Dear faithful readers, do not panic, I haven’t gone anywhere. I’m recovering from a slow-moving virus (no, it doesn’t go oink and, try as I might, I can’t seem to infect anyone else with it) and am giving myself extra time to sleep and take things easy. I’ll be back soon.

The highly anticipated Scribblenauts game has a great ESRB rating description: “If multiple words are entered in a sequence, different whimsical scenarios can be triggered: a bicycle can be used to jump over a baby; a bulldozer can clear away a shark; and cabbage can be fed to dinosaurs. Players can elect to summon “cartoony” versions of bats, bombs, guns, and flamethrowers. These types of items can be used to destroy objects or even other summoned items (e.g., a club can be used to hit an animal; steak can be attached to a baby to attract lions; rockets can be lobbed at a man). These triggered animations are minimally depicted and are usually accompanied by popping, musical sound effects; bright, star-shaped flashes; or small puffs of smoke. If players wish to, they may type in the word vomit, which causes a beige-colored lump to appear on the screen.” (They got an “Everyone 10+” rating. I guess attaching a steak to a baby is OK.) (via joystiq)

There’s still a shoe company making shoes in Maine, and if this Huffington Post interview is to be believed, they’re getting a holiday shoe order from J. Crew. Quoddy still hand sews their shoes in Perry, Maine. They produce several shoes in the moccasin style. I remember their classic boat shoe being the elite preppy brand of choice back in my hometown (Sperry Topsiders being the mainstream choice — yes, preppy was mainstream where I grew up). Perhaps with all the J. Crew love in the First Family we’ll see a pair in the White House soon. As the N.Y. Times has put on the record, preppy is back, via Japan.

During our recent trip back to the S.F. Bay Area, we rode on the old carousel at Los Gatos’ Oak Meadow Park. The Chronicle takes a look at the six old wooden carousels around the Bay Area, including brief reviews from a 4-year-old boy (not ours). All are from the golden age of carousels, the late 1890s-1920s, when these merry-go-rounds featured intricate wooden carvings and detailed scenery panels. The one at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk actually has a working brass ring dispenser. The Bay Area is also home to one of a pair of the world’s largest carousels, the Carousel Columbia, built in 1976 at Santa Clara’s Great America.

Top golfer’s championship wardrobes are set far in advance by their sponsors. Tiger Woods meets with Nike 3-4 times a year to plan what he’ll wear each day of a major event. For Woods, never white or green pants, and always a red shirt on Sundays. And that red shirt sells well.

Aaron Sorkin, writer of “Sports Night” and a few other little shows and movies you may have heard of, has been brought in to fix the script for “Moneyball.” The movie is based on the book of the same name which tells about the Oakland A’s unconventional approach to creating a competitive team with significantly less money than other baseball franchises. Now you know why I mentioned “Sports Night” instead of “West Wing.” Steven Soderbergh was set to direct and did a rewrite of a script by Steve Zaillian. Sony Pictures execs weren’t satisfied and now the picture has no director but one can hope that the combo of Sorkin and Brad Pitt, who is on board to star, will keep this one alive.

This weekend the Seattle Symphony is shooting for a younger audience with performances of “Distant Worlds: The Music of ‘Final Fantasy'”. Composer Nobuo Uematsu will attend all three performances and meet with audience members at special sessions afterwards. Scenes from the video game will be shown on a large screen above the orchestra.

From a New Scientist blog: Top 10 songs inspired by the Apollo missions. David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” is missing, though you could argue since he was actually inspired by Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, it doesn’t count. But regardless, Bowie is releasing “Space Oddity” this month in a Digital EP format to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the single and the moon landing. The EP consists of four different versions of the single plus the eight original recording tracks for remixing.

You want to show off how well you’re weathering this economic climate? Grab some black leather band-aids from Scott Amron to cover your boo-boos. You might want to sign up for the Louis Vuitton ones as well. The New York Times reported last summer on people wearing designer bandages even if they didn’t need them to cover a cut.

While searching for lychee season news, I found this amusing quote from the Honolulu Advertiser: “Lychee is valuable. No other fruit grown in Hawai’i makes the police blotter as much as lychee.” I’m not surprised. I’d be tempted to steal it off a tree if I spotted some. The article is actually about a short film called Lychee Thieves. Written and directed by Kathleen Man, the film was inspired by a newspaper article about a lychee farm robbery. Casting is underway and pre-production has begun, including capturing the peak of lychee season on film.