My mother is very big into this idea and has had shirts made for several family vacations. (We all good-naturedly humor her and wear them on whatever is designated the appropriate day on the trip.)

Most recently, for a trip to Vegas, there were 10 of us -- 11, if you counted my not-yet-born nephew. So she had "[LastName]'s 11" put on the back of the shirts, and we made sure to get a picture of all of our backs as we lined up facing the fountain at the Bellagio.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 6:42 AM on June 22, 2008

The Answers page for the Spirit magazine puzzles indicates all of them were supplied by Puzzability, a company that makes a wide variety of word/logic puzzles for all sorts of big-name clients. I don't see any more examples of Shinro on their site, but you could try contacting them to see if they can point you to any other sources. (According to the podcast interview they did just this past week for the NYTimes -- scroll down to OpCast -- they create many of their puzzle ideas from scratch,... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 8:21 AM on October 28, 2007

(D'oh -- missed a line break between Conceptis and Simon Tatham's site. Two separate sites there.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 8:25 AM on October 28, 2007

...aaand if I had just gone to visit alexei's link (haven't been to Otto Janko's site in a while), I would have been able to point out what looks to be Shinro with stars instead of dots:

Sternenhimmel
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 8:52 AM on October 28, 2007 marked best answer

I think I picked up the habit from "Friends" -- The One Where Ross Dates a Student. Obviously it's older than that but, as Greg Nog posits, that may be what launched its popularity.
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 5:56 AM on August 30, 2007

Hey JHarris, I loved the Shirt Tales. Certainly they were a helluva lot cooler than the Get-Along Gang.

Oddly, both shows (along with the Care Bears and the Popples) were based on characters from greeting cards. Although I guess that's not any stranger than some other tv show antecedents... (I'm looking at you, Cavemen.)
posted to MetaFilter by alyxstarr at 5:46 PM on August 20, 2007

I have an adult beagle with epilepsy, and his seizures are very similar to your dog's -- extreme rigidity and high body temperature. I can usually tell one is coming because his temp starts to rise maybe 10 or 15 minutes before it hits (his head, especially, will be very warm to the touch), and he'll often act sort of manic and uncoordinated. (e.g., he'll suddenly start bouncing around the room and then try to jump up on a bed or sofa but not be able to coordinate well enough to actually get up.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 3:05 PM on August 20, 2007

I think I started getting an allowance sometime around 1st grade; I don't remember how much it was.

My parents got kind of creative, though, in that they didn't hand us cash every week. Instead, we each had, essentially, a direct deposit checking account through the Bank of Mom & Dad. There were 5 spreadsheet pages tacked to the basement door, one for each of us, on which all credits and debits were recorded. If I didn't write down +$whatever for my allowance that... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 8:11 AM on February 8, 2007

My roommate's brother lives there, and she went out to visit him last year. I'll ask her this afternoon and post some of her suggestions later!
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 10:44 AM on January 30, 2007

Dormeuse aux Persiennes (which translates, I believe, to "sleeping woman with shutters")
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 7:14 AM on January 3, 2007

Looks like it's called "Sleep, Baby Sleep" and it's by Adam Kontras.
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 1:02 PM on December 19, 2006 marked best answer

Maybe this will help?

Average total employee contribution (in dollars) per enrolled employee for single coverage at private-sector establishments that offer health insurance by ownership type* and age of firm and State: United States, 2004:
PDF
HTML

*(Ownership type = for-profit, incorporated vs for-profit, unincorporated vs nonprofit)

If that's not precisely... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 12:08 PM on December 18, 2006

adipocere, I haven't seen that film, but is this the song? If so, yes, definitely creepy! And the ending's great -- you get quieter and quieter, then on the last line, shout BOO!

Other ones that come to mind, besides what's already been mentioned:
-Chicken Lips and Lizard Hips (sung to the tune of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious)
-The Littlest Worm
-Nobody Likes Me
-Grim Grinning Ghosts (from Disney's Haunted Mansion... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 8:10 PM on October 25, 2006

I sometimes use Labyrinth for such purposes. Lots of different ways to look at the data you input, including one that looks along the lines of what you're after.

It does require installing .NET Framework, though. (For willmize's benefit, there is a link on the Labyrinth download page to an alternative to .NET that can run on most platforms.)

(yWriter looks cool, though! I think I'm going to have to give that one a try.)... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 6:52 AM on October 18, 2006

I wouldn't bother pursuing the Perplex City angle. PC has been around since 2004, is run (I believe) by a design team in London, has thousands of people already playing it, and (from what I've seen of it) is considerably more complex and polished than what we've seen so far of thepurification.org.

It's not surprising that magichal has a profile there, because we've already established that he likes ARGs, and Perplex City is well-known among the ARG crowd.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 2:54 PM on October 6, 2006

Exactly what I was just thinking, sportbucket. So it could be someone currently at MWC using an old-but-still-valid e-mail address, could be someone who left but got to keep their e-mail addy (Carol Henderson, for example), could be they're renting out the domain name to someone else now that they're not actively using it...
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 3:25 PM on October 6, 2006

According to someone who works on the show (I don't know in what capacity, but she seems to have access to a fair amount of valid inside information), it appears to have been a deliberate tribute to Laura. As an in-joke, one of Joseph's cats was named Laura.
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 2:52 PM on May 25, 2006

Another World Book Encyclopedia reader here. Although I am probably the only one here who used those encyclopedias (and other more subject-specific reference books) to write "reports" for fun when I was about 6 or 7. ("There are many types of cats. Some are big. Some are small. My favorite big cat is the tiger. My favorite small cat is my cat Smokey....")

