For more than three centuries, Lock & Co. Hatters in London has produced the finest hats for the most prestigious people, including Lord Nelson, Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, and Charlie Chaplin. And although some its hatmaking methods have changed over the years, many have not. They even use head measuring devices from past times, such as this 150-year old conformer to precisely measure the customer's head.
Lock & Co. has been open since 1676, with the exception of the recent pandemic. Not even getting bombed during the Blitz stopped it. This video by Business Insider traces the long history of the shop and explores its methods for making the world's most sought-after hats.
Rocking chairs are nice, but what if you want to move in different directions? That's an option, thanks to Nicholas Gardner and Saša Štucin, artists who operate a furniture design studio called Soft Baroque. Their collection includes elegantly crafted pieces that move as you do, such as the chair pictured above.
The kids have to get to school, even when it's winter in northern Maine. Here's a school bus that, according to the Facebook group Crown of Maine, had benches and a woodstove inside. Redditor notbob1959 identifies the location as Main Street in the town of Presque Isle. Here's a modern Google Street View of the same location.
Do you have sensible, practical clothes? Beijing-based fashion house Marrknull can fix that for you. These jeans that debuted for the spring season collection have complete waistlines at both the top and the bottom. Wear them and people will definitely form an impression of you.
Melissa Turkington recently bought a book that I gather is a collection of poetry and fiction by Charles Bukowski. The used book included notes from a woman who was profoundly unimpressed by Bukowski's literary pretentions.
Jasper the Golden Retriever is rightfully suspicious of Mirror Dog, who looks like a vicious brute. Be sure to warn him off so that he knows not to come on Jasper's porch ever again.
Bernhard Sobotta calls his invention The Cercle. Unlike other camping bikes that pull a trailer, The Cercle has its bed frame in the middle of the vehicle. It unfolds to provide an adequate sleeping space and a table, the latter of which has a built-in steel ring for a camping stove.
I can think of a few post-apocalyptic scenarios in which The Cercle would prove useful. Maneuvering it could be too cumbersome during a zombie apocalypse. But, in an empty Earth event, The Cercle could provide the mobility necessary for foraging. My greatest concern would be providing real protection for the sleeper from two and four-legged predators at night.
Yes, it's the ultimate dream job because it's all about nature's perfect food: the taco. Food & Wine magazine reports that the spice company McCormick is seeking applicants for its open position of Director of Taco Relations. It's fairly demanding and, sadly, requires more than just eating tacos:
In the role's official description, McCormick explains that applicants will be expected to work up to 20 hours a week for up to four months including attending virtual meetings and occasionally traveling to both the McCormick headquarters and "other taco locations in the U.S." Responsibilities include things like keeping tabs on taco trends by scouring social media and talking with chefs, developing content for McCormick's social channels, and consulting "on inspirational and approachable taco recipes incorporating McCormick's Taco Seasoning" by working with the McCormick Kitchens team.
In a press release, the Baltimore Museum of Art announced that it will conduct an exhibition hosted by staff members whom visitors see every time that they visit: the security guards. These 17 employees are very familiar with the museum's holdings, so it's appropriate to consult their perspectives:
“Our security officers spend more time in our galleries and living among our collection than any other staff within the institution,” said Christopher Bedford, BMA Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director. “It is their perspectives, their insights, and their relationships with the art and daily interactions with our visitors that will set the stage for Guarding the Art to be an exceptional experience.”
Justin Bateman, a British artist, specializes in selecting and arranging pebbles into temporary mosaics. The arrangements, which he calls "land art", are vividly familiar. He places them in the outside world because, as he quotes artist Robert Smithson, "A work of art when placed in a gallery loses its charge, and becomes a portable object or surface disengaged from the outside world."
That's what Entrepreneur magazine is calling them, although it's unclear if the designers of the athletes' beds in Tokyo have that as a goal. More precisely, the cardboard beds not designed to withstand the weight of two people, especially two people in motion:
The organizers have stated that they are perfectly designed to support the weight of a single person, but that they cannot or should not be jumped on, as they can break.
My level 6 cleric has all of the right equipment for the job, but I doubt my spells will work as well. There are some limitations to making Dungeons & Dragons real. Nonetheless, with the help of a friend, Tony Ho Tran went camping as Zaddy, his halfling bard character. Tran's first task was to acquire all of the items on Zaddy's inventory:
In his Explorer’s Pack, according to the D&D player’s manual, Zaddy carries the following:
A backpack
A bedroll
A mess kit
A tinderbox
Ten torches
Ten days’ worth of rations
A waterskin
50 feet of hempen rope
I already had some of these things: a backpack, a bedroll, and a wineskin I got as a souvenir from a trip to Spain. Through the magic of fate (read: Facebook Marketplace), I acquired a Boy Scouts mess kit, a survival tinderbox, and 50 feet of cotton rope. I also created ten torches by combining free paint stirrers from Home Depot with a few ripped-up T-shirts.
Once Tran and his friend and companion, Tanner, set up a crude survival shelter, they walked about the campground seeking out quests:
Once finished, I donned my equipment and we set out. In D&D, players accept quests given by NPCs (non-playable characters). I figured we could do the same by soliciting quests from strangers in the park.
To our surprise, folks didn’t immediately call the cops on us when we approached. In fact, we ended up completing quests and getting rewards like real D&D characters. Our quest-givers included:
A group of students from the University of Iowa. Their quest: for us to drink a shooter of Fireball. Their reward: two hard seltzers.
A lovely older couple traveling around the Midwest. Their quest: for me to play them a song on the ukulele. Their reward: a handful of Dove dark chocolates.
A young couple with excitable dogs. Their quest: for me to play them a song on my ukulele (I was afraid everyone else would want this, too, but luckily they didn’t). Their reward: a can of light beer.
It was an experience of a lifetime, but, unfortunately, did not result in enough experience points to result in leveling up.
Tomas Gomez of San Antonio, Texas was hitting balls at a Topgolf facility when it began to rain. He decided to hit one last shot before leaving. Lightning struck that final ball during its flight. KSAT quotes him:
“I decided to hit one last shot then leave,” Gomez said in a phone interview with KSAT.
He asked his friend, Arlette Ibarra, to start recording on her phone to get his last shot of the game.
In one full swing, Gomez sent his golf ball flying in mid-air at 88 miles per hour and just seconds later, a massive bolt of lightning trickled down the sky and struck the ball.
