I learned today that someone named Mariah P. Bear has just signed a contract to do a 16th edition of (time to move the apostrophe again) Bear's Guide, and an 8th edition of College Degrees by Mail and Internet. This could keep the franchise going for thirty more years. John (Very Pleased) Bear
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..................Sounds like distance learning is in the blood! I am looking foward to both these additions.
Train up a child in the way she should go, and when she is grown she will not depart from it.--Book of Proverbs Wonderful news. Congratulations all round.
CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU! You have no idea how many lives you have touched and changed for the better! The world is a better and more educated place because of all the great work you have done! God bless and all my best wishes for your continued success!
My 15th edition is already starting to look dog-eared. You can bet that I'll snag a copy of the 16th edition as soon as it hits the presses! Tony Pina Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino
This is great news – another one to add to my collection. However, my favorite is still the “smiley face” edition.
I don't think it was ever mentioned, Denver, that those faces were actually part of the doctoral research of Randall Harrison at Michigan State. Among other things, he was trying to learn what are the determinants of perceived emotion, using simple cartoon-like drawings. Certainly the mouth -- upturned, straight, or down -- but also very much the way the eyes are drawn, and, of great importance, the eyebrows. So Dr. Harrison drew 9 (I think; may have been more) faces, which his research showed nearly everyone correctly interpreted on a scale from very positive to very negative. Everyone, that is, but the readers of my book. My goodness, there was a lot of mail, both confused (from readers) and angry (from schools). In retrospect, at least I should have explained the intended meaning of the faces. John Bear, whose father was acknowledged by Michael Robertson, writing in the SF Chronicle, to be the first person ever to use the phrase, "Have a nice day" in print (in a 1947 novel).
Decimon: "Sweet sixteen and e'er to exist." John: Since we can't say, "Sweet sixteen and never been dissed," this will do. But "e'er" is a long time. Wonder what book has been in print the longest?
Dope slap. Of course. So what's in second place? When I was doing research for my book The #1 New York Times Bestseller it was fascinating to me to learn that Times policy has changed a number of times on whether to list the Bible on the bestseller list. They only did so twice in 50+ years, when new editions came out (RSV, NEB). And there were apparently vigorous debates there on whether to put it on the Fiction or Non-Fiction list.
Stop the self-abuse. I believe that the world's first known printed book was a copy of the 'Vajracchedika', or 'Diamond Sutra' from the Chinese Tang dynasty, in the 8'th century. I have heard it described as a rather sophisticated production, which suggests to scholars that it wasn't the first Chinese experiment in printing. The first complete printed edition of the Tripitaka had appeared by the end of the 9'th century.
In English it's almost certainly The Canterbury Tales, first printed 1476. Second overall is probably either a missal that's still in use today or one of the Church Fathers, at a guess. Augustine? Aquinas? Angela