THE STANDARD READER
The Standard Reader Books in Brief The Three-Martini Play-date: A Practical Guide to Happy Parenting by Christie Mellor (Chronicle, 144 pp., $12.95). I have fond memories of passing the...
...After a round or two, though, I would be sequestered in the guest bedroom with a plate of cheese straws and a coloring book...
...The Three-Martini Play-date is her game plan...
...and "Child Labor: Not Just For theThird World...
...Bonuses include tongue-in-cheek recipes (Lemonade for Grownups) and Helpful Hints (the Do-It-Yourself After-School Enrichment Program, featuring "Weeding for Fun" and "Delicious Snacks for Mom and Dad...
...Nowadays, parties and much of the rest of life seem to be centered largely around offspring, and Christie Mellor wants to know: How can we bring back the good old days...
...Throughout the evening, various family members might pop their heads in, but it was never to ask me to recite "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" for the company...
...The labor unions are still exhaling in relief that Linda Chavez was forced to withdraw as President Bush's first nominee for labor secretary...
...She alternates breezily between the voice of a 1950s housewife (to match her whimsically retro illustrations, most of which involve martinis) and that of an incredulous modern mom...
...The nation's largest union, the tax-exempt National Education Association, employs about 1,800 political operatives who are scattered across the nation, more than the Democratic and Republican national committees combined...
...and "'Children's Music': Why...
...Better to just blow up balloons, Mellor advises—and fill the martini pitcher for the grownups, as well...
...Other reforms include giving legislative teeth to court decisions barring unions from spending mandatory dues on purposes unrelated to workers' issues and allowing workers to choose for themselves whether or not to accept union representation...
...But the former American Federation of Teachers employee has taken a seat at the labor policy table anyway by heading up an organization called "Stop Union Political Abuse...
...As for the toddler party scene: Try to remember that hiring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to sing "Happy Birthday" is unlikely to become one of your three-year-old's treasured memories...
...I have fond memories of passing the gin-and-ton-ics at my grandparents' cocktail parties...
...she asks parents, especially those whose children awaken to find that the tooth fairy has dropped $20...
...Contrast that with the smaller Christian Coalition, which had its tax-exempt status temporarily revoked for putting out political literature...
...Similar sanity savers are outlined in such chaptcrs as "Saying No to Your Child: It's a Kick...
...Susie Currie Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics by Linda Chavez and Daniel Gray (Crown, 288 pp., $25.95...
...Modern-day labor's collective bargaining with monopolistic, profitless entities is an arrangement early labor supporters thought impossible, indeed illogical...
...In her world, evenings are for grownups, manners are for everyone, and the only acceptable pets are a lone goldfish...
...Still, as the book's title suggests, Chavez does not think unions are without merit...
...While radical labor reform doesn't appear imminent, Betrayal in this political season reminds us with hard figures which groups exact the deepest bows from the men and women they put in office...
...with XTC and Spike Jones...
...Beth Henary...
...Public employees keep Big Labor afloat and, in turn, Big Labor uses its deep pockets and political clout to elect federal, state, and local officials committed to expanding the government, which of course will create more government jobs and thus more union members—and more dues...
...She and her coauthor would simply like to keep unions in check...
...The days of traditional union organizing are all but gone, despite the AFL-CIO's assertions to the contrary," Chavez and Gray write...
...which wantsto replace Raffi & Co...
...Remember when we couldn't wait to grow up so we could be in charge...
...Chavez insists in her new book Betrayal that the need to curtail union political spending is growing in urgency—primarily because public employees account for 46 percent of all union members...
...Things have changed...
Vol. 9 • August 2004 • No. 45
