Odds and Ends Pt. 4

A man tries to make paper by referring to a poem. Learn about the results in his hilarious report “Recipe for Paper,” which recently aired on public radio program Studio 360.

Goto Reviews, which bills itself as “A Guide to the Most Efficient Things in the World,” is a nifty site. For example, it made a reference to the “Mealbox” table. The chairs and table are all shaped in such a way that they can be stacked together and packed into a box.

And thanks to dan dan noodles for his concern. When I tripped, it was on a poorly lit, nearly empty block. A guy walking in the other direction turned around and asked me if I was OK, and that was about it, no snickering or laughs that I could hear. Incidentally, today around lunchtime, I was walking down 14th Street, which some of you know as one of the major crosstown streets in New York, when an older woman in front of me tripped and fell. The gentleman who’d been walking in front of her and I stopped to make sure she wasn’t hurt, but she seemed more embarrassed than anything else, her sunglasses sitting askew on her nose.

Hurray for Dirt

Jesse wanted me to point out these instructions for making a nifty sod couch, a perfect project for someone looking for something both environmentally friendly and comfortable (if not a little messy):
http://www.readymademag.com/feature_6_sodcouch.php

Does that remind anyone else of the Adobe, the “sassy new Mexican import that’s made out of clay”?

A9.com Maps

I’ve been looking for apartments on Craigslist and found the Web site A9.com Maps to be helpful. A9.com Maps, a subsidiary of Amazon, provides images of selected cities, block by block. The photos are taken from the street, from a perspective perpendicular to the flow of traffic on the street. Both sides of a block are usually documented.

Not all blocks have been covered (on the Web site, you can choose whether or not you want to see which blocks have been covered — otherwise you just get a street-level map image). I also found the interface a little confusing. And, of course, if you’re interested in seeing a place outside of the 24 cities currently listed on the site, the service isn’t going to do you much good.

But in terms of just getting a general sense for a neighborhood, in a city that I’m already familiar with, it’s nice to know what’s in the direct vicinity of a listed apartment. Is the neighborhood more industrial? In transition? Very trendy? Do the streets look uncomfortably deserted? Are there any trees?

Apartment Camping

The Orikaso Bowl

I’ve never gone camping before, but I’m endlessly fascinated with camping equipment. They feed into my dream that one day, I’ll own only so much that I can throw everything into a car and take off.

I also admire the design of some of these products. I recently saw the Orikaso Bowl at a sporting goods store. Orikaso, the company that makes the bowl, also sells foldable cups (it even has handles!) and plates. Awesome.

Then there are those nesting camping cooksets, where the pans can be pots and the lids double as plates. How ingenious is that?

On a completely different note, I found out about an effort similar to NYCares’ Winter Wishes program. Called Operation Santa Claus, the program originated with the USPS, which every year receives letters from kids addressed to Santa. In 1912, the Postmaster General authorized the use of these letters for “philanthropic purposes.”

If you wish to help answer one of these letters, you can visit Manhattan’s General Post Office at 421 8th Ave. (33rd and 8th) between now and Dec. 23, between the hours of 9-4:30 Mondays through Fridays except on Thursdays, 9-7 on Thursdays and 10-4 on Saturdays. You can also send donations, which will be used to throw a Christmas party for underprivileged kids.

Extreme Makeover: Christmas Tree Edition

Hardrock, Coco and Joe, only slightly less pitiful than the Charlie Brown tree.

If you think you’ve got those magic hands, and all you have to do is wave them around a few times to make a Christmas tree look special, you might want to enter the Chicago Tribune’s tree-decorating contest. The newspaper may no longer be accepting entries — the article states that the three entrants chosen to make over the trees will get them by Dec. 4 — but I’m nevertheless looking forward to the contest results. Who will prove more adept than the Peanuts Gang?

And I appear to be late by a few years in covering this product (I just noticed them for the first time the other day at an arts supply store), but at least I can catch up on all the latest slang with Knock Knock‘s Slang 2 Flashcards.

The flashcard reads, “I’m going to be up in your grill for just a second now.”