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Intellectual House o' Pancakes Webdiary

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2004-04-19 - 2:06 p.m.

Ugh, busy!

Just gotta say: the first iced coffee of the season felt so right yesterday...

Also, my movie recommendation of the weekend: Scared Straight. This TV documentary aired in 1978 (who could forget, it was the first time they allowed swearin' on TV), and follows a group of juvenile delinquents on a trip to Rahway Prison, where they get yelled at by some pretty mean convicts, in the hopes that it'll show them what prison is really like and deter them from a life of crime.

This segment itself is priceless, but the DVD also includes 10- and 20-year follow-up interviews with the original group of kids enrolled in the program as well as some of the prisoners.

The reunion interviews can get a little treacly, but the overall story is pretty amazing. Not only did most of the kids in the program turn their lives around, the prisoners who yelled at 'em also found their lives changing for the better. For some of these guys, it was the first time they'd ever really tried to help anybody.

OK, back to work!

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