Dear Mark: Fruit Wax, Placentophagy, and Second Hand Smoke | Mark’s Daily Apple – If I ever have a rock band, I’m going to call it ENCAPSULATED PLACENTOPHAGY.

Women who dress cute – Interesting opinion piece. As someone who regularly wears sneakers with dresses and has been known to rock a Peter Pan collar, I do occasionally wonder whether other people are judging me for it. I wear what makes me feel comfortable, and it’s definitely not for the appreciation of men. I feel way more self-conscious and fake when I glam it up heteronormative style.

Oscar Contest Winner
Congratulations to Jeremy Cropf, who won the big prize in this year’s Oscar Contest! Jeremy tied with five others for first place with 13 out of 14 correct: Allison Kucera, Dan Vogel, Gerri Kuhn, Gordon Purcell, and Preston Nicholson. It all came down to the dead people in the obituary montage though, and with a guess of 43 (the real number was 41), Jeremy won! It turns out this was his first year entering, and he’s an NYU film school grad working as an independent filmmaker and freelancer in Portland. (Yep, this is him!) Very cool – and congratulations, Jeremy!

Thanks to everybody who entered this year. And if you think of any sock monkey concepts throughout 2013, be sure to send them to me…

The Oscar ceremony is just starting, which means that my 2013 Oscar Contest is officially closed! I had to weed out a few duplicates and obvious attempts to game extra entries, but I believe we ended up with 509 entries in total. You will be able to follow along with your score as the awards are announced here. (Note: I’m at work so the scores might not update immediately each time.) Best of luck!

And if you’re watching at home, can you count dead people in the obituary montage for me? Thanks!