Our friend Margot Wellington sent us a much-passed on email of improvisations and hacks seen in the parking lots of Walmarts across the country. Being a parking lot, all are car related; we can only imagine what else these creative folks have cooked up in their everyday lives. Most boggle our mind with their desperate…
Read MoreStarting about 6 pm Eastern time, and lasting for about 6 1/2 hours, you can view a live webcast, above (link here) via NASA (refreshed every 30 minutes) of The Transit of Venus, a rare eclipse in which the planet Venus passes between Earth and the Sun. The next Transit won’t happen for another 100 years. You can…
Read MoreInnovative uses for shipping pallets continue: here a play on shipping pallet gardens, painted bright colors and hung on a wall. In a post we wrote about how-to transform a shipping pallet into a vertical, layered garden, some readers brought up the question of food-safe paints for pallets that will house herbs, greens, nasturtiums and…
Read MoreWe found this quote (punctuation ours) on French by Design this morning and have been mulling it all day. It was unattributed. When we did a search to see where it might have come from, we found Weight Watchers and Islam and a bunch of other sources. What do we want MOST? Can we subject…
Read MoreAt The Chive, we came across a list of 16 simple solutions to some everyday dilemmas: a virtual, visual Hints from Heloise. We’ve found some incredibly useful, like using bread bag tags as cord labels (of course, with our obsessive minds, we’d go looking for stylish tag in a color we like: white! – and…
Read More(Video link here.) This morning, we found several emails from readers alerting us to this video that is flying around the internet like wildfire. It’s about 9-year-old Caine who devised an elaborate arcade out of cardboard, great quantities of packing tape, plastic toys – whatever he could find – over the course of a summer…
Read MoreWe’ve always loved Yves Klein‘s shirt printed with hand prints, foot prints and question marks: a mysteriously chic, primal cosmic design that makes us want to get some plain white shirts and paint whatever comes to mind. It would be like wearing a flag of a personal country. Mondoblogo reminded us of it. Related posts:…
Read More(Video link here.) Vicki Celestines, one of our readers, sent us this great compilation of “compelling TED Talks on Money.” Together, the eleven videos make up a unique “crash course in economics and personal finance” which we can certainly use. They cover topics such as putting a value on nature; raising kids to be entrepreneurs; poverty, money,…
Read MoreEven though it’s not our fault, the vast amounts of junk mail we get makes us feel frustrated and guilty. So much paper going to waste. Try and warp your head around this: the Wall Street Journal reports that 82.5 billion pieces of “advertising mail” were delivered by the U.S. Postal system in 2010. Years…
Read MoreRecently, a reader sent us link to an interactive wine-and-food-pairing website called Italian Wine Pairing 101 wondering what we thought about it. You choose a food group – say beef, or shellfish or fruit tarts – then recommended wines appear in a list below. (It’s one of many food-and-wine pairing charts and sites on the…
Read More(Video link here) We are totally charmed by this video of Salvador Dali on an episode of What’s My Line, an old tv game show in which blindfolded contestants had to guess the occupation of the special guest by asking yes/no questions. Here are all of the questions that Dali answered yes to (we’ve boldfaced ones that…
Read MoreEver since we stumbled on dvdp, a site devoted to seriously creative animated gif art, we’ve been checking in to see what leaps of techno-brilliance gif-makers have come up with. (There’s a great animated video of the gif’s history here). After the jump you’ll find a play on one of Michelangelo’s most famous images in the…
Read More(Video link here.) In 2008, a reader of TIME magazine asked Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson this question: “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” Here’s a slightly overwrought video version of his answer, along with the transcript of Tyson’s words: a stunning and essential message. The most astounding fact is…
Read MoreWe just discovered Lists of Note, an illuminating site that transcribes lists and notes written by a great cast of characters, including celebrities; philosophers and inventors; and the authors of old instructional handbooks. We’re knocked out by this list of advice from jazz pianist Thelonious Monk, transcribed by jazz saxaphonist, composer and colleague Steve Lacy. (Click here to listen to Monk’s…
Read MoreWe spotted this very intriguing question on our friend Tara Mann‘s site; it’s the title of an exhibition at Parsons. Tara took this instagram in the lobby: just a question. It made us think… where we’ve been… where we’re going… what’s been the great migration?… Related posts: when is enough plenty? david allen’s potent questions for…
Read MoreWe had just been mulling how much we HATE the design of shower curtain rings, that make it so difficult to remove the shower curtain for washing. Then we thought: how nice it would be to have shower curtain rings with clips instead of closed loops, so we could just clip up a big swath…
Read More(Video link here.) The story behind this extraordinary video is brief and understated: On an unseasonably warm November night in Manhattan on our way to get ice cream, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a vintage shop, brightly lit display window and all. As we began to walk in, a man sitting out front warned…
Read MoreA post on 99% by James Victore gave us pause last week. He writes about how as we spend more and more time staring at screens (our computers, our phones, iPads, etc), our brains change too: we forget how to function without immediate access to “information.” Because we are always plugged in to our various…
Read MoreEver since we wrote about the discontinuation in America of Ikea’s great Alvar-Aalto-esque Frosta stool, – it is widely available in Europe – we have been involved in a curious correspondence with Ikea’s Customer Service Department; it has been a bit “like pulling teeth” (though much more pleasant) to get the information we are looking…
Read MoreOur intrepid friend Peggy Markel just arrived in India to prepare to lead one of her amazing culinary adventures, Tasting Royal Rajasthan. She sent us this amazing picture of an ironing board computer table and the story behind it: “We’re staying with a new friend, Rajiv Jani, friend of a friend. It is his rig,…
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