As you all know, our schools have gone woke, school curriculum is written by Left-leaning (to the point of being Marxists), and media will mouthpiece anything their political Masters tell them to do (not that it takes all that much urging as we all know). So when Grokster Mike made me three offers, I jumped at them all. However, these first:
From GeekPress: Physical Encyclopedia
“I just bought the only physical encyclopedia still in print, and I regret nothing”. (Via H.R.)
…A World Book rep told Quartz in 2019 that the print encyclopedia sold mostly to schools, public libraries, and homeschooling families. Today, Evans says that public and school libraries are still the company’s primary customers. “World Book has a loyal following of librarians who understand the importance of a general reference encyclopedia in print form, accessible to all.”
…The 2023 version spans 17,000 articles spread over 14,000 pages in 22 volumes. The company says it features over 25,000 photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and maps…At a time when most information comes to us for free online (with strings attached, of course), it’s easy to have sticker shock at the $1,199 retail price for the 2023 edition of World Book
and
National Geographic magazine has laid off the last of its staff writers
National Geographic, the iconic yellow framed magazine that has chronicled the natural world for more than 100 years, laid off its last remaining staff writers this week, multiple departing staffers said. The latest round of layoffs at the magazine cut 17 editorial positions, including all of the publication’s staff writers, its entire podcast staff, and a group of editors, including one who’d been on staff for nearly 40 years, a former staffer affected by the layoffs told CNN. The layoffs, which were announced to the staff in April, were part of a wave of cuts from parent company Disney, which resulted in thousands of positions being axed across the media giant.
And the rest of the story…
What you didn’t know was that some long treasured times, in my youth, were spent with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Larry. My Mom (single parent) would drive us from Brockton down to Mattapoisett to spend the weekend with them (she was my Mom’s older sister). First thing on Friday nights is that we’d make chocolate chip cookies (and yes, they were better than Mom’s (which were pretty good in their own right)). Then I’d head down to the finished cellar and dive into into the NatGeo magazines that spanned back to the early 1900s – you know, BEFORE “woke” was something we all did in the morning and got out of bed.
Sidenote: with the above layoff notice, please note that the National Geographic Society is separate from Disney. But I’m betting they are rather steamed at how their “joint-venture” just turned out.
Hours upon hours were spend down there, just soaking all that information up about all kinds of geography, culture, history, science, habitats; those memories remain with me to this day.
So when Grokster Mike offered the collection that he and Mar-Mar had gathered up over the years (with the backstory that Mar-Mar, being the self-appointed fairy grandmother to The Grandson, had ALWAYS showered him with books of all kinds), I said yes. Dunno where I’m going to put them yet, but as he is downsizing from his digs in the southern part of the State, but I’ll find a place for them such that the Grandson (and others, including ME!) can be sponges for all that material.
And for me, to relive some of those old memories.
As to the first, Mike also offered his hardcopy encyclopedia set (back in the late last century) as well so I snatched them up as well. After all, no wokeness there and it has HISTORY in there that the Left hasn’t corrupted yet. Mike also donated a set of bookcases in which to house them all as his new (transitory?) digs don’t have room for them.
For me, these written pages are solid gold even as I spent the majority of my time online hunting for stuff to write about. They will be treasured for years.
Again, Mike – MANY THANKS! Especially for reawakening old and dormant memories of magazines and A.B. and U.L.
