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Drinkable Languages Offered At LA Time-Travel Mart

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the time-freezy-hyper-slush-is-a-category-five-explosive dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Via the sci-fi blog io9 comes a fantastic project that not only has a great premise but backs a great cause. The San Francisco writing center called 826 Valencia works to teach kids passion for the written word. The program really works, and has expanded to other cities across the country in an effort to get more young people writing. To fund these outreach programs, the organization has opened some ... unique businesses in their new locales. The LA chapter, for example, features a Time Travel mart. The imaginative place features dozens of products like Robot Milk, Viking Oderant, and Olde Fashioned English Gunpowder. Other centers around the country offer similar themed experiences, like the NYC Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. or Seattle's Greenwood Space Travel Supply Corporation."

3 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. These places are great by Phoenix666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They're even fun for adults to visit. We went to the Brooklyn Superhero supply store and had a blast with the invisibility powder and Hero or Villain? quiz.

    --
    Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
  2. Re:Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Neglect by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    All those links and the summary doesn't mention Dave Eggers, the author, and founder of 826 Valencia, as well as McSweeneys.

    Also, that group once did a Pirate supply store.

    They were subsequently sued by the RIAA. I can understand why harassing a major record label is a serious crime and where the perpetrators deserve to be fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and spend decades in prison, but what is the reason that the RIAA decided to file a lawsuit here? Did the RIAA take out a trademark on the word 'pirate'? Or does the promotion of reading somehow offend music retailers?
  3. 826 Seattle by misstake · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I volunteer at the Seattle incarnation of 826. Stop by the Space Travel Supply! We stock both Certainty and Uncertainty, conveniently stored in jars (though the latter is heavier-- it does weigh on you), anti-gravity tools, 0.9% purity Argon, rocket fuel, and more. The packaging is terribly clever.
    There will be a Plutonian protest and rally on the 15th where students will make arguments for the reinstatement of its planethood. If you're in our gravitational field, visit! The kids' creativity will impress.
    Though 826 is a writing center primarily, we see everything at drop-in tutoring. Everything. Another tutor and I deal primarily with mathematics... we do our best with everything else.
    Send your children over, Seattle. We'll make sure they do their homework (beyond the magnitude limit).