Tidbits

• Did you do a little "I smell drama!' gasp upon finding out the Pulitzer Committee choose not to award the Fiction prize this year?  Juror Michael Cunningham wrote about the selection process and his thoughts on the maybesortapossible snub of the three finalists. 
• If you read other book blogs, or perhaps have gone to professional conferences in the past year, you've probably heard about the beef between the librarians and the bloggers in attendance over slightly greedy snatching of ARCs.  My two cents?  Everyone calm down and join NetGalley. 
• Quite an interesting take on the lack of parents/horrible parents/dead parents/parents in need of parenting trend in YA, and in some children's books.  I'd personally extend it to reliable, trustworthy adult role models, but that's just me, liking to see reliable, trustworthy adults in teenagers lives, even if they just happen to be background chatter in the story.  I think my authorgirlcrush, Melina Marchetta, deserves some snaps here.  
• Which is probably why I'm going to interrupt my beach vacation, and head to NYC on July 17th, to bask Melina Marchetta's glory.  Melina, brace yourself! I'm really, really excited to share oxygen with you in a totally non-creepy way.  Okay, maybe that is creepy.  Ima play it cool, and hope I am not suddenly struck mute, as I was in 1992 when meeting Ann M. Martin. 
• Remember when I reviewed City of Bones yesterday and told you it was going to be a movie, which you probably already knew about because I'm light years behind these days?  Well, friend.  WELL.  Now there is a sort of unexciting teaser poster you can feast your eyes on, and more information about the movie. 
• The lovely Arianna at Wandering Librarians is not just lovely; she also went to ALA and met my other other Australian author crush, the babely Craig Silvey.  Swoon! (PS. Way to take my cute-author advice, Printz committee.  Well played!) Also?  SHE SAW THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER.  Arianna, just stop making me so swoony jealous over he-yah! 
• Remember last year when I reviewed The Name of the Star, and pretty much dug everything about it except for the lame-o cover?  WELL, my friends, WELL.  Thank GAWD books, like people, can change jackets.  Although this one just kind of says Scandanavian Mystery to me...but I'll just shut up because SO MUCH BETTER. 

Let's make my dreams of dysentery a reality.

On snow day #4.5 of 2011, I woke up, rubbed my eyes in the dewy morning light, fired up the ole laptop and checked the headlines. I gasped. Not because of what is happening in the world, or because the Snowpocalypse was upon us yet again. Oh no. The following headline caught my sluggish morning attention: "Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego to go on Facebook." The article, which is really mostly about the company doing this game making for Facebook, ultimately fails to adequately capture the fervent love of my generation for the Oregon Trail. It states:

"[T]he game migrated to succeeding generations of classroom PCs, where it became a favorite among schoolchildren. Players are cast as 19th-century pioneers trying to survive a journey from Missouri to Oregon, fending off hunger, disease, and accidents."

Um, just a "favorite?" Hello understatement. A search for Oregon Trail on CafePress turns up 155 t-shirts, all spun from the images and vernacular of the original low-tech graphics game. My personal favorites are all dysentery related. Why, oh why would my favorites be those of the dying a violent death due to epic poo-ing? Because in a highlight of my life, 6 summers ago, my all-American co-administrators at an all-girls overnight camp and I convinced our lone British colleague to create a live-action role playing version of this game.

It was...amazing. As you can see above, we made the teenagers be the hunted animals, and had packs of eight year old girls screaming joyfully while pegging them with water balloons. The bison herd had a rough day. The camp director walked around carrying a scythe, impersonating death. There were old prospectors, a build and test a raft station, and oh yes, oh yes, there was Dysentery. And oh yes, oh yes, I played the timeless and classic role of Dysentery. As you would expect, Dysentery wore brown, carried a roll of toilet paper, and hung out by the water fountains and wash-houses. Dysentery, to her great joy and to the chagrin of her unwitting victims, repeatedly used the infamous Oregon Trail line "You have died of dysentary!"

