How did I miss this?

Labels: funny ideas, london

For 2008, I will: stretch more, and grouch less.

Labels: funny ideas

"Cream is very nourishing, but, on account of its fatness, is difficult to be digested in weak stomachs. Violent exercise, after eating it, will, in a little time, convert it into butter." From the Universal Receipt Book of 1834.

Labels: funny ideas

The Blog of Unnecessary Quotation Marks.

Labels: funny ideas, time-waster

The Scared Of Santa gallery. Ho ho ho!

Labels: funny ideas

In my Brooklyn office (that sounds so official), I sat next to a radiator with a little shelf on top of it. Used to keep my coffee warm in the winter, very convenient. Would you know, someone's come up with a product that does the exact same thing? Yep, you set this ceramic plate on top of the radiator, plop your drink and snacks on it, and, presto, your radiator is a hot plate.

Assuming the heat's on.

Labels: funny ideas, home

I don't even know where to start with this YouTube gem. The idea that all of classical history is merely an early modern fabrication is stunning enough, but then there's the presentation: the monotonous-yet-urgent synthesized speech, the weird powerpoint transition that looks like some kind of masonic emblem, the repeated instructions to buy the book at Amazon... And what is that music playing in the background?

First LOLCats, now this. Life before the innernets was truly impoverished.

Labels: funny ideas

Now you can furnish even your dollhouse with overpriced faux-coco.

Labels: funny ideas, home

Make My Logo Bigger Cream: workplace and class warfare in the form of a spoof informercial delivered via internet. Hmm.

Labels: funny ideas

Saved for another day: Charles Fort, the Big Daddy of Funny Ideas.

Labels: funny ideas

Of all the wonderfully strange media objects -- Hamster Dance, All Your Base -- for which we can thank the innernets, this one's got to be one of the best: a LOLcats version of "The Waste Land." Thanks for the laugh, ET.

Labels: funny ideas

The Antikythera mechanism, an ancient device that was likely used to forecast astronomical events, is being subjected to all sorts of interventions, including x-ray tomography, which is revealing previously obscured inscriptions on the device.

The New Yorker covered the story five months ago. So now I know what my current news lag is.

Labels: funny ideas, history of science

Link for a less busy day: Earthships, homes made out of tires and tin cans that make their own utilities.

Labels: funny ideas, house

This hotel in Thailand is called The Library. It really does have a library. Also, a red pool. Hmm.

Labels: books, fantasy, funny ideas, house, travel

A great idea: 10 sq meters of your own high-end high-tech private space, rentable while stuck at Heathrow. Coming soon to an airport near me, I hope...

Labels: funny ideas, travel

...will I win Mommy of the Year?


via Boing Boing, recipe from eGullet

"Finger" Cookies (use them for air quotes!)
makes ~ 5 dozen
Yield: 5 dozen
Please note, this is not a nut-free recipe!


1 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
raspberry jelly

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients together, then add to wet and stir thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.

Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll a scant tablespoon full (I used a 1 oz. cookie scoop) of dough into a thin log shape about 4" long for each cookie. Squeeze clost to center and close to one end to create knuckle shapes. Press almond firmly into the end of the cookie for nail. Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle. You want them a bit thin and gangly looking, since they'll puff a little when you bake them.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets (or use silicone sheets or parchment); bake in 325F oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, melt jelly over low heat in a small saucepan.

Carefully lift almond off of each finger, spoon a tiny amount of jelly onto nail bed and press almond back in place so the jelly oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood.

You can also form toes - just make the cookies shorter and a bit wider and only add one joint instead of two. No almonds for these, just indent where the nailbed should be and add a bit of melted jelly to highlight once they are baked.

Labels: cooking, funny ideas, jane

A book called Vinyl, with the history of that material (from records to naugahyde sofas), with a vinyl cover.

Labels: books, funny ideas

Via TPM, I learned that while on vacation in Crawford, GWB went looking around for a book to read, and the First Lady recommended Camus' The Stranger. In which a callow French man murders an Algerian and is tried, not for his crime, but for his character. The trial, naturally, is a farce, and in the end, Merseault consoles himself that at least others will be happy about his execution.

Hint, hint?

Labels: books, funny ideas