“Founded in 1995, FLAVORx is on a mission to take the yuck out of medicine.” I heard about this on NPR (while I was driving of course since I always hear the interesting stuff when I’m unable to take notes). Luckily Mike Gunderloy linked to it. The creator of FLAVORx developed the system when his baby girl had trouble taking 4 daily doses of yucky medicine. When he made the medication more palatable her condition finally improved. The flavors have no sugars or dyes, and little or no alcohol so they do not alter the medications. There’s a selection of sweet and savory flavors such as bubblegum, watermelon, tangy apple, bacon, cheddar, angus beef, and roasted lamb. Veterinarians can use the flavorings for animals. Over 2000 pharmacies in the United States, Canada, the Bahamas, Australia, and New Zealand have FLAVORx available.

Mmmmm, The Complete Works of Emily Dickinson, handbound in leather with gold tooling. It’s built to last by the Harcourt Bindery, which still makes books the old-fashioned way. (via sorta-ex-co-worker and fellow ex-resident of CT Seth who’s pursuing his bookbinding dreams)

The Easy Bake Oven has had a marketing makeover for boys. Feast your eyes on the Queasy Bake Cookerator (I guess “oven” sounds too girly). In addition to the usual baking pan and mixing bowl, this comes with a bug/worm mold and recipe mixes with appetizing names such as Chocolate Crud Cake and Foaming Drool. Oh yum. Allow me to perpetuate a stereotype and profess my preference for the Easy-Bake Powerpuff Girls Bake Set. It makes the cutest little pink muffins! (100-watt lightbulb not included.)

The home-brew robots battling it out on TV inspired Michael Mauldin to open a for-profit robot club of his very own. Mauldin founded Lycos and retired in 1997 (he’s 43 now, so it was a profitable retirement). The Robot Club and Grille in Pittsburgh promises “The best meal you’ve ever had behind bullet-proof glass!” You can throw a birthday party with rental robots or learn how to build your own machine. There are three arenas built with Lexan and steel. (via memepool)

“I’ve been smoking since I was 13 years old and during the Eisenhower administration I peaked at three packs a day. I’m not about to stop now.” Margaret Phillips began her acting career at the time most people retire to Florida. Her portrayal of Ruth Ann on “Northern Exposure” garnered her a supporting actress Emmy nomination (she wore blue jeans and sandals to the ceremony). She died on November 7th from lung disease. She was 84.

It’s all relative
Here’s a stunner for Joss Whedon fans: “Firefly has more viewers than Buffy or Angel, but it is also Whedon’s most vulnerable show. That’s because it airs on Fox, which has higher viewership expectations than UPN and the WB.” (from a Houston Chronicle article) Firefly has more viewers than Buffy and yet it may not survive? Grrr arrgh!

A lack of originality
I’m on a mission to give our bare walls some personality. I had the clever thought of putting up artistically formatted inspiring words and phrases on our office room walls. Oh yes, I am so creative and clever, thought I. Words on the walls, as art! Then I remembered that people have been posting calligraphy on walls for centuries.

It’s no surprise that the public payphone is a declining species. The SF Chronicle gathered some statistics on the numbers in the Bay Area. To break even, a phone needs to generate at least 500 calls a month. People with low incomes often depend on pay phones, and they likely live in neighborhoods where phones have been removed because of maintenance costs and ordinances to discourage drug dealing. The state provides a subsidy to encourage pay phones in areas of great need, but few people are aware of the program and PacBell claims the subsidy doesn’t cover costs. Phone cards are becoming popular, but a phone is still needed to use them. A store in the Mission District offers free use of a phone if customers purchase phone cards there. Clocks behind the counter set to the time in various countries reflect the immigrant population who make use of this service.

I have a friend whom I describe as “the opposite of a pack rat.” I got my plentiful supply of hanging file folders from him. Despite the quantity, I will run out of them soon, which gives you an idea of my standing in the pack rat rankings. This friend would like to OCR all the paper that passes through his life and have a database of his documents. If he ever needed anything again, he could search for it. Regardless of my need for a tactile relationship with paper, I decided I’d also make good use of such a product. We had this discussion a few years ago. Last week I heard about Computhink on the radio. Their products aim for a “paperless office” and they even have a single-user product (discounted for tax season, with a scanner rebate). The basics of document imaging, indexing and retrieval all appear to be supported, plus there are annotations and security features. The next time I absent-mindedly look in vain for the search feature on my stack of manila folders, I’ll remember there’s an alternative.

It’s no fun hearing Mr. Gates saying unkind things about the Apple Newton when I know that many members of the old Newton team now work for Microsoft.