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We've also got "Good name for a roller girl*" and "Good name for a derby bout/PPV wrestling event/summer comic book crossover" threads, if anyone finds themselves in need.

Both of Brooks' zombie books were the kind of thing where the basic premise (a field guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse/Studs Terkel covers the zombie apocalypse) is a good one, but in order to actually do it correctly you kind of have to end up with a book that's kind of boring.

For fun zombie novels, I recommend Pariah by Bob Fingerman (the guy who did the Minimum Wage comic).

Zombie movie recommendations: The obvious Romero stuff (especially Dawn and Night), Zombie Strippers, Cemetery Man, Fido (although it's one where the execution didn't quite live up to the concept).

From the "Good Names For A Rock Band" thread on the Hex Forums (may be some repeats--we had several lists of dumb band names before we started the thread):

Fair Trade Humus
Beer Pong Herpes
Putricine and the Cadaverines
The Peter North Explosion
Five Guys In Turtlenecks
The Fish Town Troubadors
Oddd
Funky Pumpkin
Anthology
FEG
Entropy
Proxy
Blue Blazer Irregulars
BLT
Transistortown
Slappy
Perkocet
Fifth Circle
Porno Pals
Downtrodden
Mac & Cheez
Glyph
Horhordden
The Charles Dexter Ward Experience
Meatgrinder
Hammerhead
Albatross
The Dregs
The Half-Truths
The Scamps
Power Outage
Trallallee
Your Final Selection
Macrocosm
Enochian
Pagan Tea Party
Loose Change
Manitoba
Armageddon Annie
The Eaters
Plexi
Nailbonnet
Farmhand
The Ray Forsythe Band
Mrs. Leatherstocking
The Time of Cholera
The Bollocks
Invisible Penguin
Portable Tony
Jimmy Auto
Seratonin Seven
Soccerthighs
Mr. Marvel
The Cupcakes
Perfidious Oblongatta
Eat More Cheese
Times New Roman
Bilderbergers
Derby Funk
Cheese Orgy
Albatross
The Conjunction Injunction
Invisible Penguin
Van Owen Syndrome
Snorkeling Dungbeetles
Live Nude Bait
NDE
Monkeypants
Hurl
Meatgrinder
Fine Gooey Paste
The Flatulent Cows     
Mummichog
The Minxy Conundrums

I've only seen the first season. I thought it was well-done, but the ending seemed a little rushed.

My main response to the show was "I really should have kept in touch with Robert Kirkman after we stopped working together," but that's been my response to a lot of things over the last decade or so. Who expected the goofy high school kid from Cynthiana to become the darling of the geek world?

I think you dropped something in that post back there...

It helps keep the bitterness from overwhelming me.

I've only seen the first season. I thought it was well-done, but the ending seemed a little rushed.

My main response to the show was "I really should have kept in touch with Robert Kirkman after we stopped working together," but that's been my response to a lot of things over the last decade or so. Who expected the goofy high school kid from Cynthiana to become the darling of the geek world?

Not saying my experience with them was representative, but:
http://goatheadgumbo.blogspot.com/2009/11/menciaed-by-cracked.html

My local news station (which specializes in throwing shit in the air rather than reporting news) covered the prom dress thing. The completely expected irony was that the people who were up in arms about the violations of the girls First Amendment rights were the same ones who are always all for violation of students' Fourth Amendment rights when the argument of the day is about drug testing or strip searches.

On the flag:
Short answer: Except for a few open racists and reenactors (who are their own special brand of crazy), most people who wear/fly/whatever the confederate flag have little or no idea what it's supposed to mean. It's about tribal branding, like wearing a Nike shirt or St. Louis Cardinals hat.
Long answer: http://goatheadgumbo.blogspot.com/2012/05/heritage-or-hate.html

One less COMMIE to worry about:

http://boingboing.net/2012/07/05/meet-the-legions-of-wignuts-wh.html

Tom Waits, "Talking At The Same Time"

Tom Waits, "Talking At The Same Time"

Get a job, save your money, listen to Jane
Everybody knows umbrellas will cost more in the rain
All the news is bad
Is there any other kind?
Everybody's talking at the same time

Well it's hard times for some
For others it's sweet
Someone makes money when there's blood in the street
Don't take any lip
Stay in line
Everybody's talking at the same time

Well the dog is in the kitchen
And the war drags on
The trees wait by the freeway
All the moneys all gone
Well she told me she would leave me
I ignored all the signs
And now everybody's talking at the same time
Everybody's talking at the same time

Ain't no one coming to pull you from the mud
You gotta build your nest high enough to ride out the flood
I know you're leaving and there's no more next time
Everybody's talking at the same time

A tiny boy sat and he played in the sand
He made a sword from a stick
And a gun from his hand
Well we bailed out all the millionaires
They've got the fruit
We've got the rind
And everybody's talking at the same time
Everybody's talking at the same time

Is there a ballpark figure on how many people it would take?

Has anything like this ever been done before that would suggest what the banks' likely response would be?

There's this: http://www.occupystudentdebtcampaign.org/, but so far it's gotten nowhere near the number of pledges (1 million, IIRC) for organized non-payment.

Wow, I didn't realize I was that upset about it. I really need to learn to control my temper.

Sure there is.  They could ask the event organisers if they are serious, or if they are using hyperbolic rhetoric to make a point.

True, but that still requires some indication that they're nos serious, and line between hyperbolic rhetoric and rhetoric these days is pretty thin.

does your dilemma come from if its ok to manipulate people for good things?

a type of means dont justify ends?

It's more about the people being manipulated than the manipulation itself. I'm perfectly ok with manipulating the people who are willing to give up their library for a small tax cut AND the people who came to the page and started screaming about book burning without ever bothering to look beyond the sign and the surface of the FB page. Just seems like there were probably at least a few people who Did Everything Right (TM) and still ended up making jackasses of themselves anyway. 

And I think I mentioned before that in this case, I think the ends justified the means.

It sounds like you feel it was "unfair" to keep people who would have enjoyed being part of the stunt "out of the circle of cool kids" pulling the gag.

Not quite, but the first part is in the ballpark. It's not so much that they're not allowed in on the prank as that there's no way for those who do their due diligence to find out what's really going on before they start screeching about something that, as presented, deserves to be screeched about.