Re: Hey all... and a quick question about my potential geekiness

[Guest guest]

One quick question: did anyone else

> here read encyclopedias when they were kids? I was wondering because

> in talking to tonight over dinner, I told her this and she

> thought others on the list might have as well.

I certainly did. My parents bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias the

year I was born, and whenever I wanted to know something I would look it

up. Sometimes I just randomly picked up one of them and started reading

anywhere that looked interesting.

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

At 08:38 AM 12/15/02 -0000, imkeepingawake wrote:

>Hey there,

> I'm new to the list and I thought I'd introduce myself and say

>hi quickly. My name is and I'm a graduate student in history at

>UCLA studying the rural American West and currently live in Los

>Angeles.

Hi, . I feel kind of like I know you already from reading 's

journal.

I don't study the rural American West but I live in the rural American West.

Interesting topic to study.

>One quick question: did anyone else

>here read encyclopedias when they were kids?

Yes. And dictionaries. The children in school called me " Webster " (among

other things) to indicate their disapproval of that behavior. I didn't

realize there could be anything wrong with reading dictionaries and

encyclopedias until they mocked me for it. Their mockery wasn't a strong

enough deterrant. I continued to read encyclopedias and dictionaries and

still do today.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I'm saying " yes yes yes yes yes! " as I read your letter right now.

In 1969 when I was eight years old, my parents bought a set of Encyclopedia

Brittanica, and got the Brittanica Junior Encyclopedia for me. Those

encyclopedias quickly became the most-read set of books I owned, and it did not

take me long before I moved onto the " adult " set--and the yearbooks that came

with them. For decades I thought I must have been strange because no one else I

knew read encyclopedias for fun as a child. I'm glad to know I'm far from the

only one.

By the way, welcome, . I'm , a 41-year-old cartoonist whose official

diagnosis is Non Verbal Learning Disability, along with cerebral palsy. (With

perhaps some hyperlexia thrown in). Having corresponded with a large number of

AS people in the past few months, I know I have much more in common with them

than any of the NLD people I've contacted.Your story seems to drive that point

home even more.

Newstead

Hey all... and a quick question about my

potential geekiness

Hey there,

I'm new to the list and I thought I'd introduce myself and say

hi quickly. My name is and I'm a graduate student in history at

UCLA studying the rural American West and currently live in Los

Angeles. I'm also friends with from way back and am excited to

be on the list and meet everyone. One quick question: did anyone else

here read encyclopedias when they were kids? I was wondering because

in talking to tonight over dinner, I told her this and she

thought others on the list might have as well.

Thanks,

)

[Guest guest]

imkeepingawake wrote:

> Hey there,

> I'm new to the list and I thought I'd introduce myself and say

> hi quickly. My name is and I'm a graduate student in history at

> UCLA studying the rural American West and currently live in Los

> Angeles. I'm also friends with from way back and am excited to

> be on the list and meet everyone. One quick question: did anyone else

> here read encyclopedias when they were kids? I was wondering because

> in talking to tonight over dinner, I told her this and she

> thought others on the list might have as well.

My Dad has Encyclopaedia Britannica and I spent long hours reading

random things in it when I was supposed to be practising the piano. When

I heard the door of the semi-detached " studio " (read: games room) where

Dad used to teach the piano squeak open I would quickly put back the

volume I was reading and run to the piano to pretend I had been

practising. I also read his lame Pears Family Medical Encyclopaedia and

other silly medical books that fed his hypochondria.

CZ

[Guest guest]

Sparrow Rose Cross wrote:

> At 08:38 AM 12/15/02 -0000, imkeepingawake wrote:

>

>>Hey there,

>> I'm new to the list and I thought I'd introduce myself and say

>>hi quickly. My name is and I'm a graduate student in history at

>>UCLA studying the rural American West and currently live in Los

>>Angeles.

>

>

> Hi, . I feel kind of like I know you already from reading 's

> journal.

> I don't study the rural American West but I live in the rural American West.

> Interesting topic to study.

>

>

>>One quick question: did anyone else

>>here read encyclopedias when they were kids?

>

>

> Yes. And dictionaries. The children in school called me " Webster " (among

> other things) to indicate their disapproval of that behavior. I didn't

> realize there could be anything wrong with reading dictionaries and

> encyclopedias until they mocked me for it. Their mockery wasn't a strong

> enough deterrant. I continued to read encyclopedias and dictionaries and

> still do today.

I remember reading the entire Oxford English Dictionary during my Year 4

class time. I do not remember whether I ever got told off for it or

whether I was just ignored by the teacher. Shame I cannot remember all

the words in the thing.

CZ

[Guest guest]

>I also read his lame Pears Family Medical Encyclopaedia and

> other silly medical books that fed his hypochondria.

