The M Booth team is psyched that our very own Danny Urquia is in the running for the title of Young PR Professional of the Year at tonight’s PR Week Awards.  Danny is a valued member of the corporate (and FWD!) team at the agency. He’s an unbelievable asset (and all-around-nice-guy) and we wish him the best of luck!

Here’s a collection of good luck tweets from Danny’s co-workers before the big announcement at tonight’s ceremony:

@dannyUrquia at #PRWeekAwards. Danny is a real star! he should be PR Week’s Young Professional of the Year. Fingers crossed! (@margibpr)

Tonights the night @dannyurquia for ur PRWeek honors #PRWeekAwards Remember you invited “The Cooler”—I’ll do my best to cheer u to victory (@MarkASchroeder)

Good luck to @mboothpr Young PR Professional of the Year @dannyurquia tonight! We’re so proud of you! #PRWeekAwards (@frani_lieberman)

GOOD LUCK AT THE #PRWeekAwards @DannyUrquia (@SirRonNYC)

Good luck to @DannyUrquia at the #PRWeekAwards! The @MBoothPR softball MVP is most deserving of the Young Professional of the Year award! (@jhamrahi…part one)

And by the way, BDD, BPro, & all Mets fans officially endorse @DannyUrquia for PR Week’s Young PR Professional of the Year! #PRWeekAwards (@jhamrahi…continued)

Good luck tonight @dannyurquia at the #PRWeekAwards. Fingers crossed he wins Young PR Professional of the Year! Much deserved. (@bradlaney360)

Good luck tonight @DannyUrquia Congrats on your nomination for Young PR Professional of the Year!! I hope u win, u deserve it! #PRWeekAwards (@RachelPancoe)

Good luck to @DannyUrquia at #PRWeekAwards. If Young Professional was decided by a burrito eating contest, he’d win. He’s the best! (@andrewrossi)

Good luck tonight, @dannyurquia! go get ‘em #PRWeekAwards (@JamieLee)

Sending good thoughts for @MBoothPR’s @DannyUrquia to win Young Professional of the Year at the #PRWeekAwards tonight! Woot! (@Summer21)

So proud of @DannyUrquia for his nom as Young Professional of the Year @ #PRWeekAwards! Remember his first day as my cube neighbor @MBoothPR (@sallymak26)

good luck @dannyurquia! I hope you win the Young PR Professional of the Year award tonight! & can I have your autograph?! #PRWeekAwards (@laurenarthur)

Good luck to my friend and colleague @dannyurquia He’s up for the PR Week’s Young PR Professional of the Year! #PRWeekAwards (@arbetts)

Good luck tonight, @dannyurquia! Regardless of the outcome, you’ll always be our Young PR Professional of the Year #PRWeekAwards (@matthewhantz)

sure, people come younger, but not more awesome… good luck @dannyurquia — kick some Young PR Professional butt tonight! #PRWeekAwards (@kellygene)

— Andrew

word. daily. (march 11, 2010)

Taking the Plunge: Childhood sweethearts, Jeff and Stacey are tying the knot…or taking the plunge, if you will. For their “Save the Dates” they took pictures underwater and the results are H²O-mazing!*

Awesomest Harmonica Ever: Frustrated that your perfect blowing-the-dust-out-of-a-Nintendo-cartridge skill doesn’t come in handy anymore? Well, no more fretting — selling on eBay are NES cartridge harmonicas.

First Position: Sometimes the best ideas are also the simplest.  Check out the minor tweak that Vivianne made to her homemade advertisement for her ballet studio to make it really stand out.

*Editor’s note: we’d like to apologize for using the phrase “H²O-mazing.”

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—Andrew

word. daily. (march 10, 2010)

Pencil You In: If you think a wall calendar with pictures of babies in flower pots is the bees knees, you ain’t seen nothing yet. From designer Oscar Diaz’s archives, we bring you the “ink calendar.” Diaz uses a slow absorbing ink to indicate time; a new calendar number is “printed” daily.

NYC’s Building Blocks: At the beginning of the month, German artist Jan Vormann of Jarmuschek+Partner gallery, along with a motley crew of volunteers, took to the streets and began filling in building cracks with Legos. Is this part of a larger Lego trend? Perhaps. Check out this Lego conference room table and this Lego kitchen.

Haul Video Blogs: What’s the newest trend among the tween girls? Well, its something called “haul videos” where they show off their most recent purchases via YouTube. That’s actually a pretty simple explanation, as you’ll see from the video linked above, these ladies wear a lot of hats (or toboggans, as SoCalAshleyDanielle might say), including:

• Economist “I have been trying to save a lot of money, not just because I need to, but because I feel like I spend way too much money on makeup and I need to spend more money on clothes.”

