I went for a walk and ran into a little free art gallery with tiny people! It has a take a tiny painting or leave a tiny painting policy! pic.twitter.com/qHWMerE2Kp

— Siel Ju (@sielju) February 7, 2021

Have you ever seen a little free library? This is a movement to make books available to people. Usually, these libraries are boxes where you can donate or borrow books.

That movement has inspired people to make little free art galleries. Inside these dollhouse-sized boxes are small works of art. Would you like to have a piece of art? Or, even better, would you like to donate your own art? That's what these lending art museums are for.

Stacy Milrany operates one in Seattle. The Seattle Times describes her project:

When Milrany started the gallery at First Avenue North and Garfield Street, she didn’t know it would become such a huge part of her routine. A working artist for five years who makes charmingly mordant paintings and mixed-media pieces, she’d been drawn to small-scale art, like an art-on-a-postcard project she started for her mother during a series of cancer treatments, and postcard-sized paintings she’d make using a small watercolor set while traveling. But as state restrictions settled in to contain the coronavirus outbreak, traditional avenues for showing and seeing art were no longer as accessible as they’d once been. “Museums and galleries were shut so it seemed like a good idea,” says Milrany, who saw an opening to do something different. 

This sounds like fun! I'd like to start a little art gallery in my neighborhood.

-via Super Punch

With this loaf, Seattle-based baker Doughy Tribbiani wished his readers a "Happy Challa-ween". It's a beautiful bread that illustrates what amazing sculptures can be made with challah dough. He colored it with activated charcoal.

In some cities, it is customary to mark a street-side parking spot as claimed by a person. To transgress upon a claimed parking spot may result in a duel. Thoughtful and civilized residents of such cities, such as Chicago, know these unwritten rules.

This is why Adam Selzer soaks his pants in water, then shapes them upright and places them in the street. His pants mark his spot. He says that in 20 minutes, the wet pants can be shaped. 20 minutes later, they're frozen solid. UPI says that other Chicagoans may use lawn chairs or traffic cones. Let us hope that Selzer's approach becomes the norm.

Photo: Adam Selzer

-via Dave Barry

It's cold enough in Calgary today that I used a frozen towel as a toboggan 😂 pic.twitter.com/i0itJmXp3U

— Kyle Brittain (@KyleTWN) February 7, 2021

As The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy informs us:

A towel . . . is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

You can also, as Kyle Brittain discovered, make a functional toboggan out of a towel by shaping it, then freezing it with water. It works well as a sled. Just be aware that the towel may not survive the process, so be sure to use someone else's.

-via Super Punch

"I'm here live . . . I'm not a cat." Well, that's what attorney Rod Ponton insisted upon when he logged into the Zoom court of Judge Roy B. Ferguson of Texas. Ponton, like a true professional, was willing proceed despite his feline transformation.

Fox 13 News quotes the Judge's prudent advice to all people working from home from shared computers:

"If a child used your computer, before you join a virtual hearing check the Zoom Video Options to be sure filters are off."

Now for my sitcom pitch: Kitten Attorney tells the tale of a lawyer who, despite a terribly cute accident, continues his legal career with a cat's body. I want Clancy Brown in the lead role.

-via Twisted Sifter

UPDATE 2/9/20: Slate has an interview with cat attorney Rod Ponton:

Are you worried that it made you look unprofessional?

No, no, it’s just one of those little computer snafus that happens in our age where we’re trying to take care of everything by Zoom. It’s now apparently gone viral, so that’s pretty funny.

Yeah, I think a lot of people were pretty amused.

We have a sense of humor out here in West Texas. If I can make everybody smile for a moment, today I’m happy to do it, even at my own expense.

Male Chef is a character played by artist Chris Maggio. Several years ago, he made a Christmas spread for his friends. The results are wonderfully horrifying. The best of them is the sauerkraut snowman, which is an excellent project for those of us who live in snow-free areas.

-via Totally Gourmet

YouTuber Khalid SM Shahin digitally added the voices of Beavis and Butt-Head from the cartoon of the same name to the 1989 Legend of Zelda cartoon. Beavis is obnoxiously eager to develop a deeper relationship with Princess Zelda, daughter of King Butt-Head.

Beavis, an incarnation of the Hero with a Thousand Faces, prevails and acquires his reward. It is, perhaps, not what he expected. Then, in the final two minutes of the cartoon, things get really weird.

-via Geekologie

You can talk to Alexa. You can ask her questions and give her commands. But she doesn't have a physical body--or at least something even vaguely human.

But let's say that Alexa had a human body. Specifically, a hot, sensuously muscular male body that responds to your deepest desires. The advertising firm Lucky Generals tells the funny story of one Alexa owner and her beleaguered husband.

-via Nag on the Lake

Do you need to work from home, but don't have a good home office available? Japan, the nation that perfected the vending machine, has a solution. Sora News 24 tells us about the Telecube, which is a complete, portable office:

A Telecube has everything one person needs to work or study efficiently: a charging station, electrical outlets, a WiFi connection, and soundproof walls so you can get those Zoom meetings done. There’s even a ventilation option so you can change out the air, a much-appreciated option in these hazardous times.

The price is about $2.37 for 15 minutes of access.

Photo: Telecube

How is this a metaphor for love? Well, you've got to have the billiard balls to say how you really feel about someone you care for. And your execution must, sometimes, be perfect.

-via Born in Space

Johan Martin, a master pastry chef, is a specialist in Viennoiserie, a particular type of puff pastry. The Cordon Bleu school describes it as:

[...] the 'bridge' between pâtisserie and French bread. These goods are typically made with white flour and active yeast cultures, which cause the dough to rise quickly and achieve the perfect flakiness. Some are instead made using an enriched puff pastry.

In an interview with So Good magazine, Martin insisted that "The perfect croissant does not exist." But his work, such as this astonishing chessboard, suggests otherwise.

Villu Jaanisoo is an Estonian sculptor who lives and teaches in Finland. His source materials include everyday discarded materials, such as tires. Elephant is a life-sized public sculpture made from them and erected in 2018.

Jaanisoo's current project is an even more ambitious build: a fully functional art studio and gallery that floats in Helsinki's harbor.

-via Street Art Utopia

Child prodigy Luca Yupanqui is launching her musical career early. She's 15 months old now, but her new album, Sounds of the Unborn, is a retrospective compilation from her time in the womb. Her parents, Elizabeth Hart and Iván Diaz Mathé, recorded her in-utero sounds and then digitally remixed them. CNN reports:

"The electrodes receive electromagnetic impulses that are translated into MIDI and then hooked up to synthesizers," Hart told CNN. The MIDI devices were placed on Hart's womb over 5 sessions, each one-hour long.[...]

In a release by Sacred Bones, Luca's music is defined as "the expression of life in its cosmic state -- pre-mind, pre-speculation, pre-influence, and pre-human."

Here's a sample from the album. As you can hear, Luca has a promising career ahead of her.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Sacred Bones Records

In the middle of the Japanese countryside, there's a train station. You can exit the train, but you can't go anywhere. There are no roads or paths away from the station and no one lives in the area.

Why does it exist? Spoon & Tamago tells us that the Seiryū-Miharashi Station was built solely to allow people to enjoy the natural beauty of the Nishiki River flowing through the forest. After you disembark and breathe in the mountain air, the next train will pick you up in about 10-15 minutes.

-via Messy Nessy Chic | Photo: With News

Food artist Erik Vernieuwe and photographer Kris De Smedt operate Burp, a food photography studio. Lately, they have been altering hot dogs to show famous scenes from movies and works of art. You'll recognize E.T., the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and others.

The full length nudes in the series are especially . . . strange.