| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"George Washington Hayduke" |
| Date: |
31 Oct 2004 11:25:04 AM |
| Object: |
How to Eat Fried Worms |
This is another book on the list of top 100 banned or otherwise attacked
books from the American Library Association's web site.
Written in 1973 by Thomas Rockwell, it's a "Junior" book intended for
children before "Young Adult" which I think is intended for High School
aged kids.
The story is about four boys. What I thought was amusing was that the
book starts out the same way that "Tom Sawyer" starts out: Someone is
calling for Tom. }:-} And it took about an hour to read.
The illistrations in the book are fair good ones: they're "minimalist"
line drawings of boys engaged in various activities described in the book
-- such as Billy sitting down on an orange crate with a plate, knife and
fork, while the other three are digging for worms.
The issue that Christians might have a problem with is that one of the
boys makes a $50 bet with Billy, saying that Billy can't eat 15 worms in
15 days, one worm a day. Betting is supposedly anti-Christian so perhaps
that's why this book is attacked.
The four boys split into two teams, two of the kids trying to stop Billy
from eating the worms and the fourth offering moral support and suggestions
to Billy.
The first worm is dug up and there's some discussion about how it should
be cooked or whether it _should_ be cooked. Then there's discussion about
how it should be served -- ketchup, mustard, pepper, horseradish, salt,
lemmon juice is used on the first worm.
After the firm worm is eaten, Billy jumps up and dances around pretending
to be a bird; happy that he made it past the first worm. At the same time
the two boys on the other side of the bet are scared because they're not
sure what happens when kids eat worms and they're wondering if maybe this
behavior is going to last forever. }:-}
Every day there's a new worm and it's served in different ways. About the
ninth worm, Billy wakes up after a dream about eating huge, heavy worms in
Paris (I think it was) and he thinks his stomache is in pain so he wakes
his mother up and says he's not feeling well.
She asks him what he ate before bed. Candy? Billy tells her he ate a
worm which makes his mother a bit upset so she shakes awake the father and
demands he telephone the doctor. The father is mildly annoyed but more
than amused. He wants to know how many he ate today and Billy says that
he ate just the one. The father asks how many he's eaten so far and Billy
tells him he's eaten nine, one for the past nine days.
Billy's father pretty much chuckles it off and tells his wife that worms
aren't poison and he hasn't eaten enough to cause an upset and he refuses
to call the doctor -- at 3:30 in the morning.
The mother isn't convinced but Billy goes back to bed and he hears his
parents arguing about calling the doctor. As Billy is falling sleep -- and
as his imaginary pains are forgotten -- he hears his father on the telepone
with Poison Control asking about his son eating worms. Amusingly the
Poison Control center must have asked is his son had shown any other
unusual behavior other than eating worms because the father tells the
Center, "No, just the worm eating."
So the parents are satisfied that eating worms isn't a problem.
The two kids on the other side of the bet try to cheat in a number of ways.
They glue too long worms together and batter it up in corn meal before they
fry it up so that Billy looks at a two-foot long worm. It's almost enough
to make him sick looking at it but Billy starts in. The other two laugh
and look guilty so Billy suspects something and starts removing the corn
meal and finds the cheat and refuses to eat the second worm.
Also the two try to get Billy's mother to put a stop to the worm eating.
On the 11'th worm or so they come to Billy's house with a paper bad and
they ask Billy's mother if she would make sure Billy eats his two worms for
the following two days since they have to go away for two days.
Billy's parents had assumed that Billy had stopped eating worms and the
two kids had thought that Billy's mother would put a stop to it so that
Billy would lose the bet.
But Billy's mother is cool with it. She excuses herself from the kitchen
and is heard talking on the telephone. She's heard saying something like
"so it's okay, Doctor?" She comes back and -- to the annoyance of the two
kids -- accepts the responsibility of making sure Billy eats his two worms
while they're away.
The worms are put on a plate and covered in plastic wrap and put in the
refridgerator (they had already been boiled.)
That night Billy's parents are examining the worms and though the rest of
the family's meal had been planned, they look into how to prepare Billy's
worm. They go through the cook books until they find a disk for Salmon and
Billy's mother works up a breaded batter with seasoning and of course it
tastes great. Billy's father wants to try a bite but his wife who is
charged with making sure the bet isn't tainted says no, Billy has to eat
every bite.
Another cheat attempt involved a fake worm, having been created using
beans. Billy noted that the worm tasted differently and burping he could
tell it was beans. So he digs around and finds a worm and yells at the
two kids who thought they got away with breaking the bet. They turn
around and Billy eats the worm raw.
Another possible reason why Christians might not like the book is the
fantasy of the minibike that the $50 will buy. Billy and the other kid
fantasize about riding it all over, including around the pews in the
Christian church they go to. And they fantasize about riding around the
school room, getting into trouble, running off to join the Navy. }:-}
The 15'th worm -- the last -- doesn't go so well and it becomes sinister
and here's where I had a problem with it. As Billy is eating the last
worm, there's a couple of bites left but the other two kids beat Billy
up a bit and drag him into a closet which they lock. While Billy is
pounding on the door trying to get out, the two kids start to uncover
a water cistern that's 18 feet deep, planning to lower Billy into it
until after midnight when the bet expires. They don't know whether the
cistern has filled with water, though, so they come within a few minutes
of possibly killing Billy.
An adult comes in because of the noise and sends the two other kids to
their homes while Billy is sent up to his room. He tries to tell his
father that he needs to finish the worm but his father has had enough of
it and Billy is sent to his room.
