When it was banned in 1988 in several countries, The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie faced government censorship. Today, cancel culture is empowered in every hand that holds a cell phone. Also, today, the entire text of Satanic Verses is available on various websites, openly accessible for anyone to read.

Be it obscenity, religious blasphemy, offensive portrayals of personalities, businesses or organisations, or national security, finding a reason for banning of books has never been difficult. Even the Bible has been censored in various instances.

Rushdie himself questioned the relevance of bans on books in an age when they could be easily downloaded anywhere. Also, with a host of platforms enabling self-publishing, beside blogs, personal websites or even social media for that matter, attempts to muffle any voice seem rather ironical. Despite this, a simple internet search reveals a list of over 40 books banned nationwide in India alone. Withdrawals and sanitisation of books is another matter altogether.

Also Read| CyberOne: Xiaomi unveils humanoid robot capable of sensing human emotions

Take Wendy Donigers The Hindus: An Alternative History, all copies of which were recalled and destroyed in 2014. The Red Sari by Javier Moro, thought to be based on Sonia Gandhis life, was published five years late in 2015.

The Polyester Prince by Hamish McDonald did not even go to print as the publisher, HarperCollins, feared legal action from the Ambani family. The stories of banned writers Taslima Nasreen, Perumal Murugan and Tehmina Durrani in more recent times, and the likes of Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chugtai are well known, if one recounts writers from the subcontinent alone.

So what makes a book more liable to be questioned? As Meru Gokhale, publisher, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India, points out, While it is correct that content can now be posted online on any platform, a book from a mainstream publisher will have a permanence that a social media post likely does not, so books generally face a higher level of scrutiny.

Geetanjali Shrees book Ret Samadhi was published in 2018, but it was in 2022, after it won the International Booker, that someone found objectionable content in it, forcing cancellation of an event in Agra where she was to speak. Subsequently, a tweet in her support asked: What next for her?

After the shocking attack on Rushdie, Congress leader and author Shashi Tharoor tweeted: A sad day, worse if creative expression can no longer be free & open. Controversial writer Taslima Nasreens tweet said: If he is attacked, anyone who is critical of Islam can be attacked. I am worried.

It was fearing such attacks that Malayalam novelist S Hareesh had withdrawn his novel Meesha (Moustache) in 2018 after receiving threats to his life, saying he was too weak to take on the powerful. Author Perumal Murugan had reacted by saying that he didnt think protests and retaliations were a result of writers crossing their line, but targeting authors was politically motivated instead. Murugan had himself given up writing after being targeted for his Tamil novel Mathorubhagan.

On their part, publishers are playing it safe too. As Gokhale of Penguin India says, There is a balance we are always seeking to strike, we are mindful of the laws of a particular country, while at the same time respecting the rights of freedom of expression of our authors.

This signals a trend. As author and TMC MLA Manoranjan Byapari told FE in a recent interview: At one time, artists undertook an important job to wake up the people. Now they are all silent. It is a matter of grave concern. Clearly, while much has changed in the 34 years since Rushdie wrote The Satanic Verses, the attack on him shows that things remain the same when it comes to taking offence over written words.

See more here:
Intolerance vs free speech: Dichotomy of the internet age - The Financial Express

Though it is not the same as good psychotherapy, dont underestimate the power of the basics, she told me. Making sure your young person is getting enough sleep, theyre getting enough physical activity, theyre eating a balanced diet. If possible, keep them busy with purposeful activities. These things go further than we sometimes expect.

There are resources you can use at home, books and online programs, that can help your family. The online resources that come most recommended are often rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (C.B.T.), which usually involves efforts to change thinking patterns, according to the A.P.A. Patricia Frazier, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota, has, along with colleagues, studied the effects of internet-delivered C.B.T. programs (I.C.B.T.) on university students and found that they were feasible, acceptable and effective.

These I.C.B.T. programs tend to be a combination of text, videos and exercises that help explain the roots of anxiety, then encourage users to identify what may be triggering overwhelming feelings, and then offer exercises to help address these feelings. For example, the free app MindShift C.B.T., from the nonprofit Anxiety Canada, allows you to log your daily feelings and then write a short journal entry about the reason behind the feeling. You can also list symptoms you may experience, like racing thoughts, chest tightness or nausea. It gives you a series of tools to use, like guided audio for calm breathing or test anxiety, or coping cards that provide affirmations like Learning to sit with some uncertainty will help me worry less.

Frazier told me the body of research on the effectiveness of I.C.B.T. programs is incredibly strong. She pointed me to this 2019 review in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, which found that I.C.B.T. works and can be as effective as face-to-face therapy. But its worth noting that these studies were done on adults, not on children or teenagers, and that many of them had a trained professional helping to run the I.C.B.T. programs.

