Saturday, May 06, 2006
Did a Google
on Dick and Jane
You know, the old reading books (link). They were fun kids to read about. A lot of folks my age learned to read from those readers. And you can still buy them on-line (link for one). Check the Wikepedia link to get up to date in a jiffy.
Well, back to Google.
The first seven actually were about books, fun with Dick and Jane. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (link) said in the 1950s, 80% of first graders were using Dick and Jane in the classroom.
The next 17 were about the fairly recent movie, 'Fun With Dick and Jane,' either review articles--example, Fun with Dick and Jane by Roger Egert**--or sales of the DVD release, with a couple about the book thrown in.
Number 21 was about a band, Dick and Jane (link), "Rock your pants off" the by-line said. Real catchy.
At 22, things were getting worse. Tim McSweeny http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/11/07kennedy.html had "THE DICK AND JANE READER FORADVANCED STUDENTS. BY MATTHEW KENNEDY ... Dick and Jane went on a picnic. They spread the picnic blanket under a tree. Spot chased butterflies.
Dick thought Jane was pretty. Jane thought Dick was handsome. "
And it got worse.
Now 271 (I skipped looking for a while, they seemed mostly to be repetitions of 1 - 22) was about 'art from the heart' at Dick and Jane's Spot (link). They do outside things, like yard art.
Pretty dull after that. Google said at the top there were "about 20,000,000 for dick and jane," but when I got to number 999, it wouldn't go any further.
Numbers 997, 998, and 999 (link) were some 'off the wall' sites that I didn't want to see.
Well, it was "Something Awful" doing cartoon spoofs about Dick and Jane illustrations (link).
Why would I waste time doing this?
Because earlier when I wrote the article about Bob and John (link) I did research on the initial Dick and Jane words. I never did find all of them for what I wanted, but in the process of putting in words, such as reader, book, wording, etc. I came up with all kinds of things.
Some were raunchy, but about half were about Dick Cheney. Most about Cheney didn't have much good to say about him, the funny ones about his hunting accident probably passed mustard.
**BY ROGER EBERT / December 21, 2005 "Fun With Dick and Jane" recycles the 1977 comedy starring Jane Fonda and George Segal, right down to repeating the same mistakes. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to remake it. The movie stars Jim Carrey as Dick, an executive of a megacorp so much like Enron as makes no difference, who is promoted to vice president in charge of communications just in time to be its spokesman on live cable news as the corporation's stock melts down to pennies a share.
on Dick and Jane
You know, the old reading books (link). They were fun kids to read about. A lot of folks my age learned to read from those readers. And you can still buy them on-line (link for one). Check the Wikepedia link to get up to date in a jiffy.
Well, back to Google.
The first seven actually were about books, fun with Dick and Jane. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (link) said in the 1950s, 80% of first graders were using Dick and Jane in the classroom.
The next 17 were about the fairly recent movie, 'Fun With Dick and Jane,' either review articles--example, Fun with Dick and Jane by Roger Egert**--or sales of the DVD release, with a couple about the book thrown in.
Number 21 was about a band, Dick and Jane (link), "Rock your pants off" the by-line said. Real catchy.
At 22, things were getting worse. Tim McSweeny http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/11/07kennedy.html had "THE DICK AND JANE READER FORADVANCED STUDENTS. BY MATTHEW KENNEDY ... Dick and Jane went on a picnic. They spread the picnic blanket under a tree. Spot chased butterflies.
Dick thought Jane was pretty. Jane thought Dick was handsome. "
And it got worse.
Now 271 (I skipped looking for a while, they seemed mostly to be repetitions of 1 - 22) was about 'art from the heart' at Dick and Jane's Spot (link). They do outside things, like yard art.
Pretty dull after that. Google said at the top there were "about 20,000,000 for dick and jane," but when I got to number 999, it wouldn't go any further.
Numbers 997, 998, and 999 (link) were some 'off the wall' sites that I didn't want to see.
Well, it was "Something Awful" doing cartoon spoofs about Dick and Jane illustrations (link).
Why would I waste time doing this?
Because earlier when I wrote the article about Bob and John (link) I did research on the initial Dick and Jane words. I never did find all of them for what I wanted, but in the process of putting in words, such as reader, book, wording, etc. I came up with all kinds of things.
Some were raunchy, but about half were about Dick Cheney. Most about Cheney didn't have much good to say about him, the funny ones about his hunting accident probably passed mustard.
**BY ROGER EBERT / December 21, 2005 "Fun With Dick and Jane" recycles the 1977 comedy starring Jane Fonda and George Segal, right down to repeating the same mistakes. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to remake it. The movie stars Jim Carrey as Dick, an executive of a megacorp so much like Enron as makes no difference, who is promoted to vice president in charge of communications just in time to be its spokesman on live cable news as the corporation's stock melts down to pennies a share.
