Melania's little tree of illiteracy

[struggle4progress]

By HEATHER MALLICKStar Columnist
Tues., Nov. 28, 2017

The American hard-right devaluing of education is an extraordinary thing to watch. I am staring at Melania Trump's White House Christmas Book Tree, which is a small revolving pyramid of books bought solely for their green covers.

From World of Golf to William E. Donoghue’s Lifetime Financial Planner .. they were picked out of a bin and selected for hardness and greenery like unripe supermarket bananas. There's one good book in the tree, FDR’s own copy of A Christmas Carol, but it was also chosen for colour. It is red ...

Books are good, except when they are not. As with bananas and avocados, it takes study, practice and squeezing to choose the suitable ones ...

Melania Trump doesn’t know that her eerie Christmas decor looks like the Hundred-Year Winter in Narnia .. and the flickering tunnel of looming white stalks in the East Colonnade would terrify even the Children of the Corn ...

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2017/11/28/when-life-imitates-art-it-helps-to-know-the-characters.html

[Skittles]

1. the decor fits HER

SHE is creepy

[Solly Mack]

2. K/R

Very nice read.

[Botany]

3. Where Melania got her idea on the White House Christmas Decor

In the end it always comes back to Russia.

[Girard442]

4. Did you see that the crime novel "Tainted Evidence" is front and center on the book tree?

Trying to send us a message there Melania?

[Hekate]

5. Excellent read -- stinging observations. nt

[Kirk Lover]

6. Fucking Ice Queen.

At least she took a break from all the gold.

[SeaDoo77]

7. Are The Trumps Really Human?

Or something else.

[xxqqqzme]

8. Oh, rats! I was hoping for a picture.

Is it a little strange she has a stack of paper representing a tree?

[struggle4progress]

13. Feast yer eyes

[xxqqqzme]

15. Thank you for the 'up close and personal'.

I was only able to find the 3rd picture.

[BobTheSubgenius]

9. I truly believe in the major premise here.

I absolutely HATE to sound like one of those "back in my day..." old geezer, but, in this case, I think it's true - we learned much more about the world in general that is taught now. It took many years to see the value in a good liberal arts grounding, but it makes one a better citizen of the world, I believe.

Naturally, it was very North America and Eurocentric, but we also learned about South America - less about Africa and Asia. Still, it's a good start, and a lot of the topics are still major players today. Even just a decent summary of WW2, its run-up and aftermath would yield a lot of context for today.

A few summers ago, I went to a yard party given by a friend of my step-daughter's. Other than my wife and I, and one other couple of parents or stepparents, everyone was in their early 30's. The hostess is hyperorganized about things like this, so she had games and prizes.

One of the games was a trivia contest, on a toss-up basis. Question asked, first person with the correct answer won the prize. As it was a celebration of the 4th of July, it was very US civics and history oriented. First question was "Name the 3 branches of government" and, as the prize was a (Grisham, I think) novel, I answered quickly.

Two more questions, and the hostess said "I'd like to point out that the only person answering these question about America is a Canadian." I was a bit embarrassed, and kept quiet for the rest of the game.

Am I much smarter than absolutely everyone else at that gathering? Of course not. As a quick example, the host is an IT professional, and my step-daughter was honour roll every term. Every term.

Seriously, though...how can reasonably smart-to-very-smart Americans not know every state by sight and all their capitals? I can't even imagine what they knew or know about other countries, but I do imagine it would be precious little.

[panader0]

12. Some of my construction buddies couldn't even name the V.P.

or any cabinet member. They think I'm weird because I know about such things.

[LiberalLovinLug]

14. Seems that it's gone from civics classes

To now where simply knowing and seeking knowledge about government, your own government that affects your daily life, means you are some kind of elite know-it- all just trying to make them look stupid.

[NastyRiffraff]

10. I've heard of people "decorating" with books

but it's particularly horrible to see it in the White House. That's OUR house, and I want books that are classic, books that are exciting and new, books that make us think, laugh, relax, change our minds.

Instead we get books chosen for their color. You might as well just put up sculptures of books; that way you don't have to deal with all that stupid paper, and words and stuff.

[KG]

11. expected from people who don't read. and maybe can't.