Patrick McGrath, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia who has studied the effectiveness of I.C.B.T. in adolescents, told me that parents looking for reputable resources should start with the websites of childrens hospitals and professional organizations. He recommended Magination Press Childrens Books from the American Psychological Association, as well as the C.B.T. Toolbox series of books. As for online resources, he said that he refers people to MAP, or My Anxiety Plan, also from Anxiety Canada, which has a multipart online course for teenagers.

McGrath mentioned CopingCat, which includes an online resource called Camp Cope-A-Lot. Its an animated program that helps teach parents and kids ages 7-13 C.B.T. skills and that was developed by Khanna and Philip Kendall, a professor of psychology at Temple University. She told me that she sees the program as a learning resource, not necessarily as a therapeutic one. The C.B.T. skills she teaches in talk therapy, like identifying triggers of anxiety and using tools like journaling and breathing, are learnable concepts, and therapists are just better and more trained to teach the concepts, she said.

Read more:
Opinion | Kids Mental Health Is a National Emergency. Therapists Are in Short Supply. - The New York Times

Get your weekly fix of comics news and reviews, plus special guest Matthew Arnold. You know him from his work on shows like Emerald City and Siberia, and his Comixology Originals series Eden is soon to be in print via Dark Horse Comics on August 30th! We talk about the series, his work with Netflix, and more!

You can stream the AIPT Comics podcast below or find it onApple Podcasts,Spotify,Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Before the interview, we recap the biggest news of the week. Marvel certainly made waves this week with new series announcements for Deadpool,Murderworld: Avengers, Thanos: Death Notes, and Planet Hulk: Worldbreaker. DC Comics extended Poison Ivy for a second six-issue story arc, Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimnezs first Batman arc ends December 2022, and Superman: Kal-El Returns special was announced.

Dave:

Nathan:

Standout KAPOW moment of the week:

Nathan DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #1 (Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine)

Dave Ghost Rider: Vengeance Forever #1 (Benjamin Percy, Juan Jose Ryp)

In our Judging by the Cover segment, Dave loved James Stokoes X-Men #13 and Nathan talks upJames Stokoes DC vs. Vampires: All Out War #2. Check those out below!

Become a patron today to get exclusive perks, like access to our exclusive Discord community and our monthly comic book club, ad-free browsing on aiptcomics.com, a physical trade paperback sent to your house every month, and more!

Continue reading here:
AIPT Comics Podcast Episode 184: Crafting worlds: Matthew Arnold talks 'Eden' and its move from digital to Dark Horse AIPT - AIPT

These days, book clubs are increasingly taking place outside of traditional coffee shops and libraries, in spots such as restaurants, bars and homes. As part of its programming, the Desert Foothills Library in Cave Creek offers a happy hour book club.

The gatherings take place the second Tuesday of every month in different restaurants around Cave Creek and Carefree. They are facilitated by three members of the library staff: acquisitions librarian Sara Zapotocky, circulation manager Kassie Green, and youth and teen services manager Heather Wurr.

Zapotocky said, from the start, the book club offered a more social setting for talking about books and has gotten locals to discover new places in their community.

Thats the whole idea, is we want to encourage bringing business to local restaurants in the Cave Creek/Carefree area. That was one of our goals not just to meet but to help our community, Zapotocky said.

The book club started in the summer of 2019 but had to be moved online for a time due to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been back in person full-time since March 2022. Zapotocky said even when the meetings went online, she encouraged participants to have a drink and a snack while discussing books.

During meetings at restaurants, the library provides appetizers for book club members, but they need to purchase their own beverages and entrees. The August edition of the book club will be held at the library. During this meeting, refreshments, including alcoholic beverages, will be served.

As for the book club, participants read a variety of different types of works, including nonfiction, classics, memoirs and contemporary fiction.

I feel like its a really good mix of books. Its eclectic, and I think thats part of what our regulars like is that its not tied to one genre, Green said.

All of the facilitators are avid readers who developed a love of books early in life. Green grew up with a mom who was an English teacher. The book club gives the facilitators an excuse to find and read something new.

We are mostly choosing books that we want to read ourselves. This is a great excuse, Zapotocky said.

The facilitators all have a chance to select books.

We are taking turns picking the books and then the month that its my book, the expectation is that I would facilitate it. And staff are always there to be supportive, even if its not their month, Green said.

Green is a fan of true crime and mystery books, while Zapotocky leans more towards nonfiction. Green said the facilitators look for books that will spark conversations, even when book club members may not like them.

We just have gotten a lot of great contrasting viewpoints, as you might imagine, in the discussions, Green added.

The books discussed change every month. The library has digital and paper copies of the titles, or participants can choose to purchase their own copies.

The August book will be Megan Rosenblooms Dark Archives: A Librarians Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin.

In September, the book club will read Miranda Cowley Hellers The Paper Palace. This fictional work follows Elle, a mother of three, as she wakes up at the summer home she has visited for much of her life. This time is different, as she had an adult encounter with her longtime friend Jonas and must make a decision about the direction of her life moving forward.

October will be focused on the psychological/social commentary horror novel The Only Good Indians, by Stephen Graham Jones.

