Disney World is out of the question. Your frighteningly brainy 10-year-old vetoed a trip there on the grounds that Mickey Mouse is the product of watered-down, commodified entertainment. Your already status-conscious 7-year-old, meanwhile, says no one cool goes to Europe anymore. Your citified children need some serious de-citifying.

After his parents died within five weeks of each other, Dave Eggers raised his kid brother, started McSweeney's, and wrote a memoir that picks apart the way writers exploit tragedy. It even has footnotes.

As we head down to the wire in what may be one of the fiercest Oscar derbies in years, a scorecard to the remaining contenders (and also-rans).