You know what book I found and re-read today?

Veronica Ganz.

Man, I *loved* that series of books growing up (the three about Veronica and the three about Laura). And then I go to amazon.com to see what else Marilyn Sachs has written, and realize that she's written a ton of books I've read without realizing were hers. None of them were as good as those six, but....

And nobody on LiveJournal, NOBODY, lists Marilyn Sachs as an interest. I'm stunned. Simply stunned. Well, I'll just have to be the first, and soon start whining that I need icons.

New feed, for those who are interested in the subject...

autismhub.

Go ahead and add it. Or not.

So, you know that Target is being sued over their inaccessible website, right?

Once again, a useful entry by kevinleitch.

The whole idiocy is summed up in one comment down the page (which I'll further sum up here): Target is spending a whole lot of money in a lawsuit, when it'd cost barely anything to get a competant web designer to alter their site. At the same time, they're not only losing money from blind customers (and, quite probably, their indignant families and friends who know better than to use inaccessible sites) but they're creating general ill-will which will cause them to lose even *more* money - or, at least, to gain less than possible, which is almost the same thing.

Brilliant move, Target.

Few random things, completely unrelated...

Anybody heard of this book? The comic artist keeps reccommending books I'd already read (and liked), but this one is new to me. Should I devote part of my weekend to it?

From the Times:

In an effort to motivate our 7½-year-old grandson, Nathan, to call us, I decided on a monetary incentive: $1 for calling me in my office after school, $2 for calling us at home in the evening.

Recently, as I emerged from the Columbus Circle subway, my cellphone rang. It was Nathan.

He asked me where I was.

I replied that I had just left my office on 20th street and was a couple of blocks from our 60th Street apartment.

He paused for a moment, then asked, "Is this a $1 or $2 call?"

So, let me get this straight. In an effort to get more calls from her grandson, they've turned an action of love, or at least obligation, into a mercenary affair? And they clearly don't see anything wrong with it - it was sent it in as a cute comment that his very first question was "where are you?" and the second was "well, how much is this call worth, then?"

They'd like to have calls at any cost, I guess - even a cost greater than a subway fare, because it sounds like the cost is that he won't call unless he knows how much he's getting. Great plan. This, my friends, is a good example of the trouble with rewards.

An article on the "expectation of homophobia"

One on a German hip-hop band which uses Latin....

There is a demand to adopt children with Downs Syndrome (according to this article). Well, that's good.

On a group of people who are going electricity-free for a month to show solidarity with Iraqis.

And, for good measure, we've got the link on the Girl too Beautiful for Anti-Psychotics.