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In the year between graduating from New York University (NYU) and starting my Ph.D. at City University of New York (CUNY), I worked as an editor at an educational publishing firm. Each day I arrived at the old Wanamaker's department store building on Eighth and Broadway, heading to my cubicle on the third floor to invent workbook sheets, vocabulary sentences, and skills builders. Then, as now, the two largest textbook-buying markets were dominated by culturally conservative elements, and so my employer, like other educational publishers, had numerous written and unwritten rules designed to appease interests on the left without going so far as to ruffle anyone's feathers on the right. There were pages and pages of confidential guidelines specifying what could and could not get discussed in those vocabulary sentences and whatever illustrations accompanied them.1 Hence, no black cats in any stories or artwork, since that might whisper of witchiness (go ahead, check on it if you don't believe me). On the other hand, be sure that a count of all persons appearing in artwork for a given grade level will accurately reflect the ethnic makeup of the United States. Do not mention divorce, although it's okay to imply it by mentioning only one parent. Do not include candy or junk food, but pizza is acceptable, as is popcorn, in moderation. Magic, ghosts, and the like are out. Domestic dads and working moms are in, up to a point, that is, as long as they are balanced by parents occupying traditional gender roles, though Mom wearing an apron might be going too far. No dangerous situations, something like standing on a table, for instance. Show a wheelchair now and then, preferably with someone in it, and not always someone who is old and decrepit. The most important, and most emphatically unwritten, rule was this: never, ever show or discuss a situation where a...