In short, it was pretty fantastic. Also fantastic? Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I hard-out loved that show. It was one of the very few programs I was allowed to watch, airing on the ever safe PBS. I wanted to go on that show so so bad, and have my chance to run around and put flaring lights on the correct countries, buzz in to best Carmen at her own game, and rock out with Rockapella. I was delighted to discover that one of my C.I.T.'s (at the same camp, clearly a breeding ground for coolness) had actually BEEN ON THE SHOW.

Now, let me just say that video games in general are not my thing, with the exception of Oregon Trail. Facebook games? Reallllly are not for me. Despite my great love of these two fantastic game shows, I probably won't be playing them on the 'book. But I am excited they will be making it back into the public eye. Why? They are pretty much the two exceptions to my No-Reality-TV-Shows rule (along with Amazing Race, someday). I feel that their increase in popularity could, just maybe, might, result in some crazy-awesome Hollywood producer being all "HECK YES, let's turn this into a show!" I mean, PBS (or rather Thirteen/WNET New York and Wall to Wall Television) did Frontier House, Texas Ranch House, and Colonial House. Why not My House is a Chuck Wagon and We're Headed West for Oregon? And why not an adult game-show version of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? I mean...come on. If they can be Facebook games, and if film adaptations of Ouija and Battleship are in the works, why can't they have their spot of honor on my DVR list? Seriously, Hollywood. Get. It. Together.

Come on, people. I can't be the only one.
Join me in my appeal:

Thirteen/WNET New York and Wall to Wall Television, if you are out there, make Oregon Trail the reality show happen!

And call then me. If you need someone to ford some rivers, go hunt buffalo, and NOT die of dysentery, I'm your woman.

The Curious Incident of the Grown Up & the Knit Animal Cap

I've been noticing a trend that I'm even hesitant to comment on, for fear of sounding entirely ageist, snarky and judgmental. But after witnessing a woman of a certain age in a violently yellow duck knit cap...I just need to take a stand. If you live in a place where there is, you know, winter, you've probably borne witness to this trend: knit animal caps on grown ups. I did a little light reading. Okay, fine, I could only find one article online.

I don't get the appeal. So maybe someone can explain to me how this trend has grown, seemingly just this year. Is it something fun to knit? A rebellion against regular knit caps? Crazy hats have always been around in the great northlands. Prior to this trend, I associated knit caps that mimic animals or food to be generally a kid-based trend. As in babies. In fact, recently seeing a weensy infant size version of this made me decide to post. It also works well on tots and tweens. It is a look delightfully rocked by young Molly Hayes in the great graphic series, Runaways.

(Via Comic Vine, where you can learn more about Molly Hayes and her awesome fellow Runaways)

See? Totally works on her! BECAUSE SHE IS A CHILD. As the authors of the Molly Hayes Comic Vine post tell us, "Molly is rarely seen without some kind of head wear, she usually wears some sort of beanie or headband. The hats and headbands are usually are usually childish (but still adorable) and look like some sort of animal." AHA. Yes, comic book nerds. These animal hats are rather childish though adorable, aren't they?

A sidebar curious thought to ponder: did Molly Hayes kick-start this trend? Get it? (No? Look at the picture again.) It's a good thing I find myself witty, huh?

But now picture the same cap on the head of say, Hillary Clinton (forget about the mack truck, baby ducks, and break dancer pose. Unless you want to picture the Secretary of State breakdancing w/baby ducks). Doesn't it seem kind of weird? And don't I sound horribly ageist and judgmental? But compare with a visual:

Ultimately, I believe the rule of cute applies here. Things that are cute on a baby? Generally not cute on an adult. Things that are cute on kids and even younger teens? Ditto. However, things that look cute on a grown up?  Three times as cute on a kid.  It is totally unfair, you cute kids.  There is just something about these caps that makes me feel a little uncomfortable, possibly even a little creeped out when I spot one on the head of an individual over the age of say, 16 (but I will give an until 18 window). But it's up you, cap wearers. Hey, totally your prerogative. They are a happy change from the usual winter dreary caps. You wear that smiling animal on your head with pride. But my ultimate verdict? I think I will leave the anthropomorphic outerwear to be modeled by kids.