A Kid's Reaction to a Gay Couple

As you can see, this poor child is permanently damaged. For life. He walks out of the room and falls straight into Hell.

"I'm going to play ping-pong now. You play if you want to."

See how horrified he is of seeing two men who love each other???

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The Epic #AmazonFAIL of 2009, the aftermath

You'd figure after such a brouhaha, Amazon would be all over damage control, sending out formal apologies, giving out free copies of the de-ranked books, something. Apparently... not so much.

So it was a little glitch. Oops! And Amazon employees were yanked from their family Easter festivities to find the problem, which "didn't take much digging" to figure out. But they couldn't issue any sort of statement, or switch that one little tag from "true" back to "false", until late Monday afternoon? Really?

Have we even received an "official" response to the situation yet? All I've read are these "unofficial comments" from Unnamed Source. I guess this is an "official response." Posted Tuesday morning. If I'd ordered a book Sunday it would have gotten to me faster than that, wouldn't it have? Maybe they should put their shipping department in charge of PR.

Several people are unimpressed with the whole affair, and the explanation. Such as Jane at Dear Author, and Sara at SmartBitches (where Tasha, in the comments, makes a good point: "I would be more likely to believe this was a simple error that resulted in mass de-ranking had there been a mass re-ranking when the error was reversed." I didn't go on Amazon to do any searches myself yesterday or today [don't want to give them more business, still miffed with them], but if what she says is true, the "flipped the wrong switch" story doesn't hold much water, does it?)

Richard Nash has some thought-provoking things to say about the mess.

So does Vroman's Bookstore.

Interesting to note, while the GLBT community was affected the most and was the most vocal about it, their books were not the only ones affected. Which brings us back to Richard Nash's point, doesn't it?

I don't have much to add. Just felt I should update on the situation, and I had lots of linkies to share. I hope they make sense, because my brain is tired and I feel very disconnected from the blogosphere. I haven't had time to read any blogs (that were not tagged #amazonfail), and the six weeks ends Friday and I'll be out Thursday and Friday and I have quizzes to grade and two tests to create and lesson plans for two days to invent and other random grading to catch up on and instead I'm here, writing this. So I hope that explains the discombobulation.

The Epic #AmazonFAIL of 2009

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) I was, indeed, hiding under a rock. Freddy and I went to church, then to his mom's house to do the Easter thing with the nieces and nephew. I was a good girl and did not take my laptop*. ALAS! I log on to Twitter this morning and find out I indeed missed quite a bit of brouhaha.

Quick run-down of the events: Why did gay books disappear from Amazon?

Why the "glitch" story doesn't really click: David Niall Wilson: Glimpses Into an Overactive Mind - Amazon Sales Rank and Some Reality

What to do about it: Smart Bitches - Amazon Rank and Dear Author - Amazon Rank

Or, if you're so inclined, here's something else you can do: Jackson Pearce's Amazon FAIL (or: Twilight Made Me Gay)

Other good posts (this list will be updated as I find more links. And find the ones I already read, but closed the window before I realized I needed to blog about it):

After Ellen - What Amazon's "Glitch" Says About American Pop Culture

Narcissistic Ramblings... - And ANOTHER Fail Sister: #amazonfail

Urban Dictionary: Amazon rank

[EDIT] Feministing.com - Amazon Fail: Certain "adult" books (like mine) are de-ranked

[EDIT 2] Neil Gaiman - Amazonfail Sunday

[***UPDATE***]

This guy claims he did it. I don't understand all that code-speak, so here's the explanation in layspeak (from Fiction Matters).

The guy quite clearly has an issue with gay people. I can't tell how much of his post is serious, and how much is him trying to be funny (I'm not going to waste time out of my life to find out). Was he just trying to pull some prank on the gay community? Was he out to target authors (gay and straight)? Did he really find Heather Has Two Mommies that offensive?

Did he choose which books people "flagged"? Or did people choose the books? If the guy chose the books, why are feminist books and books that deal with disabilities also being targeted?

And as I was writing this, FictionMatters updated the post, because this guy says the first guy is a liar (which is not entirely surprising to me). I started to read the post, but it speaks a language I do not understand. So I stopped, since I prefer not to pursue fruitless endeavors.

[***UPDATE***THE SEQUEL***]

And there's more! Jessica Valenti from Feministing (who's had two books de-ranked) has an update, after her editor spoke to an Amazon rep.

