You know what they say: “all the good names were taken.” The statement comes alive at this site that quantifies the lousy logos of minor league hockey teams. It’s a recent work in progress, so there may be more entries to come. After the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies and the Bossier/Shreveport Mudbugs, you have to enjoy the simplicity of the Indianapolis Ice. (tipped to me by snarkout)

In other hockey linkage, Willie O’Ree, the NHL’s first black player was honored in Boston yesterday with the Lester Patrick Award for a lifetime of service to hockey.

“This person is mad” was the surprised thought Margaret Atwood had when a Danish composer contacted her about turning The Handmaid’s Tale into a opera. So begins her Guardian essay that touches equally on the history that inspired her, the genesis of the novel, the opening of the opera, and the relevance it all has to current events. Towards the end she writes: “In The Handmaid’s Tale, the eye from the American dollar bill is used as a logo by the Gilead secret police, who control people through credit card information. It’s the same eye just adopted by the Homeland Security folks, who can now – yes – control people through credit card information.” (via calamondin)

Take a journey through TV history with the TV Ticket Gallery. There’s even a TWA plane ticket from the 4th anniversary episode of Late Night With David Letterman which was taped on a 747 headed to Miami. (via scrubbles)

Book Magazine lists America’s Biggest Readers who devour 2-20 books a week. I remember whipping through six children’s books a week when I was a kid, but now I am lucky if I get to one a week (children’s or not). With the Internet around I’m probably reading more words, but not on paper pages. (via Caterina)

For those of you who despaired over not getting your own Atari Classics 10-in-1 TV Games joystick for Christmas, ThinkGeek appears to have them in stock. These were last spotted on Avon.com (no kidding) by Dori right before Christmas, which is when I got a couple for gifts, along with a free bag of makeup samples (no, that’s not why I ordered it).

Lest I start taking it for granted, I get constant reminders that the Internet is great. At 11:30pm on Thursday, Ned posted that he had hunched and gathered a Game Boy Advance SP, in advance of its release date, at Toys R Us. Within minutes of reading his post, I found out the store location from him and looked up their hours. 9:30am on Friday I was at the door of the store. Twenty-four hours after I read the post, my husband had his birthday present in hand. He was supposed to have a review up that I could link to, but I think he was too busy making sure he was, um, gathering quality information for a fully researched review.

The Boston Globe Magazine’s special food edition has an in-depth look at Whole Foods Market. I get to Whole Foods a couple times a month to stock up on my favorite Stonyfield yogurt. We usually enter on the left side of the store, always a terrible mistake as that takes us straight into the bakery section with its chocolate-mint cookies and cute little pies. Who knew tiny little apple pies could be so adorable? It’s not as if they have chubby little arms and cheeks like babies, but they may as well have for the time I spend squealing over them. Then comes the ample selection of cheeses, often with bowls of free samples. The friendly butchers happily remove the skin off their free range, meaty chickens for me. I have yet to make it through a quarter of the bulk food bins. And the produce is stacked like the clothes at The Gap. You pay for all this quality. But many keep coming back. As the articles says: “Whole Foods is pushing harder to transform what for most of us is an annoying chore into ‘a pleasurable experience.'” It’s far from a hippie co-op. Last March the company instituted a new dress code that discourage certain facial piercings, extreme hair color, political messages. It’s not a health food store anymore but an upscale yuppie market.

Remember back in the early days of the web when the New York Times actually listed relevant links at the bottom of their news articles? I’m not making this up, am I? They used to have links, right? Well, I really missed them after reading Dot-Com Saviors, Tilting at the World’s Ills, which was, strangely, stuffed into the Fashion & Style section. The article discusses good causes that survivors of the dot com bust have taken on. I had to find the links myself so here they are:

The Sapling Foundation which bought the rights to the TED Conference where most of these items where demonstrated.

Dean Kamen and his portable water purifier, which has a Stirling engine. He’s looking to distribute it in Africa.

Energy Innovations from Bill Gross’s Idealab, which is making solar collectors.

The Acumen Fund: “pioneering new ways to invest charitable contributions in innovations that promise breakthrough products and services to improve the lives of the poor internationally.”

ApproTEC: Appropriate Technology is a non-profit organization that develops and markets new technologies in Africa. Their “MoneyMaker” pumps are allowing small-scale farms in Africa to succeed with micro-irrigation.

Room to Read provides books, libraries and schools to poor Asian countries. They’ve built 33 schools and 400 school libraries, and provided 200,000 books and 122 scholarships.

The redesign of the $20 bill was supposed to be unveiled to the public this month, but we won’t be seeing it until May. The new bill will actually make use of colored inks, something the U.S. has been reluctant to adopt despite the prevalent use of colorful bills in other countries. However, the color additions will likely be minimal, keeping us in the green. It would be neat in the future to have to explain to our grandkids why people use the term “greenbacks” to refer to cash though. Of course, by then there may not be any cash to speak off.

Venture capitalist and violinist Kathryn Gould has been through the ups and downs of Silicon Valley. She understands what makes the real Silicon Valley tick and she’s profited well from it (she has the jewels to prove it). Now she’s putting her money where her ears are as a patron of the arts. Her Magnum Opus Project is commissioning nine new orchestral works and six new compositions. The orchestral pieces will be performed by three Bay Area orchestras over a few years, allowing audiences to hear the evolution of the work as the composers make adjustments. Negotiations are underway with chamber groups and solo artists to premiere the other compositions. At a time when support for classical music is dwindling, especially in the Bay Area, Gould is demonstrating her belief in a form that many consider outmoded.