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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."

11 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 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.
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      GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
    3. 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.

  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.

  3. 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!

  4. 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.

  5. 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.)
  6. 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.
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    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  7. 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).