OF A GOLDEN AGE

My friend Emily (of the Petit Four) managed to shut the case on one of our great personal mysteries when she traced from the blog Orangette to its progenitor Molly’s new restaurant Delancey. Seeing the “designed by” tag in the corner, she learned the site was the work of Sam T. Schick, our former editor-in-chief and object of great collective fascination.

More than someone I find interesting, Schick is responsible for events that changed my life — namely, when I was 17 and a freshman and a dutiful head-nodding staff writer, he pulled me up when someone quit and installed me in her place. I stayed on staff as the news editor for two years then ran the paper myself for two more, leaving reluctantly when I graduated and fearing for is future well being. I began as someone who could write and ended up becoming an insatiable aesthete with a particular eye and deep personal investment in whatever I do. Sometimes my coworkers or friends don’t understand why I have to spend the extra time to really love the way something looks, why I actually use all those features Microsoft Word offers to change the line height or indents. In turn, I have no idea how those people don’t see the same way.

Schick now operates Sam T. Schick & Wandering Works (what a great name) and seems to be making good for himself, which is so pleasing. He left school and disappeared, and we heard bits and pieces that usually were unsubstantiated. In the website for Wandering Works, I see the same sparse, simple layout that he valued when he trained me at the paper, the same love of negative space, an overall uncluttered look, and serifs. It’s satisfying.

In honor of the mostly-dead, great website 5ives, here are some lists.

Five poets I truly love:
1. Charles Bukowski
2. Pablo Neruda
3. Edna St Vincent Millay
4. e e cummings
5. Stephen Dobyns

Five favorite rearrangements of my name:
1. Leronica
2. Cornelia
3. A Corn Lie (the title of my tell-all expose of farm lobbies — originally An Inconvenient Corn)
4. Ion Clear (my successful line of cleaning products, not yet invented)
5. Lo, carnie!

Five bands or performers that remind me of important males from my past:
1. Saves the Day
2. The Album Leaf
3. Blackalicious
4. Songs: Ohia
5. Nine Inch Nails

Five paperback authors I’ve read obsessively at some point:
1. Michael Crichton
2. Stephen King
3. Sue Grafton
4. Brian Jacques
5. John Grisham

Five pastimes I am very into:
1. Scrabble
2. Doodling
3. Knitting
4. Underlining in books
5. Xacto-knife crafting

Five foods that make me really sick:
1. Corn (regular or popped)
2. Milk, ice cream, cream sauce
3. Bananas
4. Onions
5. Citrus fruits

Abraham Lincoln’s most famous speech is the Gettysburg Address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

And here, from the Caustic Cover Critic, this preview of Penguin’s latest set of Great Ideas volumes:

What a magnificent design. The others in the Great Ideas series are equally compelling.

A fascinating acquaintance and Beloit College classmate now works at a Heartland Alliance office a few doors down from my office. He was sitting in the patio area of our local independent fair-trade coffee shop.

Nonprofit Heartland Alliance offers a variety of services at various Chicago locations, including very low-cost healthcare, life skills education, and help for those transitioning from or on the brink of homelessness. Beloit College is some kind of wonderful do-gooder factory, as I can’t even count the number of people I know who’ve gone to work at nonprofits, in higher ed, teaching English overseas, and so forth.

My friend Scott is in India taking samples for his geology studies. He wrote a great post on the challenges of traveling as a Korean-American instead of a Korean:

Your average Indian or Ladakhi in Ladakh doesn’t really grasp the concept that one third of the population of the United States are not white, in the classic sense. This says a little about Indian education and a lot about the type of Americans that travel to India (read: Lily-white). And aside from said Lily-white Americans, absolutely no one correctly guesses my country of origin. Instead, what I get are Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and once (inexplicably) Thailand. Your stereotypical Asian tourists–herds, cameras, broken English–are here in force. Despite the fact that I’m travelling alone and speak pretty damn good English, I’m inevitably lumped in with the real Asians.

And to reinforce my friend Kelly’s previously discussed decision to only carry on luggage for a trip to Italy, Goldblog reports on a TSA experiment wherein Delta employees five-finger-discounted valuable items from the TSA’s planted luggage:

The two 20-somethings have been charged with grand larceny, possession of stolen property and falsifying business records — for some reason, they thought it would be effective to swap luggage tags in attempt to throw everyone off — and now face up to four years in prison if convicted.

Hell, and that was on a domestic flight!

From the Coco Cake Cupcakes blog, a 7-Eleven (on, of course, 7/11) themed wedding with cupcakes to match:

(Photo from Coco Cake Cupcakes blog.)

Lyndsay reports the wedding featured:

Bright citrus colours in green, orange and yellow, a full 5 cent candy bar, burger station, NACHO CHEESE FOUNTAIN, ice cream gelato bar, and oodles of vibrant, candy-colour frosted Coco Cake cupcakes . . .

Sounds like a winner to me. If you click through to the post you’ll see the bride chose white for her dress. Good thing, since 7-Eleven’s color scheme is not exactly complexion-flattering.

After reading The Postman (see previous post) and thinking on which items I’d include if I carried a single pack’s worth, exactly such a rumination fell into my lap from internetland: My friend Kelly and her husband Jeff are traveling to Italy soon. Kelly’s items fit into one carry-on suitcase and Jeff’s fit into a backpack.

And in case shoelaces are your bag, but especially if they’re not, here are 33 ways to lace them up, including bullet points on the advantages and disadvantages of each. Next time you see me I’ll be hypnotized by my own Star of David arrangement.

I haven’t been sleeping much, or well, for reasons unclear. The weather finally fell over into summer here so that could have something to do with it; I’ve started swimming again, but this week my work schedule is backwards and my body may just be screwed up. Either way, I don’t love this.

My new favorite late-night time killer is this Flash game on FreeArcade called Globs. (The site is loaded with ads and most of them have soundtracks, be forewarned.)

Also, I’m intrigued by TotalNetGuard, a Christian-themed ISP whose purpose is to block whatever scale of objectionable material you choose. Obviously I’m not religious and this isn’t a product marketed to me, but the internet is full of unavoidable inappropriate stuff. I like that people can make an informed decision to avoid what they don’t want coming into their homes.

I love the YouTube video embedded in Organic’s post If Harry Potter Did Packaging Design. It is also appealing on a subliminal level to any child who ever loved the box better than the gift.

Here’s an interesting microcause for the day: Cure CVS Now, an organization hoping to unlock CVS’s condom cases across America or, as the organization accuses, only in neighborhoods with more people of color. Ouch. CCN suggests that CVS is stigmatizing condom use by making people ask to access them.

At the Walgreens in my diverse neighborhood plenty of things are locked up, including: fancy razorblades, deodorant, Sudafed of course, tooth whitening systems, and baby formula. How do you counter a company’s attempt to stop people from shoplifting the most frequently shoplifted items? Is that a matter of civil equality after all?

To be honest, I’d rather the 14- or 15-year-olds who want to be sexually active, or ANYONE who can’t afford birth control, just shoplift the damn condoms and not have unwanted babies. Hell, if people are stealing the condoms, maybe each CVS should spend a little money every month and buy a huge sack of condoms from Planned Parenthood or a local AIDS prevention organization or something, then sell them to customers for ten cents or a quarter.