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May 20, 2005

Volume 1, Issue 8

Today's theme comes to us courtesy of a random word generator and Bill Gates. I used the generator to pull 100 random words out of the dictionary and then used Excel to generate 3 random numbers between 1 and 100. The words tied to those numbers became, through the mystery of magic and fate and electrons and stuff, our theme:

preadolescence, flew, readerships

Enjoy.

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Michele: This Bird Has Flown

"The face that launched a million readers."

That’s the title Time gave her when she made the cover. "Mallory’s School of Magic," her debut book, had spawned a new generation of young literature lovers.

Sequels were awaited. Movie rights secured. Steven Spielberg would direct!

And now one former flame, his confessional scrawled on motel stationary and copied to thousands of newspapers the world over, was going to launch a million gasps.

She absently tore her copy into small pieces and threw them on the ground, where the wind picked them up and rained them down on her like ironic confetti.

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The Eschatologist: The Stars Are My Destination, Too

Twelve is a magical age.

It's a between time that exists after you're (mostly) through being a kid, but not ready to put your toys away for good. It's before those scary trials to come as a teenager.

You know the ones - they're all over TV and the movies.

Too many choices, cliques, conflicts, resolutions, loves, hates, friendships, promises, betrayals and a range of emotions as wide as the horizon.

Which is why Owen took out his styrofoam glider, the one his dad built with him before he died on his way to the moon, and kept flying forever.

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Stacy: TechBots

Dealing with mental preadolescents every day is enough to make you want to overwrite your primary drive. Or, you know, theirs.

The whinging tones come through loud and clear, even via electronic format. The complete lack of reading comprehension is astonishing in (apparent) adults, causing the chewing of fingernails, obsessive consumption of caffeine, and other nervous habits endemic to my kind.

They want help and yet they are ill-equipped to deal with it, having a lack of both mental acumen and the will to help themselves. Needless to say, this does not endear them to us, despite our basic programming.

Read more from Stacy's .

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From the Comments: Shawn

"The nature of dragons is one borne out of constant challenge and the toughest love. To the untrained eye, it would appear that dragons care nothing for their young, but this could not be further from the truth.

Example: A mother dragon teaches her brood to fly by shoving them out of the nest. Remember that dragons build their nests high atop mountains, so the chances that a young dragon will survive are slim. Only through such drastic measures can the young dragon mature and grow into the magnificent creature that we dragonologists study and admire."

Smendric's Guide to Dragonology

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Ted: The Magazine

"Our readership is up seventy five percent since we started! The issue on societal pressures during preadolescence flew off the shelves! I will not sit here and let you destroy my magazine!"

Sarah stormed out of the office, knowing that her career hung in the balance of what the four men inside decided. They couldn't understand what was really important to young girls.

The four men inside looked at each other and wondered how to tell her that Dreamy Teen Stars magazine was being dropped to make room for Nobel Laureates: Personal Advice and Direction magazine in just two weeks.

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