When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? -- George Carlin

George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (New York: Hyperion, 2004). Learn about George Carlin from the Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Carlin (check out the accuracy of the biography in standard library sources http://libweb.lib.buffalo.edu/infotree/resourcesbysubject.asp?subject=Biographical+Information.

Wouldn’t it be fun if, all at once, everybody just forgot everything they knew? (p. 51)

You can think about this on a variety of levels. Certainly prejudgements would disappear and pessimists might think that perhaps more would be gained than lost. Of course, perhaps -- and we're in the realm of science fiction here -- we would just proceed to replicate good and bad all over again. I'm certain there are many science fiction tales that explore this.

I’ve always wondered if the Library of Congress provides books in their public toilets to promote reading. I should think they wouldn’t want to pass up a captive audience like that. (p. 55)

The less said the better.

Award winning documentary maker Ken Burns continues his penetrating look at American history as he takes on a three-part study. The Great Cabbage-Fart Panic of 1860. The disaster, which lasted an entire summer, took the lives of thirty-five hundred people, mostly from lung diseases. The special sound effects heard required the services of over three-hundred Milwaukee men who were fed only beer and cabbage for seven weeks. Fourteen stuntmen died during the recreations. (p. 190)

This is just plain funny; but I wonder if the language were changed a smidge if some would think it was about a real event. Hey, it's possible some folks might?

New York State and Slavery: A Major Exhibition on a Until Recently Forgotten Past

Slavery in New York
http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/

From the Web site:
"For most of its history, New York has been the largest, most diverse, and most economically ambitious city in the nation. No place on earth has welcomed human enterprise more warmly. New York was also, paradoxically, the capital of American slavery for more than two centuries. In October, 2005, The New-York Historical Society begins an unprecedented two-year exploration of this largely unknown chapter of the city's story."

"Slavery in New York, the first of two exhibitions, spans the period from the 1600s to 1827, when slavery was legally abolished in New York State. With the display of treasures from The New-York Historical Society, as well as other great repositories, it focuses on the rediscovery of the collective and personal experiences of Africans and African-Americans in New York City. "

Nine galleries offer images and commentary.

Feed the Obession: Food for the Blog-Obessed

For some of the latest information on blogs, see "The Passion of the Blog" by Irene E. McDermott in Searcher: The Magazine for Database Professionals 13, no. 4 (April 2005): 8-13. Here you will find suggested political blogs, search engines to locate blogs, and sites that "pick up the RSS feeds of your favorite blogs or news outlets and bring them all to one place for your perusal."