I'm a sucker for anything that comes in a travel size.
Is there a better writer and reporter around today than Katherine Boo?
Here's some fun: Go through your medicine chest and throw out all the items that have expired. You will be amazed.
Does anyone still limbo?
Try to buy shoelaces lately? Go ahead and try. Even though I work in the downtown central business district of Washington, D.C. (which does not, in point of fact, have a downtown or a central business district) and even though I went to a big department store, I could not find shoelaces. A kindly shoe salesman pointed me in the direction of a tiny tailor shop, where there were several pairs hanging on the wall in little packages. They came two to a package and they cost $3.16. I remember when you could buy a pair of shoes for $3.16! With two pairs of pants! OK, so I'm lying. But that is still a lot for shoelaces that will last only 10 to 15 years.
Movies always get it wrong: You can't put a silencer on a revolver.
If you really think you need a laser level to hang a picture, you need to reexamine your life.
Roger's Law: If you loan someone a book, you will never get it back.
Where does belly-button lint really come from?
How do you know you're in love? You know your partner's passwords, log-ons and PINs.
We love the Tate Gallery in London, though we do not like the Tate Modern, which resembles exactly what it is: a power plant with paintings on the walls. But we have often wondered: Who is Tate? And where did he get the dough for all this art? Well, he was Sir Henry Tate and he made his fortune by inventing a device in 1872 for cutting up large, unwieldy sugar loaves into cute little sugar cubes that you could just drop in your cuppa.
We learned this from reading "Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England" by Judith Flanders. We also learned - - and you are not going to believe this - - that the weight of a fashionably dressed woman's clothing by the end of the 19th century was 37 pounds. That was so outrageously heavy that the Rational Dress Society campaigned for women to reduce the weight of their underclothing to a mere seven pounds! (Today, the clothing of a woman wearing cotton trousers, a wool top, a sweater, socks and underwear would be just over two pounds.)
And, by the way: "Newspapers and periodicals, as well as books were sold uncut, making small knives for slitting the pages essential. Special folding knifes were sold for this purpose at railway bookstall for passengers." See, there is progress - - in some things.
Mail in Victorian London was far better than it is today: Postmen made between six and 12 deliveries per day! Since the postman had to cover a lot of ground, he would knock on your door, drop the letter and take off. Servants did not bother interrupting their work to answer the door if they heard only a single knock. If the postman had a telegram, however, which had to be handed over personally, he would rap twice, alerting the servants in the house to answer the door immediately. Long after knocking had ceased, a telegram still spelled trouble. Hence the title of James M. Cain's 1934 novel: "The Postman Always Rings Twice."
Do they still make all-day suckers? And do they really last all day?
I have never been so at odds with popular opinion: I thought that the Oscar broadcast was one of the best ever and that Jon Stewart was hilarious.
Want to learn how to tie a sheepshank? A clove hitch? Or a West Country whipping? Go to animatedknots.com. (OK, I admit I have too much time on my hands.)
I am constantly amazed at how easy it is for people in movies to find parking places.
Has there ever been a better combination of foods than the olive burger?
People who crack their knuckles should be beaten with sticks.
When is the last time you sent or read a fax? It is so old technology.
I have subscribed to the New Yorker approximately forever, and I never knew until now that each cover has a title. (It's at the bottom of the table of contents.) Now I am tracking down a rumor there is a bunny hidden on every cover of Playboy. Wild!
Posted by rsimon at March 16, 2006 08:33 PM