Word of the day

vet (v) originally to have a horse checked by a veterinarian before allowing it to race; to appraise, verify, or check for accuracy, authenticity, suitability, etc.

"I was simply confused and people were taking stuff down...they said we had to take anything down with unicorns and rainbows," said Kay Brazelton, who works at a school in the Buckeye Valley (Ohio) system.  A surprise visit from Thomas Gradgrind?  ("In this life we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!")  No, a planned visit from Jason Tharp to read his book It's Okay To Be a Unicorn! to young children.  An agent of the Gender Police heard about it and spread the word that the book promotes gayness, although it does not mention sexuality but you can just tell.  So Tharp's appearance was cancelled and a special meeting of the school board was called and the interim superintendent explained that one parent "just wanted to make sure that we vetted the book."  Because while rainbows are real they have been co-opted by the gays and rendered icky, so maybe the same with unicorns, which are mythical?

"I'm here to create books that inspire kids to dream big, embrace themselves, understand the importance of self-kindness" -- is he talking about masturbation? --  "...being a human is not easy," said Tharp, described by WBNS 10 as "a straight married man," perhaps to keep the villagers from burning his house.  

How do you vet a book about unicorns?   I read a book that was full of angels, demons, "giants in the earth," a talking snake and several dead people who came back to life.  When Buckeye Valley finishes vetting Tharp's book they should really take a look at this one.  It's full of hair-raising brutality, misogyny, ludicrous misinformation and something called "begats."  Come to think of it, this thing was read to me in school long ago.  I can't say it taught me anything about kindness. 

Richard England is a regular patron of the Seymour (Indiana) Public Library.  In 2020 he dropped off some books and a poem he had written for a librarian who wasn't there.  

"The Red Mean" goes:  "Know no good.  Bring out your dead.  Let em eat cake.  Off with your head.  Before you become Donald Trump's clone, Know Satan's reward Is only a loan.  

"Liars are losers.  Haters are cruel.  Oh what a pity To die such a fool."

For this England got a call from the police informing him that he had been banned from the library and would be arrested for criminal trespass if he tried to enter it again.  The library staff pronounced themselves "confused and scared" by this threatening document, and Jackson County's lawyers called it "a true threat" and not protected by the First Amendment.  ("Off with your head" being the sentiment that derailed the career of Kathy Griffin.)  Nonsense, ruled Judge Tanya Walton Pratt when the ACLU brought the case into her court.  You violated the man's First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.  Give him back his library card and stop being stupid.

The police.  Not even the library police that Woody Allen used to joke about:  "They took away my glasses for a month."  (Overdue books.  We've all done it.) 

Teen Vogue wants young adults to know that Brooklyn has their back.  If they're trapped in Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas, Tennessee, or one of the other twenty states on PEN America's radar, they can download an app giving them access to any ebooks the Brooklyn Public Library has.  You can't burn an app.