[***UPDATE***THE SEQUEL***PART DEUX***]

There seems to be an "unofficial official" response from Amazon. FictionMatters has a summary and links to the "unofficial official" explanations.

* I took my AlphaSmart, in case Script Frenzy inspiration hit me. (It didn't.) But I left all Internetzed devices at home.

The power of words and the definition of marriage

Look it up: Dictionaries recognized same-sex unions under 'marriage' years before states - WHO

The first year I taught third grade, a colleague lent me the book Frindle, to read to the kids. I had nothing else to read to them during SSR (Sustained Silent Reading time, after lunch), so I gladly accepted the book. Little did I know what I was in for...

The story is about this kid who butts heads with his English teacher. She's super mean and has this huge dictionary on this almost-shrine at the front of the room, because she practically worships words and language (and makes her students do tons of homework every night).

So the kid comes up with an idea, just to tick the teacher off. Instead of using the word "pen" for pen, he calls the pen a "frindle."

The kids in the class all jump on the bandwagon (at least until they all get detention, but that's secondary). The feud becomes so huge (because both characters are too pig-headed to back down) and soon the whole city is involved. People start making t-shirts with the word "frindle" on them. The local news, then the state news, then the national news start talking about this. It became a huge thing, and people all over the country started using the word "frindle."

Spoiler to follow, so skip the next paragraph if you're planning on reading this book.

At the end of the book, years after the kid has graduated (middle school and high school) and the teacher has long retired, the kid gets a package in the mail. From the teacher. It's the newest edition of the dictionary, with a note to turn to page so-and-so. Where the word "frindle" is listed, meaning "pen." Because the word became part of the general lexicon.

Will you think less of me if I tell you that ending made me cry?

Merriam-Webster said in a statement Wednesday that the edited entry merely reflected the frequency with which the term "same-sex marriage" had popped up in print and become part of the general lexicon.

This is what I love about languages. They are alive. And we control them.

What's the definition of "marriage"? Whatever we want it to be. However we use the word, that's how it's going to be used. Whatever meaning we give it, that's what it's going to mean.

Marriage is a union between two people who love each other and have made a commitment to love and cherish one another til death do them part. Whatever color, or sex, or size, or religious belief, or whatever they may be, whether a totally irrelevant third party thinks they "match" or not.

Same-sex, different-sex, it's still marriage. The dictionary has been saying so for years -- because we have.

"With this latte, I thee kiss"

Today is Freddy's and my first wedding anniversary. (Yes, we got married on the Ides of March. We like to tempt fate.)

A month from today is the deadline to pay Uncle Sam (or ask him for our money back). Freddy and I will file our taxes together, as a married couple; sadly, many couples are not afforded that luxury.

Yes, I know doing your taxes is not the most fun thing in the world -- but you know what? Respect is pretty cool. And not being allowed to do your taxes together is a huge reminder that WE DON'T RESPECT YOU. And that is not cool.

A month from today, couples who are mad as hell and are not going to take it anymore will participate in Same Sex Kiss Day. Go to Starbucks, and kiss your same-sex partner (or friend, or acquaintance...) The point? To show homophobes that gay people are, indeed, just PEOPLE. Novel concept, I know.

The more we see them, the less mystical they will be. Sounds silly, but the whole concept of not letting them get married is pretty damn silly, too. Isn't it?

By the way, March also holds another important anniversary for me -- a week and four years ago, I got divorced. And, honestly, it's a close tie as to which one of these was "the happiest day of my life."

So, yeah... "the sanctity of marriage"? We heteros have made a joke out of that already. And you know it's true, so I'm not going to make a list of all the hetero "marriages" and divorces that have made a mockery of the institution -- for those who let that sort of thing bother them.


Go to Starbucks! Kiss! Repeal Prop 8 -- nationwide!

Photo by John Woelke.

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Seriously, people - remember the "Love one another as I have loved you" part?

Slowly clearing out my Google Reader backlog, I came across this post on The Swivet, regarding Prop 8 in California. I couldn't have said it better myself, so I won't try (aren't you relieved?) But I wil quote:

Let me be perfectly clear: Nobody who would truly claim to be a Christian
would ever support such a proposition. Why? Because it's not something that
Jesus Christ himself ever would have supported. The dude was a radical,
remember? He partied with whores and tax collectors and slept with twelve other
men for three years. I'd say he was pretty much okay with the whole same-sex
thing, wouldn't you???

Why is this so hard to understand?