What started out as a creative demonstration has since turned into an all out competition judged on technical ability and artistic impression, with bonus points for unique costumes, dance moves, and other innovations. After the second place Des Plaines Public Library Cart Wheels team performed to a medley of songs from Grease, Ison remarked, “There was a move towards the beginning–a sort of thrust–worth several points.” And with each thrust, the competition also brings team members closer together, building camaraderie. (The winning team had to juggle practices with members from three different library branches.)

After an especially competitive year that almost ended in a tie, the judges awarded the Oak Park Library Warrior Librarians first prize for their viking-inspired performance, complete with sword play, horned helmets, and war cries.

During the competition, one of the moderators joked to any library school students in the audience, “It’s really not too late to change your major.” Judging by the applause from the overflowing crowd, if anything, this competition will likely boost library school enrollments, and reduce shushing.

Here are the videos of the top three teams:

First Place: The Oak Park Public Library Warrior Librarians (IL)

Second Place: Cart Wheels, Des Plaines Public Library (IL)

Third Place: Steel City Kings, University of Pittsburgh

Urho’s story evolved from a workplace joke to an international legend. Matteson’s coworker Gene McCavic wrote an ode in his honor in a “Finnish dialect.” In the original story, Urho rid Finland of poisonous frogs, but grasshoppers were an actual pest native to the country. Bemidji State College Professor Sulo Havumäki revised the myth to grasshoppers and helped to popularize it. His name is on the bottom of the plaque that graces the main Urho statue in Menahga, Minnesota. Every year, locals dressed as grapes and grasshoppers wearing purple and green reenact their hero’s triumph over the grasshoppers, and then they drink grape juice. Celebrations span Finnish communities around the globe,
including Ontario, Canada.

Urho’s legacy made it back to Finland with the establishment of St. Urho’s Pub in 1973. Grasshoppers have also returned.

See how they celebrate in Squaw Lake, Minnesota:

Mothers in Taiwan can now give birth in a Hello Kitty-themed hospital. Patients enjoy the iconic feline theme on everything from baby blankets, nurse uniforms, and a statue of the cat dressed like a doctor. Tsai Tsung-chi designed Hau Sheng Hospital with his mother, wife and daughter’s adorable cartoon cat in mind. [Image courtesy of Reuters.]

Meanwhile, other entrepreneurs in the restaurant industry have taken the hospital theme to different kinds of ventures. Just don’t expect your health insurance to cover any of them.

1. Hospitalis

A group of local doctors in Latvia created their own high-end restaurant, Hospitalis. Sitting on exam-room style furniture, diners in Latvia enjoy meals from test tubes carried by waitresses in nurse outfits. If you choke on your food, someone well-qualified should be able to assist you with the Heimlich maneuver.

2. Clinic Club

Relax in one of the pill-shaped rooms of Singapore’s Clinic Club. Artist Damien Hirst’s work inspired the decor and 15 of his pieces decorate the venue. (Hirst himself used to own a bar called “The Pharmacy” in London, which closed in 2003). Pull up a wheelchair and sip drinks from hanging plasma packs. You’ll have to check with the bartender for a hangover cure. [Image courtesy of lisajarrad.]

When electoral maps overwhelm and statistical margins of error confound, pollsters and political commentators struggle to measure the outcome of the presidential race. Here are a few alternatives for predicting the election.

1. Check the CafePress Meter

CafePress, the maker of customized t-shirts and other swag, has been tracking the sales of candidate paraphernalia since January. The candidates have inspired the public to design nearly 5.8 million custom items for sale on the site. Obama’s sales peaked in June, accounting for 77 percent of all sales through the website, and currently out-sell McCain. However, in mid-September, McCain merchandise outpaced Obama items. Throughout the campaign, Sarah Palin merchandise has almost always beaten Joe Biden’s sales numbers.