Other books this year have included Stephen Daviss Gold Dust Woman: A Biography of Stevie Nicks; Danny Trejos and Donal Logues Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood; a novel about the struggles faced by a Vietnamese family during the Vietnam War called The Mountains Sing, by Nguyn Phan Qu Mai; a nonfiction story about the first women to attend Yale called Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant, by Anne Gardiner Perkins; and a biography about the women in Benjamin Franklins life called Poor Richards Women, by Nancy Rubin Stuart.

During one month, book club members were encouraged to choose from different young adult books in the same reimagined fairy tale series.

Zapotocky says through the book club, participants often discover new literature.

It gets them to read a book that they probably never would have read, Zapotocky said.

Generally, around eight core members show up to the meetings, but newbies are encouraged to come check it out. The number of attendees fluctuates, depending on the time of the year. But many regulars get to know each other over multiple book club meetings. There is always a portion of the meetings designated for catching up with each other.

It always starts with, What has been going on in our life as we are ordering a drink or an appetizer. And then, we will get to the book, Zapotocky said.

Upcoming book club meetings will take place from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays on Aug. 9, Sept. 13 and Oct. 11. An online RSVP is encouraged.

More information on the book club and other adult programming offerings at the library by going to dfla.org/events/category/adult-programming or by calling 480-488-2286.

Visit link:
Library club combines books and beverages | Online Features | thefoothillsfocus.com - Foothills Focus

Books live. Books endure and prevail. Books are humanity in print. Books are the diary of the human race. As we grow older, we become all the ages we once were. And by exploring books, we become all that we have read.

Reading gives us some place to go when we have to stay where we are, Mason Cooley writes. His insight is a brief echo of Emily Dickinsons 1873 poem:

There is no Frigate like a BookTo take us Lands away Nor any Coursers like a PageOf prancing Poetry

This Traverse may the poorest takeWithout oppress of Toll How frugal is the ChariotThat bears a Human soul.

The San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books, with a new home at USD, will return on Saturday, Aug. 20, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. No surprise there, as San Diego is routinely ranked by Amazon among the nations Most Well-Read Cities. Ill be signing my books and would love to meet you there.

***

What do you get when you cross a gorilla with a clay worker? You end up with a Hairy Potter. We recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, by British author J.K. Rowling.

Unemployed and living on state benefits, single mother Rowling wrote much of her first novel sitting in local Edinburgh cafes or banging away on a manual typewriter in her sisters home. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone was rejected by 12 publishers before being accepted by Bloomsbury Publishing and only then because the CEOs 8-year-old daughter insisted on it. By the time she had completed six of the seven books in her projected series, Rowling was named the greatest living British writer and she certainly has become by far the richest.

***

Lewis Carroll published his Through the Looking-Glass fantasy novel on Dec. 27, 1871, but the year was listed as 1872, so we celebrate its sesquicentennial. In this sequel to Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror.

Carroll showed a particular aptitude for conjuring up blend words by merging two words and paring parts of one or both. He called these inventions portmanteau words because he loved to scrunch two words into one as clothes are crammed into a portmanteau, or traveling bag. The most famous example of Lewis Carrolls facile gift for blending is his Jabberwocky poem, in Through the Looking-Glass. This most familiar of all nonsense verses begins:

Twas brillig, and the slithy tovesDid gyre and gimble in the wabe;All mimsy were the borogoves,And the mome raths outgrabe.

When Alice asks Humpty Dumpty to explain the word slithy, he answers: Well slithy means lithe and slimy. You see, its like a portmanteau there are two meanings packed into one word. The egghead (soon to be an omelet) later interprets mimsy: Well, then, mimsy is flimsy and miserable (theres another portmanteau for you). Two words that appear later in Jabberwocky have become enshrined in English dictionaries chortle (chuckle + snort) and galumph (gallop + triumph):

When we today eat Frogurt, quaff Cranapple juice and Fruitopia, have brunch (breakfast + lunch), take a staycation (stay + vacation) rather than stay at a motel (motor + hotel), ride our moped (motor + pedal), bemoan the smog (smoke + fog), learn from webinars (web +seminars), play Fictionary (fiction + dictionary), read Freakonomics (freak + economics), write to a frenemy (friend + enemy), save money with groupons (group + coupons), get hammered by stagflation (stagnant + inflation), and avoid covidiots (COVID + idiots), we are imbibing Lewis Carrolls ginormous (giant+enormous) delight in portmanteau words.

Recently, 16-year-old Rohana Khattal, of Islamabad, Pakistan, invented the portmanteau word oblivionaire to describe a billionaire who is oblivious to inequality. Oblivionaire won the Learning Networks Invent a Word Challenge.

