It's an easy stance to take for a company who made its millions by ripping off the mechanics of earlier game called Crush the Castle.

Entertaining article, interesting to see a real analysis of the grandmother excuse (the essay is obviously tongue-in-cheek, but I hope the actual data is real, at least). But all levity aside, I'm curious about what the actual role of the professor is in these situations. Clearly they hear it all the time, but how do they decide how to treat the student? Question them? Try to 'read' them? Ask for some official notice from a family member or hospital? Or just grit their teeth and say 'okay'?

Al's Breakfast in Minneapolis makes bacon waffles just like this (though in that case they pour the batter over bacon strips inside a waffle iron). They're unbelievably good.

I'll join the downer parade. It sounds to me less like "magic" more like "guilt." Someone finds out someone else paid for their meal, they say, "Oh, well, I don't want to leave without paying for SOMETHING, so I guess I'll pay for that guy's meal."

It seems to me that "blogs," and "bloggers," started as a very organic occurrence. People wanted to write about things, they wrote. Only over time did this writing turn into "blogs," and "bloggers" started creating these rules of how the system should work, which has somehow turned into this "You scratch my back..." situation. Whether they're written or unwritten, everyone seems to focus on these rules on what a blog should be, how it should be run. Even the basic idea of a "blogroll." I have no idea what that means. But I'm not a blogger, I'm a guy who wants to read interesting things. So when people start writing for the wrong reasons--to get more hits, or to get advertising money, or to get a link on a bigger more famous blog--I suddenly have no interest in reading what they have to say. If bloggers are only writing for other bloggers, which is what all these little rules seem to promote, it just turns into one big vacuous pissing contest. If you have something to say, that you care about and believe in or honestly find interesting, then say it. If you want people to see something, link to it. It shouldn't be that difficult.

This is akin to a couple getting married in 1969 wearing matching "Keep On Truckin" t-shirts.

Also, sorry that wasn't actually a question. It's just something I've always thought about, and my friends yell at me when I bring it up. Don't get me wrong, I love the project, and it's a fantastic concept. I just wonder if this artwork aspect has been broached before.

I don't want this to sound like snobbery or criticism, but I've always wondered about why so many of the secrets in these collections are submitted as stylized, fussed-over art pieces, instead of simply being secrets written on a card. I am very interested in the concept of people having an outlet to share secrets which they otherwise would probably keep festering inside, but it strikes me as a little contrary to the goal if people are dressing their secrets up in ironic collages or artwork. To me, the art here is the sharing of the secrets, and the fact that people attempt to turn their actual secrets into their own works of art does a disservice to the honesty of what they're sharing. It's like a sort of defense mechanism, one last attempt to hide the secret instead of simply admitting it.