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Worst Case Wednesday: How to Avoid a Vampire Attack

Thanks to Twilight, people have ceased to believe that vampires are blood-thirsty murderers. Bella Swan would have been long dead if she tried dating Dracula.

Anyways, anyone watching Breaking Dawn Part 2 is far more vulnerable to being attacked by vampires after leaving the midnight showing. Who knows if vampires are studying popular culture’s opinion of vampires, and changing their disarming disguise accordingly?

It’s best not to go to the cinema unprepared, as your vampire killer might very well be wearing body shimmer! Here is some insider advice from The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Extreme Edition by David Borgenicht and Joshua Piven that will help you avoid these intelligent killers.

Posted by Justin Boyer

Six Of My Favorite Mini-Series From The 80s

I started reading comic books that I bought off the spinner racks in grocery stores in the 1980s. Back then, mini-series were going through a thing. They were important. The original Wolverine mini-series, for example, is what turned Logan from a berserk brute into a more nuanced character.

So here are six mini-series I bought back then that I’ll never forget. In chronological order.

Posted by Brady Dale

Remembering Book It!: National Young Readers’ Week

Photo via Doobybrain

Remember those childhood trips to Pizza Hut — that greasy pizza justified by the fact that you were picking up a Book It! star? Those hologram buttons proudly displayed on your Jansport? How many of you thought that this program was long gone, that the program dissolved when buttons went out of style and the Boxcar Children stopped going on adventures?

Well, believe it or not, the Boxcar Children are still going on adventures and the Book It! program is still thriving. This week marks the 23rd year of National Young Readers’ Week — an event co-founded by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. That’s right — stuffed crust meets Washington, D.C.

The Book It! program has evolved a bit since the mid-80s — minutes and books are logged online and this year, in addition to the Pizza Hut sponsorship, Book It! is partnered with Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Today’s Book It! program even features a lemur named Dewey who teaches card-holding young readers how to utilize their library.

Visit the Book It! website to learn more, and relive a bit of your childhood.

Posted by Danielle Mohlman

The Comic Strip Origin of Sadie Hawkins Day

Acne-ridden and braces-clad, my nerdy high school self was always the one to ask the guy to Prom. And Homecoming. And Winter Formal. But every March, my girl-asks-out-the-guy pattern was no longer perceived as odd and was adopted by every girl in school. The Sadie Hawkins Dance. The stuff of Relient K songs. And proposals on Leap Day. But this holiday — yes, holiday — is actually meant to take place in the middle of November.

Sadie Hawkins was the daughter of Hekzebiah Hawkins — one of Dogpatch’s earliest settlers in Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner. (I know, I know. You all thought I was giving you an actual history lesson.) Described as the “homeliest gal in all them hills,” Sadie was still a spinster at 35 (gasp!) when her father rounded up all the unmarried men in Dogpatch, challenging them to a foot race. The men would be given a head-start before Sadie started running. Whichever man she caught would have to marry Sadie.

Though the original race took place on November 15, 1937, the spinsters of Dogpatch loved this idea so much, they banded together to make Sadie Hawkins day an annual event, celebrated every year on the Saturday following November 9.

So ladies, this November 10th go run after a guy in an empty field. Or just ask a fella to dinner.

Posted by Danielle Mohlman

Five of Our Favorite Bookshelves on Etsy

Most readers can build worlds in their minds from simply reading the words on a page. But, sometimes they are not so good a building practical things to store their volumes of words. Some readers know what a hammer is in theory and how it is used in the context of Thor, but they’ve never picked one up at the local hardware store.

What do you do if you want that homemade touch to your bookshelf, but don’t know the difference between flat and phillips head screws? You turn to Etsy.

Thankfully bookshelf creating experts can be found all over Etsy selling their wares. They range from the tiny and cute, to the massive and impractical. What makes it even better is that many of these helpful craftspeople can custom make your shelf to almost any dimension you want. Just not the 4th dimension, they haven’t figured that one out yet.

Here’s a look at some of our favorite bookshelves you can buy on Etsy right now.

Posted by Christopher Urie

Night of the Living Trekkies Infect Disneyland!

Over the weekend, some Night of the Living Trekkies fans decided to appear as undead Trekkies at an event at Disneyland.

Lindsay Stanley, Bri Bower, and Kara Rickert sent over this amazing picture and the author, Kevin David Anderson, shared it with us. Now we're sharing it with you! Because… well, just look at them! Awesome. 

Posted by Eric Smith