My parents owned a medical book from the 1950s that I found fascinating

just because it was so old and the advice so out-of-date. It included

directions for " How to survive a nuclear attack. " (If you're a kid at

school, hide under your desk.)

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

" imkeepingawake wrote:

Hey there,

I'm new to the list and I thought I'd introduce myself and say

hi quickly. My name is and I'm a graduate student in history at

UCLA studying the rural American West and currently live in Los

Angeles. I'm also friends with from way back and am excited to

be on the list and meet everyone. One quick question: did anyone else

here read encyclopedias when they were kids? I was wondering because

in talking to tonight over dinner, I told her this and she

thought others on the list might have as well.

Thanks,

)

-----------------Welcome !

Glad you joined! I kind of feel like I know you sort of already, and look

forward to getting to know you more.

Interesting question: I didn't like my parents set of World Book

encyclopedias b/c I didn't like the way they smelled.....however, the set at my

grandparents apartment I loved to pore through (they apparently had a different

smell, lol) My mother had a hell of a time getting me to use our set for

homework! But more than encyclopedias, I loved dictionaries,

especially older ones with interesting illustrations.

Nanne

[Guest guest]

At 09:28 AM 12/15/02 -0800, Iris M. Gray wrote:

>My parents owned a medical book from the 1950s that I found fascinating

>just because it was so old and the advice so out-of-date. It included

>directions for " How to survive a nuclear attack. " (If you're a kid at

>school, hide under your desk.)

I've seen the old " duck and cover " films. They were still doing " duck and

cover " by the time I was in elementary school but they had us go to an

interior hallway and duck and cover with our heads facing the wall. They

also no longer called them nuclear drills. They were " tornado drills " by then.

[Guest guest]

> I've seen the old " duck and cover " films. They were still doing " duck

> and cover " by the time I was in elementary school but they had us go to

> an interior hallway and duck and cover with our heads facing the wall.

> They also no longer called them nuclear drills. They were " tornado

> drills " by then.

I'd love to see one of those " duck and cover " films! We never had any

drills for anything but fire when I was in school. Today, however, schools

in my area have earthquake drills. Many parents say that their kids are

much better prepared for earthquakes than they area.

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

I liked to read my grandma's medical encyclopedia after she moved in with us

when I was 9.

Re: Hey all... and a quick question about my

potential geekiness

" imkeepingawake wrote:

Hey there,

One quick question: did anyone else

here read encyclopedias when they were kids?

[Guest guest]

-------------When cleaning out the mountains of books in my parents attic this

summer, there were two medical encyclopedias from the l920's. They were in too

poor of condition to try and sell, but I salvaged these illustrations from them

that are way cool; a profile of a man's head, and you can open various flaps,

first to see the muscle structure, then the eyes, all the way to the skeleton.

Others of the male and female body, and one of a foot.

Nanne

" Iris M. Gray " wrote:On Sun, 15 Dec 2002, Creepy

Zucchini wrote:

>I also read his lame Pears Family Medical Encyclopaedia and

> other silly medical books that fed his hypochondria.

My parents owned a medical book from the 1950s that I found fascinating

just because it was so old and the advice so out-of-date. It included

directions for " How to survive a nuclear attack. " (If you're a kid at

school, hide under your desk.)

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

.. One quick question: did anyone else

> here read encyclopedias when they were kids?

*nods emphatically*

Starting when I was about 4, the only way to get me to grandma's was to

tell me that when I got there I could work on reading the encyclopedia.

Kassiane

_______________________________________________________________

Get the FREE email that has everyone talking at

http://www.mail2world.com

[Guest guest]

dreamed lazily into the stars:

>One quick question: did anyone else

>here read encyclopedias when they were kids?

Of course I forgot to point out last night that I did too... My parents

lacked a set of " adult " encyclopedias when I was little, but we had the

ChildCraft World Book Encyclopedias when I was growing up, and the arrival

of a new supplement in the mail was the highlight of each year for me. I

particularly loved the volume on insects & spiders, even though I was

afraid that the creatures would crawl out of the pages... I would also

read my great-grandmother's ancient hand-illustrated dictionary from 1900

cover-to-cover, again afraid of the images.

I had a fun-but-stupid moment as a kid with those encyclopedias, in

fact. I was about five and read about the stages our sun would go through

before permanently dying. I had no concept of time (still don't have much

of one) so I was very concerned that enough time had elapsed since the

writing of the book that the destruction of the sun was imminent!

When I was a bit older, I became fascinated with medicine and would

read/collect medical encyclopedias. This was a good thing, as it

eventually led me to diagnosing my own rare defects well enough that I was

able to request services to improve my life that the doctors that hadn't

read about it didn't know about!

