Irvine Kaye was an American businessman who created novel amusements from the 1960s until 1981, such as arcade games, luxury pool tables, and foosball games. A fan site devoted to his work describes an innovative pool table that was shaped like an ellipse and had a pocket off the center. Playing on the table requires thoughtful math work to calculate angles.

A few of Kaye's Ringo tables, as he named them, survive to this day. At 56 inches across, each unit sold for $225. Among Kaye's customers was the US Army, which purchased three for a hospital in Japan. As Ringo tables were smaller than standard pool tables, they were able to fit into the confines of therapy wards in hospital facilities.

-via Weird Universe

Bill Bailey is a British musical comedian who mixes up famous works of music so that they are recognizable, but sometimes unsettlingly different. In the past, we've seen his video switching minor and major keys. This video, recorded 3 years ago, features Bailey playing with the iconic Doctor Who theme.

Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire created the original version in 1963. It's electric, synthetic, and futuristic. Grainer suggests, though, that the music works well as a jazz composition. He knows enough about jazz to identify it as, specifically, Belgian.

I remember just enough high school French to get a gist of the lyrics, which glorify the heroism of the Doctor and the menace of the Daleks.

-via Thompson

We live in an age of wonders. Unlike the the primitive before times, we now have access to TikTok, broccoli haircuts, and Brazilian butt lifts. Best of all, crocs, which are allegedly futuristic but also stupid, are now available to our fur babies.

Fast Company reports that BarkBox, a company that will monthly send you a box of things that you don't need, is teaming up with the official Crocs brand to produce footwear for dogs. They're fairly sophisticated shoes because they're made to fit different sizes and shapes of dog feet. They're compatible with Jibbitz charms, so be sure to also order your dog's favorites starting on October 23, when these crocs go on sale.

Photo: Crocs

Vogue reports on a fashion show that took place on October 1 in front of Cinderella's Castle at the Paris location of Disneyland. Kylie Jenner snatched audience attention with a surprise appearance, but I don't think that she was wearing these gorgeous shoes.

My 6-year-old asked where the music goes after we listen to it. I didn’t know whether to go into how sound waves travel, or explain that music isn’t tangible in the way he might think. Maybe this is just a philosophical question. Where DOES the music go?

— Kiss my Fat Ash🍑 (@Tobi_Is_Fab) October 1, 2024

On X, writer @Tobi_Is_Fab, offers up to the world a weighty question posed by her young son.

Pictured above is the family of Luigi Lo Rosso, a junk dealer in Italy. In the background on the right is a painting that hung in his home for many years. Eventually, Lo Rosso's wife made him take it down because she found it hideous. It sat in the basement for many years until Lo Rosso's son, Andrea, had it identified.

It's an original work of Pablo Picasso. Specifically, it's one of many portraits that Picasso painted of Dora Maar, one of the painter's many mistresses. The Guardian reports that art appraisers have priced its value at €6 million ($6.7 USD). Andrea Lo Rosso is pleased, especially since, as a child, he argued with his father that the signature on the painting was Picasso's. Now, he's finally proven correct and rich.

-via Dave Barry

Very happy to say that I've passed with minor corrections, after a really intensive and enjoyable few hours discussing with Profs. Thonemann and Magnetto.

And friends in the grad community have produced the most amazing Western Asia Minor cake! pic.twitter.com/I3d2x2HM7s

— Oliver Clarke (@Astroclassicist) October 1, 2024

Oliver Clark is a graduate student in ancient history at Oxford University who, if I understand it correctly, has completed his studies. These labors traditionally culminate with the preparation of a cake. Clark provides a map of western Asia Minor at some point in its history--I think the Hellenstic era.

Simona Bloom works as an IT professional, but her joy comes from making art. Her corpus includes paintings and colored pencil work. Her internet fame, though, comes from her composition of colorful cocktails that resemble real life objects. Lately, Bloom has recreated flags of many nations, such as the above cocktail that looks like the flag of Cameroon.

The monstrous clown is an archetype that speaks to a fear and yearning within the collective unconscious of the human psyche. The Batman villain of Joker is but one modern incarnation of this primal impulse to destroy and be destroyed. Nerdstalgic explores how artists, filmmakers, and audiences have seen him over time.

The Joker first appeared in a 1940 comic book. His character was inspired by a 1928 adaptation of the Victor Hugo novel The Man Who Laughs. After a central role in the 1960s Batman television series, the Joker faded from media until revived in 1973 comics emphasizing the character's violent insanity. He continues to haunt media with nihilistic joy, perhaps at its most extreme in the 2019 film Joker.

-via Laughing Squid

Minne, if I understand it correctly, is something like a Japanese version of Etsy. It is definitely a massive online purveyor of handcrafts, such as this lovely handbag made to resemble a gyoza--a steamed dumpling.

It's most inedible at the moment. But since the body is leather, one could slice it up to create smaller, bite-sized gyoza.

I am, of course, exaggerating. You don't need to drop $2,500 to wear this astonishing piece of haute couture. That's because it's completely sold out and unavailable except as a used item. And who would be so gauche as to wear a used trash jacket?

Cory Infinite is a fashion designer who conceives of and assembles by hand one of a kind articles of clothing that will make you stand out in a crowd. The Trash Jacket is composed of found items in the, uh, vintage neighborhood of West Bottoms in Kansas City, Missouri.

Due to its current unavailability, you may be compelled to build your own.

-via Massimo

Sometimes, if I'm unable to sleep in the middle of the night, I wake up and login to X to help me get back in the right head space to sleep. Does it work?

I'll get back to you on that. For now, let's keep in mind that doomscrolling is a respected tradition that has been practiced by sleep deprived people for millennia. J.L. Westover of the cartoon Mr. Lovenstein illustrates the phenomenon.

As I mentioned last week, scholars in a library in Leipzig discovered a previously unknown piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's a 12-minute composition made for a string trio.

A few days ago, the Jugendsinfonieorchester (Youth Symphony Orchestra) of Leipzig held a public performance of it. In the YouTube notes, you can see a breakdown of the seven movements of Ganz kleine Nachtmusik.

Could Mozart win a Grammy for this work? There's online speculation on the subject. I don't see anything in the official rules for the Grammy awards that would restrict the maestro from securing a trophy even though he's dead.

-via Kottke

In the 1970s and 80s, Kmarts swept across the United States like an army of the undead. Now they're almost gone.

What eventually became the Kmart Corporation can be traced back to a retail store created by Sebastian Spering Kresge in 1899. The name Kmart first went up on signs in 1962 and the stores proliferated. But it could not compete with similar firms, notably Walmart, in the 1990s and fell into decline.

Yahoo News reports that the last full-size Kmart outlet in the mainland United States is shutting down. That store on Long Island will close. There does, though, appear to be a Kmart in the US Virgin Islands and another in Guam.

-via Bruce Campbell (yes, that Bruce Campbell) | Photo: Google Maps

Elisa Sunga works as a user experience designer at Google in San Francisco, but she brings a completely different set of experiences to people who eat her food. If you peruse her Instagam page, you'll see one dominant color: orange. I'm not sure why, but her use of cheddar cheese in baked goods may be one reason.

Her cheddar-inspired recipes include sandwiches that she made with peanut butter swirl ice cream and cheddar shortbread. I've never considered cheddar as a good companion to the sweetness of ice cream, but perhaps the tang of the cheese complements the creaminess of the filling.

-via Gastro Obscura