The rest is here:
The U-Ts Festival of Books is back live and online - The San Diego Union-Tribune

From an Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Announcement:

As part ofARLs Research Library Impact Framework initiative, a research team from the Texas Tech University (TTU) Libraries explored methods for assessing collections related to the study and research of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics and their discoverability by users. DEI studies have increased in prominence on academic campuses along with calls to question privilege and power structures, making DEI collections assessment critical. The TTU Libraries undertook a two-part project that surveyed user needs, collections usage, cataloging and discoverability, and user behavior in searching for and evaluating DEI resources. While the researchers were not able to identify an effective method for assessing DEI in large-scale collections, key findings indicate the potential for partnering with womens and gender studies and Mexican American and Latino/a studies and the need for increased attention on cataloging and metadata, particularly table of contents and abstract/summary fields. The research team identified that many users expressed uncertainty in searching and evaluating DEI resources and expressed interest in search enhancements for better filtering and more prominent website presence for DEI research help.

Authors

Jayne Sappington, Esther De Len, Sara Schumacher, Kimberly Vardeman, Donell Callender, Marina Oliver, Hillary Veeder, and Laura Heinz.

Direct to Full Text Report Report55 pages; PDF.

Source

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Associations and Organizations, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users, Reports

Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com. Gary is also the co-founder of infoDJ an innovation research consultancy supporting corporate product and business model teams with just-in-time fact and insight finding.

Excerpt from:
New Library Impact Research Report: Educating and Empowering a Diverse Student Body: Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Research through...

Washington, DC Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser encouraged students, families, and educators to attend a wide variety of back-to-school events hosted by District agencies and community organizations leading up to the first day of school.

Book Bag and Swag School Supplies DriveHelp kick off the school year for District youth by joining the DC Department of Human Services (DHS) annual Book Bag and Swag school supplies drive for children experiencing homelessness. District residents may donate and purchase school supplies on the DHS Amazon Wish List.Contributions are requested by Friday, August 19. Donations are also accepted at DHS headquarters at 64 New York Avenue NE and may be dropped off at the buildings West Security Desk.

Ready for Pre-K Online WorkshopThis virtual session will offer an overview of the DC Public Schools Pre-K program, answer any questions you might have about your child's transition to school, and share some strategies to ensure a strong start to the school year.

Thursday, August 4, 5:30 pm 6:30 pmRegister here to receive the link to watch.

The English Learners Back to School FairJoin DC Public Schools and the DCPS Language Acquisition Division for a day of learning and fun.Saturday, August 6, 10 am 2 pmMacFarland Middle School4400 Iowa Avenue, NW

Climb and Connect Bookbag Giveaway at Randle Highlands ESJoin DPR Roving Leaders Division and the Department of For-Hire Vehicles for an event featuring a rock wall, book bag giveaways, and a host of other activities for kids.Saturday, August 6, 11 am 3 pmRandle Highlands Elementary School1650 30th Street, SE10th Annual Bellevue Back to School BashIn partnership with Community of Hope, Beat the Streets, the Metropolitan Police Department, Amazon Housing Equity Fund, and the Washington Nationals, the DC Public Library invites residents to join the 10th Annual Back to School Bash!Monday, August 8, 12:30 pm 5:30 pmBellevue/William O. Lockridge Neighborhood Library115 Atlantic Street, SW2nd Annual Public Safety Back 2 School Event Kick-OffJoin the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice and community partners for a back-to-school event featuring a book bag and school supplies giveaway, food, games, and more.Thursday, August 11, 4 pm 8 pmColumbia Heights Educational Campus3101 16th Street, NWSchool Supplies Giveaway at Takoma Rec CenterDPR event featuring free distribution of school supplies for the 2022-23 School Year to middle school and high school students.Friday, August 12, 4 pm 6 pmTakoma Recreation Center300 Van Buren Street, NWRicardo Duren Backpack Giveaway at Brentwood Rec CenterDPRs Roving Leaders Division will support and host this event providing school supplies to young residents.Saturday, August 13, 11 am 3 pmBrentwood Recreation Center2311 14th Street, NEPublic Safety Back to School EventJoin the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice and community partners for a back-to-school event featuring a book bag and school supplies giveaway, food, games, and more.Friday, August 19, 11 am 2 pmColumbia Heights Village2900 14th Street, NWBack to School with GoDigitalJoin the DC Public Library to learn about homework help resources on GoDigital. Caregivers are invited to walk through different online homework help resources available children as they return back to middle school.Monday, August 15, 6 pm 7 pmMartin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library901 G Street, NWDCPS Back to School Town HallJoin Chancellor Ferebee and DCPS for important updates on how we are preparing to welcome back our students and staff. Topics include student immunizations, health and safety, academics, attendance, and more!Thursday, August 18, 5 pm 6 pmRSVP on Facebook to watch online.Edgewood Back to School/Summer CloseoutThis summer close-out and back to school event will celebrate the Edgewood Community by providing school supplies, a fish fry, hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, drinks and music.Thursday, August 18, 5 pm 8 pmEdgewood Creation Center300 Evarts Street, NEEducator Meet & Greet at Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood LibraryDCPL is throwing an open house meet & greet for educators in Ward 1 to kick off the new school year. Stop by when you can, grab a free swag bag as a token of appreciation, and meet the librarians.Friday, August 19, 11 am 5 pmMt. Pleasant Neighborhood Library3160 16th Street NW8th Annual Chuck Brown DayChuck Brown Day commemorates the life legacy and music of DC legend - the Godfather of Go-Go, Chuck Brown. Every year, the celebration features musical performances by the Chuck Brown Band and others. The Chuck Brown Foundation will be giving out free backpacks for the kids.Saturday, August 20, 2 pm 7 pm (backpack giveaway starts at 1 pm)Chuck Brown Memorial Park2901 20th Street, NEKing-Greenleaf Backpack GiveawayDPR is partnering with Good Projects for this annual community backpack giveaway.Friday, August 26, 1 pm 3 pmKing-Greenleaf Recreation Center201 N Street, SWRoving Leader Backpack Giveaway at Kennedy Rec CenterDPRs Roving Leaders Division will supports and host this event providing school supplies to young residents.Saturday, August 27, 11 am 2 pmKennedy Recreation Center1401 7th Street, NWAnnual Community Day Health and Wellness Fair 2022The DC Health Places of Worship Advisory Board, in partnership with Valley Avenue, is excited to present the 6th Annual Community Day Health and Wellness Fair. This Fair will provide community members with lots of free opportunities for food, friends, and fun, as well as free school supplies, vaccinations, and dental exams for children.Saturday, August 27, 2 pm 6 pmOxon Run Park1200 Mississippi Avenue, SEPublic Safety Back to School EventJoin the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice is partnering with the Thomas McNeal Foundation for a back-to-school event featuring a book bag and school supplies giveaway, food, games, and more.Tuesday, August 30, 3 pm 6 pmCedar Gardens, 1510 Butler Street, NWWelcome Back to School Event at Petworth LibrarySchool is back in session and DCPL is here to help make the new year better and brighter for you. Sign-up for a library card, play games, do some art, and take home some free stuff!Tuesday, August 30, 3:30 pm 5 pmPetworth Neighborhood Library4200 Kansas Avenue, NWTo learn more about upcoming events specific to a students school community, families should be in touch with their childs school.Families are also reminded that students must be up-to-date on required immunizations. To help families be in compliance, the District is offering expanded immunization access, conducting extensive outreach to families, and providing resources for schools and healthcare providers. For more information, please visit dchealth.dc.gov/immunizations.

