something like, "Say, kids, we haven't been to the library in a couple of weeks! Let's go as soon as we finish our lovely meal!" 

Oh well, one can hope. &#8230;


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## kundalini (Jul 31, 2012)

One book I kept in the toilet, err, Mmmm, ooooh, I meant "library" as a kid was a dictionary.


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## Kazooie (Aug 1, 2012)

I'd make a contribution to this conversation if I knew how to read those little squiggly things you guys keep posting.


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