# "Pet Goat" and other animals **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 5, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611 "2004-10-05T05:17:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/1 "2004-10-05T05:17:02Z")
OK, smart asses, you had enough fun, sniping and snickering. Now tell me, you are a POTUS and you have to visit an elementary school one morning, what would you do? What book would you pick to read to a bunch of snivelling brats? Would you bring your own copy of “Unbearable lightness of Being” or would you peruse the class shelves demanding to find “Critique of Pure Reason”? Would you say, “I, The President, read about a Pet Goat? Never!!! Nothing less then a Bold Eagle!” And besides, if it wasn’t 9/11, would anyone care what book was read? If terrorists struck while POTUS was pestering children with “Confucian Analects”, what’s the difference? And about going on with the reading, what was there to do? Demand portentously for “Declaration of Independence” to be brought out at once? Burn a Koran? Wait, I know! “Heather has two mommies”, that’s the ticket! No one would even squeak… ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/2 "2004-10-05T05:30:26Z")
Ah, that’s “[**bald** eagle](http://www.eaglestock.com/eagle.htm)”, **New Isk**. You might want to make a note of it. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/3 "2004-10-05T05:30:28Z")
I’ve always enjoyed “Where the Wild Things Are.” ---
**Author:** ![LilShieste](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@LilShieste](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilShieste)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/4 "2004-10-05T05:52:58Z")
I bet those kids would have enjoyed Shel Silverstein’s works. And you could always get the books on tape, if the words were too hard. LilShieste ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/5 "2004-10-05T06:20:01Z")
Eric Carle has some lovely picture books (I don’t actually mean that as an attack on the POTUS - kids like pictures), Seuss is classic and has pictures, and there’s always Curious George or Arthur. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/6 "2004-10-05T06:22:58Z")
I would have gone with Dr. Seuss, myself, just for the wordplay. **Fox in Socks** is especially devious and sinister, in a fun way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ilsa\_Lund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a6a055/32.png) [@Ilsa\_Lund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ilsa_Lund)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/7 "2004-10-05T06:38:33Z")
Pikers. _Ulysses_. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/8 "2004-10-05T06:41:57Z")
Has this recently become an election issue or have you just been bottling this up for three years? ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/9 "2004-10-05T07:06:33Z")
I say, **New\_Iskander** , what _are_ you prattling on about? ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/10 "2004-10-05T11:21:03Z")
When I was in elementary school the teacher would read us chapters out of Louis L’Amour novels. Course that was in Texas. My dad liked to read us chapters out of The Borrowers for bedtime. Boy I loved bedtime. That would be my choice. It’s a damn shame kids weened on television expect pictures in everything. I saw more and better things with my mind then anyone ever drew in any book I’ve ever read. Can’t even get my niece to sit still for half a page. BTW, I thought it was the kids who were reading the story to him. Meaning they probably chose the book and he had nothing to do with it. At least that’s the impression I got from reading the various threads here about it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/11 "2004-10-05T11:58:11Z")
Please tell me this is a _whoosh_. Look, nobody is bitching because he read a story called “The Pet Goat” to a bunch of school children. They’re bitching because he _continued_ to read the damn story _after_ he was told that a second plane had smacked into the World Trade Center complex. He didn’t stop to ask for details and he didn’t give out any instructions. He didn’t calmly tell the schoolchildren,“It looks like I’ve got important Presidential type things to do-I hope we can do this again real soon!”, smile, and hurry off to do what he was appointed by the Supreme Court to do. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/12 "2004-10-05T12:09:20Z")
Our teacher read “A Wrinkle in Time” to us kindergarteners. It was probably too advanced a storyline for us and I mostly forgot about it until I picked it up a few years later, when I realized I knew several key elements of the plot. That was cool. ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/13 "2004-10-05T12:10:17Z")
I thought it was just his bad luck; that “My Pet Goat” was merely a part of the assigned reading curriculum for those children. As argued above, of course, the genuine issue is not the text itself but that he froze, choked, and blinked when history reluctantly turned its spotlight upon him. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/14 "2004-10-05T13:07:12Z")
> [@Tentacle Monster](#): > > I say, **New\_Iskander** , what _are_ you prattling on about? :: raises hand tentatively :: Um, I think that [**New Iskander** might be reacting](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5328635) to [something I said](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5328665). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/15 "2004-10-05T16:12:30Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Our teacher read “A Wrinkle in Time” to us kindergarteners. Too Episcopalian! Almost–very nearly–CATHOLIC! Dub’s been Born Again and don’t have no truck with no High Church. ---
**Author:** ![Spree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/16 "2004-10-05T16:20:46Z")
Well, some things are situationally funny - only funny in a certain context, dig? GWB reading “My Pet Goat” to a classroom on a normal day = cute and harmless. GWB reading “My Pet Goat” to a classroom, with the full knowledge that terrorist attacks are occuring on U.S. soil = worthy of ridicule, and comedic in a sad and bitter sort of way. (Note that I’m not rehashing the endless “should he or shouldn’t he” seven minute scenario - just explaining why “My Pet Goat” adds an element of farce to an already ridiculous scenario, if you’re of the mind to view it as a ridiculous scenario.) ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/17 "2004-10-05T16:37:07Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Too Episcopalian! Almost–very nearly–CATHOLIC! Dub’s been Born Again and don’t have no truck with no High Church. I dunno, Bush went to that Knights of Columbus campaign rally couple months. He even called the Pope “awesome”. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/18 "2004-10-05T16:42:16Z")
And before anyone has a conniption about it, the story is called _The_ Pet Goat. “My” Pet Goat is just one more evil and destructive lie foisted off on an unsuspecting populace by leftist radicals who hate America. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/19 "2004-10-05T17:04:37Z")
Oh come guys, just what this forum needs: yet, still another thread about how Bush sat in a Florida elementary school reading _The Pet Goat_ while America was being attacked on 9/11/01. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![New\_Iskander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@New\_Iskander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Iskander)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611/20 "2004-10-05T17:38:07Z")
> [@Spree](#): > > GWB reading “My Pet Goat” to a classroom, with the full knowledge that terrorist attacks are occuring on U.S. soil = worthy of ridicule, and comedic in a sad and bitter sort of way. So is there a book in the world that would improve that picture? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-goat-and-other-animals/267611.md?page=2)