• Dentist “The original Crest Whitestrips sucked, saliva would start accumulating and the strips would start foaming.”

• Personal Trainer “…If you want to look skinny, wear dark wash skinny jeans.”

• Computer Whiz Kid “Just type in ‘fashion’ and ‘Marilyn Monroe’ or whatever you want to find and you can find it on Photobucket.”

• Philosopher “Is it ‘Nordstrom’ or ‘Nordstrom’s’?”

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—Andrew

word. daily. (march 9, 2010)

Great Balls of Fire: Even the worst pool players can look like sharpshooters thanks to CueLight. After all, when fireballs are shooting across the pool table, who’s paying attention to anything else? Featured in Esquire’s “Ultimate Bachelor Pad” in SoHo, this pool table is hooked up to a projection system that follows the motions of the pool balls (in this one setting, a trail of fire follows each ball), creating an interactive art display.

This Too Shall Pass: Actually, it won’t (well, not until their next ingenious music video goes viral). Getting six million hits in six days, OK Go’s new (embeddable!) music vid “This Too Shall Pass” features a giant Rube Goldberg machine. To top it all off – the entire video was done in one shot (it took them 70 tries for everything to work without a glitch, but still, awesome)! Perhaps most interesting is the fact that insurance giant State Farm actually sponsored the creation of the video.

Home Sweet Home: Check out some of the innovative work of designer Mark Reigelman including his “bite cutlery,” “urban vases,” and a bus shelter that he turned into a cozy home. We love all of these concepts, but wonder why he chose carnations for his urban vases.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Andrew

word. daily. (march 8, 2010)

Car-puccino: In the coming weeks a 1988 VW Scirocco will be making a 210-mile trip (a feat in itself) using coffee grounds as fuel. The trip across England will cost up to 50 times the price tag of regular gas or about the same as buying a frapa-mocha-latte-chino from Starbucks everyday for just shy of a year (based on the specs of a 2001 Jetta and yes, we did the math ourselves).

Faking It: To maintain the appearance of human existence, a UK town that you’ve never heard of is taking an unusual approach. They are turning out-of-business store fronts into fake store facades using large graphics.

Quack, Quack: Notcot’s Jean Aw alerts us to a simple and clever teaser from the puff-luxe brand Moncler.  In the middle of the night they texted her asking, “What size are you?” Once she responded, they followed up with, “Black or white?” Two days later, a black coat in her size was sitting on her doorstep. Perhaps even cooler is the comic strip inside the jacket featuring a bilingual duck explaining how to wash the garment. Also, scroll through the full posting to see some golden retrievers wearing expensive jackets…if you’re into that (cc: @woodlandalyssa, @kellygene)

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Andrew

word. daily. (oscar edition)

Best Dressed: Remember this dress that Best Actress front-runner Sandra Bullock wore to the Golden Globes? Well, it’s a Bottega Veneta gown made with a Japanese chiffon so heavenly it can only be cut out using the tip of an angel wing (okay, it’s cut by lasers, which is cooler).  The fabric is actually so light that it is impossible to wrinkle it, no matter how hard you try…so if Sandy ever finds herself on a bus that will explode if it goes less than 50 MPH, she should wear this so she has one less thing to worry about.

Best Picture: Designer Tavis Coburn created retro re-imaginations of the five films nominated for the BAFTA – the UK equivalent of the Academy Awards.  Check out his throw-back work that actually looks quite modern. (via Shelly Silver)

Best Actor / Worst Spokesperson: Great news, a few years ago Hyundai signed down-on-his-luck Jeff Bridges to do the voice over work in their commercials.  Now, he’s a lock to win an Oscar. So Hyundai bought advertising space during the show to run their spot with Bridges!  The Dude, that’s awesome for Hyundai! Oh, except that The Academy rejected the commercials because it doesn’t allow nominees or presenters to participate in commercials that air during the ceremony. Getting around that, Hyundai is replacing Bridges’ voice for the evening with a rotating cast including: Kim Basinger, David Duchovny and Catherine Keener.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Andrew

word. daily. (march 4, 2010)

Most Snuggies in a Single Room: Not only do they have LeBron (we say this like we know what we’re talking about), but the Cleveland Cavaliers want to have a Guinness World Record, too; this Friday, the Cavs are giving out Snuggies to every audience member in attempt to set “the largest gathering of people wearing fleece blankets” record. Total bummer alert: the people have to give the Snuggies back! What are you going to do with 20,562 gently-used Snuggies, Cavs?