2. Gauge Their Soda Pop-ularity

Campaign supporters vote by the bottle at Jones Cola. The company is tracking the candidates’ soda pop-ularity at Campaign Cola 2008. Joe six-packs everywhere can choose between Yes We Can Cola and Pure McCain Cola, or even Ron Paul Revolution Cola and Capitol Hillary Cola if they’re nostalgic for the primaries. (As of Tuesday afternoon, Obama was ahead of McCain, 15,216 bottles to 3,726. Ron Paul’s soda-loving followers have put him in second place, with 6,606 bottles sold.)

3. Look to the Stars (We Don’t Mean Matt Damon or Jon Voight)

At least one astrologer predicts that Leo Obama will win over Virgo McCain. Another astrologer predicts an Obama win with a margin of at least 10 percent. Astrologer Raj Kumar Sharma noted that America is entering the age of Aquarius. Also, by the Chinese calendar, 2008 is the year of the Rat, the same as McCain’s birth year. Obama was born in the year of the Ox, and 2009 is also the year of the Ox.

4. Have a Facebook-Friend-Off

Facebook may not yet rule the world, but if it did, Obama would out-friend McCain more than 4 to 1. Of course, Facebook’s younger crowd might skew the results, but according to professor Christine Williams, the social networking edge can translate into a real-world boost of 3 percent.

5. Poll the Trick-or-Treaters

Voting with Halloween costumes instead of ballots, Obama would be ahead 55% to 45%. The costume website also breaks down the presidential mask popularity by state, in case you want to compare it to the electoral college. Mask predictions held true according to statistics back to 1980. They might be more accurate than current election polls as well.

6. Let the Redskins Decide

Legend has it that the football forecasts the winning party of the presidential election. Since 1936, every time the Washington Redskins win their final homegame before the presidential election, the incumbent party wins. This did not hold true in 2004 when the Redskins lost but incumbent Republican Bush won. Good news for Democrats—last night, the Pittsburgh Steelers marched into Washington and defeated the Skins 23-6.

See Also…

Dirty Campaigning in the Roaring Twenties: Hoover vs. Smith
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The Electoral College Survival Guide
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Buckle Up On Election Day (And 5 More Lessons Political Scientists Have Learned)
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Unusual “Get Out the Vote” Ads
*
The West Wing Quiz
*
A Saturday Night Live Political Quiz

With campaign attire in the spotlight, what apparel choices are candidates and their spouses making? Whether they buy the with their own money or campaign funds, here are some of the fashion trends among the political elite.

1. Kawasaki, the Japanese company that makes Sarah Palin’s iconic eyeglasses, received as many orders in 10 days for the frame as it does in a year.
2. Minnesota’s Pacificier baby boutique is also cashing in on the publicity about Trig Palin’s romper.
3. Sarah Palin debuted as the VP candidate in an Italian designer Valentino top, but her beaded earrings were handmade in Alaska by her mother-in-law.
4. Palin likes Patagonia outerwear, but the brand was quick to distance itself from the VP candidate. “Just wearing the clothing of an environmental company does not necessarily make someone an environmentalist,” said Patagonia rep Jen Rapp.

5. Daughter Piper Palin carries a Louis Vuitton purse, but it’s a fake.

6. John McCain sports Italian designer Ferragamo shoes. Meanwhile, Sarah Palin and Paris Hilton have the same taste in Naughty Monkey shoes.

7. Cindy McCain favors U.S./Dominican Republic designer Oscar De La Renta, which she and Laura Bush both wore at the convention.
8. Barack Obama’s preference for Hartmax suits was a boon to sales for the largest suit maker in the U.S.
9. Michelle Obama wore a blue dress by Chicago-native designer Maria Pinto to the convention, and an off-the rack Donna Ricco dress for her appearance on The View.
10. Joe Biden always wears a flag pin and his trademark grin.

Outer space muses struck terrestrial musicians long before any rockets left the earth. In addition to creating intergalactic song lyrics and spacey sound effects, a few artists pay tribute to space travelers and share their own extraterrestrial adventures through music. They may not all make it to stardom on this planet, but they share songs, instruments and tales of space with listeners.

