This week's report comes at a serendipitous time: On the heels of Mayor Bloomberg's annual State of the City speech. And while we all have opinions and would love to hoot, holler, hack, and hiss in response to his speech...honestly, why bother? Other people will be doing the boring brainwork for you and as they do that, focus on more pressing matters, like which odd trinkets ladies can use to provocatively obscure their no-no zones, as Amanda Palmer encourages them to do, for the sake of feminism...after the break [except I moved it above the break because I fucking love it - r.].
• Amanda Palmer's new album, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under is out tomorrow and in celebration you should learn about what "Map of Tasmania" refers to. [BuzzFeed]
• ...and in that same breath of delightful diva doings comes news of Kylie Minogue performing a third night in a row up at the Hammerstein Ballroom. It's $103 (fees included!) for standing room-only. [Kylie Minogue]
• I know that we all have opinions about Walmart cratering New York City industry (as in: "Please don't!") but you have to admit that slashing produce prices and attempting to make in-store goods a little healthier is a genius marketing move to get us beauty-obsessed city-dwellers to acquiesce. [Consumerist]
• FROGALICIOUS Nearly 80,000 people are flocking to Fellesmere, Florida for a festival where they get to dine on frog legs and alligator tails. [WPTV]
• Steve Jobs' interim replacement is the most powerful gay man of Silicon Valley. [Valleywag]
• The president may have marriage equality finally in his eye-line. [Washington Post]
• Meanwhile Sarah Palin has more pressing issues in her eye-line: Like not allowing the world to enjoy the riveting splendor of Joan Rivers. Seriously. Have any of you seen A Piece of Work? [The Guardian]
• The Maguire daisy flower has outgrown the endangered species list. Well done, everyone! [Treehugger]
• JEAN-E-OLOGY A student decided to wear the same pair of jeans, unwashed, for 15 months, to see how much bacteria would accumulate. Random guess: A lot. [MSNBC]
• TREND ALERT And I leave you with this bit of summary: LGBT individuals in the south may raise more kids than LGBT individuals in the north. [The Week]
Rohin Guha is a fiction writer living in Brooklyn. His short story collection Relief Work is currently available through Birds of Lace. He will be checking in with civilization once a week and giving us a progress report.
