Friday Snippets and Soundbites

• Need a little random fun to take your mind of AP exams and finals? We know just the thing. Or not. Actually, this random contest just made us laugh and we had to share it with you! Cheap Chic Weddings, a popular Web site that helps people save money when planning a wedding, is sponsoring it's fourth annual "Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest." Yes, you read that correctly. All dresses have to be made of Charmin® toilet paper, tape, or glue. That's it. Contestants are invited to create a dress, photograph their model, and send the digital pics to the Web site. The contest runs from April 28-June 2, 2008. For more detailed information about prizes and rules, go here.

• In other "contest-esque" news, American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced this week that five historic New Orleans sites had been chosen to receive preservation grants for various restoration projects. The sites include: St. James AME Church (granted $100,000 for sanctuary repairs); St. Alphonsus Art and Culture Center (granted $80,000 for repairs to the roof, stucco, and columns); St. Augustine Parish Hall ($75,000 for repairs to the roof and make it usable again); Odyssey House (granted $75,000 for window and shutter replacement); and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 (granted $70,000 for stabilization of the perimeter walls and wall vaults and installation of a drainage system). Sites were chosen because of their historical, architectural, and cultural significance, community support, role as community gathering spaces, damage from Hurricane Katrina, and the ability to complete the project in a year.

• The Library of Congress also added 25 recordings to its National Recording Registry this week. Among the additions: the first trans-Atlantic broadcast (March 14, 1925), Roy Orbison's 1964 recording of "Oh, Pretty Woman", Harry S. Truman's speech at the 1948 Democratic National Convention, and "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Go here to see the entire list of additions. If you had the power to decide what recordings were archived for all posterity, what would you pick? Let us know in the comments or over on ec's fan page on Facebook or in the discussion board's on our group page.