Read a good book lately?

Opinion

October 20, 2007

By Stoney Hardcastle The McAlester News-Capital Sat Oct 20, 2007, 01:58 PM CDT

Books, books and thousands more books in every genre to fit every reader’s appetite, from romance to how to make a nuclear bomb. Yet the biggest sellers flooding the market are “tell all” books by politicians and celebrities, written by ghost writers. Most of these books are half-truths, structured for revenge or to assassinate someone’s character.

With promotion from radio and TV talking heads, many become best sellers almost overnight. Most are overpriced and difficult reading, yet they are pushing most entertaining books of fact and fiction by professional writers off the market. Several of these books are so obscene they make Playboy magazine look like a Sunday school quarterly.

One of the best recent books, just released by Alan Greenspan, respected former director of the Federal Reserve, is very informative and is worth reading. He states that Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton are the only two presidents, including the present one, who understood our country’s complicated economy.

Recently, data was released that shows Oklahoma has slightly more than 40,000 state employees. There are several strange job titles: Personal grooming specialist, several golf greeters and the kicker is 13 boll weevil trappers drawing salaries.

I made some phone calls, trying to find out why we needed so many boll weevil trappers and what they did in the winter when the boll weevils are in hibernation. The Republicans said it was the Democrats’ fault that we were overstocked with boll weevil trappers and the Democrats said it was the Republicans’ fault. And the Independents, to remain neutral and not tarnish their image, held a cotton sock burning.

A 20-year-old Tulsa man was speeding. When the red light came, he tried to outrun a traffic cop. After a short distance the young man lost control of his car and crashed into a utility pole. When the officer asked him why he didn’t stop, the young man answered, “I woke up having a bad day.” We can assume the young man will have a worse day when he faces the judge.

Trick or treat? Start stocking up on goodies, Halloween is just around the corner.

Stoney Hardcastle is a novelist and retired creative writing instructor from Eastern Oklahoma State College who lives in Wilburton.

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