Social Media:Mayor Bowser Twitter:@MayorBowserMayor Bowser Instagram:@Mayor_BowserMayor Bowser Facebook:facebook.com/MayorMurielBowserMayor Bowser YouTube:https://www.bit.ly/eomvideos

Read the original here:
Mayor Bowser Celebrates Back-to-School Month | mayormb - Executive Office of the Mayor

This is part one of a two-part series on the origin of jokes and humor. The episode appears in podcast feeds under the title, "Jokes, Part I: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not."

In the late 1800s, archeologists in Iraq uncovered an ancient clay tablet with a peculiar yet familiar line of text. Scrawled in tiny, wedge-shaped characters was what is arguably the worlds first documented bar joke.

The tablet is 4,000 years old, nearly from the dawn of writing. Roughly translated from the dead language of Sumerian, the joke reads: A dog walks into a bar and says, I cannot see a thing. Ill open this one.

Get it? Scholars certainly did not. Nor did the thousands of Twitter and Reddit users who responded to a viral post about the joke in March. It was probably some type of pun based on word pronunciation, wrote one person. Another guessed that the line was akin to a New Yorker cartoon offering a vignette of life in Sumer, the earliest civilization in southern Mesopotamia.

The temptation to decode the joke from a bygone era was palpable partly because understanding it could reveal something unique about early human civilization.

In this episode, the first of two parts, Endless Thread journeys back in time, attempting to deconstruct the origins of humor and explain an unexplainable joke from the forgotten tablets of the past.

Episode producer: Dean Russell

Co-hosts: Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson

Show producers: Megan Cattel, Dean Russell, Nora Saks, Grace Tatter, Kristin Torres, and Quincy Walters

Web producer: Kristin Torres

Mixer and sound designer: Emily Jankowski

Show notes

Support the show:

We love making Endless Thread, and we want to be able to keep making it far into the future. If you want that too, we would deeply appreciate your contribution to our work in any amount. Everyone who makes a monthly donation will get access to exclusive bonus content.Click here for the donation page. Thank you!

This content was originally created for audio. The transcript has been edited from our original script for clarity. Heads up that some elements (i.e. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text.

Ben Brock Johnson: Lets do the jokes. Lets make some jokes.

Amory Sivertson: (Laughs.) Knock, knock.

Ben: Whos there?

Amory: Oh god, I didnt have anything to say after that.

Ben: A few weeks ago, Amory and I hopped in my car and headed south from Boston. We had jokes on the brain. Sort of.

Ben: You still havent finished your joke.

