"Chanderalla of Harlem" A Fairy Tale for Our Times by Jenna Bush

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Just checkin’ in before New Years. My cousin found this interesting bit of fiction on the internet written by a “Jenna Bush” for the “University of Texas” called Chanderalla. I recall having heard that one of George W. Bush’s twin daughters is named Jenna. I also heard somewhere that she attends the University of Texas. So this all is one big coincidence. Couldn’t be the same lass, could it?

Well, hell! I’m bored. I’m easily amused. And it is so rare an opportunity for me to be on the operating end of the red pen (I’m usually the kid receiving the blood-stained papers), I couldn’t resist. And I was seduced by the famous name, so what the heck! So we decided to savage the tale. (I decided to not MST it since my cousin has never heard of Mystery Science Theatre 3K)

This looks like it was an in-class writing, so I’ll go easier on her than we did earlier. I’ll ignore the grammar mistakes.
[sub](Example: The next day the mayor’s son announced that her was conducting a search for the mysterious girl who disappeared the night before.)[/sub]

Chanderalla??
Where did we get that name from? Ah, forget it!
[ul]
She and her father lived alone in their apartment for several years until … Her two new stepsisters moved into her room and she was forced to move her belongings to the basement…In her dream the dress was on a hanger in the attic.
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Wow, Harlem apartments have changed since I’ve been there. Did they have those fancy multi-level apartments when you lived in Harlem? (Actually, it would have been crueler if they forced the protagonist forced her to live in the storage closet or laundry room that most apartment buildings provide)
[ul]
On day a grand invitation for the Harlem street festival arrived in the mail.
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Do you realize how difficult it would be to turn a “street festival” into a invitation-only affair?
[ul]
As soon as Chanderalla entered the ballroom…
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Oh, that’s how they did it! The held the street fest off- the street!
[ul]
*When the stroke of the clock turned midnight (huh?) Chandralla turned from the mayor’s son and ran out of the ballroom. *
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Why? There was no magic used in this story! There is nothing important about this midnight deadline, except it was in the original story! Her mom’s dress wasn’t going to change back into old rags! Or did it?
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*When her stepsisters arrived home Chaderalla (sic) was lying in a basket of ashes with dirt covering her worn clothes. *
[/ul]
We may never know!
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Finally, at dusk he arrived at Chanderalla’s apartment. He looked at both of the evil stepsisters and shook his head. He was about to walk out the door when he heard a beautiful song coming form (sic) the basement. And he knew it was the girl.
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HOW?!! There was never any mention of Chanderalla’s singing abilities! Not at the Ballroom Dance/Street Festival. Not at the abusive home. Nowhere! Why sing now?

And my favorite part… the postscript!
[ul]
I chose to revise Cinderella by changing some things about the heroine. First, I made her African American. I think it is unfortunate that there are no fairy tales with an African American heroine. Secondly, I made Chanderalla more intelligent. She didn’t just get married but she also went to college.
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And as evidence of Chanderalla’s keen intellect, the following sentences were added to this story: Chanderalla attended college (which she could now afford) and lived happily ever after.
Her brillance outshine all others. I stand in awe!

OK this may be a bit mean-spitited, and I wouldn’t even know about this if it wasn’t for the author’s name and alma mater! But I can’t get away with publishing stuff like this. (I must revise my work so it past muster with the professor’s pride) And anyway, I enjoyed the mental flossing!

By the way, I did find some other people’s work in the class enjoyable. I especially liked the Dysfunctionally Ever After by Kari Calaway. I don’t know of any famous people she is kin to. There are probably lots of grammar nits in that too, but the story was ‘interesting’ enough for it not to register.

Now I must return to the drudgery of a family get together in the icebox up north!

[sub](At least it didn’t snow at home while I was away! Sorry, Monfort! I bet Peta was glad!)[/sub]

2

Seemed like a good read.

Umm that’s all I got. Not the world’s best critic, I guess.

3

Oh. My. God.

Considering this poor girl is already about to get torn to pieces by the South Park guys, I will refrain from commenting on her social awareness and such. But speaking as a former teacher of freshman English, I would have give the A to Wendy Wheless and her “Trailer Park Version of ‘The Fisherman and His Wife’”

That said, this looks legitimate to me. It’s definitely on the UT site, and the rest of the instructor’s stuff clinches the deal for me. But jeez, you’d think the Secret Service would have pounded on the instructor to get her to drop Chanderella from the web page.

