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5 Questions: Flippin' Flanders

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Hopefully, I can get a ruling.

There are two kinds of people. Those who don't take issue with this post's title, and those now compelled to send me hate mail. Five years ago, I had no idea the second camp existed. Setting out on a quest for grammar excellence, I had picked up a book called Woe Is I. Subtitled "The Grammarphobe's Guide To Better English In Plain English," it's the work of Patricia T. O'Connor, who honed her skills as editor of The New York Times Book Review. This would be my grammar bible, O'Connor's word gospel.... READ ON

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Those sneaky credit card companies

I found this map on Pennylicious (a terrific blog about money). It's a really interesting look at where the top 10 credit card issuers are chartered - states with the weakest limits on interest rates. 5 of the states don't even have limits. And even if you live in a state that has a strict limit on interest rates, if the bank you use is not based in that state, the limit does not affect that company. National banks only have to follow the limits of the state in which they are chartered.... READ ON

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How to Swear Like an Old Prospector

Now that swearing like a pirate has jumped the shark, isn't it time we exhumed another subgenre of anachronistic curse words? To save us all from another "scurvy dogs" joke -- one more and I will walk the bloody plank -- I humbly propose replacing all naughty pirate jargon with crusty old-prospector talk, which is just as colorful, if not more expletive-laced. But this time, let's be smart about it -- nerdy, even -- and figure out from whence they came before we start throwing them around willy-nilly.... READ ON

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Contest: Reduce idiocy, one fact at a time!

Oh, what troubled times we live in: our public officials can't pronounce "nuclear" and don't know what the Internet is, our youths confuse their senators with members of Bon Jovi, our celebrities are... well... you get the point. So this week, and from now on, we're making it our mission to reduce idiocy -- and we need your help! To win this week's prize (a fabulous tool for cutting down on ignorance if ever there was one), send us the most egregious example of idiocy you've heard lately -- the biggest,... READ ON

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The Sobol Award

If you haven't heard of it, that's about to change. Arguably the hottest news event in the literary world, the Sobol Award, like other literary awards, will be given out to a bunch of different authors this year "“ the difference here being that unlike the Pulitzer Prize or the National Book Award, the winners of the Sobol Award will be unpublished novelists who will have coughed up $85 big ones (gasp) to enter a contest (double-gasp). Part of the reason why this award/contest is being discussed... READ ON

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Greg Veis, YouTube Hunter: Michel Gondry-stravaganza!

This Friday, in the big, coastal cities that are privy to such things, a new film called The Science of Sleep will be released. It's directed by Michel Gondry, whose previous credits include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and a boatload of music videos and advertisements. YouTube Hunter doesn't throw this term around lightly, but the man is a genius. Many nights in Hunter HQs have ended, ceremoniously, with a viewing of his Director's Label DVD. And let it be known... READ ON

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UFO sighting -- for real!

Astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis, due to come home tomorrow, have apparently spotted an alien flying saucer unidentified flying object: NASA engineers are checking into a baffling sight of a mystery object below the shuttle that mission control spotted at about 2:45 a.m EDT Tuesday with a video camera in the shuttle's cargo bay. The object, which circled the Earth in the same orbit as the shuttle and is of undetermined size, probably came out of the shuttle's cargo bay because some jets had just... READ ON

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Dozens of New Species and a Walking Shark?!

MSNBC is reporting today that "Dozens of fish, shrimp and coral species, including two new types of a shark that walks on its fins, have been discovered in waters off New Guinea in the South Pacific, conservationists announced Monday." And while I'm definitely fascinated to read and see more about the findings, and how environmentalists are going to try and protect the so-called "species factory" along the New Guinea coast from fishermen, I'd be most interested in... READ ON

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Sea Turtles almost as bad as spinach

If you thought the recent E. Coli spinach scare was terrifying, get a load of what a bowl of sea turtle can do to you. According to New Scientist magazine (easily my favorite science source around), US and Mexican researchers have documented quite a few health risks associated with eating the slow-moving beasts, including salmonella. Additionally, because the turtles live so long, their bodies accumulate high levels of marine toxins and pesticides, and large amounts of metals like cadmium and mercury (up... READ ON