Arr! Avast Ye Burning, Fireman Montag

Coming fast on the heels of International Talk Like a Pirate Day comes the American Library Association Banned Books Week. It does not seem coincidence that the two dovetail together so closely; both are noble causes dedicated to the freedom of expression.

Fortunately, there were no books of a piratical nature on the list of the ALA's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–2000 or of the 10 most frequently challenged books of 2001. There are some old favorites like Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye, along with the new darling of the book banners, J.K. "I-Am-Making-Your-Child-Worship-Satan" Rowling. Also note number 88 on the Top 100 list: Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford. Um, sure.

There's not a whole lot to say about banned books that hasn't already been said, so I shall end now, asking you to consider, for the week, the Librarians' Motto:

Information wants to be free. And it also wants to be returned on time in the same condition in which it was borrowed. Ye mateys.

Lectoral College.

Sometimes the way readings for Mass are excerpted from the Bible really bugs me. Consider this weekend's second reading, from St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians. The reading begins with the line:

Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

Now, compare that to the entire sentence, taken from the New American Bible (upon which the American Catholic readings are based):

My eager expectation and hope is that I shall not be put to shame in any way, but that with all boldness, now as always, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

Honestly, what's the point of eliminating the beginning of that sentence? It takes about fifteen seconds to read, and that includes unnecessary dramatic pauses. Further, it helps to place the reading in context. This epistle was written when Paul was in prison and his future was very much in doubt. So, in context, Paul takes a very real and immediate situation and transforms it into a teaching lesson. Without context, however, the sentence reads as a cryptic and mystical statement at the beginning of the reading, making it harder for the meaning to be understood.

The ending has also been butchered. This time, I'll start with the text from the NAB:

Yet that I remain (in) the flesh is more necessary for your benefit. And this I know with confidence, that I shall remain and continue in the service of all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound on account of me when I come to you again. Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that, whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear news of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind struggling together for the faith of the gospel, not intimidated in any way by your opponents.

And this is the conclusion of the reading, taken from that text:

Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit. Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Not only does this, again, extract the context from Paul's words, the last sentence doesn't seem to belong there at all! "Oh, by the way, be good too."

Sigh. And I have to read this in front of my father for his birthday tomorrow. I suspect that not even today's NPL Puzzle Party will pose such a problem.

WedNYTX: 8. Great theme, and worked in well. ThuNYTX: 20. I might have noticed the theme earlier if I had realized I was doing the Thursday variety puzzle instead of the Friday themeless puzzle, but it still threw me for a loop. FriNYTX: 8:15. Wow, fast. SatNYTX: 47. Wow, slow. Got seriously stumped. And for a while, I was even stumped finding references.