Sometimes it seems surreal that we’re still within 100 years of the female right to vote. Or that the amendment just prior established Prohibition, an era that saw no relief until FDR swooped in. He legalized beer and wine just 9 days into office–a holdover until the 21st Amendment was ratified in December of ‘33. The Volstead Act, which enforced the dry-out-America amendment, banned the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”–but never addressed possession. Which made for some interesting methods of indulgence…As detailed in Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City, by Michael A. Lerner, bars simply morphed into clubs with hefty cover charges and–voila!–free drinks. He describes how whiskey was obscured inside chocolate bunnies and rye in olive oil tins, not to mention in coconut shells and garden hoses! And in a valiant attempt to bypass producing anything overtly fermented, vineyards in CA came up with an unfermented grape concentrate called Vine-Glo, which promised that “although its juices were unfermented when sold to a customer…the product would come up to the standard of any pre-War wine.” Oh the sly troubadours of the Jazz Age…

Apparently, our little print magazine made it into the Trib’s 50 Favorite Magazines list. Woo-hoo! And sure, while we’re happy about the ranking, the real reason we’ve been doing backflips is that this makes our job infinitely easier. Up until now, we were still debating whether or not to put the paper on our yearly list of Top 30 Favorite Chicago-based Newspapers, but after seeing this poll, they’re definitely making the cut! (Sorry, Windy City Community News and Stuff.) Of course, there is a little cloud to this silver lining. While we love the fact that they like us, we’re a little concerned that they also like Us, as in the magazine. Oh well, I’m sure in time we’ll learn to forgive.
Thanks for the article tip, Toby.

Here’s the stat of the day: “An average worker’s functioning IQ falls ten points when distracted by ringing telephones and incoming emails. This drop in IQ is more than double the four-point drop seen following studies on the impact of smoking marijuana.” [Via IT Sneak]

In an effort to fight headspace invaders like instant messages, BlackBerry devices and invitations to joined your network on LinkedIn, I’ve found the ultimate relaxation tool: Bob Ross videos on YouTube.

If you’re not familiar with Bob Ross, read Mangesh’s backgrounder from December. If you want to hear his soothing voice – Bob Ross’ voice, not Mango’s – watch the videos below. I just let these play in another browser window.

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No Tuesday Turnip today folks, sorry; I’m still Internet-less here on jury duty. So here’s a little juror pop-quiz for you to fill the void:

1) How many jurors must agree in order to reach a verdict in a civil case?
2) How many jurors must agree in a criminal case?
3) Every citizen has the responsibility and civic obligation to serve on jury duty except….?
4) The law allows the judges to excuse a juror if anything in his/her background indicates that he/she may not be able to be impartial. This is called a _______ challenge.
5) Which one of the following is not considered evidence in a trial:

a) A testimony from a witness
b) A piece of clothing
c) A photo
d) A statement by an attorney
e) A fingerprint
f) a and d
g) a, d and e

Answers after the jump…

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Andy Hertzfeld’s Folklore.org is a sort of historical blog, documenting the development of the original Macintosh computer.

For Mac geeks and computer people in general, it’s a fascinating look into a very special time in computer history — after the success of the Apple II, Steve Jobs and crew at Apple were attempting to create the next big thing. After releasing the Apple Lisa, which was a flop primarily due to its $9,995 price tag, Apple needed a hit. The Mac was a home run (despite its minimal memory, small screen, and other limitations), and Folklore.org documents the minutiae of its development. The stories are written by the team members themselves, including insight about the famous Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field.

Here’s a sample from the story It’s the Moustache That Matters:

Burrell started thinking about what it would take to get promoted. It obviously wasn’t a matter of talent or technical skill, since he was already far more accomplished in that regard than most of the other hardware engineers. It wasn’t a matter of working harder, since Burrell already worked harder and was more productive than most of the others. Finally, he noticed something that most of the other engineers had in common that he was lacking: they all had fairly prominent moustaches. And the engineering managers tended to have even bigger moustaches. Tom Whitney, the engineering VP, had the largest moustache of all.

So Burrell immediately started growing his own moustache. It took around a month or so for it to come in fully, but finally he pronounced it complete. And sure enough, that very afternoon, he was called into Tom Whitney’s office and told that he was promoted to “member of technical staff” as a full-fledged engineer.

Read more at Folklore.org – be sure to check out the comments at the bottom of each page.

As an admitted bubble wrap enthusiast, and someone who’s wasted a good portion of his youth delighting in that pop-pop-pop sound, I was thrilled to stumble into a few bubble wrap links and stories this week. Neatorama is reporting that the Japanese electronic company Bandai is releasing a bubble wrap-style keychain called PuchiPuchi (which is also supposedly the word that Japanese use for bubble wrap, meaning “little pops”). The constantly replenishing electronic toy is designed to mimic the sound and feel of bubble wrap, though it does come with some added pleasure. Every 100 pops you get a surprise sound effect (a barking dog, door chime, sexy voice, fart sound, etc) intended to induce smiles. As reported, the slogan sums it up: “Anytime, anywhere, forever… you can PuchiPuchi.” Indeed.

