Is there a book you remember from childhood, but you don’t know the title or author? Try to Stump the Bookseller with your remembrances of books past. (via Larkfarm)

Baby teeth have valuable stem cells. “Dear Tooth Fairy, Mom sent my bicuspid to a research lab. Do you do cash advances? – Timmy”

HP and Scholastic are sponsoring a Create a Calculator Contest for students. There are three age categories in the K-12 range. The criteria seem remarkably open; students can focus on the look and feel of the calculator or its functionality or a combination. The lack of restrictions allows kids of all types to get involved, as creative types can dream up impossible, fantastic devices and scientific types can create new handy functionality. The variety will certainly make judging interesting and perhaps difficult. (via BrainLog)

It’s Patriot’s Day which means it’s Marathon Monday in Boston. As usual, I will be screaming at the Wellesley halfway point in spirit. Patriot’s Day commemorates the “shot heard ’round the world.” The British and Minutemen fought the battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775.

The well-crafted book “Holes” is now a movie. A Disney movie. You must forgive my initial reaction wherein my brain conjured up a dull scene of several round holes in the ground tightening up into a montage of many sets of Mickey Mouse ears. But my fears can be put on hold. According to Glenn Lovell of the Mercury News, director Andrew Davis was able to push through a faithful adaptation of Louis Sachar’s novel by repeatedly reminding the studio that the award-winning and beloved book contained all the questionable scenes already. Some concessions were made for graphic violence and language, but with a screenplay by the author himself, the movie may effectively shed its cute mouse ears.

Nothing buys publicity like controversy, and Justin Lin had already maxed out ten credit cards and received $5,000 from MC Hammer to create his film “Better Luck Tomorrow“. So when Roger Ebert unexpectedly stood up after a Sundance showing to defend the film against a critic who pronounced it “empty and amoral to Asian Americans,” Lin’s six-figures of debt fell by the wayside. After a remarkably successful limited release, the film seems guaranteed to pull in profits for MTV Films, who paid a reported $500,000 for distribution rights. The film spirals through the dark side of overachieving “model minority” high school schoolers who embroil their lives in crime. Such, dare I say, mainstream criminal behavior from Asian Americans in a film not involving opium, kung fu, and dragon lady madams is rare. The central theme of defying the perfect student stereotype is echoing well with the very students who are achieving the high expectations typically set for them by their parents. Lin thought carefully about not only the general stereotypes but also the lesser known class conflicts between Asians of different backgrounds. Tired of Hollywood’s Asian status quo, the actors participated in the film for little pay. Actor Jason Tobin’s resume lists the same role over and over: Chinese delivery boy. May this film be a fruitful break in the cycle for everyone involved.

If you’re an American ceramics nut and in Seattle, make sure you visit Laguna, a vintage pottery shop in Pioneer Square. They also have a bridal registry, making it possible to sign up for discontinued ceramic dinnerware patterns.

Pages from a 1949 candy salesman book. Vintage yummies! (via Pop Culture Junkmail)

Another unaired Firefly script is online for reading. The upcoming DVDs will include unaired episodes so if you want to watch them unspoiled, don’t read.

The Newark Museum (in New Jersey) is currently running an exhibition called Great Pots: Contemporary Ceramics from Function to Fantasy. The 175 studio ceramic pieces illustrate the various methods of decoration and form that potters use to give shape and meaning to their works. There are functional pots and pots created purely as art. Some pots are plain in form but fancy in decoration. Others are simply glazed but elaborately shaped. Within the simple definition of a pot, there are infinite bounds for artistic expression.