The Nietz Old Textbook Collection is a collection of 19th century schoolbooks. 66 of them are available online for searching and there are scans of each page. (via Larkfarm)
If you were a fan of The State sketch show on MTV, revisit their glory days with these (shhh downloadable) videos of most of their sketches. Comedy Central should really pry the old episodes of this show from the MTV vault.
Just what every House-keeper needs, The Everett Raisin Seeder. Seed one pound of raisins in less than ten minutes! So easy, a child can use it. Cornell’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections has produced a glorious website to accompany their exhibit “Not by Bread Alone.” It explores America’s culinary heritage, the trends and technologies that shaped our gastronomy. I really want to see the inside of the American Red Cross’ “Book of Recipes for the use of Chinese Foodstuffs” which instructed women stationed in Nanking during World War I on the use of local ingredients.
On a related note, a reader sent along Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project. Produced at Michigan State, the project’s goal is to have the images and transcriptions from 75 cookbooks (published 1798-1922) online by September 2003. They already have a number of book images ready for your perusal. I pounced on William Andrus Alcott’s The Young House-Keeper. This relative of Louisa May Alcott worked for education reform and wrote numerous advice guides such as The Boy’s Guide to Usefulness and The Young Wife. The first section of his House-Keeper book whips me back and forth between scorning him for cornering women into a life of servitude for their families and praising his appreciation of the important role women can play in educating children at home and maintaining a family’s physical and mental well-being.
A lovely site: Yin Yu Tang, a Chinese Home is the house of a wealthy merchant whose descendants decided to sell it after all their family members had moved out of the village. A curator at the Peabody Essex Museum happened to be visiting the village when family members had returned to the house to discuss putting it up for sale. She worked with the Xiuning County Cultural Relics Administration to acquire the house for permanent exhibit in the U.S. The careful disassembly and reconstruction was performed with the help of Chinese carpenters and stonemasons. The photos and descriptions of the complex joinery, which made use of wooden pegs and no nails or glue, make IKEA furniture assembly feel like child’s play. (via Yahoo! Picks)
If you’re upset over Fox’s cancellation of Firefly, consider writing a postcard to encourage UPN to pick it up.
Rated PG
I went to the Peter Gabriel concert last night and had a tremendous amount of fun. He had a nice mix of old and new songs and just enough tricks and set devices to keep us wondering what was going to happen next. Bass player Tony Levin has been posting tour photos and backstage commentary. Before the show, I and another Connecticut native were staring at the tour t-shirts (at $35, no thank you!) and wondering where the heck Uncasville, CT is. It finally dawned on us that it must be where the new casinos are. Yup, Peter Gabriel played at the Mohegan Sun. It’s just not the same Connecticut I grew up with.
Wow. A collection of almost 220 flight attendant uniforms from all around the world. Cliff Muskiet is a flight attendant himself, and has been amassing this collection for many years. This site lends further credence to my theory that if it’s collectible, someone has a web page about it. And, you know, anything and everything is collectible. (via Pop Culture Junkmail)
I’ve been slowly but steadily making my way through my husband’s vast collection of John McPhee‘s books, so it was nice to see this article about him in the Globe. His 1999 Pulitzer Prize was labeled “richly deserved” and “long overdue.” You emerge from his non-fiction understanding the appreciation he has for his subject matter, not feeling that it was a chore of any sort for him to clearly and pleasantly relate the facts and personalities he encountered. You can feel his enjoyment in putting together the words. His wit comes out of nowhere to surprise you in the midst of the breadth of information he has distilled for you. You imagine that when he interviews his subjects it is less of a question and answer and more of a conversation between two enthusiasts. And the best part is that he is willing to pass along his tricks of the trade to others in his classes at Princeton.
Bargain Hunting – some of my favorite places to browse for markdowns on lovely things
Cookware & More at OutletsOnline.com: The U.S. Direct Factory Outlet for All-Clad Cookware. Save almost half off cookware with minor cosmetic flaws. Pieces still carry All-Clad’s full lifetime factory warranty for functional defects. If you can’t justify even the sale prices on All-Clad but you really want that saucier, give them a try. You can return within two weeks for a refund.
Sundance Catalog’s outlet sale: Almost 200 rings on sale and other pretty jewelry, many more than 50% off. It really makes you wonder what their markup is.
Eziba’s outlet: I get their catalog and I enjoy looking at all the pretty, often colorful, always handcrafted items from around the world. But the prices never appealed. The outlet gives me a little more hope, though it’s not usually chock-full of the ones that caught my eye.
Crate&Barrel; outlet: 8 categories of C&B; goodies that they need to move out of the warehouse so they can fill it with next season’s trends and colors.
Levenger outlet: for the person who has to be dragged away from browsing at the few remaining stationary stores (and I don’t mean the shops with “Depot” or “Max” in their names, though the way things are going now, those sometimes have to do in a pinch).
Follow up to yesterday’s Cloud Dome post: YiMay Yang sent along a page describing how to create a similar diffusion effect with a plastic milk jug.