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I love stopping by Robin Klinger’s desk. Sure, most of the time she’s busy handling subsidiary rights and selling our books to folks overseas. But when she isn’t swamped with that sort of thing, she’s taking strolls to Old City Coffee, planning her next epic vacation, and, perhaps most importantly, filling up the candy jars that sit in our lobby.

The candy jars, which range in appearance from a saxophone playing M&M to a magic yellow school bus, are almost always packed to the brim with Tootsie Pops. And now, thanks to Zakkalife, we can decorate the hell out of them, superhero style. Check out those capes and masks!

Thanks for the link, Alicia!

Superhero Lollipop Templates @ Zakkalife

We teamed up with our good friend Justin Lutsky over at Epic Image Entertainment for another fantastic book trailer. You might remember Justin from such book trailers as Night of the Living Trekkies. Watch as he brings poor Gregor Samsa to life.

 The video has already found its way to Entertainment Weekly, I Can Haz Cheezburger, Neatorama, Mental Floss, Galley Cat, NY Mag, and Geeks of Doom! Thanks to everyone who has covered it, and to all of you who continue to share it.

Check it out below!

Number 3: The Elvis

The next time you have a hangover (and you know there will be a next time), skip the aspirin, the coffee, and the Bloody Marys, and eat a salty bacon sandwich instead.

According to Elin Roberts of Newcastle University’s Center for Life, eating increases your metabolism which helps alleviate hangover symptoms. Roberts says sandwiches, specifically bacon ones, are perfect hangover food since “the bread is high in carbohydrates and bacon is full of protein, which breaks down into amino acids. Your body needs these amino acids, so eating them will make you feel good.”

So before you go out Friday night, make sure you’ve got some bacon, eggs, and bread in the fridge. Then print this post, and stick it on your fridge door before you leave. Saturday morning, make one of these sandwiches. No need to thank me.

1. BLT: bacon + lettuce + tomato + mayo on white bread
2. Classic Breakfast Sandwich: bacon + fried eggs + Cheddar on buttered English muffin or biscuit.
3. The Elvis: bacon + peanut butter + mashed bananas on buttered white bread. Toast until golden.
4. Potato Chip Sandwich: bacon + peanut butter + pickles w/ potato chips on white bread.
5. All-In-One Breakfast Sandwich: bacon + fried eggs + hash brown patty + maple syrup on buttered waffles.

Flourish & Debonair, an Etsy seller based out of Knoxville, Tennessee, gives you the option to actually wear old books, as opposed to tossing them in the attic or hocking them on Amazon.

Like these handmade paper bead earrings, crafted using a repurposed vintage science diagram of the nervous and skeletal system. You can clearly see the brain, spine, and nerves in the handcrafted spherical beads. Best use of a science book, EVER. And to top it off, they come in a handmade origami gift box. A nice touch.

Earlier this year, we announced a contest with our friends the Bridgeman Art Library. They're the folks who give us the awesome artwork for our Quirk Classics series, which our designers then redesign. You can check out some before and after shots of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters, Dreadfully Ever After, and Dawn of the Dreadfuls on Bridgeman's official website, here.

The winners of the Art of the Mash-Up competition had their works framed and displayed in Brave New Worlds, a comic book shop right near our office in Old City Philadelphia that maintains an awesome art gallery. Despite the chilly and rainy weather, the exhibit's opening night had plenty of folks stopping in to scope out the mashed up art… as well as drink our wine, eat our pizza, and snatch up free posters. One of the winners even drove all the way up from St. Louis to see his runner up on display in the gallery. 

Unfortunately, my camera battery died about 5 minutes into the event… but I did manage to grab a bunch of photos with my iPhone. Have a look at the Flickr gallery below (if you don't have Flash, just go here). Thanks to everyone who stopped by, and a huge thank you to Quirk's Melissa Jacobson, for letting us use her expertise in hanging artwork.

One of my employees has a hilarious poster in her office that reads “NOW PANIC AND FREAK OUT.” (From the Philadelphia-based design studio, Print Liberation.) I thought of the poster last week when I did just that, and for not a very good reason-I freaked out because my kids and I were late for school. It was a bad parenting moment. But we all have those.

You see, my daughter has discovered the joys of “doing her hair,” something she had no interest in last year. It was time for us to head out the door, but her hair “just isn’t right,” she informed me as she tromped back upstairs to the bathroom to fix it.

“We’re going to be late,” I told her. She just stopped and glared, then headed upstairs nevertheless. “Soph,” I said, “watch it.” This, of course, made matters worse, as it sent her not to the bathroom to fix her hair, but to her room, crying.