The reaction to our Pimp My Bookcart contest has been overwhelmingly positive. We already have an initial pile of entries, mostly Halloween-enhanced bookcarts, which aren't really in the spirit of the contest but sure are fun to see. But there have been a few readers who object to the name. Look in the dictionary, they say, "Pimp" means to deal in human flesh, exploit women, etc. Are we really condoning, nay, endorsing that lifestyle?

Let's be sensible, folks. The word "pimp" has undergone a very fast semantic evolution in the last few years. It has made it all the way to a verb meaning to make cooler. You may not like that, but it's a fact. People are sophisticated enough to understand that words have different meanings in diferent contexts. And the context here, being a satire of a popular TV show, is unambiguous. And we think applying that word to something as utterly uncool as a bookcart is both funny (thus our t-shirt) and a challenge worth of reward (thus our contest).

Now get pimping!