That raven is full of woe. And Edgar Allen Poe.

Poets (and poetry lovers) are mad. Howling mad – like angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo (sorry, had to sneak in a little Allen Ginsberg to create a poetic mood).

It seems that today’s new electronic readers (like Kindle and iPad) are butchering poetry. With their tiny screens and flunky software, these e-readers are cutting off stanzas that run too long – and reformatting them in peculiar ways. So you end up with the odd word floating randomly here and there in the machinery of night (Ginsberg again).

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins calls the problem “distressing.” And the last thing we want are distressed U.S. poets. Hopefully the software coders will brush up on their Bukowski before their version 2.0s come out?

Fortunately the good old-fashioned T-shirt is still a poetry-friendly medium. At least for a line or two. You’ll find lots of poetry-themed tees and products here at CafePress. If you love poetry, pick something up. Oh, and put the Kindle down. At least for poetry.

Tennis fans are in for a treat this weekend, as Serena and Venus Williams will repeat their fourth head-to-head performance in the Finals – this year, on the Fourth of July.  Serena leads Venus with two wins over her big sister, but Venus leads overall in Wimbledon Finals appearances – this is her eighth.

If Venus wins it, she’ll be the first woman since Steffi Graf to win 3 Wimbledons in a row.

And so we award a Fantasy T-Wearer Award today to both Venus and Serena Williams today, with the “Sibling Rivalry” tank top – in appropriate tennis white – at right.

Amazon was taken by surprise when a deluge of heartfelt 5-star reviews brought the “Three Wolf Moon” T-shirt, containing a timeless airbrushed image of 3 wolves howling at the moon, to the forefront of their most popular products.

While the appeal of such wolf imagery may not be your first thought when you think “I need a cool T-shirt,” there’s a fact about Animal T-shirts that we’ve seen ring true for years:

Wolves may not be man’s best friend, but they still have a lot of fans out there.

Wolf admirers may, of course, recognize the bitter irony in the domesticated canine’s wild popularity over the original canis lupus species – survivor of the ice age, prehistoric ancestor of your fat, lazy childhood Labrador (note to self: if you can balance a food tray on your dog’s back, the dog needs a diet) – but of course it’s hard to beat out a subspecies that’ll fetch the paper, listen to your commands (well, selectively) and sleep on your bed without eating the cat.  Or you.  Or Gerald Ford.

And yet while dogs reign as the Homecoming King and Queen, wolves are still a contender in the popularity contest that is the Animal T-shirt.  Sure, cats and horses might be on the Homecoming Court, but the wolf is at the very least in the band.  The poor coyote is sequestered inside in the AV club and doesn’t even go to Homecoming.

Perhaps it’s the primordial nature of wolves that appeal to wolf T-shirt lovers; perhaps it’s the wide range of design style.  From humor to photography; from traditional illustration to tattoo art; from pop culture references to childhood bedtime stories, it would seem that those raving about the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt aren’t the only ones out there whose imaginations have been captured by this ancient creature.

And so, we pay tribute to the wolf today with a haiku (feel free to share your own):

Venerable wolf
Conservation is working
Live long and prosper

And now, just for kicks, we’ll revisit that classic SNL skit that led to the serious question as to whether wolves pose a clear and present danger to those occupying the Oval Office:

While the number 4/20 may not mean anything to you, April 20th is a day for celebration among both cannibis culture activists and your average everyday stoners.  (The more dedicated of these folks may also take a daily time-out at 4:20… hey, who said stoners were lazy?… so anyone wishing to teach meaningfully at Humbolt might consider scheduling morning classes.)

The origin of the 420 number has been subject to much speculation, with one of the more popular myths being that it’s the penal code for pot smoking.  The real story is that the 420 term originated in a Marin County forest in the early ’70′s, with a group of high school kids that were hanging around with the Grateful Dead.  Somehow, everyone’s memories are somewhat spotty as to who exactly coined the term and how exactly it spread, but Wavy Gravy perhaps put it best when he guessed that the term began “somewhere in the foggy mists of time. What time is it now? I say to you: eternity now.”

Right on, Wavy Gravy.

It seems fitting that this worldwide holiday has its origins in Northern California, which is to this day a hub of medical marijuana activism.  California has already legalized medical marijuana (Mark Leno’s SB420 was aptly numbered), and now State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has drafted California AB390, which seeks to legalize marijuana in California in order that the state regulate and tax it.  With estimates that California sells $14B of weed a year (that’s 30% of the money raised by dairy production, and California is the country’s largest dairy producer), analysts and pot experts guess that tax revenues would be somewhere between $1 and $2.5 billion a year for the state.

We at CafePress have been working with NORML for years now, and we asked them what they’re celebrating this year.  Allen St. Pierre, the Executive Director, had this to say:

“April 20 has become the official cannabis consumer holiday in the United States and around the world! NORML celebrates by offering supporters the opportunity to join at a special one-day only price of $4.20, convenes big public protests around the US and this year launches a nationwide TV ad campaign in favor of cannabis legalization.

Additionally, the recent election of Barack Obama and the signals he’s provided regarding reforms he favors for cannabis, along with unprecedented mainstream media outlets covering of ‘4/20’ will make this the most momentous 4/20 to date—which all bodes well for reform efforts.”

Whatever your stance on medical marijuana, perhaps we can all agree to be happy that this holiday can help stimulate the economy by encouraging the purchase of snack foods.

Happy 4/20, everyone.

Earth Day is on April 22nd – and it’s not just for hippies anymore.  From what the T-shirts are telling us, Green is the new Black.

