Remembering Book It!

When I was a nerdy third-grader with frizzy hair and a bit of a lazy eye problem, I could use all the help I could get. Lucky for me, there was Book It!, Pizza Hut’s program that rewards young readers with free pizza.

I loved (still do) to read, so I got mad pizza. Granted, it didn’t make me any more popular (still hasn’t), but Book It! was pretty awesome because it made me feel like someone else besides my mom though t it was cool that I liked to read. Plus, the pizza was tasty and I remember getting a big-ass purple Book It! button and stickers when I read extra books.

Anyway, I’m generally for taking measures to make sure kids have healthier eating options, including taking junk food and soda out of schools, but I was sad to read that an organization is criticizing the program and calling for its end. It seems like Book It! has been successful, and a good incentive to get kids reading. A solution that might (but probably won’t) make everyone happy? Instead of giving kids a voucher for a free personal pan pizza, give them a voucher that’s redeemable for one of several items on the Pizza Hut menu, including one or two healthier options.

Joe Torres: Where Is He Now?

Some friends and I have recently spent some time reminiscing about our favorite Nickelodeon shows of yore, including classics like Hey Dude! And Salute Your Shorts. Anyway, I was saddened—OK, kind of fascinated—to learn that there’s an Internet rumor that Joe Torres, the actor who played wise Native American Danny Lightfoot on Hey Dude!, died a couple of years ago due to kidney failure.

Like most internet rumors, this one doesn’t seem to have been verified one way or the other. A wikipedia entry devoted to Torres says that he was last spotted in a Tucson bar called The Golden Nugget, but how to know for sure that it’s true?

Anyway, I need answers. Also, I’m bored and I have an obsession with TV procedurals where everything is wrapped up all nice and pretty in an hour. I’m betting that this mystery could be solved quickly enough with some deft Internet sleuthing and a couple of well-placed phone calls, but I think Danny deserves a more grand gesture. So, I’m more or less envisioning hopping on a plane to Tucson, where he was allegedly last seen, armed with a fake FBI badge. Then, I’ll interview friends and family who may have seen him last to get their take on the situation. And, if he’s not dead, we still need to find him, so I think I’ll need someone to come along with me to canvass for evidence and take DNA samples. Who’s with me?

Can you Digg it?

I know when it comes to technology and the Web, I can be kind of slow, so I'm probably telling you something that's going to make you ask what planet I've been on for the last 6 months. I have discovered Digg in the last few weeks, and I love it. For the three people in the world who haven't experienced the great world of Digg, it goes a bit like this--according to the site creators themselves:

"Digg is a user driven social content website. Ok, so what the heck does that mean? Well, everything on Digg is submitted by our community (that would be you). After you submit content, other people read your submission and Digg what they like best. If your story rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of visitors to see.

What can you do as a Digg user? Lots. Every person can digg (help promote), bury (help remove spam), and comment on stories... you can even Digg and bury comments you like or dislike. Digg also allows you to track your friends' activity throughout the site — want to share a video or news story with a friend? Digg it!"

One of the more amusing things about the site, in my opinion, is the tendency to nerdy tech stories. For instance, this is the current top story: World's Dorkiest Tattoo. Indeed this story is dorky. It involves some sort of HTML (I think) tattoo on some guy's neck.

I enjoy the site because you can find some interesting international news that you really don't see anywhere else, since I'm not really seeing a ton of diggs from main stream media outlets. The stuff I'm interested in is still pretty scarce, since the techies are clearly the early adopters of this site, but as it gets more popular, I'm sure the proportion of news I find interesting will increase.

Life, looming death, and music

Mosh pits are scary. I should know--I was nearly crushed by a burly, large, drunken man yesterday on the outskirts of one at a Flogging Molly concert. The show itself was fantastic. It was full of Irish anthems for the recovering Catholic, with titles like Rebels of the Sacred Heart driving the largely Catholic-raised, tattoo and piercing covered crowd to rowdy dancing and pushing. A good time was had by all. But as I was sneak attacked by the drunken mass of sweaty man, I thought--Is this really just the practice round?

It's the practice round because a Flogging Molly concert isn't nearly as rowdy as the Dropkick Murphy's concert I'll be attending next Sunday. And, I wasn't actually pushed into the full madness on my first outing--a jump I've promised to try and take next week. So, if my first rowdy concert experience is any indication of what's to come, it's inevitable that this is my last week on earth. I will most certainly be crushed by a rogue crowd surfer.

With the impending doom looming, I've decided it's only fitting that I would die at a concert-- nearly crushed and taking a kick to the head during a raucous Irish jig. My life can be mapped with music.

Laura-- the early years

The first song I remember loving was Hazy Shade of Winter by the Bangles. I remember buying a 45 for my Fisher-Price record player at the Disc Jockey. I was so proud of it, and I got to show it off to my second grade teacher Mrs. Dunn, who just happened to be in the store at the same time. I think I listened to that record repeatedly for at least a year.

Other important songs of my elementary years included Kokomo by the Beach Boys, Walking on Sunshine by Katrina & the Waves, Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffet, and Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi.

Once I reached middle school, it was cool to like music--being that I was a weeble shaped child and not very cool, this is when I went through my country phase. I did love the New Kids on the Block and Vanilla Ice (mainly because you HAD to in those days), but I was deeply enamoured with Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Clint Black, Wynonna Judd, and so many more. A highlight of the country years was a 7th grade trip to Rupp Arena with my friend Amanda to see Clint Black and Wynonna during their Black and Wy tour. In a first experience with rowdy concert-goers, a drunk woman sitting behind me proceeded to braid my and Amanda's hair.