It's amost certain that the bet is lost when the fourth kid shows up with
an easter basket with a worm in it tied to a brack with a long line of
rope. Billy gets the worm and screams out his window so that people on
the street come out and watch as he eats the final worm and wins the bet.
The last chapter has three of the boys playin in a stream in the woods
with the minibike leaning against a tree. The boy who lost the bet will
be joining them after he finishes working at the local store for the day,
working to replace the $50 he took out of his savings account.
It's a good story, well written. There's two parts that Christian
fundamentalists might not like: Driving the minibike through the church
and the possibility that Billy will be drowned.
+--+
| Hezbollah endorses George W. Bush: http://www.hezbollah.ws/
| http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html -- Scientology crime syndicate
| "And his daughter drips semen relentlessly." - Molina
+--+
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| User: "FAITH HURST" |
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| Title: Re: How to Eat Fried Worms |
14 Nov 2004 09:42:30 PM |
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"George Washington Hayduke" <Hayduke@AWOLBush.com> wrote in message
news:10oa7ro1pkuelb1@corp.supernews.com...
This is another book on the list of top 100 banned or otherwise attacked
books from the American Library Association's web site.
Written in 1973 by Thomas Rockwell, it's a "Junior" book intended for
children before "Young Adult" which I think is intended for High School
aged kids.
Just so you know, this book is one of our fourth grade supplemental books.
I actually give it to some of my slower fourth grade readers. It is VERY
easy reading.
I never knew it was considered objectionable. That is pretty funny.
--
Clayskye #4
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| User: "phy" |
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| Title: Re: How to Eat Fried Worms |
31 Oct 2004 12:46:02 PM |
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(George Washington Hayduke) wrote in
news:10oa7ro1pkuelb1@corp.supernews.com:
This is another book on the list of top 100 banned or otherwise attacked
books from the American Library Association's web site.
Where is the list of banned books? I found one of the 100 most challenged
books. It isn't the same thing, but is it the list you are talking about?
I liked that fried worms book. I haven't read many of these books, but the
ones that I have were amoung my favorites. I have only read a few books in
my childhood that looking back, probably weren't something I should have
bee reading.
-phy
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| User: "Vic Sagerquist" |
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| Title: Re: How to Eat Fried Worms |
31 Oct 2004 09:58:42 PM |
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On 31 Oct 2004, phy dropped trou, farted, whirled, then shouted:
Hayduke@AWOLBush.com (George Washington Hayduke) wrote in
news:10oa7ro1pkuelb1@corp.supernews.com:
This is another book on the list of top 100 banned or otherwise
attacked books from the American Library Association's web site.
Where is the list of banned books? I found one of the 100 most
challenged books. It isn't the same thing, but is it the list you are
talking about?
I liked that fried worms book. I haven't read many of these books, but
the ones that I have were amoung my favorites. I have only read a few
books in my childhood that looking back, probably weren't something I
should have bee reading.
I read one in my early 20s titled "How to Kill People". It was non-
fiction, and it was actually about how to kill people. It covered
everything from sublime poisoning to suicidal assassination with a
machete. Talk about abusing the first amendment.
--
Vic Sagerquist
aa#2011
Supervisor, EAC Department of little adhesive-backed "L" shaped
chrome-plastic doo-dads to add feet to Jesus fish department
______________
Vote for John Kerry
God belongs in church, not the White House.
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| User: "The Sophist" |
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| Title: Re: How to Eat Fried Worms |
01 Nov 2004 05:43:44 AM |
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Vic Sagerquist wrote:
I read one in my early 20s titled "How to Kill People". It was non-
fiction, and it was actually about how to kill people. It covered
everything from sublime poisoning to suicidal assassination with a
machete. Talk about abusing the first amendment.
Seems like a book like that could be useful to a detective or a
bodyguard, not to mention a mystery writer.
--
Aaron Boyden
The main division between the so-called Continental and Analytic
traditions has been disputes over whether the task of being unclear
should be carried out in natural language or in a formal system.
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| User: "George Washington Hayduke" |
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| Title: Re: How to Eat Fried Worms |
01 Nov 2004 10:13:10 PM |
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phy <phy00x@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hayduke@AWOLBush.com (George Washington Hayduke) wrote in
news:10oa7ro1pkuelb1@corp.supernews.com:
This is another book on the list of top 100 banned or otherwise attacked
books from the American Library Association's web site.
Where is the list of banned books? I found one of the 100 most challenged
books. It isn't the same thing, but is it the list you are talking about?
That's the American Librarian Association's list, yes: 100 entries on their
web site. When I say "banned or otherwise attacked" I mean that there were
requests that it be removed from shelves or incidents where the book was
successfully removed from a shelf somewhere in the United States.
I liked that fried worms book. I haven't read many of these books, but the
ones that I have were amoung my favorites. I have only read a few books in
my childhood that looking back, probably weren't something I should have
bee reading.
Do you remember Fried Worms very well?
+--+
| Hezbollah endorses George W. Bush: http://www.hezbollah.ws/
| http://sf.irk.ru/www/ot3/otiii-gif.html -- Scientology crime syndicate
| "And his daughter drips semen relentlessly." - Molina
+--+
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| User: "phy" |
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| Title: Re: How to Eat Fried Worms |
06 Nov 2004 12:42:48 PM |
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(George Washington Hayduke) wrote in
news:10oe26u5o3ss341@corp.supernews.com:
I liked that fried worms book. I haven't read many of these books, but
the ones that I have were amoung my favorites. I have only read a few
books in my childhood that looking back, probably weren't something I
should have bee reading.
Do you remember Fried Worms very well?
Yes I do. I reread it a couple years ago when my son brought it home from
his school's library.
-phy
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