A very neat bookshelf in the shape of a man. (thanks Brad)

French fries cut no thicker than 0.28 inches. No more than six patties on a grill at a time. These were just a few of the contributions to the McDonald’s operating “bible” from Fred Turner, a former long-time employee. Now 70, he is back on the job, brought in by exec Jim Cantalupo who himself came out of retirement to shine up the golden arches. Turner is in charge of product improvement, meaning he’s working on ways to make their products more appealing, and also trying out new items. Perhaps he will bring back Julia Child’s favorite beef tallow fried french fries.

Every year in Montana, the Big Mountain Resort has a Furniture Race on the last Saturday of the season. Participants attach skis to various pieces of furniture, are towed to the top of the slop, and then hurtle down. It appears that they have a broad definition of the word “furniture” as evidenced by this year’s photos of a satellite dish, spaceship, and giant banana.

The Hartford (CT) Courant is running monthly articles in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ flight. This month’s offering is a look at the history of Sikorsky, a helicopter manufacturer based in Connecticut. Igor I. Sikorsky’s first dabblings with helicopter design were unsuccessful enough that he instead designed a few fixed-wing planes before traveling to Berlin with Charles Lindbergh and witnessing a demonstration of Focke’s twin-rotor helicopter. He was granted permission to design a helicopter for the U.S. Army and found success when granted a contract in 1942. The original vision of the helicopter as a personal transportation device has not come to fruition, but their roles are important nonetheless.

Thankfully, the music library of the bankrupt San Jose Symphony was purchased by an association of former members of the symphony. Donations were collected from local patrons and other symphonies to win the successful $64,000 bid. The sheet music includes works back under copyright again as of 1997, meaning expensive rental fees for those who do not own their own. And money can’t really pay for the years of markings and corrections that have made the music an integral part of the symphony’s 123 year history.

Jason Kottke imagined how the marketing meeting for Titanium cards went, but those “more precious than platinum” cards have been out for a few years now. And, not surprisingly, Citibank has already trumped Titanium with a new Diamond card. What’s next? As envisioned in this Atlantic commentary: “Ultimately there could be a Uranium card, with a debt load whose half-life is 700 million years.” I’m thinking that with the conflict diamond image problems, the next steps will be to run through the rest of the precious gems. You know I’d sign up for the Sapphire card.

Conde Nast publishing conglomerate has started up a business selling their vintage magazine covers as fine art. The reproduction prints are all priced at $350 framed, $250 matted, which seems a bit steep until you consider that the target market for their House & Garden, Gourmet, and Vanity Fair ads is probably accustomed to paying much more for prints. But are these the same people who will buy cover reproductions or will it be more of the middle class masses who buy the magazines and dream of a color coordinated, fashionable, and well-seasoned life? Gazing through these paintings makes me wish for the return of abstract artwork to replace the celebrity-ridden rows in todays newstands. (via Pop Culture Junk Mail)

The 2003 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced this week. The intense photographs from The Rocky Mountain News Photography Staff’s coverage of Colorado’s forest fires are most striking.

Prompted by yesterday’s New York subway token mention, reader Mike P. wrote in to relate his recent Las Vegas experience where he had to use bills instead of coins in the video poker machines. And it isn’t just paper in, paper comes out too. The payoffs are printed out on tickets that you can give to the cashier or continue to use in other machines. An article from May 2001 reveals some reluctance on the part of casino executives to roll out cashless machines. But financial analysts predicted that casinos would eventually turn away from coins. Many patrons prefer not to get the hands dirty on coins, and the turnaround time is better for business. More recently, Las Vegas Life reported that MGM Mirage is acquiring 7,000 new slots and video poker machines with the new “ticket in, ticket out” technology, and retrofitting 11,000 existing ones to accept it as well. The other major casino companies are in line, with mogul Steve Wynn opting for a completely coinless operation for his planned 2005 opening of La Reve. One day, people will wonder why slot machines generate a strange electronic clinking noise when they pay out.

After fierce competition, the cuddly koala has triumphed over the penguin, walrus, and cobra to be the newest Barnum Animal Cracker.