# Namby pamby knuckleheads **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 23, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380 "2015-04-23T19:20:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/21 "2015-04-24T14:12:32Z")
> [@bump](#): > > _snip_ Long story short my son LOVES the book… In my opinion you can stop right there. He sees books as wonderful objects that bring him joy. What better way to foster reading in a young child? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/22 "2015-04-24T14:38:25Z")
bump: > [@](#): > > The book’s not perfect, but come on. In the grand scheme of things, the book isn’t going to warp your child and make them rude and not recycle. But it could possibly be a big part of instilling a life-long love of reading or if nothing else, help teach your kid the alphabet. But…it’s a store selling books, in which customers are expected to use other customers’ reviews in deciding which books to purchase over which other books. Are customers supposed to automatically give every book a good review, because it happens to be a book, and can therefore teach the alphabet, or hook a kid on reading? There are good books and there are bad books, and someone who’s shopping for kids’ books on Amazon is likely to buy their kids SOME book that will serve the same purpose, just one with mainly positive reviews. Dendarii Dame: > [@](#): > > When it comes to alphabet books, I always want to know what the “x” item was. A xylophone? An x-ray machine? (Which actually should be discarded in a special way.) A timely post, as just yesterday it was revealed that Sue Grafton has copped out on the letter and simply titled the 24th book in her alphabetic mystery series “X”. I, for one, am very disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/23 "2015-04-24T14:45:40Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Xerus. Xenopus. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/24 "2015-04-24T14:51:35Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > My daughter has an abc chart of animals. There’s lots of Aardvaark, Badger, Cougar type stuff. For the X, it has not any kind of animal, but the specific mythological horse [Xanthos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balius_and_Xanthus), all glowy-gold and shit. Because X-Ray Fish would be too weird?:smack: Most of the alphabet animal stuff my daughter had did indeed use “X-Ray Fish”. Except, oddly enough, Dr Seuss who went with “eXtra foX” despite him happily making up words for other letters including Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz for Z. On a related note one of the alphabet animal apps I had for my phone let you select a variety of languages and you would get different animal names as a result (sometimes using the same pictures e.g. B for Bird in English, O for Oiseau in French and V for Vogel in German etc). Amusing, in all languages Y was always Yak. Yaks are universal, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/25 "2015-04-24T14:58:46Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > My daughter has an abc chart of animals. There’s lots of Aardvaark, Badger, Cougar type stuff. For the X, it has not any kind of animal, but the specific mythological horse [Xanthos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balius_and_Xanthus), all glowy-gold and shit. Because X-Ray Fish would be too weird?:smack: Here’s a [whole list of x-named animals](http://www.animalstown.com/animals/animals-x.php). Isn’t there some kind of amphibian that has a name starting with x? I remember seeing a picture of it in a magazine (_Ranger Rick_?) about 30 years ago. It was white, had red feathery things coming out of its head? ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/26 "2015-04-24T15:16:39Z")
Gyrate: > [@](#): > > Most of the alphabet animal stuff my daughter had did indeed use “X-Ray Fish”. Except, oddly enough, Dr Seuss who went with “eXtra foX” despite him happily making up words for other letters including Zizzer-zazzer-zuzz for Z. Not so strange, when you realize that he’s going for introducing children to the SOUNDS of the letters. When used at the beginning of a word, “X” doesn’t make its characteristic “ks” sound, instead it’s more of an oddball Z. If he made up a word beginning with X, that’s likely how parent would pronouce it when read. Catamount: > [@](#): > > Isn’t there some kind of amphibian that has a name starting with x? I remember seeing a picture of it in a magazine (Ranger Rick?) about 30 years ago. It was white, had red feathery things coming out of its head? I suspect you’re thinking of [axolotl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl), which doesn’t exactly start with the letter, though I understand how a vague memory might have you thinking it did. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/27 "2015-04-24T16:21:50Z")
> [@Pedro](#): > > Not warp, but if it is an educational book for very young children the criticism seems reasonable to me. > [@Gyrate](#): > > Not that I’d bother writing a review but there have been relatively minor things along the way that have encouraged my child to emulate bad behaviors just because she was of an impressionable age Honestly if you haven’t instilled in your child the evil of not recycling and composting by the age of 2 then you are a bad parent. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/28 "2015-04-24T16:53:59Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > I suspect you’re thinking of [axolotl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axolotl), which doesn’t exactly start with the letter, though I understand how a vague memory might have you thinking it did. That’s the one. God, I love this place. Where else can someone figure out what something is by a vague description of a childhood memory? ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/29 "2015-04-24T17:00:28Z")
