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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."

22 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Am I the only one... by sltd · · Score: 5, Informative

    ... who was confused by "drinkable languages" in the headline? Do I need to, like, RTFA?

    1. Re:Am I the only one... by tristian_was_here · · Score: 3, Informative

      I wasn't confused by the head line but what is the article going on about?

    2. Re:Am I the only one... by AndGodSed · · Score: 2, Funny

      No you weren't. Here I thought I didn't need to go study Hebrew anymore... SUCKS!

      --

      Seven Days with Ubuntu Unity

    3. Re:Am I the only one... by cp.tar · · Score: 2, Funny

      ... who was confused by "drinkable languages" in the headline? Do I need to, like, RTFA?

      Nope.

      IAALinguist, and that was the main reason I even opened this TFThread. And I'm still WTFing.

      --
      Ignore this signature. By order.
    4. Re:Am I the only one... by Eudial · · Score: 3, Funny

      ... who was confused by "drinkable languages" in the headline? Do I need to, like, RTFA?


      The summary didn't clear things up either. It was like... I could see words, words I knew and understood, but they didn't form coherent sentences.
      --
      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    5. Re:Am I the only one... by Seumas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hell if I know. All I know is that it's a lot of wasted effort to "get kids to read".

      You know how you get kids to read? You start reading to them when they're very young. Then they'll want to start reading on their own. And if your home is full of books and the adults in it are always reading, the kids will naturally tend to have a passion for it as well.

      Otherwise... I don't know... send them to a vocational school so they can clean pools or something.

    6. Re:Am I the only one... by Glyphstream · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The individual sentences are coherent enough. It's just when you put them all together that the English language goes to hell. Part A: They started a program to get kids to read. Part B: People opened weird stores selling Robot Turds and Ye Olde Fashioned Internal Combustion Engines. What Part A has to do with Part B, I don't know. I get the feeling RTFAing won't make the answer much clearer either.

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      Sig unrelated.
  2. Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Neglect by mwigmani · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. 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?
    2. Re:Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Neglect by Belgand · · Score: 2, Informative

      They did not "once" do a pirate store. The pirate store is still around located at 826 Valencia St. in San Francisco. I was in there just the other day. As such, the pirate concept is the original.

      As well, while they do actually sell some items the majority of the "store" is simply to open drawers filled with appropriate bits (such as the artificial beards with a big mess of hair-like substance inside), read the amusing signs, and promote writing.

      The fish tank is excellent.

      It's also located next to the absolutely amazing Paxton Gate which, well, it's hard to describe exactly, except that all of the amazing things there are for sale.

  3. 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.
  4. Drinkable languages? by rolfc · · Score: 4, Funny

    After a couple of beers, I speak any language.

    1. Re:Drinkable languages? by n3tcat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is actually not too far off from my experience. I went to the military language school in California, and all the people in the various languages would struggle the whole 6 months to a year or whatever the requirement for that language was. Put a few drinks in them though and they would lose all that fear, and their minds would "clear" up allowing the language barrier to fall. Towards the end of the course, people would be able to speak fluently and without hesitation sometimes!

  5. Wow, that's neat. by Khaed · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I would have loved a place like that as a kid. The anti-robot fluid made me laugh.

    Whoever made all those -- those people are creative geniuses and deserve applause.

  6. Ahh by evwah · · Score: 2, Funny

    Ahh but do they have Torgo's Executive Powder?

  7. yeah, really by Karma+Sucks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With all due respect to the moderators and not withstanding above AC's lack of tact -- that article really is fucking drivel.

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    (Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
  8. Java programming for kids by wizardforce · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Drinkable Languages Offered At LA Time-Travel Mart
    did anyone else see that part and immediately think Java?
    anyway, this is actually a pretty good idea- the current educational system tends to destroy any interest in writing/math/the sciences so perhaps this will spark some interest where there was none before.
    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
    1. Re:Java programming for kids by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm just glad to finally have a place here in the 21st to buy Mom's Old-fashioned Robot Oil. There's a little love (and Ethylene glycol) in every can.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  9. wow by RHSC · · Score: 2, Funny

    the title of this summary has actually achieved 'word-salad' status.
    drinkable languages at the time travel mart, eh? whatever you've been smoking, it must have been pretty damn good

  10. 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).

  11. Obviously it's Belgium's Semi-Official Language by jessemckinney · · Score: 2, Funny

    There is no coincidene that the best beer making country in the world is Belgium. Afterall, their language is Belch right? ...Ducks

  12. You left out the best part... by 0x4a6f6e43 · · Score: 2, Informative

    If you haven't read this then you haven't seen the real creative talent of these people: I personally can recommend the bottle of Uncertainty. It comes in real handy from time to time... http://putative.typepad.com/putative/2007/01/fedex_refuses_s.html