Save an endangered Crayola color

Crayola is discontinuing four of the following crayon colors this year: burnt sienna, blizzard blue, teal blue, mulberry and magic mint. Go to this page on crayola.com to place your vote on which one should be saved. You need Flash to see the page, and they make you register before you can vote, but I thought it was worth it. One note: you may want to look at Name the New before you vote on saving the old, because some of the new colors are similar to the ones on the chopping block.

Those who get the hell out of Dodge

My mom just sent me a letter about some family issues that have been on her mind, especially the effects of divorce on adult children (which she didn't find much on, probably because the effects aren't that dramatic). One of the books she read was about "transcenders", children who grow up under lousy circumstances and manage to create a better life anyway. I would've just called them escapers. Anyway, the idea is that somewhere, these kids hit a turning point where they become sure that life is not supposed to be the way it has been so far, and they reject it with an absolute determination to seek something new. I quote:

To the transcender, the turning point sounds like this: "This is not my family. I am not like them and I don't belong here. Someday I will get out of here and create a world that is less abusive, less neglectful, and in other ways less hurtful to me. Someday I will be me and have a life I want. I will be different from my family for the rest of my life.

When I read that, I was just amazed, because you could have lifted that verbatim from my head when I was 12, 13, 14, 15, 16... especially the bold parts. Huh. I guess I owe my mom a letter back.