Amory: I know, Im trying to think of any jokes I actually know, but like

Amory: In fairness, I was driving. We were on our way to Philadelphia in search of this one particular joke one that we were told was sitting in a dark storage cabinet, scrawled on an ancient block of clay.

Amory: Im not really blonde, but I know a blonde joke.

Ben: OK, lets hear it.

Amory: What do you call a blonde (Laughs.)

Ben: Apparently, this joke is hilarious. I wouldnt know.

Amory: Its just how I am. What do you (Laughs.)

Ben: This joke we were looking for is not a blonde joke. Its a bar joke; historys first recorded X walks into a bar. The joke is 4,000 years old from the infancy of written language. And it serves as a key mile marker in the evolution of humans and, specifically, our humor.

Amory: But theres one little problem, a mystery that has been bugging scholars for decades since the joke was unearthed. This joke, it is not that funny because nobody gets it at least, nobody still alive.

(Montage of WBUR staffers and friends.)

Marquis Neal: (Chuckle.) What the f***? (Laughs.)

Dan Mauzy: I dont get it. I dont get it.

Saurabh Datar: Maybe Im too stupid to understand this joke.

Kelvin Brooks: I dont have an answer nor a laugh for that.

Quiana Scott-Ferguson: I dont get it. (Laughs.)

Marquis: I got questions, and you dont have no answers. So you got to figure it out. (Laughs.)

Ben: Im Ben Brock Johnson.

Amory: Im Amory Sivertson. (Laughs.) Im just thinking about jokes.

Ben: Were coming to you from WBUR, Bostons NPR station.

Amory: Todays episode: the first of two parts in which we deconstruct the origins of humor. (Laughs.) Oh man, the origins of humor thats already funny to me. And we explain an unexplainable joke from the forgotten pages of the past.

Ben: Turns out, apparently, you dont have to explain the joke for Amory to find it hilarious. You are listening to Endless Thread. Jokes, Part 1: Sumer Funny, Sumer Not.

Amory: Our ancient bar joke journey started long before our road trip to Philly, which well get back to, of course.

Ben: For us and a lot of other people it started where else?

Seraina Nett: I actually found it on Reddit. On Ask Historians.

Ben: Youre a Redditor?

Seraina: Yes.

Ben: Can you tell me about your Reddit habits?

Seraina: Its usually more like academic Reddit, I think, than, sort of, generic Reddit.

Amory: Seraina Nett works at Uppsala University in Sweden, where she studies ancient Mesopotamia, including a region called Sumer and its language Sumerian.

She spends a lot of time translating Sumerian, looking for clues about early human development. Most of what she translates, though, is not exactly riveting.

Seraina: Of course, theres literature and the epic of Gilgamesh and kings telling us about their deeds. But the vast, vast majority of texts that we do deal with are essentially receipts, labor, assignments, payslips.

Ben: Ugh.

Ben: Seraina was one of several thousands of people who happened upon this joke in March on Reddit and initially on Twitter.

Amory: Thats where the account @DepthsOfWiki posted a screenshot from an unlinked, unnamed Wikipedia page. It reads like this: One of the earliest examples of bar jokes is Sumerian, and it features a dog.

Ben: So can you read it for us?

Seraina: In Sumerian?

Ben: Yeah. Lets start there.

Seraina: OK. Ill do my best. We dont really know how Sumerian was pronounced, so Ill do my best approximation.

Ben: Would love that.

Seraina: So in Sumerian it reads: ur-gir-re ec-dam-ce in-kur-ma / nij na-me igi nu-mu-un-du / ne-en jal taka-en-e-ce.

Amory: Ba-dum-ksh!

Ben: Trust me, if there were any ancient Sumerians listening to this podcast, they would be rolling on the floor right now.

Amory: No doubt. But to help out you English-speaking listeners, though, we asked Seraina to translate. And, boy, is it a doozy.

Seraina: In English, that means something like, A dog entered into a tavern and said, probably I cannot see anything. I shall open this, or this one.

Ben: Thats it. Thats the joke. A dog walks into a bar, or tavern, or something else but more on that later and the dog says, I cant see a thing. Ill open this one.

Amory: If you noticed some hesitation in Serainas voice, thats because scholars have different translations for this joke. Sumerian is the earliest written language on record, with the first examples dating to about 3000 B.C.E. And its a dead language.

Ben: Sumerian is also an isolate, meaning it isnt related to any other known language, making translation an imprecise art. Still, the joke more or less translates as Seraina said. Get it?

Amory: Neither did we. Nor did any of the dozen-plus colleagues and friends we asked over the last couple of months.

(Montage of WBUR staffers and friends.)

Saurabh: Can you say that again? A dog walks into a bar and says?

Ben: Ill open this one.

Saurabh: So there is no bar, and the dog is the bartender?

Quiana: What can a dog open? They dont have thumbs.

Marquis: What type of bar is this? What cant the dog see?

Ben: Thats actually a very astute question.

