I loved this NY Times headline “Sears Reinvents Itself, but What Exactly Is It?” Sears, Roebuck has decided to sell its credit card business, a mainstay of its business since the Depression era. In addition to having the Sears private-label cards, which they may decide to retain, Sears is the third-largest issuer of MasterCards. The business was generating 60 percent of Sears’ earnings, however there have been a few wrinkles recently and they want to put a focus back on retail. The profits from a sale of the credit assets could prove useful in repositioning and renovations. But Sears’ retail is a dichotomy of new higher end Land’s End clothing, affordable clothing, their respected tools and hardware, and appliances. They abandoned their catalog, an American institution, in 1993. There isn’t much to bring in shoppers unaccustomed to going to Sears to buy Craftsman tools and vacuum cleaners.

An article on Musical Injuries from the Washington Post as archived by andante.com. Hours of practice plus muscle-tightening performance anxieties often result in repetitive strain injuries. I have often been advised by co-workers to switch my mouse (trackball actually) use to my left hand to avoid RSI since I am right-handed. But I won’t take the chance of losing any violin fingering capabilities.

Becoming American: The Chinese Experience is a Bill Moyers special for PBS airing this week. Within its website are full transcripts of his interviews with five prominent Chinese Americans. Among them is a fascinating interview with Maya Lin, best known as the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a competition she won as a senior at Yale. The conversation touches on much more than her Asian American experience. Lin reveals that her design process begins with writing. In creating text she “sketches” what she wants to accomplish with the piece. “If you have the pre-conceived idea of what you think it looks like before you really shape it verbally, then you’re trying to stuff function into a pre-existing form.” Moyers asks her about the creation of the Civil Rights Memorial and the wonderful Women’s Table at Yale. And of course Moyers goes in depth on her experience with the racism and resistance she encountered as the Asian designer of a monument for an Asian war. With culturally typical restraint she reigned in her emotions throughout the controversy, so as to not worry her parents.

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.