It's 4:20. Do you know where your congressman is?

Via Crooks & Liars, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank wants to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana.

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DJ Ted

When I was teaching, I gave a lecture every semester on the joys and hazards of the Internet as a reporting tool. It's not as if I knew any more about it than my colleagues, but at the time — about three years ago — I was the only one of us who knew how to play a YouTube video over the classroom's A/V system.

The first time I used this now-classic mix of a rant by Alaska Sen. Ted Steven (put together by Paul Holcomb from The Bold Headed Broadcast), I figured it would warm up an audience of semi-detached college students and kill some of the hour I had to fill. After the fourth or fifth time, though, I realized Ted was right:

The Internet isn't a truck.

For next Easter...

I don't like sweets, but I absolutely love baking, so I was intrigued by this Easter dessert idea I found on Mighty Girl.

Yup. That would be egg shells filled with cake. Maybe not the most kid-friendly treat (accidentally eating some shell sounds like a quick way to ruin an Easter morning hunt) but certainly different! I might have to be like my mom and start keeping a notebook with ideas for future holidays. This one would definitely make the cut.

You can find a link to the original recipe, Mighty Girl Maggie's revised recipe, and more pictures of the whole process here.

Christ has Risen

This kind of "news" is a guilty pleasure for me.

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Random Pic of the Moment

Joshua Tree, CA. Feb. 17, 2008

Nutraloaf: Cruel and Unusual Punishment?

When prisoners in Vermont poop on their plates and throw it at prison guards, the guards fight back by feeding them nutraloaf. But a group of prisoners is suing the state to stop that practice, because nutraloaf is gross.

From the AP on Sunday:

On Monday, the Vermont Supreme Court will hear arguments in a class action suit brought by inmates who say [nutraloaf is] not food but punishment and that anyone subjected to it should get a formal disciplinary process first.

Prison officials see nutraloaf as a tool for behavior modification.

"It's commonplace in other states as a way of providing nutrition in a mechanism that dissuades inmates from throwing feces, urine, trays and silverware," said Vermont Corrections Commissioner Rob Hofmann.

****

Seth Lipschutz, an attorney with Vermont's Prisoner's Rights office, says the state has a legitimate interest in changing the behavior of inmates who misbehave.

But he says a diet of nutraloaf is punishment, plain and simple. To call it anything else is "playing with words to get what they want. It's wrong and it's sad," Lipschutz said.

Ok, I agree that it's weird that the state is using food as punishment, but is nutraloaf really that bad?

Gotta Love Mildred

Matt Petty makes fresh arts and culture videos for the SF Gate (the popular website for the San Francisco Chronicle) which has an actual video staff and an editing suite (I know, I saw it with my own two eyes)!

This video is about a skater boy who makes art and sticks it up all over the Mission.  You never see his face or hear him speak but by the end of this video, you feel like you know Mildred.  This is newspaper video at its finest, imho:

...and it was still hot.

I was raised by two people who both possess masters degrees in Education. As a result, I was read to constantly as a wee one. And as a result, I read constantly as a big one. Read to your kids, folks.

I had a lot of favorite books. But in my family, Where the Wild Things Are holds a special place in my sisters' and my hearts. My older sister used to make my mother read it to her every night, and my mother only stopped when her three year old started having violent dreams about giant monsters. Which makes sense, because that's what the book is about. It's about fear, and fear is only real if it's really scary. The world outside your house is scary. We teach children to fear things (crossing the road, strangers, the dark) to keep them safe. As a result, if you want keep your little one safe, you have to teach them fear.  And that's what I've always loved about WtWTA. Max looks his fears square in the face and says "STOP!" He faces his fears, and he rules over them as a result. It's a lesson I think some of us grown ups can benefit from.

Which is why this post, from LVHRD, makes me sad.

Because it made kids cry, Warner Bros has decided that Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are needs to be taken back to the drawing board, not only to be re-shot but possibly re-written as well, without Dave Eggers.

First of all, I was unaware that a live-action movie was being shot at all. Secondly: WTF? Ok, I suppose if it makes children burst into tears, it's probably not working as intended. But I want to see that version! And if they take Spike Jonze, possibly one of the delightfully strangest directors out there, off this project, I'll cry. If they put Tim Burton on it, I'll cry really loud. I might stomp my feet. It won't be pretty.

sidenote: next time you're flipping through your copy of WtWTA, note the design genius of Sendak — the pictures start out small, and gradually get bigger and bigger until the Wild Rumpus, where they encompass the entire page in a full-bleed illustration. Then when the Wild Rumpus stops, they begin to get smaller and smaller until the final page, which is text-only and reads  "and it was still hot."  Good design makes me happy. 

Bat-shit Crazy

By Dr. Zaius

theocracy-by-zaius.jpg (JPEG Image, 477x455 pixels)

Sticky Notes!

As the girl responsible for ordering the office post-its, I found this fuctional art display totally amazing. The idea is that the art evolves according to the use of the wall. Make sure to scroll down to see how it develops.

Thanks to Mighty Girl for the link.