Ragtime Remake

Idea: A new version of Ragtime, but it's about a disaster that requires everyone on Earth to pull together and create billions of rags, then use them to clean up the planet. Makes heavy use of ragtime music. 

As I was writing, I had Gemini make a poster. My prompt: 

Create a movie poster for a remake of Ragtime, except this time the movie is about the people of earth using rags to clean up the world. Feel free to come up with an appropriate crew and cast for the poster credits. The poster's tagline should be "From Rags...New Riches" 

Sweeping Generalizations

The Barefoot Sweeper

Saturday night the gang gathered at Pete's place for our second round of the Serenity roleplaying game. The common theme that night was spillage and cleanup. As seen here, Mike was so disturbed by Pete's filthy back deck that he felt compelled to sweep up. Later in the evening, Steve dropped his Brute on Pete's shiny hardwood floor(the sandwich, not his actual brute, not that he has one or anything that I know of) and promptly wiped up the mess. This prompted some gentle ribbing and reminded us of the night, not long ago, that Jeff spilled Pete's expensive port all over Pete's expensive table. The mess was promptly cleaned up.

According to a common stereotype, men don't enjoy cleaning. But among my particular tribe of geek friends, cleanliness is clearly a virtue.

Stealing a line from my friend Leslie...

What I'm reading: Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Unusual and compelling, despite being a finalist for the Man Booker prize (rimshot!).

Speaking of awards, I found out today that E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime, which I have always assumed is a mainstream novel, was nominated for the Nebula award - an SF prize. I haven't read Ragtime - anyone know if it has any speculative content? (Some of you may remember the story from the film adaptation - widely publicized as James Cagney's last film.)