Zappin' Cancer

I love this:

A 9-year-old kid in Marin County, California has leukemia. His social worker (yay, social workers!) at UCSF Medical Center calls the Make-a-Wish Foundation on his behalf, and the foundation agrees to grant the kid a wish. What the kid wants more than anything else is to design a video game for other cancer-fighting kids, where the protagonist battles cancer cells and those nasty treatment side effects. A software engineer from LucasArts volunteers his time to collaborate with the kid and together they create a kick-butt computer game.

Ben's Game is available for free download from the Make-a-Wish Foundations' Web site. What I'd love to see is a version of the game for grownups--perhaps a more graphic first-person shooter where you can mow down tumors with an AK-47. Doctors say a positive outlook is an important part of cancer treatment, and some even advise visualizing the destruction of cancer cells as part of that approach. Take that, you dang mutating cells!

Teatime

Tea Swap is an international group of women who talk about teas, maintain a tea-related blog, and periodically trade their favorite brewable blends in a mailed swap. I hardly remember what sequence of links initially took me to the Tea Swap Web site, but now I can't imagine not being a part of this fabulous international group of ladies who share my love of snail mail, surprises, and of course, tea.

I recently participated in my first swap. [Far-away swapettes, beware, possible spolier ahead!] I sent Zhena's Gypsy Teas' Lemon Jasmine--a sprightly green tea flavored with lemon myrtle and jasmine flowers, which I thought was a fitting combination for our summer-themed swap. I wrapped the nineteen packs of two teabags each with contrasting patterns of origami paper, and I included a little note with the following quote from Henry James: "Summer afternoon, summer afternoon--to me, those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

Here is a picture of the little packages I sent. You'd think I helpfully positioned my cat Henry there for scale, but no--he actually sauntered into the frame and sat down next to the tea packs just as I was getting ready to take the shot. He appeared to think he had something to do with their creation, and frankly seemed a little peeved that I wasn't planning on including him in the photo.

See This Movie

If loving a person means opening your eyes to their ugliest behaviors as well as their shining moments, then loving your country must entail the same. That's why I think it's so important, especially now, to see the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Patriotism is about much more than flying a flag from your car or trusting a president and his policies unconditionally. It's about participation in what makes our country great--freedom of speech, assembly, and of the press; freedom to dissent; freedom to engage in open, nonviolent debate about current events. And it's about making your voice heard by voting. We are lucky as Americans to have the right to peacefully overthrow our government every four years, or to endorse the current one with our votes. The choice, theoretically, is ours. But as with all the precious rights we Americans are endowed with, that choice should be excercised carefully and responsibly, part of which means gathering as much information as one can in order to make a truly informed decision.

Michael Moore's film is slanted with his own prejudices and individual brand of smarm, sure, but he's never claimed to be unbiased, in fact, he openly admits to his political standpoint. Besides, most of the footage in the film speaks for itself. Even if you choose to dismiss Moore's voiceovers, editing, and stunts, you owe it to yourself to at least acknowledge the questions the film raises. Are there truly such deep and intertwined connections between the Saudi royal family and the Bushes? Were our intelligence and counterterrorism agencies encouraged to find nonexistent connections between 9/11 and Iraq, and ignore other more obvious ties? Why have so many young men and women been sent to their deaths and disabilities in Iraq, and what is our war doing to the innocent people who call that country home? What has happened to our constitutional rights--those types of rights we claim to want to bring to the rest of the world by any means necessary--since September 2001?

Go catch a screening and see for yourself what you think. Please, before you collect that "I Voted" sticker in November, think.

P.S. Check out my neighborhood theater pictured on Michael Moore's home page. <Oakland pride>

Come on Down

Fellow Bay-Areans (I know this can't be the correct collective title for us, but it sounds intriguing, no?). This shout out is brought to you on behalf of my pal Marc and his band Madera Road, which will be playing a cheap ($5 for three bands) show on Friday to benefit Sixth Street Books and Cafe. Sixth Street Books is taking a chance on a not-so-glam neighborhood South of Market in San Francisco, and is having a tough time keeping the business afloat. Your admission costs, plus any books you bring to donate, go directly to the store.

Madera Road is a witty and talented little alt-country outfit well worth the 5 smackers on their own. The band is named for a thoroughfare in Marc's and my hometown; you may have heard mention of it in the news as part of the procession route carrying a certain deceased presidential-type to his library.

The stuff you need to know:

Benefit Show for Sixth Street Books
Friday, June 25
7 p.m.
Sixth Street Books, 144 Sixth St.
Featuring The Devil's Own, Madera Road, Lightnin' Rob & Country D.

S-M-A-R-T-Y-P-A-N-T-S

Do you know what "autochthonous" means? Well, maybe David Tidmarsh doesn't know either, but the 14-year-old kid from Indiana sure could spell it.

I am here to tell you that spelling bees--and spellers--are rad. I won my schoolwide bee* in sixth grade, and just look at how cool I am.

Nine out of ten spelling-bee champs recommend the following**:

1. The Oscar-nominated documentary Spellbound. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be surprised at how nervous you can get watching a bunch of little kids trying to spell a bunch of big words.


2. Myla Goldberg's outstanding novel Bee Season (movie forthcoming for those not word-inclined).


3. The film Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Circuit. I am quite A-N-X-I-O-U-S (Woo-woo, seven-tile word!) to see this.

* Ten points to anyone who knows the word that knocked me out of the city bee. Extra credit if you know how I (mis)spelled it.

** According to the Hairyalien Institute for Statistics that Should Indeed Exist (HISSIE)