Tinku Ray: And whats the answer?

Ben: Were not sure.

Nora Saks: Im imagining a dog with a can of Budweiser and, like, using his little paws to open it. And thats mildly amusing. Thats it.

Quincy Walters: Maybe they had, like, you know, the forethought to know that this cryptic joke would last through the ages and have people on this wild goose chase. And theyre off in, you know, another realm laughing, like the joke is on us, maybe.

Ben: We knew when we started looking into this, we may indeed end up the butt of this joke because we knew we might not find the answer to what makes it funny or what it tells us about the origins of humor. But we were willing to take that chance.

Amory: So a bit of background. A lot of people point to Sumer as the first human civilization. It emerged around 5000 B.C.E. And it was made possible by the Agricultural Revolution. This was before Egypt, Greece, etc. And geographically, it was in Mesopotamia, the region in and around modern-day Iraq.

Gonzalo Rubio: The very name Mesopotamia, the Greek name, refers to the land that is in-between rivers, the Tigris to the east and the Euphrates to the west.

Ben: This is Gonzalo Rubio of Penn State. Another expert we spoke to early on our journey.

He says Mesopotamia is home to a lot of firsts.

Gonzalo: Its the cradle of bureaucracy. Its the cradle of agriculture. Its the cradle of a lot of babies, if you will.

Ben: (Laughs.)

Amory: Gonzalo and Seraina told us that, combined with new large-scale irrigation techniques, the river valleys were so fertile that this agrarian society had an enormous surplus. That made it possible to feed a lot of people maybe for the first time in humanity.

Ben: Were talking up to 1.5 million Sumerians, who in turn built some of the earliest cities with culture and taverns and social hierarchy.

Seraina: So you have the elites. Then you have, lets say, a middle class with craftspeople for example, merchants, more well-to-do people. And then you have a vast lower class of farm laborers, workers, and so forth. And also enslaved people.

Amory: The humor of the dog-in-a-bar joke was probably related to those Sumerian ways of life, perhaps the middle class or well-off, people with downtime and drinking shekels.

Ben: But while some experts know some things about Sumer, the nuances have been lost, and its the nuances that bring jokes to life.

Seraina: I must admit, I dont understand the punchline. Im not quite sure what it is.

Ben: OK.

Seraina: It could have been a pun that we dont understand. It could have been a reference, I dont know, to a local politician or some famous figure. So its very hard for us to tell.

Amory: OK, so this seemed like the first plausible theory. Jokes do often include references to current events and sayings, from Bye, Felicia! to The rent is too damn high!

Ben: So maybe a local powerful person said, Ill open this one, in some other context and became infamous for it? And this bar joke is actually just comparing him to a dumb dog? Just a guess.

Amory: There are hundreds of guesses online: Maybe the punchline was meant to be physical, unspoken. Or it could be as simple as: I cant see a thing because my eyes are closed. Not a great joke, but maybe thats all you can expect from proto-humor. Gonzalo had a different thought, though admittedly, one that felt like it would shut down our investigation before it even began.

Gonzalo: When people say this is a joke, first of all, we dont even know what it is.

Ben: I mean, it is structured like a joke. Theres a setup (dog goes into a bar, cant see anything) and a punchline (Ill open this one). But maybe thats revisionist history. Seraina didnt even refer to this as a joke when we first started talking.

See more here:
What makes the world's first bar joke funny? No one knows. - WBUR News

In 2017, by age 24, Rachel Richards had already worked as a financial advisor and then as a financial analyst at a manufacturing firm. After picking up her license, she began working as a Realtor. No matter what kind of work she was doing, one thing remained constant: People in her life were constantly looking to her for help with their finances.

"I began to wonder, 'Why aren't they learning on their own? Why aren't they reading books, or listening to podcasts or looking on websites?'" says Richards, now 30.

Then it dawned on her: Most of the financial books she'd come across were boring and esoteric, bordering on intimidating. And few were targeted toward young women. "So I thought to myself, 'How can I make this topic sassy and fun and simple?'"

Richards began writing her first book, "Money Honey" in January 2017 and self-published on Amazon that September. By just about any measure, it was a massive success. In its first month, the book brought in $600. The next month it brought in $1,000. "After that, it was pulling in $1,500 a month pretty consistently," she says.

In the same year, Richards had begun building a thriving real estate business. Soon, income from her rental properties would allow her to retire in 2019 at the age of 27.

The robust income she earned from publishing didn't hurt. All told, through the end of July 2022, Richards has sold about 25,000 copies each of "Money Honey" and her second self-published book, "Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement," a 2019 release which details her strategies for early retirement.

In 2021, royalties from the two titles netted Richards more than $97,000 in profit. Here's how she did it.

Richards, like many aspiring authors, dreamed of seeing her name in print through the window of her local bookstore. She also hoped that with a traditional book deal, the publisher would handle the labor-intensive task of promoting the book. That turned out not to be the case.