I also had a big thing for reading and memorizing parts of the

Proto-Indo-European dictionary in the back of my father's American Heritage

Dictionary. That later turned into a more general etymological

perseveration. I would be an etymological major at university, except that

would require me to be able to recognize the phonetic/phonemic sounds, and

I quickly discovered that (as usual) while I do great in tracking stuff

that is written, as soon as my speech processing centers are needed I fail

miserably. :^P

DeGraf ~*~ http://www.sonic.net/mustang/moggy

It looks just like Skinny and Sweet...

except for the little skull and crossbones on the label. (9 to 5)

[Guest guest]

Sparrow wrote:

>I've seen the old " duck and cover " films. They were still doing " duck and

>cover " by the time I was in elementary school but they had us go to an

>interior hallway and duck and cover with our heads facing the wall. They

>also no longer called them nuclear drills. They were " tornado drills " by then.

My mother was called in to talk to the teacher after I

refused to participate the " duck and cover " bit. The

teachers refused to believe I was doing it on my own

initiative, a fact my mother confirmed (to their dismay).

They weren't used to 3rd graders having opinions on

" adult " subjects.

The other time she had to go talk to the teacher at

that school was when they wouldn't believe I couldn't

(rather than wouldn't) do better at hand-writing.

Wasn't until many decades later I learned it's not at

all uncommon for Aspies to have " fine motor control "

problems as children.

Jane

[Guest guest]

I would be an etymological major at university, except that

> would require me to be able to recognize the phonetic/phonemic sounds, and

> I quickly discovered that (as usual) while I do great in tracking stuff

> that is written, as soon as my speech processing centers are needed I fail

> miserably. :^P

I had a similar problem. I was very good at French in junior high and high

school, but in order to get my degree in university I had to take two

classess of French phonetics. I never got past the first. I failed the

course miserably, twice. I could perfectly mimic the accent the teacher

said was proper, but if I had no one to mimic, I couldn't get the accent

right. And I had no clue how to decipher the phonetic alphabet.

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

> The other time she had to go talk to the teacher at

> that school was when they wouldn't believe I couldn't

> (rather than wouldn't) do better at hand-writing.

> Wasn't until many decades later I learned it's not at

> all uncommon for Aspies to have " fine motor control "

> problems as children.

My parents had to go to parent-teacher conferences every year, and my

handwriting was always a topic of discussion. No one believed that I

couldn't do better. I guess no one had heard of " dysgraphia " in the 70s

and 80s. Fortunately my grandmother bought me a typewriter, which ended

all the handwriting controversy, because I was and am a very good typist.

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

My mother had a medical book similar to this, with a center section on the male

and female anatomy. There were clear plastic pages one could flip through to see

the various levels-- organs, muscles, veins, skeleton. For some reason I can no

longer fathom I found it fascinating.

Re: Hey all... and a quick question about my

potential geekiness

-------------When cleaning out the mountains of books in my parents attic this

summer, there were two medical encyclopedias from the l920's. They were in too

poor of condition to try and sell, but I salvaged these illustrations from them

that are way cool; a profile of a man's head, and you can open various flaps,

first to see the muscle structure, then the eyes, all the way to the skeleton.

Others of the male and female body, and one of a foot.

Nanne

" Iris M. Gray " wrote:On Sun, 15 Dec 2002, Creepy

Zucchini wrote:

>I also read his lame Pears Family Medical Encyclopaedia and

> other silly medical books that fed his hypochondria.

My parents owned a medical book from the 1950s that I found fascinating

just because it was so old and the advice so out-of-date. It included

directions for " How to survive a nuclear attack. " (If you're a kid at

school, hide under your desk.)

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

Iris:

I found the same to be true of Spanish. I never got a clue on how to pronounce

the language from phonetic symbols. I know it sounds strange for someone whose

perseveration is linguistics, but I could never get a handle on the phonetic

alphabet myself.

However, once I was in college I got a professor who was originally from

Santiago, Chile--the only native-speaking Spanish instructor I ever had. Before

long, I was speaking Spanish in her Chilean accent...=)

Re: Hey all... and a quick question about my

potential geekiness

I would be an etymological major at university, except that

> would require me to be able to recognize the phonetic/phonemic sounds, and

> I quickly discovered that (as usual) while I do great in tracking stuff

> that is written, as soon as my speech processing centers are needed I fail

> miserably. :^P

I had a similar problem. I was very good at French in junior high and high

school, but in order to get my degree in university I had to take two

classess of French phonetics. I never got past the first. I failed the

course miserably, twice. I could perfectly mimic the accent the teacher

said was proper, but if I had no one to mimic, I couldn't get the accent

right. And I had no clue how to decipher the phonetic alphabet.

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

> However, once I was in college I got a professor who was originally from

> Santiago, Chile--the only native-speaking Spanish instructor I ever had.

> Before long, I was speaking Spanish in her Chilean accent...=)

In high school I had French-Canadian teachers, but when I got to

University I had French teachers from France. It's almost like two

different languages, and was very confusing. Canadian French and France

French are very different.