Space Travel Tributes

Vostok 6 by Kurt Swinghammer
Singer-songwriter Kurt Swinghammer was only six years old when Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in outer space, but the voyage would later inspire him to create an album about her. He released a tribute album in 1999 and named it after her 1963 space mission. Vostok 6 traces Valentina Tereshkova’s journey and includes a love song about her courtship with fellow cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev. Swinghammer used dozens of instruments and effects, including guitars, an electric sitar and a mini-moog. Ballet dancer Peggy Baker choreographed a solo performance called Rocket Girl to music from the album.

Sounds of the Satellites by Laika
In 1957, Russian scientists trained Laika, a stray dog from Moscow, to become the first living creature to reach space on Sputnik 2. Hers was a one-way trip to space. Russia’s progress and Laika’s fate fueled propaganda on both sides of the Cold War.

In 1993, an American band named after the pooch (whose name means “barker” in Russian) released the album “Sounds of the Satellites.”

Band members chose the name because, “it made a good band name firstly because we liked the sound of the word and we liked the association with being ‘out there’ in terms of experimentation while at the same time being a warm furry organic thing.”

With members formerly of the Moonshake, the band created albums evoking space.

Laika has inspired other musical tributes as well, such as Finland’s Laika and the Cosmonauts. Also, Arcade Fire references the dog in the song “Neighborhood #2 (Laika).”

Meta Space Tribute

“Bowie in Space” by Flight of the Conchords

David Bowie may not have actually been to space, but to the New Zealand duo Flight of the Conchords, he may as well have. They sang a tribute to Bowie’s many albums full space travels.

Bowie sang the story of Major Tom in space for his 1969 album. In addition to journeying to space, the album also bridged Bowie’s singer-songwriter material to glam rock. In 1972, Bowie returned to space and traveled much farther for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

Space Adventures

Into Outerspace with Lucia Pamela in the Year 2000
Pamela was once featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not for memorizing 10,000 songs, but this is her only album released.

The 1969 album tells the story of her space adventures with lunar roosters, Eskimos and an outerspace wedding. She ran into some nuts on the moon too, specifically Mon’seur Walnut and his cashew and pistachio friends.

Neil Armstrong took a few steps on the moon’s surface in 1969. Meanwhile, Pamela recorded an album up there. She said the acoustics were poor up there, but nobody had to pay taxes. She also issued a coloring book to go along with the album.

Her time and space travel adventures may have inspired Conan O’Brien’s “In the Year 2000” sketches.

In honor of Lucia Pamela’s coloring book contest, British band Stereolab wrote the song “International Colouring Contest” for their own space-travel album Mars Audiac Quintet.

I Hear a New World: An Outer Space Musical Fantasy by Joe Meek
In the 1950s and early ’60s, the talented British record producer Joe Meek was in high demand at music studios. Wanting to be more experimental, he broke away from the labels to create his own sound. He collaborated with a number of innovative artists as an independent producer. (He is rumored to have worked with fellow space aficionado David Bowie).

In 1960, he recorded I Hear a New World with the “Blue Men,” a Hawaiian guitar, and a host of synthesizers and other instruments. He called it an attempt to “create a picture in music of what could be up there in space.”

This may or may not have been the first concept album ever recorded, but he was definitely ahead in the space race. However, with only 99 copies of the album produced, few people would have heard it.

In addition to outer space, he took an interest in the occult. Seven years after his album release, he shot his landlady and then himself. A documentary about his life began showing in film festivals this year.

Extraterrestrial Artist

Space is the Place by Sun Ra
While Lucia Pamela and Joe Meeks visited outer space, Sun Ra came from there. Experimental musician Sun Ra took on the name of the Egyptian Sun god and named his record label El Saturn. He was born in 1914 in the segregated south of Birmingham, Alabama, but he said he came from Saturn.

