The final Monday in January is known as Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.
In 1957, Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes created three-dimensional wallpaper from sealed air pockets between shower curtains. They thought people would love the groovy design, but Bubble Wrap’s destiny was function over form. A great packaging material was born.
It is sometimes claimed to be one of the “most haunted places in the world”
This Victorian and Gothic-style mansion is renowned for its size and its architectural curiosities. The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, located at 525 South Winchester Boulevard San Jose, CA 95128. It is also known for its paranormal anomalies.
June 11, National Corn on the Cob Day
Corn is a wild grass. Over 10,000 years ago, people from Southern Mexico collected and consumed a wild grass called ‘teosinte’, which is now what we call ‘maize’ (field corn). From Mexico, maize spread during migrations, into the southwest areas of the U.S.A and south to Peru. Corn is now America’s biggest crop and a staple of the global food supply.
The territory of present-day Hungary has for centuries been a crossroads for various peoples, including Celts, Romans, Germanic tribes, Huns, West Slavs and the Avars.
Hungarians do a lot of things better than anyone else. They have the highest proportion of female teachers in primary school in Europe: only 3% of them are men. On social media, 83% of Internet users aged 16 to 74 are active on at least one social network, 20 percentage points higher than the average European!
An Ode to Great Album Art
I started a new feature, for my blog, in May of 2022 with posts about “Colored Vinyl“. I’ll be adding Picture Disc posts later on but I thought this would be a good time to review one of my favorite books. Taschen’s latest is a celebration of great album art, of the designs that helped define some of the most iconic artists of all time.
People who use balloons to make these shapes call themselves Twisters, Balloon Benders and Balloon Artists.
Balloon modelling or balloon twisting is the shaping of special modelling balloons into almost any given shape, often a balloon animal. I have memories, as a child, that a clown would quickly twist a balloon into, usually, the shape of a poodle and give it to me. I always thought that was really cool.
“Going beyond your every day capacity is such a fulfilling feeling.” – Ashrita Furman
Who holds the Guinness Record for the most records held at the same time by an individual? Ashrita Furman has broken more than 700 Guinness records since 1979. He currently holds more than 120 records. Over the years, many of the records have been either broken by Ashrita himself or others, or in some cases, the category has been retired.
