1. For sale: the only private island in the San Francisco Bay
Red Rock Island was a site for manganese mining, and abandoned mining tunnels still exist, along with the coast guard’s old fog bell. Otherwise, the private island is undeveloped.
The islet has been used as the Alaskan seller’s ‘family retreat’, who are now listing the San Francisco property for a whopping $25m, with plenty of hiking trails across the island, whose terrain varies from sandy beach on the east side to more rugged shoreline on the south and west sides.
‘Prospective buyers have the option to maintain the island’s natural state or embark on their dream development project,’ says the agent.
Found on The Spaces.
2. The changing face of an American motel through the years
Miagene Motor Court of Bryson City, North Carolina, pictured in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 2015 and 2018, after demolition. Found on Dead Motels. Further reading: the bittersweet story of the world’s first motel.
3. Rooftop sculptures in the Punjab hinterland
Since 2014, Rajesh Vora has been documenting the rooftop sculptures in the Punjab hinterland. Giant every day objects, but huge & often used to disguise water tanks.
Found via Present & Correct.
4. Automobile Exhibition in Paris in 1957
Found on Live Journal.
5. Twisters in Paris!
View this post on Instagram
Not twisters exactly, but Dust devils. Explained here.
6. Cloudspotting for Beginners
Opening beyond the cloud types is a cabinet of atmospheric curiosities — cloud iridescence, sundogs (which inspired Hilma af Klint), glories (which were central to the discovery of cosmic rays), clouds on other planets, thunder and lightning on our own, crepuscular rays. (–The Marginalian)
Cloudspotting for Beginners, a new book available now. An illustrated field guide to the science and splendor of the sky, and an ode to the human longing for pattern, for order, for an organizing principle that gives coherence to the chaos of life.
Found via The Marginalian
7. An Art Deco Rat Coin Purse
Rat coin purse designed by Paul Frey for the renowned Lacloche Freres jewelers and was popular in the early 1900s. It is part of the French Art Deco movement and is made of brass and a small ruby.
Found on Steampunk Tendencies.
8. U.S. Government-issued sailor’s trousers, hand-embroidered and made c. 1840
Found on Tumblr.
9. “Le Café de Balzac”: Paul Giamatti as the French novelist and playwright
10. “Hotel Notepad” prints by Brooklyn artist Tess Ramirez
Found here.
11. Tour de France Drinking Raids
12. Summer BBQ Tips with Gene Kelly
Found on Pinterest.
13. The Thirteen Club
Triskaidekaphobia is fear or avoidance of the number 13 and since at least 1774, a superstition of “thirteen at a table” has been documented: if 13 people sit at a table, then one of them must die within a year. The origin of the superstition is unclear and various theories of its source have been presented over the years.
In 1881 an influential group of New Yorkers, led by US Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler, came together to put an end to this and other superstitions. They formed a dinner cabaret club, which they called the Thirteen Club. At the first meeting, on January 13, 1881, at 8:13 p.m., thirteen people sat down to dine in Room 13 of the venue. The guests walked under a ladder to enter the room and were seated among piles of spilled salt. Many “Thirteen Clubs” sprang up all over North America over the next 45 years. Their activities were regularly reported in leading newspapers, and by 1887, the Thirteen Club was 400-strong, over time gaining five U.S. Presidents as honorary members: Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. The secret society maintained such a high level of secrecy that even members’ wives and children were unaware of their membership.
Found on The Paris Review, additional info on Wikipedia.
