How did I miss this news? The U.S. Treasury is planning to add “subtle background colors” to our currency, starting with the $20 bill in fall 2003. The news was announced on June 20th and I found a news article as old as March 13 about it. I am so amazed by this enhancement. We’ve been the boring green money country for so long as other nations moved onto rainbow bills with lovely printing and designs. Well, we have the counterfeiters to thank for this change, but I’m not going to complain, although I think it will still be a while before we get truly beautiful paper money. People will want to stick with the traditional look and history is not going to change who our prominent dead leaders are. (via Now This)

In this really nifty educational site about the Origins of Writing, there’s an essay on the evolution of the Cinderella story. You are probably aware of variations on the Cinderella story from various sources, fairy tale books, Disney, opera, it was also used in the Broadway musical “Into the Woods”. One study examined the passing of the story between geographical areas by comparing the different versions in various cultures. The researcher concluded that folktales did not necessary travel between areas through merchants and travelers, but “through a very slow and systematic diffusion from culture to culture.” The story we know as Cinderella was adapted to each culture, to teach morals and values, some of which were the same from place to place, some of which were a little different. And as the tale became a written one, we lost the cultural shifts from oral storytelling. But there are still variations on the theme. And now we can record them all with a variety of media. (via xBlog)

Note: if you are looking for a huge, mind-boggling variety of Cinderella stories, take a look at Shen’s Books (run by my friend Renee). Shen’s specializes in multicultural children’s books and they have Cinderellas from every culture and lifestyle you can imagine (even a penguin!).

The design for Alabama’s state quarter has been unveiled and it’s one for the record and trivia books. Not only does feature a woman (PA and NY have female statues but not of real women) but it is the first U.S. coin to have a Braille inscription. That may give you a clue as to which woman has the honor of representing Alabama: Helen Keller. The theme for the design competition, open to Alabama schools, was “Education:
Link to the Past, Gateway to the Future.” “A number” of the 450 designs included Keller, who fits the quarter’s actual theme “Spirit of Courage.”

It has been five years since the “gray lady” started dressing up in colored inks, and Carl Schlesinger, retired print-room operator, wants to celebrate the occasion, reports the New York Observer. So on October 16th a five-piece band will stand outside the New York Times’ building and play “The New York Times Color March”, words and music by Schlesinger (with a little help from an old advertising jingle and a big tip of the hat to John Philip Sousa). The Times has no official connection to this event, but Schlesinger is keeping the paper informed of his activities. He hopes to have the song performed all over the country eventually. This newspaper march isn’t unprecedented. Sousa was commissioned to write “The Washington Post March” to promote an essay contest sponsored by the paper in 1889. (via MediaNews)

We have plenty of devices availabe to supplement our long-term memory: PDAs, computers, pen & paper. How about something to help with your short-term memory while you are continually interrupted? The Cook’s Collage, a research project at Georgia Tech, helps you through a recipe by photographing and displaying your last few steps. Test subjects (college students of course), were asked to make oatmeal raisin cookies while being interrupted by a group of people watching football or conversing about a doctoral thesis. They found the digital reminder very helpful when they tried to remember what point they were at in their task. We’d all like to keep our short-term memories sharp, and I’d like cooking to be an absorbing and relaxing task, but the realities of home life and entertaining may be well served with this helpful device.

As I’m still peeved about Caltrain’s two year shutdown of weekend train service, I thought I’d take a look at what the high speed rail plans are. Someone decided the project would be better marketed as the “baby bullet train” and indeed it was funded successfully. But I ran across an article about the critics of the “baby bullet”, not the project, but the name. It quotes two members of Caltrain’s citizens’ advisory committee who believe the name is too violent. One says “The Baby Bullet name is a loaded gun. We live in a world of violence right now — why have a bullet?” Another thinks the name sounds too much like a toy, and besides it’s not a bullet train, it’ll only go 79 mph. But Caltrain’s executive director thinks the name will continue to market well and plans to let it stick. I don’t think someone who considers the name “baby bullet” violent should be throwing terms around like “loaded gun.”

The NY Times headline is promising: “Prime Time Gets Real With a Plump Heroine.” As Sara Rue, star of the sitcom “Less Than Perfect” says “I consider myself normal. I get annoyed at the business when a size 0 actress is cast as the `every gal’ gal. It’s just not true.” The President of ABC Entertainment claims that they actually had trouble finding an actress larger than size 4 to play the role. There must be a lot of starving women and wealthy personal trainers in Hollywood.

Fleet Week is returning to San Francisco this year, run by the Air Show Network. It’s actually “Fleet Week San Francisco, Presented by AT&T;” but no one’s paying me to say that (actually, as an AT&T; Universal Card holder, AT&T; Broadband Internet customer, AT&T; Broadband Cable subscriber, and AT&T; Long Distance caller, I’m probably contributing some miniscule chunk of this sponsorship). The Blue Angels arrive on Thursday and the ships will include the Sea Slice, “the experimental Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) ship.” It appears that tickets need to be ordered in advance for ship tours (last time we just waited in a big line), so some advance planning is necessary.

After I learn new words they tend to pop up frequently, making me wonder if I’ve been overlooking them in ignorance or if they are clustering in popularity. In July I wrote about my discovery of the words tellurian and orrery. This week they appeared in Burke and Wells’ chronicles of Paris. The two stumbled across The Galerie J.Kugel‘s exhibit of fifty celestial globes and spheres. And all these beautiful mechanical devices are for sale, but I probably don’t want to know the prices. I’ll just enjoy the photos.

Neiman-Marcus’ Christmas book is out. Commission an action figure of yourself, or a cameo brooch. Or both.