Nicole Hollander is a National Treasure: Thirty Years of Sylvia Nicole Hollander is a National Treasure: Thirty Years of Sylvia
It was a sad day last year when the Chicago Tribune ignored the pleas and protests of Nicole Hollander fans and cancelled her Sylvia cartoon strip. I guess it got to be too much for the Trib to run a regular feature in which women’s humor was based on something cleverer than Does this Make Me Look Fat? and Will I Every Get Married? Sylvia, who looks like a cross between a tough-talking telephone operator from a 1940s screwball comedy and a gypsy fortuneteller, is shrewd and cynical and drily, wittily, outrageously attitudinous; she writes in the bathtub, explains Rush Limbaugh to her extraterrestrial friend, talks back to her TV (and her cat talks back to her. Even her cat is smarter than the other cartoon cats out there.) The New Press has just brought out The Sylvia Chronicles: 30 Years of Graphic misbehavior from Reagan to Obama. I can’t figure out how to put up pictures here, so take a look at Audrey Bilger”s illustrated review from the Ms. Magazine blog. Buy, read, laugh! And while you're buying Sylvia for yourself, can you help make sure some middle schoolers in Louisiana can enjoy reading too? Read on... St. Bernard Parish, three miles from downtown New Orleans, was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina. All its buildings were damaged, and all its schools were destroyed. Amazingly, little by little, the district is coming back, and on August 11, the last of its public schools, Andrew Jackson Middle School, will reopen with 350 students. Just in time for the BP oil disaster, you may be thinking. Yes. This is indeed a community that has been hit by catastrophe. And that’s where you come in. ReadThis is a volunteer organization of people who love books and want to spread the joy of reading. (Truth in advertising: I’m on the board.) We collect new and gently used books for public schools and other underbooked places; we’ve sent books to a pediatric AIDS center, a homeless shelter and to troops in Iraq. This summer, we’ve taken on a big task: gathering 1400 books for the Andrew Jackson Middle School’s library, which was ruined along with everything else. Imagine a school library with no books and no money to buy books! Can you chip in by buying a book or two from the excellent and varied wishlist prepared by the school librarian? It has lots of terrific choices, from Harry Potter to Walter Dean Myers. As a bonus good deed, you’ll be helping the Garden District Book Shop, an independent book store. Find out more about ReadThis here. If you’d like to get involved—collecting books and mailing them to the school, helping out at our table at the Brooklyn Flea on July 24 , or, if by some miracle you happen to be a publisher, donating a box or two shiny new age-appropriate books -- email us at [email protected]. For latest updates, join us on Facebook.
Jul 10, 2010 / Katha Pollitt
Rebuild and Read: Books for a Post-Katrina Middle School Rebuild and Read: Books for a Post-Katrina Middle School
You can help the rebuilding and spread the love of reading.
Jul 8, 2010 / Books & the Arts / Katha Pollitt
Saudi Feminist Wajeha Al-Huwaider: An Open Letter to President Obama Saudi Feminist Wajeha Al-Huwaider: An Open Letter to President Obama
Some pointers for the president's meeting with King Abdullah.
Jun 28, 2010 / Katha Pollitt
Women on Top? Women on Top?
Is our society on the verge of becoming a matriarchy? In your dreams.
Jun 24, 2010 / Column / Katha Pollitt
Abraham Lincoln, Meet Client #9 Abraham Lincoln, Meet Client #9
Americans sacrifice to pay for a militarized, increasingly unequal society. Is it any wonder that people respond to calls for selflessness with defensiveness and cynicism?
Jun 9, 2010 / Column / Katha Pollitt
The BP Oil Disaster: Bringing it All Back Home The BP Oil Disaster: Bringing it All Back Home
Having trouble picturing the extent of the damage? This website pours it all over your address.
Jun 4, 2010 / Katha Pollitt
Choice v. Freedom? Choice v. Freedom?
The abortion rights cause has suffered by being cut off from the larger story of reproductive and sexual life, which is much more complex than can be captured by either "cho...
Jun 2, 2010 / Katha Pollitt
Veil of Fears Veil of Fears
I don't like face-veiling either. But how does criminalizing Muslim women's clothing make them more equal?
May 26, 2010 / Column / Katha Pollitt
Rand Paul: ‘Principled Libertarian’? Not. Rand Paul: ‘Principled Libertarian’? Not.
The Kentucky crackpot wants less regulation on businesses, but more regulation on women's health.
May 22, 2010 / Katha Pollitt
What Ever Happened to Welfare Mothers? What Ever Happened to Welfare Mothers?
If the boom years failed to lift poor mothers into the middle class, how are they faring now that the middle class is becoming the new poor?
May 13, 2010 / Column / Katha Pollitt