The rudeness might make the book more attractive to some kids. Part of what makes fart and poop jokes funny to kids is that those subjects are taboo. If the book can turn some of those kids on to reading, that’s a good thing. A book where everybody plays nice all the time does tend toward the boring. “Books are boring” isn’t the message we want to be sending to kids. But that’s what they’ll get, if they aren’t allowed to read books with conflict or books with people (and anthropomorphic animals, machines, etc) who are not behaving in an approved way. Hell, “don’t do everything you read about a character in a book doing” is a valuable lesson in and of itself. ---
**Author:** ![Pedro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/919ad9/32.png) [@Pedro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pedro)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/30 "2015-04-24T17:19:56Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Honestly if you haven’t instilled in your child the evil of not recycling and composting by the age of 2 then you are a bad parent. Meh. The little brats take after their mother anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/31 "2015-04-24T17:33:38Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > My daughter has an abc chart of animals. There’s lots of Aardvaark, Badger, Cougar type stuff. For the X, it has not any kind of animal, but the specific mythological horse [Xanthos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balius_and_Xanthus), all glowy-gold and shit. Because X-Ray Fish would be too weird?:smack: My son had an ABC book of animals, all photographs. X was fox, which also bothered me, because I thought it should have been x-ray fish. But it was my son’s favorite animal in the book. He’d point to it every time, exclaiming, “He’s sleeping!” Which the fox _was_ doing, to be fair. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/32 "2015-04-24T18:15:16Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > The picture for that one - the upper half of Neville’s tiny little face peering out a huge gloomy window, with one bare tree branch - is priceless. I’d have it on the wall of my office, only the humour would be lost on some. 😃 Maybe you should just buy the [mug](http://www.goreystore.com/shop/gashlycrumb-tinies/edward-gorey-n-neville-who-died-ennui-mug), then. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/33 "2015-04-24T19:14:40Z")
Catamount: > [@](#): > > Where else can someone figure out what something is by a vague description of a childhood memory? You remembered the look of the creature quite accurately. Fortunately, I’d seen just the creature at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, CT less than a month ago, and noted how good a Scrabble/Boggle word its name could be. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/34 "2015-04-24T19:29:54Z")
> [@Catamount](#): > > That’s the one. God, I love this place. Where else can someone figure out what something is by a vague description of a childhood memory? You didn’t read MAD regularly? Those of us who did knew all about axolotls and potrzebie. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/35 "2015-04-24T19:31:02Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Anyway what brought me to the pit is that if you read the Amazon reviews, there are a surprising number of people who reviewed the book with one star because of 2 reasons. . Meh. 10% is not surprising. 10% of reviewers hate just about anything. Look at this list of [http://thegreatestbooks.org/](http://thegreatestbooks.org/) Note that Moby Dick has 10% \* reviews. Ulysses has more than that (and I understand that, it’s a hard book.) Don Quixote, War & Peace have only about 5%, but still. Any well reviewed book will get 5-10% One star reviews. No biggie. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/36 "2015-04-24T20:32:18Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Maybe you should just buy the [mug](http://www.goreystore.com/shop/gashlycrumb-tinies/edward-gorey-n-neville-who-died-ennui-mug), then. Oh that is awesome. Maybe I’ll get it. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/37 "2015-04-24T21:28:04Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Amusing, in all languages Y was always Yak. Yaks are universal, I guess. Oh no, on my daughter’s chart, Y is [Yellowhammer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowhammer)… There’s also a particular butterfly species for one letter (I can’t recall right now which letter and she’s asleep so I can’t check.) I suspect drugs… Although, I just want to add, I think using scientific names for the X-animal is cheating. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2015, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/38 "2015-04-24T21:52:28Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Maybe you should just buy the [mug](http://www.goreystore.com/shop/gashlycrumb-tinies/edward-gorey-n-neville-who-died-ennui-mug), then. OMG – I love this: [http://www.goreystore.com/shop/accessories/edward-gorey-doubtful-guest-pin](http://www.goreystore.com/shop/accessories/edward-gorey-doubtful-guest-pin) ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/39 "2015-04-25T01:23:44Z")
Well, I’ve just put the book on reserve at the library. I have no doubt my kids will love it, and I strongly suspect that it will not make them stop putting their paper and cans in the recycling bins. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2015, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380/40 "2015-04-25T02:16:30Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Meh. 10% is not surprising. 10% of reviewers hate just about anything. > . Oh sure… that wasn’t the issue. I was torqued out of shape about the reasons they gave. Had they said “We didn’t like it.” I’d have been ok with that, but claiming it teaches kids to be rude, or bitching because there were alphabet garbage examples that could possibly have been recycled is idiotic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/namby-pamby-knuckleheads/718380.md?page=3)