In this spirit, we recently expanded our organics line across Men, Women, Kid & Baby, including the American Apparel fitted T-shirts that you hipster conservationists have requested.

In addition to the organics, though, we’re also doing a carbon-neutral T-shirt in honor of Earth Day.  We teamed up with Carbonfund to offer this shirt, and Carbonfund will receive the proceeds from the sale of this shirt – so if you’ve been hankering for a new T-shirt but don’t want your carbon footprint to grow, this is an Earth-friendly purchase you can embrace.  As a bonus, it’s a talking point for those of you who want to raise awareness and educate strangers about the various ways in which they can reduce their own carbon footprints.  (Yes, we mean you, Berkeley residents.)

Whatever your plans for Earth Day, don’t forget the mantra: reduce, reuse, recycle.  As an addendum to that rule, Carbonfund will add: reduce what you can, offset what you can’t.

Hey, together those are a haiku.

Reduce what you can
(Reduce, reuse, recycle)
Offset what you can’t

Let’s see if we can make another…

Green is the new black
Reduce your carbon footprint
Small feet are sexy

(Your own Earth Day haiku contributions are welcome…)

We all know that Rolling Stone is one of the most iconic names in American journalism, and no wonder: the first magazine to engage cultural trendsetters with its blend of music, politics and pop culture, Rolling Stone came of age alongside the new Rock ‘n Roll movement that shaped a generation throughout the late 1960′s and early ’70′s.

In 2007, Rolling Stone celebrated the 40th anniversary of its landmark inaugural issue, which featured a controversial cover of the famously anti-war John Lennon in a pith helmet.

Rolling Stone Founder and Editor Jann Wenner – still with the magazine – has always held true to the vision that “Rolling Stone is not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that music embraces.”  Wenner focuses on blending work from best-in-breed artists around the globe – musicians, writer and photographers alike – to create a magazine that stands the test of time as both cultural barometer and icon.

Rolling Stone is, at its heart, a lifestyle magazine.  Through a look back at its covers we see a colorful reflection of the American consciousness and public discourse over the past four decades.  The archive of photography is a story of both Rock and Roll and American history, and now it’s available on high-quality prints and posters in the Rolling Stone shop.

The collection is diverse, colorful and has something for just about everyone.  From Charles Manson to a young Oscar-winning Tatum O’Neal to the Beatles (at different stages of hair length, clothing choices and cooperation), the collection is an interesting and colorful way to look back at American history and remember what got us to today.

In checking out this snapshot of American history I found the cover at right, and figured I’d share a little-known factoid that it jogged in my memory: the song “Martha, My Dear” (of The White Album) was written about Paul McCartney’s sheepdog, Martha.

So there you have it.  Rolling Stone album covers: not just cool wall art, but better than an encyclopedia.

As mentioned previously, the CafePress Ground Crew flew to the 2009 Inauguration to take part in the Obama celebration that had been happening via the almighty T-shirt for the bulk of 2008. With Obama T-shirts and gifts being added to our system at breakneck speed, in 6 months the then-Democratic-not-yet-presumptive-nominee had more t-shirts made about him than George Bush had amassed in 8 years.

Which is to say that, in the world of wearable self-expression, Obama took on the T-shirt primaries with a vengeance and ran with them all the way to the Presidency.

In any case, we hit the ground in D.C. armed (literally) with thousands of free buttons for all the folks who’d showed up from far-flung states and nations to witness history with 2 million of their closest friends.

After recovering from being outside in sub-freezing temperatures for a couple days, we put together this piece as a snapshot of the all the nice folks we encountered during our Inauguration adventures.  Enjoy…

CafePress goes to Washington from CafePress on Vimeo.

Oh – for those of you wondering, we did shoot all this video with the ever-portable Flip Mino HD.  Because bulky video cameras are hard to lug around, and even harder to use on a carousel.

Happy New Year from all of us at CafePress!

Whatever your resolution, just remember: you don’t really have to start thinking about that until, like, the 2nd at the earliest.  And the second falls on a Friday this year, and who starts resolutions on a Friday?

And of course then you have a weekend, so that’s not really the time to start resolutions either…

So, Monday then.  Yeah, Monday the 5th works.  Let’s make a note of it.  In fact, let’s commemorate it with a haiku:

Push resolutions
Monday’s no fun anyway
Vacation: over

Have a happy 2009!

Here’s wishing all of you a very merry Christmas and happy holiday season from the CafePress crew.

Have a great holiday – eat well, enjoy yourself, and remember to be wary of Aunt Marnie’s lethal eggnog.  She always did tend to overdo certain ingredients…

Now for those of you who are scrambling for a last-minute gift, decoration or activity for house-bound hyperactive children pumped up on sugar (or adults pumped up on Aunt Marnie’s eggnog), here’s a practical and recession-chic crafting activity from one of our favorite DIY Shopkeepers, Jolene Sugarbaker:

I wonder if you could then dye the wreath with lime Jell-O, “Wizard of Oz” style… hmm.  Perhaps Jolene will experiment with this technique in a future installment…

We now bid you adieu with a holiday haiku:

It’s that time of year
Family, friends, fun, eggnog
Beware the fruitcake

We’ll see you all after the holiday!  Have a Merry Christmas.

Jolene Sugarbaker stopped by the CafePress kitchen recently to school us on using our mugs and a microwave to make delicious breakfast sandwiches, right here at the office. Rick and I were very impressed with her ingenuity.

We ate many a sandwich that morning, thus saving ourselves a trip to a local drive-through and allowing us to control the quality of our ingredients. So the next time you’re hungry for something, just remember: your mug is just one egg (and some English muffins) away from breakfast sandwich bliss.