By 8th grade I was exiting my country phase and enjoying Salt-n-Pepa (yes, I still know all the words to Shoop), Aerosmith's Get a Grip album, and Warren G's Regulate the G-Funk Era.

Creating the Laura of Today

High School marked an important shift in my musical taste. It's the time I discovered some of my all-time favorites and learned about the joys of classic rock. During these years, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins and Garbage reigned supreme, with smatterings of Led Zeppelin (Over the Hills and Far Away is still my all time favorite song), Pink Floyd, Janice Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix. High School was the gateway to a tendency to explore the bands less known-- a tendency that lasts even today, and makes me want to attend numerous concerts at the South Gate House and 20th Century Theater.

I don't know exactly when I discovered my one true love--Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, but we've been together ever since, and I can't wait for the new album Sky Blue Sky to come out on May 15. Wilco is chill, mid-tempo indie rock music. The concerts fit my personality and my concert going style of absorbing sounds and dancing in my own space without touching others. I've been to concerts of all types over the years. I love live music. It's only fitting that a concert will be the source of my demise in more than a financial way.

If only I could see Wilco perform one last time. Start preparing your online tribute to my wonderfulness now. My estimated time of death is 10:45 p.m., Sunday, March 11.

Tasty Delights

Yeah, so I love fast food. A lot. For awhile, I kind of pretended I didn’t, because Fast Food Nation was all popular, and I try to be the kind of person that’s generally pro-public health or whatever. Plus, once you get out of college, apparently you’re supposed to really get into things like dinner parties and entrees that are actually eaten with a fork.

But, a couple of years ago, I decided that nine times out of 10, I’d prefer a greasy Quarter Pounder to steak tartare and hey—it’s a lot cheaper.

This week, my pals over at Consumerist (starting now, I think I’m just going to start pretending I’m actually really good friends with the bloggers that I like) posted a guide to secret menu items at some of the best—and tastiest—fast food establishments. Take a look and see what you might be missing. And is it just me, or is the picture of that freaking ginormous burger making anyone else hungry?

Reading Larry Dobrow

Larry Dobrow has my dream job. Incidentally, Larry Dobrow deserves my dream job, because he’s a funnier, sharper, all-around better writer than I am. And that’s cool. That just means that I harbor an inappropriate— bordering on the line of stalker-ish—cyber crush on Larry Dobrow. For those keeping score at home, and who may now be tsk-ing because they know that I’m married, please note that crushes are acceptable within a marriage if they are prefaced by a modifier: see also “girl crush,” “celebrity crush,” etc.

Anyway, I have no idea what Larry Dobrow looks like (although I’ll admit to having Googled him), but I have joked (half-joked?) about building a shrine to him under my desk.

Larry Dobrow writes magazine reviews for MediaPost. Funny, insightful magazine reviews. Reviews that, week after week, contain at least one sentence that make me laugh out loud. Sometimes, when I read Larry Dobrow’s reviews, all is right with the world. Sometimes, when I read Larry Dobrow’s reviews, I forget that I live in Texas.

This week, Larry Dobrow reviewed the teen-targeted publication Your Prom.

A couple of choice bits:

-It (Your Prom) ranks as the rare title which boasts so little content that nearly every item can be referenced on its cover. Indeed, Your Prom is more or less a catalog, albeit one with a total absence of even slightly overweight women and a surfeit of prommed-up white chicks slathered in whorey makeup.

- For a guy just a bit outside the mag's target audience, there's a lot to learn. Owing to my refusal to appear in public after getting "the world's suckiest haircut," the "prom personality" quiz brands me as a "pessimistic partyer." My prom horoscope suggests that I should "channel my inner Beyoncé" in the months ahead, a contingency for which the tri-state area is profoundly unprepared.

If you haven’t developed an intense cyber crush on Larry Dobrow based solely on the above two tidbits, that’s cool; you and I probably were never that close anyway. If you want more Larry Dobrow goodness, go here to sign up (it's free!) to get the reviews emailed to you.

How Liberal (or Conservative) are you?

I'm a perfect 10 (out of 40) on the political spectrum according to a quiz created by Victor Kamber and Bradley S. O'Leary, who have written a number of books on the subject figuring out where you are politically. Apparently this quiz appeared in a 1994 edition of USA Today Weekend. This would explain the individuals on the spectrum and the fact that Hillary, who matches up with my number 10 is so far left.

While many wouldn't agree, I think Hillary has worked quite hard to move herself a little more toward the center for this presidential election. I myself probably prefer 1994 Hillary a bit better--so lining up there is fine.

Also, the questions on this thing aren't the best. Many of them require yes or no answers on issues that may fall into the "yes, but" or "no, but" category -- probably pushing many people farther toward one particular side of the spectrum than they are. But, all science and timeliness (or lack thereof) aside, it's pretty fun.

The full spectrum goes like this, with Jesse Jackson as a zero and Ronald Reagan a 40:

Jessie Jackson	Ted Kennedy	Hillary Clinton	Bill Clinton	Colin Powell	George Bush	Jack Kemp	Bob Dole	Ronald Reagan

My blogging comrade Loree was a 9. Most others I've polled so far have fallen in the 10-20 range. Let us know in your comments how you score and what you think about the spectrum.