From the Say It Ain't So Department - Ozymandias Edition

The statue of Turkmenbashi is being moved. I gathered that it isn't being destroyed but will be relocated from the center of Ashkabad to some remote southern part of the city. It will also probably no longer rotate to face the sun.

They already changed the names of the days of the week back. You probably can't even buy Turkmenbashi vodka anymore.

I've missed another chance at crazed dictator tourism. You could no longer buy Banda cloth when I was in Malawi, either.

Do We Really Need This?

A hands-free umbrella sounds like a good idea. Until you realize it comes with a harness and there's a 5-step process to unfolding it.

Personally, I want lackeys to accompany me, holding giant umbrellas over me.

What Kids Read

The Washington Post reported on a survey of what children are reading. There are some fundamental flaws in the survey methodology, the most egregious of which is that they made no distinction between required reading for school and books children chose themselves. Still, I found the report fairly interesting.

It surprised me that boys read Charlotte's Web which I think of as very much a girl's book. It also seems that fantasy totally dominates children's literature, which is a big change from when I was growing up. There doesn't seem to be much interest in mysteries, which is another change. I loved Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, the Dana Girls and so on, none of which made the list.

S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders was the top junior high book and it's one I remember liking a lot at that age, too. High school reading still apparently includes To Kill a Mockingbird, a book I thoroughly and completely detest. Preachiness is always a major crime in literature for me.

The saddest part of the results was that the number of books read per year declined as the children grew older. Even if you only counted required reading in school, I'm pretty sure most of us read more than 7 books a year in high school.

Travel Planning

I sent in my deposit for the land arrangements for my Madagascar trip. That makes it seem more real, despite my having had the plane tickets for a while already. One of my colleagues was very amused that I will be going to "the place where one waits for a wife." It appears that there will only be two or three nights without running water, which is pretty good for one of my vacations.

I also bought a plane ticket and made hotel reservations for my trip to Boston in July. I think it's been three whole years since my last pilgrimage to the Shrine of the Green Monster.

Now, if I could only decide what to do on Memorial Day weekend ...