a good reason to visit

the city of portland, maine, is home to the international cryptozoology museum. and why, why aren't we there right now? i would like to see the coelacanth replica, and get my picture with an 8-foot sasquatch, and run around gawking at odd things in general. plus, a well-stocked gift shop means plenty of memories to bank on after the trip.

ohmygod, let's go.

vintage appeal

to soothe my frazzled little brain, i have begun an old movie kick: katharine hepburn, audrey hepburn, ginger rogers, gene tierney, perhaps rita hayworth. always cary grant. grace kelly, maybe clark gable.

suggestions are very much encouraged. i enjoy the romantic comedies of the day - has anyone seen Stage Door recently? ginger rogers just cuts people down with her wit. too good.

a dog's life

so, like, now there's a graphic novel about the first dog in space: Laika, by Nick Abadzis. see the review on Boing Boing! i just requested it be purchased by my local library network. huzzah! i heart graphic novels, and i heart (good) books with animal protagonists. excellent times all around.

i'd like mine a little rare

so these graphic designers, Bruketa and Zinic, created this annual report for this food mega-corp in europe called Podravka. the major part of the report is a giant hardbound book with figures and data, etc. but inset into the back cover of the book is a tiny book of the company's award-winning recipies with ink illustrations. that tiny book is called "well done" and it's printed in thermoreactive ink.

everything is invisible until the book is wrapped in foil, and baked at 100 C (or 212 F) for exactly 25 minutes.

careful, don't burn it! it's so pretty. i'm not a crazy book collector, and even i am mad to acquire this book.

link from BoingBoing; they got it from De Zeen: Design Magazine.

Well Done: The Annual Report

antique thinking machine!

people modify their laptops in amazing ways. i think my favorite part is the 'f' hole - just like a goshdarn violin. courtesy of geekologie.com and some other people.

domo kun!

are we all familiar with domo kun, the mascot for japan's NHK tv station? domo kun features in quick stop-action shorts between longer programs. and. he's a funny brown toothy monster. i guess i'm on a wikipedia roll today.

Wikipedia: Domo Kun

"tanuki" means raccoon dog

so wikipedia has interesting things to say about raccoon dogs and the japanese translation of the same, tanuki: it's a species of dog, with vulpine mannerisms, and a round clumsy raccoon body. an omnivore, a scavenger, a gulper of berries and damaged crabs. also prominent in japanese folklore, with giant testicles intact. and apparently very popular in the production of fashionable "faux fur" = do you know if it's really faux?

way too interesting! check out these links:

Wikipedia: Raccoon Dog

Wikipedia: Tanuki

postscript = did anyone see the raccoon dog featured as the gift egg on Facebook's Hatching Egg application? i gave it to my friend vroom. yeah, i did.

today's book of the day is Diamond, by matthew hart. i've only just started it, but it really is riveting from the first page. and who doesn't like thinking about the cost and preparation and delicate auction of giant glittering diamonds? starting in the sluggish diamond rivers of brazil and arriving at harry winston in new york, with lots of exciting things in between. (and yes, a geology lession - which does so much more than college geology did on diamonds! diamond dust in every meteorite, who fucking KNEW.) good stuff.

Strap-on Sex at the Library of Congress!

really, how did i forget to mention this? yes, the Library of Congress has added "strap-on sex" to their official subject headings list! meaning that "strap-on sex" is (sort of) an official subject among all united states libraries, people. it's too good. and it's another little piece of wonderful from the LibraryThing Thing-ology blog.

also, winter finally arrived! it's twenty degrees outside and and it's kicking my ass.

bibliothecaire means "librarian"!

click on this link to the bibliothecaire wikipedia article right now and figure out how to translate it within wikipedia because you all are SMART PEOPLE.

okay, fine. so you can't make a french wikipedia page instantly viewable in english. but you can Google Translate the webpage, like this here.

yes, you knew that. yes, i'm the stupid one. let's move on.

LibraryThing addresses the People.

i'm sitting in a conference room at simmons, my hair all tousled, in the minutes before LibraryThing founder Tim gives a talk about how kick-ass LT is and why all the boston peeps should do it. he's going to focus on the philosophy, less on the marketing. which i admire. what a cool guy.

everyone sign up for LibraryThing right now. maybe i'll find myself when i search for good buzz on on a google blog search. woo!