"The more I asked authors about their experience, the more I learned that publishers expect you to do 99% of the marketing and promotion," Richards says. "If you're an author with no platform, they're not going to send you out on a national book tour."

Once she learned she'd have to flog the book herself no matter what, Richards was far less inclined to give a publisher a big chunk of her royalties. "When you get a book deal, you earn a 10% to 15% royalty. When you publish on Amazon, you earn a 35% to 70% royalty." (Royalty structures vary between different formats, such as e-books and paperbacks, and factor in costs such as shipping and tax.)

She also says that self-publishing guarantees creative control, even if it comes at a cost. Thinking her book wouldn't sell and hoping to limit her losses, Richards spent just $561 to hire an editor and a cover designer for "Money Honey." She says a more "realistic" minimum budget is at least $2,000 and ideally would include an interior formatter as well. She spent $3,500 putting together her second book.

Self-publishing on Amazon has also given Richards the ability to offer her books in different formats for different types of readers. These days, the e-book version of "Money Honey" sells for $9.99, the paperback goes for $15.99 and the audiobook costs $17.46.

During the course of reading books on self-publishing, it became clear to Richards that she would need a launch team a dedicated group of supporters who would buy and champion her book. But in 2017, she didn't have a large social media following or an email list of clients.

But she was involved in several Facebook groups filled with younger women. "Here was 13 million female millennials. The groups weren't necessarily financial, but I would go on and say, 'My name is Rachel. I'm a former financial advisor. Here's what I think,'" she says. After a while, she says, Richards became the go-to person in the groups for financial advice. "These Facebook groups really helped me build credibility with these women."

Richards began introducing the idea that she was working on a book. She asked her fellow group members to vote on potential titles and cover designs. "They became emotionally invested," she says. "They were my informal launch team."

Once the book was published, Richards began interacting 1-on-1 with anyone and everyone she thought she could get interested in the book. "I would personally message people and say, 'Hey it's out. Could you go download it?'" she says. "I sent out hundreds of emails. I texted every contact in my phone. I was really aggressive."

Her other big ask, besides downloads: Reviews. "Getting reviews early on is as important as getting sales," Richards. "Amazon will put your book in front of more organic people if they see you have a lot of reviews and activity."

After its first few days on the market, Richards' book had 60 reviews.

Even with a solid launch, Richards doesn't think her book would have enjoyed sustained sales had it not occupied a particular niche in the market. "You have to have a unique value proposition. Why would somebody buy my book over the thousands that are already out there?" she says. "For me, at the time, there weren't many books out there that made finance funny that had humor and were sassy and sarcastic. It was a lot of books by old white men."

Richards also made sure her book was available and attractively priced for different types of readers. Initially, that meant a five-day launch period during which the book could be digitally downloaded for free. "It's worth giving up some profits to get the book into the hands of more people," Richards says. "Then you go to $0.99, $1.99 and so forth."

Richards has played around with the pricing over the years to see how it affected profitability, but always kept an eye on her competitors. "I always wanted to be priced a little bit lower. If [a competitor's book] is at $6.99, I intuitively want to be at $5.99."

After some recent pricing changes, Richards now earns the largest royalty $6.68 from sales of e-book versions of "Money Honey." She nets $6.39 on paperbacks and $4.31 per audiobook. (Profits on sales of her second book are similar.)

Pricing tactics aside, Richards chalks up her books' continued success to the service they provide for readers. "I published telling myself that if I could help one person, I'd be happy," she says. "And then about six months after I published I started getting emails from strangers and random people all over the country."

Readers had paid off their student loans. They had paid down their credit card debt. People told Richards the book had changed their lives. Richards had spent just $75 to advertise her book, and here it was doing more than she had ever set out to do.

"I thought, it must be selling off word-of-mouth," she says. "And if it's helping people like this, I must have written something good."

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Don't miss: 65% of Americans are doing the exact opposite of what theyre supposed to, says investing expertheres what to do instead

Link:
30-year-old retiree earned $97,000 in passive income from Amazon last year: Here's how she got started - CNBC

The Winnipeg Public Library system wont have to wonder anymore about what happened to its copy of Baseball by Daniel E. Jessee.

Last checked out on June 18, 1974, the book, which gives readers information on how to play baseball, was recently brought back to the St. James-Assiniboia library branch, 48 years overdue.

Stephanie George, the head librarian for the branch, said the item was returned approximately one month ago in the return chute.

She said its not the first time that older items have been dropped off at the library years after they were due.

I've been at the branch for three years, and it has happened three times, George said. While I've been here, we had a very late magazine returned during the height of COVID. And before that, it was another book called Sarah Binks.

Libraries in Winnipeg went fine free last year, so whoever owned the book wont be charged nearly five decades of late fees, though George said people are still encouraged to return their books when their loan period is up.

People are always waiting for books. If you can hand them in as close to their due date, that would definitely be appreciated, she said.

Original post:
Winnipeg library: book 48 years overdue returned | CTV News - CTV News Winnipeg