1. The Bygone Baguette Mailboxes of French Polynesia
Read the article on Atlas Obscura, found on Present & Correct.
2. State Guest Mansions, 260 abandoned villas in Shenyang, China
The Story Behind the Many Ghost Towns of Abandoned Mansions Across China found on Architectural Digest.
3. The Ancient Tattoos made from Breastmilk and Soot
4. The delightful covers of Lilliput magazine
Lilliput was a small-format British monthly magazine of humour, short stories, photographs and the arts, founded in 1937 by the photojournalist Stefan Lorant. It had a reputation for publishing what were, for the time, fairly daring photographs of female nudes. In August 1960 it was absorbed into “Men Only” (which only later became pornographic).
Found on Wikipedia.
5. Saul Steinberg’s Cats
Found on Herman Miller.
6. An idea for giving damaged kilim rugs a new life:
Found via here.
7. This Swedish island for sale (beautiful home included)
Private island-owners are in a league of their own, but an opportunity to join the club recently presented itself in the form of this Swedish island, 30 miles from the centre of Stockholm. Part of the Värmdö archipelago, on Kanholms fjord, the slender skerry comes with a suite of cottages designed by Stockholm architect John Robert Nilsson.
Article and property link found on The Spaces.
8. Also on my wish(ful thinking) list
From the delightful shop of Rebecca Gardner.
9. A 17th Century Bezoar Stone Holder
A bezoar was a stone procured from the kidneys of the Indian antelope. Such stones were supposed to have been formed of the poison of serpents which had bitten the animal, combined with the matter produced to counteract it. Because of the way it formed it was strongly believed from the Middle Ages onwards that the bezoar was a potent charm against plague and poison. In fact many quadrupeds produce such stones in their intestines made up from concretions of indigestible material. This little silver box that would have held such a stone was made in Europe in the late seventeenth century.”
The word ‘bezoar’ comes from the Persian for ‘antidote’.
Found here.
10. How Tennis Balls Became Yellow (hint: it involves David Attenborough
Tennis balls used to be black and white (Wimbledon used white balls until 1985), but changed to yellow for TV viewers thanks to David Attenborough’s suggestion.
The change in color happened due to the demands of television transmissions. In 1972 television was already in color all over the world (although in Spain it was not generalized until five or six years later). At the end of the 1960s, the person in charge of the BBC broadcasts (which, of course, was in charge of Wimbledon) was the renowned documentary filmmaker David Attenborough. And he noticed that the visibility of the traditional white ball was not perfect, especially if it approached the lines of the rectangle of play.
In that year of 1972, tennis was in full growth: the professional and amateur circuits had unified and women’s professional tennis was also growing. Tennis was becoming a great world spectacle and in this context television was fundamental. The International Tennis Federation, in charge of the rules, commissioned a study which showed that the yellow ball was more visible and therefore easier for viewers to follow. The courts, moreover, began to be multicolored once the use of synthetic materials in official tournaments was approved.
Here’s a British Pathé film from 1961 that shows how tennis balls were made
Found on Kottke.
11. Found hidden in the seat of a Louis XV armchair in a convent near Paris
An 18th century CE ivory dildo complete with contrivance for simulating ejaculation and its own discreet cloth bag. Now housed at the Science Museum in London.
Found on the Museum of Artefacts.
12. What’s Under London? Discover London’s Forbidden Underworld
a journey through various subterranean strata, starting with the paving stone and continuing through the soil, electric cables, and gas pipelines beneath. From there, things get Roman.
Found on Open Culture.
13. Some tips I found useful now that I speak to people on a daily basis in my shop!
Found on this Twitter (X) account via Swiss Miss.
