Poetry Criticism Down East

10:00 AM -- Boston.com carries this AP story on a literary dispute that is roiling the playgrounds of Maine:

A book of rhymes handed out to kindergarten classes across Maine is being criticized by some parents as inappropriate. "Schoolyard Rhymes" is a compilation of 50 verses included in bags given to 18,000 pupils through the Read With ME literacy project supported by Gov. John Baldacci and his wife Karen...

A few of the rhymes have raised some eyebrows. For example, one says, "Ladies and gentlemen, Take my advice, Pull down your pants And slide on the ice."

Ha! That's a new one on me, but it sounds like a fine idea -- especially apropos if one lives on the other side of France.

Erica Smith of Hampden, mother of a 5-year-old son who goes to the McGraw School, said the book is "completely inappropriate."

"It's rude. There are words in there that I don't allow in my house..."

I guess that'd be "pants."

No word yet on whether the man from Nantucket made the collection.

— Larry, Attack Monkey, Light Reading