Weigh in on URMA 2009

URMA 09 takes place from May 26 to May 29, 2009, in College Station, Texas. College Station's Easterwood Airport is served by Continental (connections through George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston) and American Eagle (connection through DFW Internationall). Nearest big-plane airports are Austin Bergstrom Airport (90 mins by car to College Station) and George Bush Intercontinental in Houston (90 mins by car).

Related poll: As of now, how likely is it that you will be able to attend the URMA meeting in 2009? (Poll closed.)

Friday poll results

On a scale of 0 to 10, how happy are you in your job?

• 10 (Wouldn't change a thing): 3 votes (10%)


• 9: 4 votes (14%)


• 8: 13 votes (46%)


• 7: 3 votes (10%)


• 6: 1 vote (3%)


• 5 (Neither happy nor unhappy): 1 vote (3%)


• 4: --


• 3: --


• 2: 2 votes (7%)


• 1: --


• 0 (Please get me out of here): 1 vote (3%)

A better brew

The Rise of Extreme Beer: "Beer has lagged well behind wine and organic produce in the ongoing reinvention of American cuisine. Yet the change over the past twenty years has been startling. In 1965, the United States had a single craft brewery: Anchor Brewing, in San Francisco. Today, there are nearly fifteen hundred. In liquor stores and upscale supermarkets, pumpkin ales and chocolate stouts compete for cooler space with wit beers, weiss beers, and imperial Pilsners. The King of Beers, once served in splendid isolation at many bars, is now surrounded by motley bottles with ridiculous names, like jesters at a Renaissance fair: SkullSplitter, Old Leghumper, Slam Dunkel, Troll Porter, Moose Drool, Power Tool, He’brew, and Ale Mary Full of Taste." (New Yorker)

What matters, what separates you from home, is time

"Two astronauts trapped on the International Space Station as a result of the shuttle Columbia disaster literally had only one chance to make it back to Earth safely. 'Home' is a dramatic and revealing story about one of the longest stays in space, the mourning for lost colleagues, and the tortured and nearly deadly journey back."

Winner, feature writing, American Society of Magazine Editors' Best American Magazine Writing, 2005 (Chris Jones, Esquire magazine)

160 stitches...

"Here's the thing about getting bitten by a shark: No one believes it actually happened. Not your boss. Not your swim coach. Not even your mom." (lohud.com)

Review of Her Toddler's Pretend Restaurant

"My two-and-a-half year old, Lily, has opened what she calls "The Cafe Restaurant," and although the service is terrible, the food inedible, and you have to sit on the living room floor, it has become one of my favorite eating destinations of all time....

"Here's an example of a typical ordering experience:

Lily: Order something, please.
Mom: OK, do you have coffee?
Lily: No. No coffee at the Cafe Restaurant. Only water and tea.
Mom: OK, tea please.
Lily: No tea. Only water.
Mom: OK, water.
Lily: Do you want coffee?
Mom: Well ... actually, yes.
Lily (Handing me a toy tomato) Here."

Genome Tome

Twenty-three ways of looking at our ancestors.

Winner, feature writing, American Society of Magazine Editors' Best American Magazine Writing, 2006 (Priscilla Long, American Scholar)

At this moment in time

Oxford Researchers List Top 10 Most Annoying Phrases, including:

10 - It's not rocket science
9 - 24/7
8 - Shouldn't of

Read the rest... (wired.com)

A Matter Of Life and Death

"It was cancer -- a brutally sudden death sentence: the doctors told the author she had probably less than six months. For a woman with two young children and a full life, that prognosis was devastating, but also, in some ways, oddly liberating. And so began more than three years of horror, hope, and grace, as she learned to live, and even laugh, on borrowed time."

Winner, Essays, American Society of Magazine Editors' Best American Magazine Writing, 2006 (Marjorie Williams, Vanity Fair)

Upon This Rock

"Rock music used to be a safe haven for degenerates and rebels. Until it found Jesus..."

Finalist, feature writing, American Society of Magazine Editors' Best American Magazine Writing 2006 (John Jeremiah Sullivan, GQ)