Turn on the light

 

A two-minute video produced by Bookmans, an Arizona bookstore, is helping launch a national read-out from banned and challenged books that is being held on YouTube in conjunction with Banned Books Week, the national celebration of the freedom to read (Sept. 30-Oct. 6). 

The video presents Bookmans' customers and staff urging people "to turn on the light" by celebrating freedom of expression. With light bulbs burning brightly above their heads, each of them reads a single line from a banned or challenged book that testifies to the importance of reading, books and freedom of speech.

"It is a wonderfully creative and inspiring video," said American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression President Chris Finan. "We hope all supporters of Banned Books Week will use social media to share it with their friends and the rest of the world, giving a big boost to this year's read-out.

More than 800 people posted videos on YouTube during Banned Books Week last year. More information about the read-out, including updated criteria and submission information, is available here.

Bookmans, which has stores in Tucson, Phoenix, Mesa and Flagstaff, has been actively opposing censorship for 36 years. It celebrates free speech throughout the month of September. Harrison Kressler, Bookmans' media producer, created the video. Rebecca Ballenger, the digital media supervisor, suggested participating in the read-out after reviewing videos from last year's Banned Books Week.

 

This week in the Civil War: Sept. 30, 1862

Battle of Corinth, Miss.

Some 22,000 Confederate soldiers converged on Corinth, Miss., 150 years ago this week in the Civil War, intent on snatching back a key Southern railroad hub from Union control. Fighting on Oct. 3, 1862, saw Confederate soldiers battering the Union troops on their outer defenses ringing Corinth. The Associated Press reported the fighting was pitched when the Confederates opened up with an attack six miles northeast of Corinth. "The engagement became general, and a fierce and sanguinary battle was fought," AP's correspondent wrote in an Oct. 8, 1862, dispatch. That account reported how Union soldiers "were forced slowly backward, fighting desperately" as they were hemmed in by the onslaught of the Confederate troops. AP added: "The Confederates pushed forward with determined obstinacy" but then sunset brought an overnight pause to the fighting. Combat resumed the morning of Oct. 4, 1862, but by then the Union forces had regrouped. Union artillery raked the attackers. AP reported the fighting was fierce. "The federal batteries opened a destructive fire upon the exposed ranks of the Confederates, mowing them down like grass. Their slaughter was frightful," the account stated. At times the battle appeared to seesaw, AP noted. But "the Confederates wavered and then fell back" in full retreat. It was a strategic victory for the Union to retain Corinth, one of the most important Southern rail junctions, which had been seized earlier in the year. Corinth afforded the Union a springboard for federal gunboat operations down the Mississippi River to Vicksburg and for exerting control over much of middle and western Tennessee. The Union victory at Corinth – shortly after Lee was thwarted in his first invasion of the North at the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 – was the second of two important setbacks for the Confederacy at a crucial moment in the war.

Happy birthday, Emily ~ Sept. 29, 1933

Happy birthday, Emily!

In Chapter Four of Happy Birthday, Molly!, Molly learns what Emily would do for her birthday tea party if she was in England.

In England they have real tea, and Emily suggests that she and Molly could put a lot of milk and honey in the tea. The English have thin tea sandwiches (with the crusts cut off!) and are either meat paste (ground up meat like ham or liver) or watercress, or even bread and margarine as butter was rationed. Emily also says she'd have a lemon tart for a special tea party.