True, scary and occasionally funny... "Aim towards the Enemy." - Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher "When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend." - U.S. Marine Corps training manual "Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very accurate. The bombs are guaranteed to always hit the ground." - USAF Ammo Troop "If the enemy is in range, so are you." - Infantry Journal "It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed." - U.S. Air Force Pilot training manual "Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered automatic weapons." - General Macarthur "Try to look unimportant; they may be low on ammo." - Infantry Journal "You, you, and you ... panic. The rest of you, come with me." - U.S. Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt. "Tracers work both ways." - U.S. Army Ordnance officer "Five second fuses only last three seconds." - Infantry Journal "Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid." - David Hackworth "If your attack is going too well, you're walking into an ambush." - Infantry Journal "No combat-ready unit has ever passed inspection." - Joe Gay "Any ship can be a minesweeper... once." - Anonymous "Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do." - Unknown Marine Recruit "Don't draw fire; it irritates the people around you." - Your Buddies "If you see a bomb technician running, follow him." - USAF Ammo Troop "Though I Fly Through the Valley of Death... I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 80,000 Feet and Climbing." - At the entrance to the old SR-71 operating base, Kadena, Japan "You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3." - Paul F. Crickmore (test pilot) "The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire." "If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe." "Never trade luck for skill." The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are: "Why is it doing that?" "Where the hell are we?" "Oh S**t!" "Weather forecasts are horoscopes with numbers." "Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!" "Flashlights are tubular metal containers kept in a flight bag for the purpose of storing dead batteries." Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII: "When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slowly and gently as possible." "Never fly in the same cockpit with someone braver than you." "There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime." - Sign over squadron ops desk at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, "If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to." Basic Flying Rules: "Try to stay in the middle of the air. Do not go near the edges of it. The edges of the air can be recognized by the appearance of ground, buildings, sea, trees and interstellar space. It is much more difficult to fly there." As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives, the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks, "What happened?". The pilot's reply: "I don't know, I just got here myself!" - Attributed to Ray Crandell (Lockheed test pilot)

Gosh, thank you all so much for the great ideas. I have a Pete the Cat book but didn't realize it was a series. I'll look for more. I'm very interested in the Harry McLary books, but interestingly my library doesn't have them! But they are on Amazon, so I'll give them a try. I was going to try to thank everyone individually, but worry I'll leave someone out, so I hope you'll know that I'll look at each of these and try them out. For anyone else reading this looking for ideas, my grandson loves a book I found called Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. And I can second the G'night, G'night construction site. How do boys seem to emerge with an affinity for construction equipment? At 2 and younger? It's crazy! Also, no one answered about Where's Waldo? I know it's older, but does anyone recommend it? If so, which one? Please keep adding books if you think of more. It's great to have them all in a place to check back with. Thanks again!

Labmomma- Did I say anything about court? :-) Let me tell you the nutshell version of a story of how the dog whisper helped probably save our furry little behinds. I told this story on another forum and all the cesar-haters came out and told me how stupid i was so you're getting the short version. After watching the show, I decided I would make more of an effort to keep the dogs to my side instead of in front of me while on walks. I wouldn't say they had a pulling problem but the one would pee on everything in sight and the pup was starting to learn how that looked like fun so I felt like it was time to see if I can walk the dogs how cesar does on tv. And no I didn't contact a professional before using the technique like it says in the disclaimer! I thought I'd take a chance. Well after some time walks became a lot more enjoyable and didn't need someone to reinsert my arm into it's socket if a squirrel ran by and there's no more pee-mail. So there's something to be said for more structured walks and not letting the dogs go first. That's only half of it. Ok so we're on a sidewalk where some rednecks keep their pitbull looking dogs out in their yard and never walk them or probably do anything remotely responsible so the dogs had tunnneled under the fence. I didn't know this until a mean looking growling and barking dog ambushes us. My first instinct: soil trousers. My second instinct: must get out of here.* â note there is a "*" Normally these dogs of mine are very friendly, they think every person and dog is their friend and wants to give them cookies. They are personalities that people would kill for in a dog. The mean dog is circling us and I was trying to act like i didn't notice and wanted the boys to play along like we were all wearing iron clad armour. They stayed with the program, focusing on me and where we were going, not jerking me away to go mess with the mean dog. We managed to evade persuit, not getting bitten. I credit the dog whisper show for making me aware that perfecting the walk was possible and it paid off big. Now for that * I was talking about. On a recent episode Cesar talked about what do do in a situation where if you are face to face with a mad dog, you don't turn around and run away. He didn't give instructions on what to do, it was the post office seminar episode, but whatever we're still alive and the dogs did not engage thank god. He also says to be calm and assertive and not show fear. I would be very surprsied if I was not showing or smelling like fear but I'm sure I probably was pretty calm and assertive.

I'm going to read the book because I've heard it was quite good. The movie is another story. Clive Owen was very good, but in general the movie was awful. The problem? It had FIVE screenwriters and it showed. Think of movie-by-committee. One guy was put in charge of biblical references, another political message, another environmental messages, another dropping in references to Nazi Germany ..... well, you get the idea. I discussed the movie with a friend of mine just to confirm my major issue with the movie - unanswered questions piled up like cordwood and soon I was looking around for a match. The director said that he felt moviegoers were smart enough to figure things out for themselves. True, but you gotta give viewers dots to connect. All kinds of things were thrown out there and while you were struggling to find a piece for the puzzle, three more were thrown your way. The world went to hell in a handbasket, leaving only England limping along with some semblance of social order. What destroyed the world? Nuclear....environmental....meteroite? If England is basically an island how did the hoards of Fugees (refugees) make it to their shores? Why haven't any babies been born in 18 years? Give us a clue. Do the writers undertstand the difference between illegal aliens and refugees? Who were the people that ambused the convoy? Obviously rebels with what affiliation? Who's the woman in the wheelchair and why was she tortured and what her relationship with Clive Ownens character? Clive Owen was an activist...again...political, environmental...what? In the middle of the movie Michael Caine's aging hippie character had a line that was the most interesting thought in the movie - - "How do we have hope when sometimes our existence and that of those we love comes down to chance?" Expand on that thought, make that movie. It would have been much more interesting. There's the trite "fat cat dines while Rome burns" scene, replete with a huge fat pink pig balloon wafting over London. Dumb. The ending was so.....there aren't words to describe it, but a teenager sitting near me turned to his father and said, "That ending would only be profound if you were smoking Michael Caine's weed!" There have been so many more effective dystopic movies made over the years. Take a pass on this one. I will however, read the book.