Today is the first national Poem in Your Pocket Day which is pretty self-explanatory, really. As the Academy of American Poets puts it “The idea is simple: select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends on April 17.” The poem in my pocket today is admittedly a little morbid, but I do love it: it’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson which praises the courage of the Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. Here’s the famous third stanza:

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d ;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

So find a poem, print it out, stick it in your pocket, and share it with others!

Ah, where to begin (and, no, this isn’t an April Fools’ joke)… OK, Deutsche Telekom (owners of the T-Mobile brand) has apparently sought to trademark the color magenta and is seeking this in the Netherlands, a very “trademark-friendly” nation. Now, one may ask oneself, “Self, what does this have to do with me over here in the good ol’ US of A?” Well, it seems that Deutsche Telekom has demanded that Engadget discontinue its use of magenta on its website, the same website that essentially offers up free advertising for T-Mobile whenever it reports on their products. In defiance of the “request” and in the spirit of today, Engadget has gone all pink.

Oh, and lest you think that Deutsche Telekom invented the color magenta, I direct your attention to this passage from the IHT article linked above:

Magenta is “a color that dates from 1859 when a small Italian city by the same name was site of the battle in which French and Piedmontese troops defeated the Austrian Army. A new reddish pigment was discovered the same year and was named magenta, to mark the bloodshed in the town of Magenta.”

Is this the world we live in that corporate machines can copyright a color created 150 years ago and demand that the color not be used by anyone else? I don’t think I can adequately put into words the rage that builds every time I think about this. I will, however, direct your attention to a post on The Culture of Ownership, a blog which essentially sprang to life as a way for Molly Wood to elaborate on her frequent Buzz Out Loud rants.

Free the Magenta!!