Word Nerds, Read On: The American Dialect Society voted on the words of the year and the decade…yawn. But they also voted on the most creative word of the year: Dracula sneeze (def: covering your mouth with your elbow when sneezing), most unnecessary word: sea kittens (def: a fish), and they weigh in on the twenty-ten vs. two-thousand-and-ten controversy (spoiler alert: twenty-ten wins). You can read all about it here.

The Type is IN: Check out this series of typefaces created in honor of Project Runway. Our favorite: “Where’s Andrae?” In fact, we love it so much, we want to take it on a date to Red Lobster.

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Andrew

word. daily. (march 3, 2010)

Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict: Well, ladies and gentleman, what we have here is more than just a “same name” puzzle on the Wheel of Fortune, it’s a breakfast treat — the Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict. This glorious creation involves doughnuts, brownies, frosting, Cadbury Creme Eggs, and fried pound cake masquerading as hash browns. We’re literally tearing up thinking about it.

Skin Is Amazing: Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft have teamed up to make “touch screens for our bodies” that they are calling Skinput. What does that mean?  Well, imagine a standard keyboard being projected onto your arm.  When you touch the “keys” with your fingers, Skinput uses soundwaves to determine what keys have been pushed – meaning that one day you could replace the keyboard in front of you with a light projection on your forearm.  But that’s not all, this could also mean huge innovation for gaming, mobile and the skincare industry.

Pizza in a Cone: I hope you’ve Scotchgarded your chair, because this will blow your mind. Opening yesterday across from the Empire State Building was K! Pizzacone, promoting “pizza on the go.” As its names suggests, this pizza is shaped like a cone. It starts out with a crust cone filled with cheese and your choice of a sauce or pesto; you then have the option to add more fillings. Congratulations, human race, you did it!

Click here to let us know that you’d like to be added to the mailing list for the monthly edition of “word.”

—Andrew

When I was a kid, I used to love the movie Clue.  So much so that when I was eight, I asked my parents to throw me a Clue-themed birthday party where we would serve guests mini hot dogs and mac and cheese (Monkey’s Brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often found in Washington, D.C. or Warren, Ohio.) Long story short, they thought it was weird for their second-grade son to have a murder mystery-themed party, but they did get me a cake with a flamingo and Pee Wee Herman on it.

Anyway, Clue has just reinvented itself for 2010, by incorporating text messages into game play.  To be honest, the game shares very little with the original.  Nobody gets murdered with candlesticks and there are now spies involved. The interesting twist is that players can text “SPY” to a dedicated number that will then respond with clues for playing the game.

It sounds kind of cool.  Though, really, the best part of Clue will always be Mrs. White’s confession of why she killed Yvette.

— Andrew

I’m not sure that this necessarily falls into the “digital trends” category — but I’ve always had a rather loose definition of that concept.

This is the Electrolux Scan Toaster — developed by Sung Bae Chang and entered into the Electrolux Design Contest.  The premise is simple: you hook up the toaster to your computer via USB and then download an image, news story, or Cathy cartoon to the toaster.  The modules within the machine then realign and toast the image onto your bread.

I don’t want to overstate this, but I’m fairly certain that this is the best thing to ever happen in the history of mankind. Take that, Guttenberg.

— Andrew

Falcon Heene, a.k.a. “Balloon Boy,” has a mock Twitter account set up in his honor: @boyintheballoon. I’ve decided to follow it for the weekend and be totally obsessed with it until 5:30 on Sunday.  That’s about the time that I expect everybody to be totally over this story.

Then I can go back to thinking only about Sarah Palin, Neil Patrick Harris and this chair.

— Andrew

Florence Henderson (a.k.a. Carol Brady), just launched a tech support service. Actually, this isn’t that surprising.  Before Ol’ Flo got her cheekbone implants, she was pretty well known for handing out advice (for instance: “Don’t play ball in the house,” and “Face facts, you’re never going to be as popular as Marcia”).

The service — which is aimed at “mature” computer users —  is called FloH Club (which sounds like the name of a terrible discotheque in suburban Milwaukee).  La Henderson describes the experience in a quick video on the site (check it out, they must have had a serious budget for floral), where she says FloH Club is “like roadside assistance…but for your computer.”  Just call up her team (who, she mentions several times, are based in America — she does everything but stare into the camera and wink to emphasize this point) and they’ll coach you on how to use Facebook, print out a document or take a picture.  She then holds up a camera, as if to say, “This here is an automatic daguerreotype machine.  Press this button on top and it will trap your likeness.”

In fairness, the concept is a good one.  I know a lady, let’s call her “Carol Rossi,” and from time to time she has difficulty with techie stuff, like streaming videos of the Barefoot Contessa on FoodNetwork.com. If she joined FloH Club, she could get telephone support from a woman who once rocked a serious mullet, rather than call her son — who we’ll call “Fandrew Rossi” — at work.

— Andrew