In any case, all this puchipuchi talk made me curious about the origins of the wonder wrap, so I got a staffer to look it up. Here’s what we found out:

BURSTING THE BUBBLE WRAP (How IBM Saved Bad Wallpaper)
Before 1957, packages were stuffed with curled wood shavings, wadded pieces of paper, corrugated cardboard, and stale popcorn. Thankfully, two young engineers from New Jersey, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes, set out to make a name for themselves with a snazzy new product for the mid-century jet age. Specifically, they wanted to make plastic wallpaper. Unfortunately, when they ironed two pieces of plastic together, they ended up with air-filled pockmarks. More unfortunately, nobody wanted to put this stuff on their walls. Trying to salvage some lemonade from their lemons, Fielding and Chavannes retrenched, pitching their new material as insulation for greenhouses. No takers there either. Finally, after several years, the duo realized that their cushy plastic sheets would make gret packing material for a high-tech new gadget made by one International Business Machine Corporation—the computer. IBM liked the stuff, and it’s been delighting shipping companies (and the young, young-at-heart and bored) ever since.

Great story, right? Well, if you’re tired of all this bubble wrap talk, and looking for immediate (virtual) satisfaction, be sure to click here.

They might not win — heck, getting on the ballot is a victory for these candidates — but third-party presidential hopefuls are part of what keep America’s election cycle interesting. No, we’re not talking about the Greens, Libertarians or even the Constitution Party (fronting such luminaries as Jim Gilchrist, founder of the home-grown border patrol Minutemen Project). Today we’re more interested in the really little guys, like Jonathon “The Impaler” Sharkey, sole candidate from the Vampires, Witches and Pagans party. A Satanic vampire running on an “impale criminals” platform, perhaps the most surprising thing about him is that he’s run for office several times before — including once as a Republican in Florida. (His name back then? Rocky “Hurricane” Flash. He lost, perhaps because Floridians are a little touchy about the whole hurricane thing.) Here’s a little about what he stands for, in his own words:

“I have a 13 point plan that includes better benefits for farmers and veterans. I will also give more funding to our school system and fix the pot holes on our city streets. Not to mention the FACT that I will personally impale any and all wrong doers in the steps of the Governor’s mansion. If you are a child molester, rapist, drug dealer or terrorist you will be IMPALED!”

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I started this post three weeks ago, on the way back from a whirlwind weekend in Park City, Utah. If you’re looking for stuff to do in the Beehive State, a better source of suggestions came from readers in response to my initial entry, “When in Utah…” For now, let me offer a few tidbits picked up on my journey, live on tape delay.

If you’re reading this near the Wyoming-South Dakota border, I’m 37,000 feet above your head. My left foot is tapping furiously to Rick Allen’s contagious and odds-defying drumbeat from Def Leppard’s “Let’s Get Rocked.” This is one of 1,600 songs made available to me through Delta’s in-flight entertainment system.*

This foot tapping was not a problem until the in-flight beverage service placed a Coke precariously close to my trusty iBook. I’m very worried about a spill and the subsequent stickiness.

Let me pause to pound my soda.

This rendition of “Let’s Get Rocked” is from Rock of Ages, a Def Leppard anthology I didn’t know existed. My last Def Leppard CD was Adrenalize, off which “Let’s Get Rocked” was the first single. They played this number at A Concert for Life, the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute – a strange choice for an AIDS benefit unless you think “rocked” means “educated on the finer points of HIV transmission.”

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Memphis is where the Mississippi River meets the Deep South. The city has a rich musical history, full of blues, rockabilly, gospel, and rock and roll. And the landmarks of this history are yours to enjoy. If you like, you can get in the proper mood with a song.

WDIA went on the air in Memphis in 1947. By 1949, it became the first US radio station to be programmed by and for African-Americans. Former deejays include Rufus Thomas and B.B. King, and Carla Thomas and Isaac Hayes performed live on the air. You can see it on Union Avenue.

Beale Street is the home of The Blues in Memphis. Between the statue of W.C. Handy, Father of the Blues on one end and the statue of Elvis on the other end, Beale Street is crammed with music clubs such as B.B. King’s original Blues Club, and street musicians busking for tourist dollars.

More Memphis music landmarks, after the jump.
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Trader Joe’s recently peddled me a very attractive assortment of vitamin supplements, and in each self-contained valentine of pills were all the usual suspects reassuringly packaged together. The tiny ruby of the group, I thought, had to be something special, and indeed it was an old vitamin fave: Vitamin A. As a nearly legally blind person (but lively & w/excellent hearing!), I’ve always been after any talisman claiming to benefit one’s eyes–even though I wasn’t sure how much use I’d be able to get out of “improved night vision.” A few weeks into my newly supplemented diet, I became intensely interested in the origin of my alphabet of pills. I learned that the vitamins were named according to the order in which they were discovered–okay, makes sense. But then I learned about how the Danish got involved and invented their own nomenclature rationale (thanks, ThinkQuest):

The first vitamins were discovered and named in alphabetical order, until a Danish researcher discovered and named vitamin K. He named it after the Danish word for clotting, Koagulation, because vitamin K helps the blood to clot. Meanwhile scientists had found that what they thought was a single vitamin B was really a group of vitamins that are usually found together in the same foods. So numbers were attached to the B. By this time, the last B vitamins were discovered and the system of letter naming was out of style. Thus, some of the B vitamins are called only by their chemical names.