1. DATING/GEOGRAPHY: An artist joined 20 online dating sites and then created a map called “A More Perfect Union” that maps the United States based on how we describe ourselves in profiles. City names are changed to reflect regional differentiators. New York is “Now,” Chicago is “Always,” Omaha is “Steak.”
2. COMEDY: Is Groupon supporting the next generation of Chicago comic masterminds? Smart Girls, Stupid Things writer Kate reports for WBEZ on the relationship between the Chicago mega-company and the city’s improv community.
3. FOOD: “America Feasts” is a photo series documenting America’s relationship with food, from drive-thrus to BBQs.
4. BOOKS: The Atlantic reports on why adults love apocalyptic young adult fiction. As someone who was recently obsessed with The Hunger Games, I can get on board.
5. THE FRENCH: I’m not usually a super fan of Maureen Dowd, but her column this week about French politics and sexual culture is pretty great. And the title, “Non means Non” isn’t half bad either.
6. EDUMUCATION: How relevant is student testing to measuring teacher performance? I don’t know. You probably don’t know. But here are a ton of smart people talking about it, which is pretty much about the most I can ask right now.
Related Post: Scraptastic links for Chelsea Handler, sex education, art vs. childsplay and other fun stuff.
Related Post: Scraptastic links for Charles Barkley, pubic hairs, prison food and tv scheduling.
Filed under Art, Books, Chicago, Education, Food, Hollywood, Media, Politics, Really Good Writing by Other People
Tagged as America, books, Chicago, comedy, education, fiction, food, France, Groupon, improv, Kate, maps, Maureen Dowd, New York, novels, NYT, Omaha, online dating, photography, romance, sexuality, Smart Girls Stupid Thingss, teachers, testing, The Atlantic, theater, WBEZ, young adult
1. WORDS: Coolest new Google gadget until the next cool Google gadget comes out. This one lets you track and compare the frequency of certain words in print from the 1800s to now. Addictive, beware.