Iris

Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

Proud to be Canuckistanian

Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

[Guest guest]

At 12:07 PM 12/15/02 -0800, DeGraf wrote:

>I had a fun-but-stupid moment as a kid with those encyclopedias, in

>fact. I was about five and read about the stages our sun would go through

>before permanently dying. I had no concept of time (still don't have much

>of one) so I was very concerned that enough time had elapsed since the

>writing of the book that the destruction of the sun was imminent!

I think I may have already told you abuot my childhood fear of dinosaurs.

My brother was fascinated with them and told me all sorts of stories about

them and let me look at his books about them. I somehow missed the section

about extinction (or perhaps it was slyly kept from me?) and my brother

would describe dinosaurs in modern terms ( " T. Rex is bigger than our

house. " ) and talk avidly about their sharp claws and teeth and ability to

rip prey to shreds in seconds. For quite some time I was terrified of these

giant lizards I was sure must be just a couple of blocks away, smelling me

on the swing set and ready to stomp over and devour me.

When my mother realized what was waking me up at night screaming and

causing me to cower in my closet during the day she sat me down and had a

long discussion abuot extinction with me.

[Guest guest]

At 03:05 PM 12/15/02 -0600, Newstead wrote:

<<<My mother had a medical book similar to this, with a center section on

the male and female anatomy. There were clear plastic pages one could flip

through to see the various levels-- organs, muscles, veins, skeleton. For

some reason I can no longer fathom I found it fascinating.>>>

Not so long ago, maybe seven years back, I had a CD-ROM with medical

information on it and I got fixated on the video clip of the bladder

emptying its contents (as viewed from within.) I didn't even realize how

fascinated I had become with it until a classmate walked past me in the

computer lab and broke my revery by leaning over my shoulder and saying,

" it is facinating, isn't it? "

I'd been sitting there for the better part of an hour clicking on the video

clip over and over.

At another point, I did the same thing with the pronounciation of " pineal

gland. " I liked the rhythm of the voice and just kept clicking on the word

to hear it spoken over and over.

[Guest guest]

I always preferred concise, technical and informative information. Once

I went to live with my mother and was not kept isolated at home, I used

to go into the state library medical section and read proper medical

textbooks rather than stuff that has been translated into what I used to

call " idiot speak " .

CZ

Newstead wrote:

> My mother had a medical book similar to this, with a center section on the

male and female anatomy. There were clear plastic pages one could flip through

to see the various levels-- organs, muscles, veins, skeleton. For some reason I

can no longer fathom I found it fascinating.

>

>

> Re: Hey all... and a quick question about my

potential geekiness

>

>

>

> -------------When cleaning out the mountains of books in my parents attic

this summer, there were two medical encyclopedias from the l920's. They were

in too poor of condition to try and sell, but I salvaged these illustrations

from them that are way cool; a profile of a man's head, and you can open

various flaps, first to see the muscle structure, then the eyes, all the way to

the skeleton. Others of the male and female body, and one of a foot.

> Nanne

>

> " Iris M. Gray " wrote:On Sun, 15 Dec 2002, Creepy

Zucchini wrote:

>

> >I also read his lame Pears Family Medical Encyclopaedia and

> > other silly medical books that fed his hypochondria.

>

> My parents owned a medical book from the 1950s that I found fascinating

> just because it was so old and the advice so out-of-date. It included

> directions for " How to survive a nuclear attack. " (If you're a kid at

> school, hide under your desk.)

>

> Iris

>

>

>

> Iris Gray, Puff, Calli and Munchkin

> Proud to be Canuckistanian

> Personal website: http://victoria.tc.ca/~rainbow/

> Toastmasters website: http://victoria.tc.ca/Community/Bb/

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Sparrow Rose Cross wrote:At 03:05 PM 12/15/02

-0600, Newstead wrote:

<<the male and female anatomy. There were clear plastic pages one could flip

through to see the various levels-- organs, muscles, veins, skeleton. For

some reason I can no longer fathom I found it fascinating.>>>

Not so long ago, maybe seven years back, I had a CD-ROM with medical

information on it and I got fixated on the video clip of the bladder

emptying its contents (as viewed from within.) I didn't even realize how

fascinated I had become with it until a classmate walked past me in the

computer lab and broke my revery by leaning over my shoulder and saying,

" it is facinating, isn't it? "

I'd been sitting there for the better part of an hour clicking on the video

clip over and over.

At another point, I did the same thing with the pronounciation of " pineal

gland. " I liked the rhythm of the voice and just kept clicking on the word

to hear it spoken over and over.

--------------------Hee hee..... I like that, when a phrase 'feels nice'. My

most recent one was " dilapidated minutae'. It would make a nice

pretentious sounding title to an art show, when all it means is little junk.

lolol