Its been a while since I had a chance to rant so today I am going to break that trend. YOu know what is really burning my butt today? When I heard on the news that the Book It! program that has been sponsered by Pizza Hut since 1985 is now under fire from an advocacy group that says it promotes bad eating habits and turns teachers into corporate promoters.

What the h377 is WRONG with these people?!? Don't they have anything better to do than to attack a program that has given pleasure to our kids and helped promote reading for more than 20 years?!?

I remember when the time each year would roll around and my kids would earn their personal pan pizza coupons. We would all pile into the car and head out to the local pizza hut so they could use them. That was about the only time out of the year that I actually took them into Pizza Hut but it was a TREAT that they had earned and that made it all the more precious to them! They LOVED it.

Now as far as giving them pizza promoting bad eating habits, yeah if you feed them pizza every night it is not going to be good for them. But for probably fully half of the underprivledged kids that earn these coupons that may be the only time each year when they get pizza at Pizza Hut. And guess what ... for almost the whole time my kids were living with me we had pizza from Pizza Hut a couple of times a month on Fridays! And on the other Fridays we would carry in from someone else like ... OMG .... Mickey-Ds (I hate it, but the kids loved it). My kids should weigh 300 lbs each right?? Not a single one of them is overweight (or even has an ounce of fat on them). Probably because for the other SIX nights out of the week I cooked good healthy homecooked meals for them. Maybe because when they wanted snacks they got good things for them like baby carrots (they still love those) or apples and cheese (OH NO ... I fed them CHEESE) or celery and peanut butter. Maybe they should put a skull and crossbones on the Pizza Hut's door to warn us huh? Well, I guess if you go there every night to feed your kids maybe they had better! But everything in moderation folks, then your kids will learn good eating habits and still be able to enjoy life!

What is really stupid about this attack is that they are saying that the program makes the kids want pizza, and doesn't make them want to read. Well DOH, guess what? Giving a child an incentive to do anything that is good for them (like reading books) has to be an incentive they LIKE (like pizza)! Its always been easier to draw bees to honey than salt people!

I know that I for one think that they should leave the 'Book It!' program alone! It gave my children years of pleasure and those times when I could see their smiling faces sitting across from me at Pizza Hut enjoying the fruits (or meat and cheese and dough) of their own effort will forever live in my heart as special.

Okay ... done ranting for today and my yes, I do feel a bit better.

If you want to read about this you can find the story at this link. http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/06/Business/Some_pan_reading_for_.shtml

Semper Fi and God Bless you all and God bless Pizz Hut for making it possible to get some of these kids to read!