Tyler recently bought a house in New York. One particular drawer in his kitchen would not open, but only because he had not solved a puzzle first. He had unknowingly purchased a carefully crafted lockbox with a hidden treasure inside.
-via Laughing Squid
Street artist Ivan Sery filled in a gap in a brick wall in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia with a brick of his own. Let's look closer.
Inside the gap is a little man who is gazing at the wonders of the vast universe. You can see more photos at Street Art Utopia.
This magnificent piece of stained glass by Courtney Dickerson, suitable for any parlor, shows the villainous Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We see carefully chosen colors of glass instead of tanned human skin. It has, sadly, already been sold to a buyer of refined taste.
-via Super Punch
Mozart's 1787 piece "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" is only more enchanting when performed on a banjo. That's what master guitarist (and apparently banjoist) Luca Stricagnoli does here. He's perfectly dressed for the occasion, complete with a toothpick in his mouth.
I don't recognize the bowing implement he seems to use. What is it?
-via The Awesomer
Recently, I shined my dress shoes for the first time in a year. Since I wasn't wearing them daily to the office, there seemed like little reason to keep them shiny. Other people are making similar fashion changes as the pandemic recedes. This is having an impact on the fashion industry. The Wall Street Journal (sorry, but it's a paywalled article) reports:
In the past few weeks, pants with buttons and zippers have begun outselling those with drawstrings or elastic waistbands at L.L. Bean Inc. At Saks Fifth Avenue, sales of dresses, blouses and sandals are exceeding levels not seen since spring 2019. And employees at Haggar Clothing Co.'s distribution center are working overtime to replenish trousers and blazers at department stores and other retailers that sell its clothes.
"The fact that sales came back so strongly, so quickly before offices reopened speaks to the need for people to dress up as they get out there and socialize," said Michael Stitt, Haggar's chief executive officer.
Industry analysts are developing a consumer behavior model called "2-mile fashion". People can be very casual about what they wear within two miles of their home. Beyond that limit, they tend to dress up:
It found that when people stay within 2 miles of their home, they tend to wear sweatpants and carry just a few credit cards. If they travel farther than 2 miles, they put on pants and grab a wallet. The radius varies depending on whether people are in the suburbs or cities, but the habits stay the same.
"We embraced the idea of 2-mile fashion," said Brad Seabaugh, a Randa senior vice president, meaning that people wear different things whether they are close to home or farther away.
Some of these changes may be permanent as people try to carry comfortable, at-home fashion into the outer world:
That led Randa to bet big on several types of products, including slippers with soles that can be worn outdoors, large wallets and cargo pants. Randa executives figured that with men no longer carrying messenger bags or backpacks, they would shove everything in their wallets or pockets. A cargo pant with seven pockets is currently one of Haggar's bestsellers.
-via Super Punch | Image: Wish
I found this image on Totally Gourmet, but the origins of the photo remain mysterious. It looks straightforward enough: dump at least a dozen eggs into a bundt pan and bake them into a gelatinous ring of eggs. Although it's too late to do this for Easter, there are later opportunities to surprise guests with this innovate recipe that seems to frighten faint-hearted people of the Internet.
Impress your prom date when you make them a Cheddar Bay Biscuit Corsage and matching Boutonniere! pic.twitter.com/0iC8MfE1jS
— Red Lobster (@redlobster) April 27, 2021
Like a dark cloud of tangible suffering, prom season has descended upon high schoolers the United States. Prepare yourself accordingly by making a corsage with the help of Red Lobster. That restaurant chain is famous for its signature Cheddar Bay Biscuits, which can become corsages and boutonniere in a pinch.
This video shows you how. Consider yourself warned.
-via Dave Barry
Veermaster Berlin's Instagram page is worth a long scroll through. His cocktails are visually stunning masterpieces. Each one is a carefully presented work of art.
I'm especially taken with this cocktail made with Highclere Castle Gin. Highclere Castle is the magnificent home where the exterior scenes for Downton Abbey were shot. Here's the recipe:
Highclere Castle Gin
Homemade Red Chili infused Yuzu Marmalade and Kafir Lime Leaves Syrup
Elderflower Vanilla Cordial
Dry Vermouth
Sakura Bitter
Egg White
The garnish consists of herbs, forget-me-not flowers, chili powder, and a sheet of gold.
-via In Love with Drinks
Because not all women throughout time have had access to Buzzfeed, cartoonist Gemma Correll has helpfully illustrates the demands that past societies have imposed upon women.
Coincidentally, as I wrote this post, my 12-year old daughter passed by and asked me to define a variety of terms on it, including hysteria, lobotomies, and aspic. It was a difficult conversation, but I'm glad that Correll gave me the opportunity to talk about the dangers of jello salads. That era, thankfully, has passed from our time.
Fish can be convenient pets, particularly if you are absent from home for long hours. But you may miss out on fun activities with them, such as going on walks. Fish have notoriously low endurance for strolls through the neighborhood.
The Katsugyo Bag may change that. It appears to be a a pressurized water tank with a port on one end. The only information that I can find in English is second-hand, so we will have to wait for details about this invention will change human-fish relations.
-via Design You Trust
This brilliant woman is the next Martha Stewart. Watch as Anna of The Anna Show mixes ice, candy, and sherbet into a toilet bowl and then puts several flavored sodas into the empty tank in the back. When she flushes the toilet, the ingredients form the perfect party drink (well, absent alcohol) in an eye-catching serving bowl. I want to try this trick at home, but to modify it to create an enormous root beer float.
-via Nag on the Lake
In northern Scandinavia, cups of coffee get enhanced with cheese. https://t.co/zxtwubmm5P
— Atlas Obscura (@atlasobscura) May 2, 2021
Atlas Obscura introduces us to kaffeost, which is a traditional drink from the Sami people of northern Scandinavia. Place a cube of juustoleipä, which is a type of cheese often made from reindeer milk, into the bottom of a wooden mug. Pour in coffee, which melts the cheese. Drink the mixture or use a spoon to scoop the cheesy mixture into your mouth.
It's over seven feet tall, so it would stand out in your office or living room, even if it wasn't a life-size zebra silently playing one of the largest instruments in a brass band.
Andre Robolobavich (I gather that he also goes by the name Rob Hudson--it's a bit confusing) is a British taxidermist of great skill and imagination. Much of his work is for sale at Chiswick Auctions. They often share a common theme: animals making music. These once-living sculptures are wonderfully unsettling.
-via Nag on the Lake | Photo: Chiswick Options
As you sojourn through the fifty states of the union, where shall you stop for pizza? Pizza styles are a personal preference. There are some that I find generally unpalatable, but David Landsel of Food & Wine has done his best to accommodate different tastes in his catalog of the best pizza in each state.
Pictured above is a lobster-topped pizza from Via 313, which Landsel says is the best in Texas. Here, he has made a common geographic error. Via 313 isn't in Texas--it's in Austin.
-via Marginal Revolution | Photo: Via 313
The Barcelona-based digital design studio Six N. Five worked with industrial designer Arthur de Menenzes to take three common computer error messages, such as the Blue Screen of Death, and turn them into chairs. I'd hesitate to use one as a computer desk chair, lest I jinx my computer.
