people are strange

Two odd things have come my way in the past week. One is an ad for a "simplified" Alice in Wonderland, which apparently we need because: "The original Alice in Wonderland is too difficult for children to read so parents usually read it to them. This volume solves that problem."

Parents reading to their children. Truly, a problem crying out for a solution.

The other I could barely read through the massive layers of html text, but it appeared to be an ad for a tool allowing parents to block websites during Shabbat.

I find myself thinking of the phrase on MotherReader's blog, about good children's literature lying somewhere between unbearable grief and a flatulent dog.