50 Rules

Milwaukee Magazine, of which Charlie Sykes is an editor emeritus, offers a quickie review of "50 Rules" in its November 2007 issue, by Lisa Holewa:
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As if Sykes didn't get enough exposure in Milwaukee, Marquette University invites him for a sit-down with Mike Gousha.

What could be worse? That a Marquette law professor live-spoons the Sykes pablum.

James Wigderson, a conservative blogger, gives Sykes's effort a less than enthusiastic review, calling the book "50 rules in search of an audience."

In the Wisconsin Wingosphere, that takes some nerve.

In a posting on Badger Blogger , there is much speculation on how the 50+ Things came into being. Some dismiss the creators of the rules as humorless, whining and crying liberals. (Note: if you replace liberal with conservative, you have Paul Bucher.) Some hypothesize that the creators are only envious of Charlie's success, and somehow fear that Charlie will somehow, single-handedly destroy the evil liberal empire.

In reality, it is a parody of Charlie's latest book, to point out the hypocritical nature of the right wing squawker, er, talker. It merely points out the obvious truths regarding squawk radio, their attitudes, their self-contradictions, much like Charlie tries to do. But 50+ Things does it with biting humor, whereas Charlie can only cast derision.  read more »

Or, at least, a revealing admission:

Those that can… Do
Those that can’t… Bitch about it.

Best explanation for conservative bitching I've heard.

-- Illusory Tenant.

Blogger Mike Plaisted pays out hard-earned money for Sykes's book, and finds it "Small, Thin and Wrong."

An Iowa school superintendent speaks up:

A publication called "50 Rules Your Kid Won't Learn In School" gets an adamant thumbs-down from Martha Bruckner.

The Council Bluffs Community School District superintendent also characterized the book by Wisconsin radio and TV talk-show host Charles Sykes as an offensive publication that lacks wit and insight.

The rules include "Life is actually more like dodgeball than your gym teacher thinks," and "Be nice to nerds. You may end up working for them."

"It makes me angry," Bruckner said. "We should not give people like (Sykes) credit. These rules are basically 50 one-liners that mostly put people down."

She said she cringed at rules like, "You are not a victim, so stop whining" and "You are not entitled ..." because they struck her as demeaning.  read more »

The promotional drumbeat continues as Charlie Sykes posts something every day on his WTMJ blog to promote his forthcoming "50 rules" book.

Today's offering:
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"The 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" will be officially release (sic) this coming Thursday.

As you'll see, they draw on the wisdom of several local bloggers/writers:

Tom McMahon is cited in Rule #24

Rick Esenberg is cited in Rule #21

Lance Burri is cited in Rule #32

Mike Nichols is cited in Rule #36

Thanks, guys.

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Sykes offers no links to the book's content and doesn't quote from it.

It looks like those local bloggers will each have to buy a copy to find out what it says about them.

And then, of course, they can each write a nice blog post about it.

This is retail bookselling for sure, one at a time. Well, maybe four at a time.)  read more »