Known for elaborate costumes, unique instruments and parades during shows, Sun Ra and his Arkestra performed live for decades.

Sun Ra released dozens of cosmic travel albums. In 1974, he and the Arkestra also released a movie version of Space is the Place in which Sun Ra explored race issues on earth and the transcendent power of music. In the movie, as the Ambassador from the Intergalactic Regions of the Council for Outer Space, Sun Ra advocated for empowerment through peace and self-determination for blacks.

“I paint pictures of infinity with my music and that’s why a lot of people can’t understand it,” he once said. Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, but the Arkestra continues to tour. For more on Sun Ra, check out John Szwed’s biography of his life and music.

Dark Knight

1) Summer revenue abroad

The Mummy is burying Dark Knight in weekly box office sales outside the US. Oddly enough, if the summer Olympics had taken place in New York City instead of Beijing, Gotham City might have reigned worldwide.

2) New Zealand’s top spot

There’s simply no budging Frodo and friends from holding onto the opening weekend record in the country where the Lord of the Rings series was filmed. The country was so cuckoo for Tolkien that it temporarily renamed the capital city of Wellington as Middle Earth.

3) Top domestic revenue

(At least, not yet.) Titanic still reigns as the top grossing movie of all time in the US, breaking the $600 million mark. While Dark Knight is certainly moving up the chart, in the past ten years, no movie has come close to sinking this ship’s record.

4) Video game success

Spider-man 3, Shrek 3 and other top movies released video games at the same time that they hit the theaters.  So far, Dark Knight hasn’t issued a video game version, and with it, has lost as much as $100 million in revenue.

5) Most expensive movie

In recent years, Spider-Man 3 clocked in at $258 million in production costs. If you adjust for inflation, 1963’s $44 million Cleopatra would have cost nearly $300 million. By that measure, Dark Knight seems like a bargain at an estimated $185 million.

6) Most Prince-ly soundtrack

While Prince recorded one of the two soundtracks for the 1989’s Batman, and appeared in music videos, including Batdance and Partyman, he was noticeably absent from the new movie’s soundtrack. Sorry, Dark Knight!

As Barack Obama and John McCain mull over their vice-presidential picks, they might consider things like experience and issues, when maybe they should focus on names.

Taking a lesson from the New York State senate and congressional campaigns, here are a few names of actual candidates and how the elections turned out for them.

10 (OK… 15) Politicians With “Interesting” Names

Ten Losers:
1. James A. Tranquill
2. Burton G. Trick
3. Francisco Spies
4. Reginald Callus
5. Ryan J. Confusione
6. Hillard Boss
7. Adrienne Flipse
8. Penny Arcade
9. Roger Junk
10. Michael Siesta

And Five Winners:
1. John Flack
2. Peter G. Crummey
3. Norman Guile
4. Floyd H. Flake
5. George H. Winner, Jr. (it turns out that you can be a born winner)

1. Authentic desk noises

Virtual Stapler has a gallery of the office essentials and three on-screen versions to choose from. Take a break from clicking and read some stapler poetry.

2. For those packing supply sounds

Pop as much bubble wrap as you want at Virtual Bubble Wrap.  The site explains the anatomy of a sheet of bubble wrap, and for those with a competitive edge, you can time your popping performance.

3. For the eavesdropping

Think your coworkers say the strangest things? Submit quotable moments and see what office workers everywhere are listening to at Overheard in the Office.

4. For the office buffoonery

Before Ricky Gervais was clowning it up on The Office, comedian Rick Davis was already a professional office prankster. He swallows letter openers, sends endless faxes, creates rubber band illusions and more. Strange as it may be, he might actually get paid to do these tricks.

5. For the rage

Do all the evil things to your desk you only dreamed of in the Cubicle Freakout game. Let all that frustration out, but be sure to turn the speakers down if you are in an actual office.

