MuseBlog

We haven’t been following all the backs and forths and ins and outs. Is it going to happen on Thursday the 5th? Staff members in Chicago have been alerted and are ready to show you around. Just say the word.

NOTE: Anyone organizing a tour should get in touch directly with Muse‘s intern Myra Awodey (mawodey@uchicago.edu) as soon as possible.

It’s been more than a year since we started the first “Ask the GAPAs” thread. Since then the number of Administrators on the blog has doubled, and we’re sure your questions have more than kept pace. So fire away. As before, we promise to answer entertainingly, or not at all.

A place to, yes, discuss the April 2007 issue of Muse. Spoilers allowed–and, indeed, inevitable.

Tell us (and the world) when your issue arrived. No spoilers, please.

MuseBlog does not encourage non-virtual meetings. If you’re going to organize them, be careful. The best way to plan them is for your parents to communicate with one another by e-mail. We’ll put them in touch with one another if they will e-mail us (gapa @ musefanpage.com). Meanwhile, you can use this thread for headcounts and other preliminary planning.

Chicagoland crowd: We’ve asked people at Muse headquarters about a possible tour for you. Stay tuned…Sorry–not this spring break!

GOOD NEWS! The people at Carus Publishing say they can give a tour. If you stop by on Tuesday or Thursday after 10 and before 4, you can meet the magazine’s art director and designer. If you come in the morning, the photo researcher will be there, too. Just let us know if and when, and we’ll pass the word on to them.

(In case you have trouble reading the second one on your monitor, here’s what it says.)

1. Because everyone would get free pies.
2. Because everyone would have to be stick figures.
3. Because everyone would have to shave their head except for 6 black hairs.
4. Because there would be free pie throwing contests every day.
5. Because his head would look so cool on a coin.
6. Because he would give up all nuclear weaponry in favor of pies.
7. Because it would be funny to see who he’d choose as a first lady (Aeiou? Mimi? URANIA?)
8. Because he would make sure that music programs weren’t cut from schools.
9. Because he’s black, a cartoon character, and skinny. Minorities, people!
10. Because I said so.

Made by Cat’s Meow.

Muse‘s mathematics columnist, Ivars Peterson, has started copies of his columns on his new blog. He’s also gradually adding older columns there. You can read the March 2007 Math Page on Picture Games by clicking this link.

There’s a fairly complete list of previous Math Pages on the website of Science News for Kids.

Not long ago, one MBer said other kids at school tease her about the magazine’s name. Another said she regularly left magazines at home if the covers showed embarrassing images such as (oh, the horror) babies.

We’re sure this is not what the editors have in mind. They want readers to flaunt Muse proudly, not hide it like a shameful secret. And other kids who see it should react the way they would to a new, skinnier, flasher, larger-capacity, higher-resolution iPod: by exclaiming, “I must have it!”

So, what can the folks in Chicago do to make the magazine more like that? (Apart from printing more Muse for less money–not an option, we fear.) You’re all experts, and we know you’re highly opinionated. Let’s have some ideas.

Warning! Certain to contain spoilers.

They’re starting to arrive. Let us know when yours does.

So, what did you think?

They’re starting to arrive. Let us know when yours appears. No spoilers, please–that’s a separate thread.

What did you think about it? How did you like it?

WARNING: This thread is bound to contain spoilers. Better read the issue first.

Let us know when your issue arrives. Don’t post spoilers, please. We’ll have a separate thread for discussing what’s in the issue.

Robert writes:

Over the past few months I’ve mentioned a couple of mysterious Muse-related projects that I’ve been working on. One of them, a collaboration between me and my fellow moderator Rebecca Lasley (a.k.a. Lady Bunniful), has now reached the sneak-preview stage. It’s not up and running yet, so please don’t try to do anything with it. But if you’d care to visit www.cafepress.com/musery , we’d love to hear what you think.

Project number two will be unveiled in a few weeks.

All right, now you may talk about it.

SPOILER WARNING.

Report your issues as they arrive, but post no spoilers, please.

Muse is up to 53 54 55 [thanks, Otzi and Kricket!] Amazon reviews now, mostly raves. You can read them all here.

We’re opening this thread to comments, because why not?

The original “Muse Movie?” thread just hit 400 posts, a sure sign that it’s long past time to start a sequel. Here goes.

The stately Marquette Building, home of Carus Publishing until it moves a few blocks away in January.

The entrance leads into an elevator lobby decorated with bronze images of Midwestern explorers.

Each elevator cab bears this seal and contains speakers that play Mozart. As you may have guessed by now, the Marquette Building is rather full of itself.

Muse‘s offices are on the fourteenth floor. Among many other treasures there, the archives contain copies of every issue of the magazine.

Here’s the temporary cubicle where I worked on a top-secret project you’ll see next year. To the left of the keyboard sits a copy of the very first Muse.

Samantha Sordyl (a.k.a. Samablamablous, a.k.a. Samblam, a.k.a. Sam) confers with art director John Sandford and layout guru Walter Mendoza about the November/December issue.

One night Sam and her husband, Mr. Sam, took me to a great Italian restaurant in their neighborhood.

And that’s the story, or as much of it as I’m allowed to talk about at this point.

All right, enough people have seen it now. Once you’ve announced its arrival on the Roll Call thread, here’s a place where you can talk about it.

WARNING: Sure to contain spoilers.

It’s out. Let us know when it arrives (but don’t spoil it for others).

That’s right: this week, one of your GAPAs will be visiting Muse headquarters in Chicago to help cook up diabolical surprises for future issues. (His Pwt-mobile, however, will be staying home in Virginia.) Blog moderation may slow down a bit, especially at night, so be warned.

[We’ve opened this thread up to comments, because some people seemed to want them. Beats us why, but you know what softies we are. –Admin.]

Here’s the place to discuss it. WARNING: May contain spoilers.

If you’ve read the contest page and are looking for MuseBlog’s discussion of the Implicit Association Test, you can find it by clicking here. Enjoy!