GUEST BLOGGER LEE MCD: THE EVER-REACHING ARM OF WAL-MART

Today is Labor Day so I hope everyone is enjoying a day off. The New York Times has a wonderful editorial about Labor Day. Me? I am going to watch the Red Sox play the Phillies in a inter-league game important to both teams as the races for the pennant and the wild-card slots heat up.

Today also marks the beginning of the school calendar. For most college students, classes start tomorrow. As usual, retailers target these kids for the traditonal dorm products - clothes, mini-fridges, futons, computers, new socks, & new shoes. You get the idea. However, this year many of these items were ordered back in May and June as part of high school graduation registries - much like wedding registries. Bed, Bath, & Beyond would be an expected name for such a registry. But Wal-Mart? Yes, the world's biggest retailer has a college-bound registry complete with the click & point laser wand "guns." Even more astonishing, Wal-Mart online offers college textbooks - 300,000 of them. I remember my textbook buying days at Brown: most textbooks could be bought at the Brown Bookstore. Some readings, usually out-of-print, were on "reserve" at the libraries, to be read (or copied???) only at the library. But some books couldn't be bought at the bookstore. Why? Because a few inspiring & passionate professors loathed big business, including the Brown Bookstore. So, they arranged for local (sometimes read "leftist") bookstores to stock and sell their course readings. Wow! I wonder which would disturb them more? Sending young minds to buy texts from the world's largest retailer or from the campus bookstore? Thinks about that one, friends.

I'm not sure if anyone should be surprised that Wal-Mart has started hawking textbooks. On the viewpoint of the student, whichever place sold books at a higher price would be worse. College bookstores have just ripped off students longer.

If I were a prof, I might start assigning some controversial literature as reading. Wal-Mart has been known to censor material that they don't consider to be conducive to "family values."

The Red Sox won in a very exciting game, capping a number of lead switches with a 6 run 9th inning that included a grand slam. Thanks for the above comment - some of my professors *did* assign controversial readings. To me, that is the hallmark of academic freedom, integrity, and rigor. Maybe it's just the ivory tower I got used to. Ever true to Brown!