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By Jeremy Schiffres, Daily and Sunday Freeman, Kingston, N.Y.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Barry and Harry

This from The Associated Press:
A day after Barry Bonds called him a “little midget man who knows (nothing) about baseball,” broadcaster Bob Costas said he wasn’t upset with the San Francisco Giants slugger, and he responded with a jab of his own. “As anyone can plainly see, I'm 5-6 1/2 and a strapping 150, and, unlike some people, I came by all of it naturally,” Costas said.
Costas 1, Bonds 0.
And, as you know if you read me regularly: Aaron 755, Bonds 0.
Looking for some respect, Barry? Here’s a suggestion: Hit your 754th home run, the one that will leave you one short of Aaron’s mark, and then retire. It will save us from years of debate over whether your total is legitimate, and it will save you from years of scorn for being the man who broke the most coveted record in professional sports under a cloud of steroid suspicion.

And this e-mail missive from a friend of mine, an unabashed member of the religious right, who read my blog the other day about Harry Potter:
“We've never let our kids read Harry Potter. They've devoured C.S. Lewis fantasy books, like ‘The Chronicles of Narnia,’ but Harry Potter is full of occultic stuff that I don't think kids should be exposed to at that age."
“The Chronicles of Narnia”? Gee, let’s check out a synopsis of “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” from that series that I found online:
“Four London children are sent to a professor’s country home in order for protection during World War II. There they find a magic wardrobe which leads to a mystical land called Narnia, which is being ruled by an evil witch.”
Magic wardrobe? Mystical land? Evil witch? I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my chair.
My friend’s argument, of course, is that there’s an underlying biblical message in the “Narnia” books. But that doesn’t change the fact that Lewis’ books, like J.K. Rowling’s, dabble in the supernatural.
And for that matter, there’s plenty of witchcraft and hocus-pocus in “The Wizard of Oz,” “Snow White” and "Cinderella." Funny, I’ve never heard the Potter opponents criticize those stories.

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2 Comments:

Blogger David in DC said...

The Chronicles of Narnia are self-consciously Christian allegory. C.S. Lewis' purpose was to prepare kids for catechism.

Mrs. Heyer read it aloud to us in 3rd grade at TCES. (You were one year behind me, did you have her?)

I knew so little about Christianity at the time that I had no idea. Now I'm positively astonished she was permitted to read it to us in public school.

July 30, 2007 at 8:48 PM 
Blogger Jeremy Schiffres, City Editor said...

David: I was at TCES for kindergarten, then went to Hillel School for Grades 1-3. Came back to TCES for Grade 4. -J

July 31, 2007 at 9:02 AM 

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