Whoops! University of Washington officials are still looking for a commencement speaker. Graduation ceremonies are only five weeks away and their first candidate declined in March. Any takers?

NBC is bringing Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip back to the Thursday night line-up on May 24th. But after the existing episodes are broadcast, that’ll likely be it for the show. And unless Aaron Sorkin managed to sneak him into a remaining storyline (I wouldn’t put it past him), Joshua Malina will break his streak of appearing in all Sorkin-credited productions (Malina isn’t on the credits list for the upcoming movie “Charlie Wilson’s War” either).

It’s 31 cent scoop night at Baskin-Robbins today, 5pm-10pm.

Will it be “the last great suspension bridge built in America?” The Tacoma-Narrows Bridge is nearing completion after five years. With 19,000 miles of cable holding up one mile of asphalt, concrete, and steel the bridge is scheduled to open in July, weather permitting. Cable-stayed designs are the current trend, but the suspension bridge is a classic with the Golden Gate as the icon. Workers have held barbecues on the top of the towers.

When my family went to Montreal on vacation in the 1970s I spent an uncomfortable few days with an itchy piece of paper stuffed inside my sock. My mom, worried that I would not be able to communicate with the French-speaking population if I got lost, had written down the contact information for our hotel on a piece of paper and stuck it in a safe, though annoying location. This memory came back to me when we took our toddler up to Vancouver B.C. (his vocabulary and grasp of English astonishes me but it’d be useless for a stranger). I didn’t stick anything on him but I thought it’d be neat if you could order a custom temporary tattoo with your cell phone #. Of course I’m not the first to think of it. DaddyTypes linked to a temporary tattoo for kids that has a space to write in a number (it comes with a pen). You could also buy custom tattoo printer paper, assuming you trust that your printer ink is safe for this purpose.

Stephen Ho dreams of building a Shaolin Temple in San Francisco and bringing the ancient practice to the U.S. as a religion. But he is at odds with the Shaolin monk, Shi GuoSong, sent from the Chinese temple to help with his cause. Ho is a longtime student of Buddhism and in GouSong he sees plenty of martial arts discipline but little of the practice of silent meditation and spiritual customs that he expected from those following Shaolin as a faith. It’s a classic rift over what constitutes a religion and its practice, but in this case Ho holds GouSong’s visa sponsorship and will make his own vision hold true. He intends to sever his sponsorship and carefully interview the future Shaolin he brings to the U.S.

Friday Flashback: Astounding 80’s YouTube find: the Square Pegs episode with Devo (part 1, part 2, part 3). Muffy’s having a New Wave Bat Mitzvah!

If the show Babylon 5 used to be on your radar but fell firmly off (it is over a decade old after all), you’ll want to know that 15 volumes containing the scripts for all 92 Babylon 5 episodes (plus two movies) are being made available by J. Michael Straczynski. 11 have been released already. The 15th will be available (free) only to those who buy all 14 volumes. In more exciting news, Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales, a new direct-to-DVD movie, is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Starring Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins and Peter Woodward, it was written and directed by jms (photos and notes from the man himself).

Nifty A4 paper art from Peter Callesen. (via Medley)

The NY Times has a blurb on The Smart Cycle from Fisher-Price. It’s a stationary bicycle for toddlers that hooks up to the TV so they can play pedaling games. It’s got a joystick also. The bike was rolled out at the Toy Fair in February and I missed the mention on Engadget. It will be out this summer for $100 with additional games (Dora, Hot Wheels) at $20.