I’m accustomed to correcting grammar and fixing mistakes as I read aloud — Junie B. Jones taught me well — but I admit I stumbled over Chapter 13 in Because of Winn-Dixie, the book Sophie’s been reading for class. I didn’t expect to encounter the word “retarded” in my kid’s school assignment. Why is this […]

It happened again yesterday.  I was having a meeting at work with a brand-new hire, a super-smart guy (way smarter than me, for sure — by the books, anyway) who just finished journalism school. We were going over his job description, and he said it about something, I’m not sure what. “That’s so retarded!” Or […]