| At the Throttle Shoot-outs, Santa and Preservation
I recently read a posting on an internet site dedicated to railroad preservation which offered an opinion that museums should not have shoot-outs because they are "hokey" and do a disservice to the museum. As the Executive Director of the most complete steam era railroad complex in the country, I've been struggling with just such issues. Yes, we do feature shoot-outs and we also offer the Polar Express®, both of which could be considered pretty "hokey." This begs the question: How does the featuring of these events mesh with our mission? .
DEVIL'S DUE ANNOUNCES SHAWNIMAL PLUSH LINE FEATURING GEEKY NINJA
Chicago, IL. (Feb. 20, 2008) Collectible toy designer Shawn Smith has a brand new fanboy-friendly ninja flying out of his Ninjatown line in May, and it's kicking down the door at Devil's Due. The Shawnimals mastermind has already produced a whitehot clan of Wee Ninjas that have sliced up toy shelves as micro-plush collectibles and made their way to an upcoming Nintendo DS game. Now, the cute, button-eyed inhabitants of Ninjatown have a new hobby comic book collecting and will kick off Devil's Due's new line of toys and functional artwork titled Devil's Due Pop. The 8-inch tall Geeky Ninja plush figure comes geared up to geek out with his own securely polybagged comic book and plushy ninja instincts to defend his Wednesday reading material. Devil's Due will also release a spriral bound Ninjatown Journal in May, filled with swarms of fast flying and furious Wee Ninjas, and plenty of space for aspiring ninjas to keep track of their own adventures.
City officials: NBA All-Star weekend helped prove N.O. is back
Basking in the glory of a successful NBA All-Star weekend, New Orleans officials said the event highlighted an unprecedented run in which the rebuilding city firmly re-established itself as a mecca for special events and conventions. The performance of the city's civil services and hospitality community during a six-week window -- in which New Orleans hosted two major football bowl games, Mardi Gras and the NBA All-Star Game -- should emphatically answer any questions about its post-Katrina viability as a premier destination for special events and conventions, officials said during a news conference Monday at City Hall. "We have reaffirmed our position as a special-event city," said Doug Thornton, regional vice president of SMG, the company that manages the New Orleans Arena and the Superdome for the state.
City sees four blazes in two hours
Jackson fire inspectors will continue their investigations today into four separate fires that occurred early Thursday morning within a two-hour period. Authorities say the fires do not appear to be related. "There is absolutely no indication whatsoever that these fires are related," said Fire Marshal Wayne Arnold on Thursday afternoon. .
Twin Cities passport office will eliminate trips to Chicago
The photographs show the very best parts of Karen Marks' honeymoon in Ireland last March. But the days leading up to the trip? "Not so wonderful," she says.
Though Karen submitted her application for a passport two months in advance of her trip, new passports requirements for North American travel had caused a backlog of passport requests last winter and spring.
"I couldn't get through on the lines," says Karen, who was becoming increasingly concerned about her absent passport. "I mean I was calling random several times a day."
With no passport in hand, days before her honeymoon, Karen made two frantic trips to the closest passport office - in Chicago. One by car, another by plane. "It was crazy," she says recalling the long lines in Chicago and the anxiety that brought her to tears.
Assembly Series wrestles with bioethical questions
Looking back over the recent past, the advances in biomedicine seem astonishing. The birth of the first "test tube baby" 30 years ago, for example, was viewed as exotic and, to some, scary. Now, in vitro fertilization is commonplace. And yet, justifiable ethical concerns surround the human outcomes of these medical breakthroughs. .
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