I was wondering how the maraschino cherry came about. I don’t really like them; they look too fake. But they do spruce up a ginger ale quite admirably. Maraschinos were originally soaked in liqueur called Marasca, thus the name. Over time, almond oil was substituted in for the liqueur. Red and green food coloring was added too. The modern processing of these sundae toppers is detailed in this article about Johnson Fruit where they produce maraschinos in blue curaçao, orange citrus, and white piña colada flavors. I’m still sticking to fresh.

J. Michael Straczynski talks about Babylon 5 and its possible future. It’s all publicity for Bab5’s new wide-screen showings on the SciFi channel, so there’s no real news, but if you’re a real JMS fan, read the chat transcript instead (ok, if you are a Real JMS fan you were there) wherein he uses amusing phrases like “full of balloon juice.” SciFi’s Babylon 5 site is actually not bad. Lurker’s Guide is the best, though, for actual information.

OK, a followup to the followup, thanks to Steve Cook. We’ve got cows, moose, salmon, and now Mr. Potato Head in Rhode Island. What’s Mr P.H. got to do with R.I.? Hasbro is headquartered in Pawtucket. The statues are six feet tall and scattered around the state. Mrs. Potato Head is also featured.

I knew you could buy large quantities of M&Ms; in special colors, and now, thanks to /usr/bin/girl, I know you can also buy a box of 64 Crayola Crayons in one color. Hmmm I think I’d like 64 boxes in each of the 64 colors packed in one special 64 box-of-boxes. Yes, that’s it. Except there are actually 120 colors.

Followup to the cows and moose: Dru pointed me to a similar Pacific Northwest event, Soul Salmon (Dru did their nice web site). You can see some photos of the artistically decorated salmon at Bumbershoot.

The Japanese kimono has evolved significantly throughout the various “ages”, as seen on this history of the kimono page. And here are some photos of beautiful kimono from the late Edo period.

There’s a saying that skirt length is an economic indicator. Short skirts means the market is going up, long skirts means down. It’s a correlation which may just be a flight of fancy. But in department stores and on Presidential candidate’s wives right now, I’m spotting a fashion trend that is just waiting for a correlation: long jackets over skirts. And I mean really long jackets, practically the same length as the skirt itself, whether long or short. Can that be the indicator for a choppy stock market?

Toronto was also inspired by Chicago’s Cows on Parade and produced their own Moose in the City event. Colorfully painted moose arrived in the streets this summer and will be auctioned off to benefit the Olympic team and local charities.

Via memepool, here’s a Slashdot style site for library and information science news. This week is Banned Books Week. How many of the 100 most frequently challenged books have you read?

From the American Museum of the Moving Image, here’s an online exhibit of Presidential Campaign commercials. The first ones were in 1952. The batch from 1960 includes one featuring Jackie speaking in Spanish. Color appears in 1968. (via Yahoo Daily Picks)