A Grain of Salt

Before the Mortgage

And a final post before I actually get "work" done: I've got an essay in this book--it's a compilation of pieces about life in your 20s. So does Sarah Vowell, Meghan Daum, and a whole host of other people whose writing is like, way more well-known than mine. Why they decided to put a picture of a toilet paper roll on the cover is beyond me (I wouldn't think that toilet photos had been proven to really "push" merchandise) but I'm still wicked excited. It comes out April 11th. Check it out/buy it here. (And if you want to then pay me loads of money for the collection of essays I'm working on about life in *my* twenties, well, hey, there's an email link just to your right.)

Who Said Spammers Weren't Helpful?

You know, sometimes I get stressed that there's nothing really listed on our calendar page. Imagine my delight when I clicked on "Stuff You Should Do" and found not only a listing for the Tiny Strips of Heart Tissue CD release party (which you should totally go to if you live in Berkeley, by the way), but also some events coming up that, frankly, I'd never realized that Salt contributors were involved in. For example, Salt reader poker06ann has posted an event called, get this, "Poker Games" that will take place on September 21, 2009, at 9:40 a.m. Wow! Thanks for the heads-up, poker06ann! I'll jot that down.

Unfortunately, devoted fans Slots777 and OnlineCasinoPortal seem to have *also* scheduled their poker tournaments for September 21, 2009--also at 9:40 in the morning. Shit! This is going to take some scheduling, especially because number-one-reader jedday2 has posted his event, "The Tranny," ("all about trannies, their life, special catalog") for September 21st, 2009 as well and, yes, it's at 9:40 in the morning. Fuck. I hope that preferred contributor dj4Fjssf didn't schedule his "Drugs Kingdom" party for . . . September 21, 2009, at 9:40 a.m. And when mendezrop4 decided to hold an Anime and Manga event in Hungary, not to mention moisha21IU's "Best Amateur Porn Collection on the Net"--surely, surely they didn't . . . god damn it!

But wait--not all hope is lost. Jhuyi21TR's lecture series, "Best Asian Porn Collection on the Net" is taking place yes, on September 21, 2009--but this one's at 8:10 a.m. Mark your calendars now.

Nazli Parvizi is a RockStar

Saltines, check out today's Gothamist, where Salt sometimes contributor and all times reader Nazli Parvizi is featured in an interview. She caters, she runs the mayor's volunteer office, she bhangra dances--check her out!

Happy Birthday, GP!

For anyone who doesn't know it, today is the natal day of one Salty editor-in-chief, Mr. Gene Perelson!

Happy Birthday, Gene! May your adventures be many and your cystoscopies be few!

Nick and the Collective Unconscious

Catherine here. Just received an email from Nick, who saw that last posting on the blog and, thankfully, wasn't upset that I had written about him. (This is one of my greatest fears as a writer, that I will offend and alienate those I care about.)

Anyway, in his email he tells the following story: "A couple of days ago I was buying crickets at my pet store in Brooklyn and I saw beneath the counter several porceline figurines, one of which was a blonde girl kneeling on a crab, the other a blonde girl riding a tortoise. Not far off from my lobster-girlfriend. . . . which is yet another case of my ideas being out there, among the collective unconscious."

My interpretation of this is slightly jaded by the fact that it seems that someone at the cricket store may have had naughty intentions in mind with those figurines. But when I put my cynical, perverted mind to the side, I think Nick is right, overall. His ideas ARE out there in the collective unconscious. And I bet a lot of everyone else's are, too--it's sort of like how my parents claim to have invented car-adapted coffee cups. My point is, maybe the crazy ideas we each have aren't really that crazy, and we should just get out there and do them before somebody else does. So Nick, if you're reading this, send us a picture of one of your figures!

Happy New Year's

Gene here.  Well, we're headed headlong into another year of the Aughts and amazingly enough, Salt is just over a year old.  No, Saltines, we haven't been posting for a year, but it has been a year since CP and myself first started work on the ole Saltmag.  It's been an exciting year.  I am thrilled at where we are; rarely satisfied, though, I look to the future.  What's next for Salt?  I'd like to hear from you, our Saltines.  What have you liked?  What would you like to see more of?  Write to us at editors-at-saltmag-dot-net or just comment at the end of the post.  Please refrain from swearing unless it is really hot and dirty.

Together Again

You know who this is? Gene AND Catherine. Oh yes, that's right. Thanks to the wonder of cross-continental air travel and the almost magnetic attraction Catherine feels toward her former dwellings, she and Gene have spent the afternoon in the magic halls of 425 working on Salt together. It's just like old times.

Except, it's new times, too. We're thinking about a little redesign of the front page, people, so that you can get a glimpse of procrastinator's toolbox AND this blog from the main page of the site. That way, even if we haven't posted new articles in a while, you'll get the sense that the Salt team is a nest of frenetic, creative energy (the reality is more that Kyoung is frenetically procrastinating, but that's just as, if not more, satisfying--check out the MP3 player Kalashnikov that she just put up--complete with gun-toting bikini-clad babes!).

Anyway, things here are good. Except that Catherine still has food poisoning, so she's existing solely on gatorade, saltines, and the occasional poor choice of Ben and Jerry's half-baked ice cream (that was a mistake!). The good thing about this adventure is that she revisted the reason that your stomach is so tender post-vomit: the little villae (frond-like nubby bits in your small intenstine that add to the surface area, thus aiding digestion) get all smushed down when you barf, and until they regain their perky splendor, you'll have difficulty digesting anything that's not a cracker. Isn't that fascinating?

Meanwhile, Gene has reloaded his hard drive AND gotten his mp3 player to play Robbie Williams. So we're counting today a success. Now we have to go. Love to you all.

Kisses,

Gene and Catherine

A Shout-Out to Dipal Barua and the Grameen Bank

I went to the 3rd Annual Innovation Awards and Summit tonight, hosted by The Economist, and before I collapse into a technological slumber, I would like to give a big shout-out to Dipal Barua and the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Why? Because this bank, founded in 1976, provides micro-loans to poor women to help them start their own sustainable businesses and support their families. Loans are typically about US $30, and are used by the women to finance businesses selling things like bamboo stools and baskets. Some of the bank's newest outreach programs include one targeted toward Bangladesh's beggar population, and another that sells women cell phones, which they then use to start businesses as, like, local payphones, where other villagers pay them to make calls on their phones--they make an average of $60 a month. The women don't have to sign any legal document to get the loans, and upon joining the bank, each "member" (as its customers are called, since they also own part of the bank) is put into a community group to help encourage and support them as they pay back their loans. The result of this relationship of trust? A 98% payback rate. Pretty freaking cool, right?

Here are some other great numbers:

-So far they've lent over US $4.5 billion, $4 billion of which has already been paid back.

-96 percent of loan recipients are female, despite the fact that it is a Muslim society that does not encourage women to work outside of the home.

-the bank also provides scholarships to the families of its members. 60 percent of the scholarships go toward women.

-Since 1997, 75,000 people have started cell phone businesses.

-The bank currently operates more than 1, 256 branches providing credit to more than 3.7 million poor people in over 45,000 villages in Bangladesh. A similar cell phone program is being launched in Uganda, and the micrcredit model has been emulated in 50 countries around the world, including the US.

"I grew up in a small village," Barua said when I asked him what his inspiration was for the bank. "I knew the poor people. The satisfying part of my work now is seeing their smiling faces."

It's a pretty amazing project; The Economist ran a story on it a while back if you want more information. Hearing Barua speak was inspiring and he and the bank deserve all the Salty love they can get. Congratulations for winning the first-ever Social and Economic Innovation award!