The Coolest Kids in Town: a blog about Baltimore, DC, and the misadventures of two-city life.

We make a lot of jokes here at TCKiT, about hipsters and sweaters and drinks made with MD 20/20 , but today let's do something different. In fact, let's do something nice . 1. First up are the TED talks , and if you don't know them, then you should. The most brilliant, innovative, interesting, coolest people ever to live in our modern world get on stage with just a microphone, a powerpoint and 5 - 15 minutes to rock your world. Among the better-known honorees: Bill Clinton , Isabelle Allende , Bill Gates , Frank Gehry, Robert Ballard, Richard Branson, Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, Dave Eggers, Jane Goodall, Malcolm Gladwell, Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking...get the idea? 2. Second to these are the videos at Stock Exchange of Visions . These are to the TED talks as the iPad is to a laptop - short, sweet, stylish, and to the point (if lacking in details). Great minds get on video and talk for 30 seconds or so about their view for the planet - some times bewildering, sometime...

Gather 'round the fire (air conditioner), kids, it's story time. Today we'll be tracing the trajectory of a relationship, and not one of those happily-ever-after relationships, either. Save that for the NY Girl of Your Dreams . No, no, this is the story of all those other relationships, the ones that crash and burn. So, as with all stories, we begin at the beginning: Awful First Dates . Remember that trauma-rama section of Seventeen ? The one with all those horror stories from every day life that you totally loved reading because trauma is really funny when it's happening to other people? Well, that's pretty much the gist of Awful First Dates. People write brief summaries of their terrible romantic mishaps and then you can vote on just how terrible (or not) it really was. If, however, the first date isn't the worst thing ever, maybe you'll take the next step and settle into a relationship. Possibly with someone who's not really hot enough for you, like t...