6. For the passive-aggressive doodling

Cartoonist Shane Johnson illustrates his musings on life in a cubicle. The office humor and materials (post-it notes, envelopes, highlighters, etc.) are authentic.

7. For some Speadsheet Artistry

Microsoft Excel facilitates number and list churning, but it has also been an artistic medium for Danielle Aubert. Let it inspire your own creativity (or procrastination) and maybe you too can exhibit your masterpieces.

Historians Benardo and Weiss write in their book Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names that, “Street names function as a barometer of social values at a given time, and as such have historical significance that goes beyond a name.”

That’s exactly why sometimes cities have to undo their street renamings. In Brooklyn, Corbin Place was named after Austin Corbin who was a longtime Brooklyn developer and the president of the Long Island Rail Road for fifteen years. Corbin was also a member of the American Society for the Suppression of Jews and once said “If this is a free country, why can’t we be free of the Jews?”Today, many Jews reside on Corbin Avenue, and some rabbis consider the street’s thriving Jewish community to be the best revenge. To cover over Austin Corbin’s reputation without confusing pedestrians or drivers, residents worked to name the street after another famous Corbin—Revolutionary War heroine Margaret Corbin. The Corbin exchange has enabled locals to revise history without forcing residents to change their addresses.

Ain’t no Sonshine

New street renamings also incite protests. In 2007, a four-block stretch of Gates Avenue divided the New York City Council. The street would have been named after Sonny Carson, a Korean War veteran and longtime community activist in Brooklyn.

He seemed like a clear case for the honorary designation, but he was also known for making racist comments, boycotting Korean grocery stores and serving time for a kidnapping charge. When accused of being anti-Semitic, he said, “I’m anti-white. Don’t just limit me to a little group of people.”

While most street naming proposals are merely rubber-stamped by the time they get to the city council floor, Sonny Carson Avenue sparked public arguments among council members was removed from the legislation.

Bucking Popular Opinion

Racism, though, isn’t the street activists’ only battle call. A Chicago proposal to rename a street after Hugh Hefner incited protests, but the 2000 City Council proceeded with honoring the Playboy magazine founder with a street that sounds like a dating manual: the Hugh Hefner Way.
Beyond politics, renamed street can be hazardous. When a segment of Seventh Avenue was renamed (Christopher) Columbus Avenue, upstate New York residents were outraged. The address change made it difficult for deliveries, contractors and even emergency service vehicles to find their homes. Regardless of their opinions of Christopher Columbus, locals wanted their street to have a number. Whether a UPS truck trying to deliver shoes or a fifteenth century explorer trying to find India, Columbus has long been associated with getting lost.

Rather than deal with official political channels, Miss Middagh of 19th century Brooklyn Heights took street names into her own hands. She didn’t like her neighbors so she ripped down the street signs bearing their names. In their places, she put up Cranberry, Orange, Pineapple, Poplar and Willow street signs. The city took her signs down, but gave up after she put the signs back up.  Her street names of choice remain today.

–Other controversies:

• After a 37-year-long campaign, Prague agreed to rename the city’s center Kafka Square, though many contend that the author would have hated to be a square.

• In 2006, the renaming of a block after Fred Hampton started a controversy in Chicago. In 1969, Hampton was drugged by an FBI agent and killed by police in a raid on Black Panther headquarters. The Chicago police opposed “Chairman Fred Hampton Way” citing the leader’s advocacy for violence against police.

• At the turn of the 19th century, merchants in downtown Manhattan appealed to the city to rename the Bowery.  They were sick of the seedy connotations the name carried, but officials refused.  The government said visiting soldiers and sailors would get lost while looking for the Bowery and that such confusion could impair the efficiency of the army and navy.

• Portland, Oregon, abandoned a Cesar Chavez street renaming plan.

• Rome, Italy, wrestled over naming a street after a former mayor and known Fascist.

• And perhaps a corner that deserves to be renamed? The New York junction of Seaman and Cumming, which has cars full of junior high students guffawing every day.