Shame and Literacy Redux: Rapper Challenges Boxer to read ‘Cat in the Hat’ on Jimmy Fallon

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Jemal Countess / Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Right on heels of our last post, Shame and Literacy, comes this doozy. Rapper 50 Cent has challenged Floyd Mayweather, who many consider the best pound-for-pound boxer in the universe, to appear on Jimmy Fallon's late night TV show and read the Dr. Suess classic "Cat in he Hat." If he does so successfully 50 Cent will donate $750,000 to a charity of Mayweather's choosing. The two former business partners had a falling out and are now duking it out on social media. First 50 Cent challenged Mayweather...

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Shame and Literacy

Unfortunately, I missed the boat when The Reader by Bernhard Schlink first hit American shores in 1997.  Originally published in Germany it went on to sell, after an Oprah push, over two million copies in the U.S. and became the first German book to top The New York Times bestseller list. I did; however, watch the 2008 film version recently and have been thinking about it ever since. It has to rank among the most powerful films dealing with literacy ever made. The film follows the relationship between Hanna Schmitz (played by Kate Winslet, who won an Academy Award for performance) and a 15-year-old boy Michael (played...

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The Classics for the Masses: The Loeb Classical Library heads online

When James Loeb founded the Loeb Classical Library in 1911 he had two simple goals: 1. To make the work of classical authors accessible to as many readers as possible—regardless of their knowledge of Greek or Latin—so they could profit from the wisdom of the ancients that had enriched his life so much. 2. He wanted the Loeb Classical Library to offer the best of Anglo-American classical scholarship Loeb was also way ahead of the crowd by having the books in the series designed to fit into one's pocket (the Penguin paperback was still 20+ years away).   Technology has finally...

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