Well Played, Twin Cities!

Smoking ban workaround in bars: Hold "theater nights" - Boing Boing: "The Star Tribune reports that dozens of bars in the Twin Cities are holding 'theater nights' and declaring everyone in the bar to be an actor. By law, performers are allowed to smoke during theatrical performances. (The law in California is similar. I once saw Art Spiegelman give his presentation about the history of comic books and he chained-smoked his way through it.)"

Via Alas! A Blog

A Stair With a View

Architecture: Stairs Bookcase Actually Makes Me Want to Move to London Me, too.

Okay, everything makes me want to live in London, except my family.

Via Cville Words

How It Works

I think I love XKCD


Via Shapely Prose

Give It Away

Tor Books is giving away freebies.

Watch the Skies:

"Once you register, you'll receive our newsletter and a link to download a digital book. And you'll receive a link to another new book every week."

Hat tip to John Scalzi

Stuff That Makes Me Cackle

(Another entertaining food-company name, which I similarly encountered walking to work many years ago, is the Puritan Ice Cream Company. That may not turn a native New Englander's head, but it sure sounded odd to this Midwesterner. I started a contest with some of my friends come up with the best Puritan ice cream flavors--I forget all of them, but some of the better entries were Straight & Narrow Rocky Road, Chocolate Mather, Sorbet in the Hands of an Angry God, and of course Preachers & Cream.)

Also, I just read Miss Conduct's bio, and realized she's married to Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes. I bet they're a fun couple.

On a related note, I managed to make the Spouse snort his german chocolate pie tonight. I was simply pointing out that the light glancing off the WolfOwl's blue Jello made it gleam the same color as her headband. It's a good day when I make someone else snort at dinner. And a full blown spit take is bliss.