I loved dictionaries too. When my third-grade teacher let me make my own spelling lists, I'd... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 4:45 AM on April 28, 2006

justonegirl, my uncle is an attorney for the Department of Justice who works specifically on child pornography cases. If you would like me to ask him his advice on how to handle this, just shoot me an e-mail (listed in my profile).
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 5:39 AM on April 24, 2006

Could the Christmas show have been A Christmas Adventure from a Book Called Wisely's Tales? (Boy, what an unwieldy title.) It's computer-animated and features, among others, Wisely Owl, Rock 'n Raccoon, Honey Bunny, and Wolfpack Leader.

The title seems to imply (to me) that there are others of "Wisely's Tales," but I can't find any other references to it or the characters, in book or tv/movie form. So if that is the right Christmas show, it might just resemble... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 5:31 AM on March 30, 2006 marked best answer

Alias is one of a handful of shows that I got so into that I felt the urge to become active in the fan community. The others were The X-Files and Farscape. I think Farscape definitely fits the "character driven show with strong writing and some action" criteria, but I don't know how you feel about sci-fi type shows. (And you may spend part/most of the first season getting past the whole "muppets in... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 7:26 AM on February 21, 2006

I gather that you're looking for instances in which it seems as if the product could have been the inspiration for the film, rather than just prominent placement? (I've sometimes heard it referred to as "advertainment.")

Does the BMW short film series The Hire count?

Skimming through ericb's link, two that seemed (to me) closest to fitting what you're looking for:
- Are We There Yet?: "But mostly... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 6:19 AM on February 16, 2006 marked best answer

The first movie came before the hockey team.

You're right, smackfu. I had known that at some point but had obviously forgotten. So scratch Mighty Ducks as an example. Regardless, PotC still essentially fits. (And in my defense, I was just quoting from the brandchannel site. ;) )
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 6:43 AM on February 16, 2006

At Distributed Proofreaders, they call them "thought breaks," though it seems to be a term unique to that group. (A google search of "thought break" + asterisks turns up some hits on other sites, but it looks like most of them are DP/Project Gutenberg-related.)
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 11:50 AM on January 28, 2006

I think "Get Real" is probably it. Skimming through some of the TWoP recaps, looks like the father of the family buys a firehouse with the intention of rebuilding it and turning it into a restaurant, rather than the family actually moving into it, but otherwise it seems pretty close to what you describe. And it was cancelled abruptly -- I saw mention that the final couple episodes were supplanted in favor of showing the Party of Five finale.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 5:43 AM on January 28, 2006 marked best answer

chudmonkey, the private tracker you mention has really been my best source of cancelled/never aired/not yet aired shows. Lots of unusual and rare stuff scattered among the usual suspects. They also have a section for making requests if you're looking for specific shows that someone hasn't already posted, and they seem to be pretty good about someone being able to dig it up and upload it. (I have, I believe, 10 invites -- one has your name on it if you want it. E-mail's in my profile.) I can... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 9:23 AM on January 17, 2006 marked best answer

Not exactly what you asked for, but my family had a dog with two white front paws, and we named him Socrates -- Socs for short. Can't think of any girlish equivalents off the top of my head -- other than the "Mitzi" from the title, which I would also nix. ;)

To get back to your actual question, allaatautik, amittukaaq, ammalukitaak and talluk are all Inuit words for snowshoes --... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 6:46 AM on December 31, 2005

FeelsLikeChristmas.com looks like it might work for you. They have free mp3s, contributed directly by the artists. On their front page, they indicate "non-profit uses of all kinds are generally OK." The selection's not huge, but you could probably find something that would fit.
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 10:57 AM on November 3, 2005

Dot and Dash
Carbon and Copy
Boo and Hiss
Edgar and Allan (Poe)
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 10:28 AM on October 19, 2005

The people I know (tangentially) who are involved in that sort of work usually say they "work for the State Department." If asked for more specifics, it would be something along the lines of what jetdata said -- vague, not quite a lie, but certainly not the whole picture.

My aunt once ran into an old friend from high school who now "works for the State Department." He gave her a business card -- other than his name, it was utterly blank. (I imagine he... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 8:39 AM on October 16, 2005

Exercise and hydration are biggies, but some other things that seem to have helped me switch from low-energy to high-energy:

* Setting a regular sleep schedule. I find I'm a lot more sluggish if I get too much sleep than too little, and I'm also thrown off if I keep significantly different hours than usual. (Yes, this means I get up at about the same time on the weekends that I do during the week.)

* Taking a multivitamin... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 9:06 AM on September 26, 2005

symbebekos, were you thinking of this page?
posted to Ask Metafilter by alyxstarr at 12:10 PM on February 17, 2005

How long before we get the search plugin?

Why wait? If you're using Firefox, take advantage of the keyword quick search feature. Then you just have to learn the simple contexts Google uses for the queries (commas between address, city, state; directions = "[where] to [where]"; local search = "[what] in [where]" or "[what] near [where]"), and you can just plug your query into the location bar.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by alyxstarr at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2005