Now March 2010

March

Week 1

mon, march 01
PORK OUT
National Pig Day

In 1972, sisters Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave started National Pig Day to celebrate our porcine friends and the $44 billion industry built on their backs (and shoulders and bellies). How to mark the occasion is still up for debate four decades later, but perhaps you could follow the example of Iowa real-estate agent Brooks Reynolds. In 2008, he started the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Des Moines. "It's an outlet," Reynolds says, "to spread our love of bacon to the masses." Wait, who -- especially in Iowa -- didn't already love bacon? -- ERICA WESTLY

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tue, march 02
READ
The Ask

"New technology, new markets, global interconnectivity, doesn't matter," veteran fixer Leo Moss says to neophyte Milo Burke in this darkly comic novel by Sam Lipsyte. "It's still the rulers and the ruled." Lipsyte considers "late capitalism" through Burke -- a college development officer -- and his relationship with new-media titan Purdy Stuart, who makes the book sing. "Do you realize that one day we'll be heating our houses with trout?" Stuart tells Burke. "Is that one of the ideas at the ideas festival?" Burke asks. "It's just fantastic here," Stuart replies. Fantastic, indeed. -- DAVID LIDSKY

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sat, march 06
CRUNCH
MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference

The geeks shall inherit the sports. Statistical analysis has reshaped how teams in every sport evaluate talent and call plays. But as once-vanguard stats such as baseball's on-base percentage go mainstream (thanks, Moneyball), the box scores of the future will be debated -- and analyzed -- at this Cambridge, Massachusetts, meeting. So what goes in it? One top contender is the UZR (ultimate zone rating), a defensive metric developed by Mitchel Lichtman to gauge how well a fielder saves runs at his position; third baseman Adrian Beltre, signed to a one-year, $9 million contract with the Red Sox, has the second-highest UZR since 2002. No word on Lichtman's USGR (ultimate sports-geek rating), but we're guessing it's very, very high. -- DL

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sun, march 07
APPLAUD
The 82nd Academy Awards

The Oscars may seem as if they're all about who gets to hoist those 8.5-pound statuettes, but the designers whose gowns are worn to the ceremony are the night's other big winners, raking in millions in PR and buzz. (We're still talking about that vintage Valentino Julia Roberts wore in 2001, when she won for that dress and maybe for Erin Brockovich.) Red-carpet faves like Oscar de la Renta and Elie Saab no doubt will appear, but the happiest designer this year will be an unknown. In the Academy's Oscars Designer Challenge, 10 up-and-comers will send gowns down the catwalk in a pre-awards show, and the winning design -- picked by online voters -- will be worn by a statuette presenter on awards night. We'd say that's definitely worth more than Oscar's weight in gold. -- STEPHANIE SCHOMER

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Week 2

tue, march 09
PROGRAM
Game Developers Conference

Casual gaming has ruled the past year, so much so that the GDC in San Francisco has added a Social and Online Games Summit to talk all things Facebook and iPhone. Part of the growth comes from the startling number of young gamers: 82% of 2- to 17-year-olds in America -- that's 56 million people -- say they play. "It's important to have an immersive experience where kids are learning but don't know it," says John Popadiuk, director of the educational-gaming project Nanoschool Kids. "This has to be a 21st-century mantra of sorts, as all kids basically are growing up in a 'more pure' digital age." In other words, GDC attendees, do it for the children. -- ZACHARY WILSON

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tue, march 09
READ
The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History

The best thing about Jason Vuic's book about the Yugo is the priceless collection of Yugo jokes he has compiled for it. For instance: "Q: What do you call a Yugo with brakes? A: Customized." Another: "Q: What do you call a Yugo that breaks down after 100 miles? A: An overachiever." Vuic, who teaches history at Virginia's Bridgewater College, writes what amounts to a business farce, detailing how the Balkan lemon first arrived in America 25 years ago this month and ended up in thousands of American garages and just as many punch lines. Sometimes the story sputters -- his relentless focus on Malcolm Bricklin, the serial entrepreneurial failure who masterminded the Yugo's import, just gets annoying. But you can say this about Vuic's book, if not of its pathetic subject: For the most part, it works. -- JEFF CHU

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wed march 10
10th Anniversary of the Nasdaq Peaking at 5,048.62