4

Oh yeah, Jenna Bush is indeed here in Austin, attending UT. Her sister Barbara’s at Yale, where I hope she has the sense not to allow her instructors to post stuff on the Web.

5

Don’t quote me, but I don’t think either of the Bush girls have started college yet. And, FWIW, there is a Jennifer Bush at UT who lives in Montgomery. I don’t think that is the same one. But who knows. Either way that story is atrocious.

6

Um, allow me to correct myself :slight_smile:

They graduated last May and therefore this could be the same Jenna Bush. I guess she is not on the mass directory (duh).

7

As the above link indicates, Jenna is definitely a student at UT. I’m having no luck with the online directory, though, so I can’t tell whether or not there’s another Jenna there. UT’s freshman class is roughly eight or nine thousand, so I suppose it’s possible.

8

FWIW, there is no Jenna Welch Bush listed. There is another Jennifer Layne Bush. She could go by Jenna. But the First Daughter to be is not listed in the directory.

9

Okay, time to do a little research and see if I can find a out whether Dubya’s little girl is Jenna or Jennifer…

Salon has her full name listed as “Jenna Welch Bush” in this article: http://www.salonmag.com/politics2000/wire/2000/05/18/daughters/
I doubt they’d use a nickname for the first name and still include the middle name, so that’s a pretty good indication that we have the real McCoy here.

In fact, I can’t find any Dubya biography or other page on the net that lists her as anything other than Jenna.

[research trivia]
Whoa! First thing you find under a “Jenna Bush” search on yahoo is Chanderalla.

http://bushtwins.twinstuff.com/ Has this quote from Jenna on her dad: “He wasn’t half as cool as people think.” Oh lord, it’s worse than I thought!

But both twins dig Robert Earl Keen, so that’s a definite plus in their favor.
[/research trivia]

10

minty, hon?

you have too much time on your hands :slight_smile:

11

Ugh…I heard the creators of South Park plan to make the Bush twins into incestuous, nymphomaniac lesbians or something like that. THAT, is in my opinion, REALLY, REALLY low. I don’t like Dubya, but for crying out loud-what did his daughters do to deserve something like that?
Like everyone made fun of poor Chelsea in the beginning-and you know what? She’s grown into an attractive, intelligent person.

12

If it truly turns out that way, that’s pretty damn low.

13

[mean, vicious partisan]
Yes, well they should have thought of that before they said “Sure, Dad, that sounds like a great idea!”
[/mean, vicious partisan]
But since the first four years of Republican slams on Chelsea consisted of the basic “God, that girl is ugly!” I’ll see if I can be the first Democrat to reach out and opine that both Bush girls look pretty cute, even if one of them couldn’t even write a halfway literate fairy tale. [Good god, the instructor’s site implies that there was a first draft. How bad did that have to be?]

And now that I’m going to hell, happy 2001 to everyone! I’ll be going to bed now.

14

  1. I hated, and still hate Clinton with a passion.

  2. Regardless of how I feel about him, making any sort of rude or degrading comments about his family, outside of their politics, esp. w.r.t. their personal appearance, makes someone a genuine certified Ass Goblinsup[/sup] in my book.

  3. Regardless of how I feel about him, I always thought Chelsea was cute. But that is irrelevant anyhow.

And I will attack repeatedly the Democrats who make fun of the Bush daughters, just as I did fellow Republicans that made fun of Chelsea.

15

I don’t plan on making fun of the Bush twins. I mean, come on, they’re kids. How old are they-18?

That’s just low.

16

Making fun of a kid because of their parents is unfair.

The only Chelsea joke I’ve told is the

“What do you get when you cross a slimebag and a crooked lawyer?”

Chelsea Clinton"

And that is really a slam at her parents, not her. She did not choose her position, her parents did. Same with the Bush kids. Make Dubya jokes. Calling him that is no more disrespectful as calling Clinton Bubba. Make jokes about Laura Bush. Leave the kids out of it.

BTW, the worst Chelsea jokes were the ones comparing her to Gore’s more attractive daughters. Low shots.

17

No one is saying Jenna is ugly here. They are saying she wrote a bad story and then posted it on the internet.

Someone else said it: If this really is Bush’s daughter, why didn’t someone tell her this was a bad idea?