Photo via Doobybrain
Remember those childhood trips to Pizza Hut -- that greasy pizza justified by the fact that you were picking up a Book It! star? Those hologram buttons proudly displayed on your Jansport? How many of you thought that this program was long gone, that the program dissolved when buttons went out of style and the Boxcar Children stopped going on adventures?
Well, believe it or not, the Boxcar Children are still going on adventures and the Book It! program is still thriving. This week marks the 23rd year of National Young Readers’ Week -- an event co-founded by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. That’s right -- stuffed crust meets Washington, D.C.
The Book It! program has evolved a bit since the mid-80s -- minutes and books are logged online and this year, in addition to the Pizza Hut sponsorship, Book It! is partnered with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Today’s Book It! program even features a lemur named Dewey who teaches card-holding young readers how to utilize their library.
Visit the Book It! website to learn more, and relive a bit of your childhood.
Acne-ridden and braces-clad, my nerdy high school self was always the one to ask the guy to Prom. And Homecoming. And Winter Formal. But every March, my girl-asks-out-the-guy pattern was no longer perceived as odd and was adopted by every girl in school. The Sadie Hawkins Dance. The stuff of Relient K songs. And proposals on Leap Day. But this holiday -- yes, holiday -- is actually meant to take place in the middle of November.
Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of Hekzebiah Hawkins -- one of Dogpatch’s earliest settlers in Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner. (I know, I know. You all thought I was giving you an actual history lesson.) Described as the “homeliest gal in all them hills,” Sadie was still a spinster at 35 (gasp!) when her father rounded up all the unmarried men in Dogpatch, challenging them to a foot race. The men would be given a head-start before Sadie started running. Whichever man she caught would have to marry Sadie.
Though the original race took place on November 15, 1937, the spinsters of Dogpatch loved this idea so much, they banded together to make Sadie Hawkins day an annual event, celebrated every year on the Saturday following November 9.
So ladies, this November 10th go run after a guy in an empty field. Or just ask a fella to dinner.
Image via Must Read Faster
Have you ever tried to hug a cat? I'm talking really hug and squeeze one. It’s damn near impossible. These feline-friendly authors have at the very least attempted to give their kitty a nuzzle.
As a writer, it’s always interesting to see how Hollywood portrays our kind. I still haven’t seen a movie that shows a writer in her pajamas at three in the afternoon with a sink full of dirty dishes, but there’s hope.
Where do all of these fictional writers get such excellent outfits?
Unforgivable (now playing - limited release) This film, originally released in Belgium last summer, tells the story of a crime writer who moves to an island in Venice. In a cinematic meet-cute, the writer falls in love with his real estate agent and agrees to purchase this writing oasis on one condition: that she also moves in.
The romance takes a dark turn when the author hires someone to follow his new wife, but doesn’t he look great in that flannel?
Lila, Lila (now playing - limited release) Released in Germany in 2009, this romantic comedy focuses on an unassuming waiter named David who falls for Marie -- who claims to fall for writers. David is defeated, until he purchases a secondhand end-table at a flea market and finds a manuscript hidden in its drawer. Passing off the novel as his own, David woos Marie and the two fall in love. But complications arise when Marie secretly submits the manuscript to a publisher and David unknowingly becomes a best-selling author.
Could someone please tell me where these people are who fall for writers? And grab me one of those excellent suit jackets while you’re at it.
Photo by Nadia Hatoum
Summers at the movies evoke images of action flicks with lots of explosions. But bookworms like me won’t feel left out as they retreat to the cool air conditioning of the theater. Here are four summer blockbusters you won’t want to miss. And I won’t even make you read the book first.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (Now Playing) Seth Grahame-Smith adapted his novel of the same name for this movie that imagines our 16th President’s secret vampire hunter identity. The majority of the film takes place in the Civil War era, where another war wages - this one against the race of vampires.
Both the film and the novel seek to explain the early death of William Wallace Lincoln as an attack from the undead. The film’s star Benjamin Walker seems to be making a career of portraying presidents. Walker played Andrew Jackson in the Broadway musical “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” last season.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting (Now Playing) Based on the popular pregnancy book of the same name, What to Expect When You’re Expecting follows five couples at various stages in their pregnancies. This comedy offers a lighthearted take on the joys and pains of pregnancy, using acquaintances and associations to weave together the various story lines of these five couples.
Screenwriter Heather Hach is no stranger to adaptations. Hach wrote the script for the 2003 remake of Freaky Friday and the book for the Broadway musical “Legally Blonde.”
Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein with their poodle
Just when you thought the holidays couldn’t get any weirder, along comes Take Your Dog to Work Day.
This holiday was first celebrated in 1999 to promote pet adoption from local shelters and humane societies. Employers are encouraged to open their offices to four-legged friends on this one special day.
But these authors? They celebrated Take Your Dog to Work Day every day.
Ann Patchett makes her home in her hometown of Nashville with her husband and their dog, Rose. A self-proclaimed late-in-life dog owner, Patchett equates her relationship with the mutt to falling in love.
“I could hardly sleep at night for watching her sleep. She was small and white; maybe a cross between a Jack Russell and a Chihuahua, without the deep neuroses of either breed. If shedding was an Olympic sport, she would have brought home the gold. I was besotted.”
