Well, glad to know someone else thinks the fact that we as a fat american society can’t pull together enough dough to keep Reading Rainbow running is shameful!
Read: Shame of Shames: Reading Rainbow’s a Wrap
Posted by: Siobhan O’Connor
Next Step: Complain to PBS →
Demand the return of Reading Rainbow! Put together your own fund-raising campaign! Power in numbers, people!
Cool shirts to sport in memory of your favourite show!
I can go anywhere, I can be anything…
First Plan of Action: Write LeVar Burton a thank you note. →
yep it is him. for realio, yo. What a wonderful, wonderful man. He was one of my greatest heroes as a kid. Forever spunky, talked to kids like people, didn’t act like a clown. He evoked fascination about art, culture, life, reading…not to mention true passion in generations of soon-to-be hipsters. Levar, you put us in the know. Thank you.
The End of the 'Rainbow'...but you don't have to take MY word for it... →
This morning as I sleepily drove in to work, in between political bickering and global chaos, there came a story that truly saddened me. Reading Rainbow, after 26 years, has been canceled. It is the end of an era, where passions actually mattered in education. Reading was more than letters and words…it was imagery and humor. Mystical powers of storytelling were truly revered. Reading connected you to your world. A balloon book could be connected to the Macy’s Day Parade, and you could actually see behind the scenes, the making of a magical event. Utter happiness brought to you by PBS was given in half-hour daily doses, right before nap time.
Reading Rainbow made you crave books day and night…pile them in your little arms as high as your nose and rush home from the library to read the latest Maurice Sendak. It made you want to do your own book reports, just like those little gap-toofed kiddos did each episode. It made you want to discover and explore the adult world, in a safe and inviting way. Can Hooked on Phonics give me that??? I don’t think so!
NPR’s report this morning was not just sad because they were the bearers of such news, but because of the way they covered the piece. Dispassioned. Rationalizing a decision that they probably all secretly disagreed with. They sounded defeated and afraid.
“The show’s run is ending, Grant explains, because no one — not the station, not PBS, not the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — will put up the several hundred thousand dollars needed to renew the show’s broadcast rights.”
That’s all it takes? Some rich family to subsidize with their pals? My god, if this was an election, we’d have no problem. A disease? Funding would be poured in.
Well let me tell you Rich Folks. Dispassion is a Disease. We don’t need this right now. Kids need to be encouraged to have a little escapism in their life through the joys of reading, and then apply those ideas to their reality. What other shows have been able to pull that off in such a wonderful way?
They say, “research has shown that teaching the mechanics of reading should be the network’s priority.” WHAT research??? They don’t even source that info. Can’t we at least find out who it is that is sucking humanity out of learning?
So, RIP Reading Rainbow. Yes, 26 years is a great success for any television show. 26 years of touching lives and encouraging families share their passions together. All I can say is I hope you come back. The world won’t be the same without your sandcastles and butterflies.
Ok, so now that I am going to have to share joint custody of my two wittle black boyz, Schmoo & Schmohawk, I’ve decided to spoil them rotten. I want to be the “fun parent”! I have a back yard, but it is on a busy West Campus street + the gatos are woosy neutered & naive furbuckets who couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag. So what’s a single mama to do?
CatJackets. Yes… that’s the answer.
And Magical Cat Tree Jungle Gym. YES! Now you’re thinking, by golly!
Long ago, when I was a broody preteen with too much free time on my hands, I tried the harness thing on my wonderful buddha-like cat MoonShadow, who was NOT having it. After all…he IS a deity. It was like trying to put a harness on Gandolf or something. He’d walk and I’d walk 3 steps, he’d eat some grass, lay down, lick himself, get freaked out and try to twist out of the harness, then walk, follow, repeat. It was lame. It made me look like a moron to my nosy neighbors. I didn’t have the slightest clue what I was doing, and reasoning just wouldn’t work.
So no harnesses. My mom put a harness on me when I was a kid at the Carnival and look how I turned out. Cat + jacket = brilliance? fashion statement? fun for the whole family?
I stumbled on the CatJacket. Cat accessories have come a long way. Big biznatch. There is a whole movement behind walking your cat. Articles all over the net, like Have you walked your cat today? This is serious. This has a process and testimonials n stuff. Add to Cart. Checkout. Ship!
Stay tuned to find out if this crazy plan works! And I’m building that Magic Cat Tree dammit!
Just in case you were wondering, no, I do not call my Furrbutts “Precious” and feed them from my own mouth or anything ridiculous like that. I am not CatLady. I am CatWoman. Hey, look mister. I am merely attempting to provide exercise and sunlight and health and happiness just as they and any other fuzzbutt animal deserves. So stop looking at me! I see you laughing from your window! Don’t make me shake my fist!
Salutations Dear Ones!
My name is Willow and this is my new bloggityblog. This blog will be public, so I’m not here to share my deepest darkest secrets with you or anything, just share my passions and reflections on the universe and beyond. I hope you enjoy! It is an honor to me to be sharing them with you. Please don’t take anything I write too seriously! I am mainly here to entertain you and hopefully inspire you.
Here is a little about me:
i like mischief and i am unafraid of my urges to be mischievous. i believe chaos is a beautiful form of creation. i try to do too much, i can’t help myself. i am fascinated with people, and i am in awe with the things, energy and ideas they create. i don’t really fit in anywhere, which is sometimes nice, but many times not. i am spiritually attuned and highly intuitive at unexpected moments, but i am also totally imperceptive at other times. i am half living in this world, and half living in my own secret dimension that i wish wasn’t so secret, but that’s how it goes with secret dimensions. i love my friends and family, and can be quite loyal if they allow me to be so. i also love people and animals and everything that makes up this planet and the heavens. i am happily existing, and strangely content, yet i have a biting sarcastic wit that only those closest to me seem to appreciate and i can make most children laugh. i sing in my head, on the streets, in my car, on my bike… i like to learn and i like to teach, and i like to talk in my own language.
Time to turn the page. Oh look! A whole new chapter!
