Unsung Heroes of WWII: The All-Female WASP Squad

Where there’s a will, there’s a way — but for pilot Jacqueline Cochrane, there had to be even more. “To live without risk, for me,” she said, “would be tantamount to death.” One of the biggest risks of her career was pioneering the US organisation, WASPS (Women Airforce Service Pilots). In the heat of WWII,…

That One Time Coca-Cola Made a Dystopian Soda

No one quite knew what to do with Generation X (born from the late 1960s to the early ’80s), but marketers were especially stumped at how they could appeal to this new, generation of globalisation that was disillusioned with the status quo. The heart of the matter was, and remains, incredibly subversive – a challenge…

7 Things You May Not Know About Hearst Castle

They said it was where California met the world. Where Egyptian antiquities mingled with cast sculptures by Bernini, and the gaze of medieval eyes met those of Hollywood’s elite. Today, we’re traveling into the nooks and crannies of La Cuesta Encantada – The Enchanted Hill. 1. Its Architect Was a Woman Where to begin with…

She Played the World’s Most Unappreciated Music, but looked Fabulous Doing it

First things first: it’s not like we hate the accordion. We like it on the occasional metro platform, and we love to hear it in a distant summer breeze by the Seine. Few things are as effective at stirring up good ‘ole Parisian nostalgia, even after all these years. It’s just, well, a lot. It…

The Curious Career of Living as a Real-Life Garden Gnome

If you were out of a job in 19th century England and seeking new employment, there was a chance you might find a peculiar advertisement in the newspaper that read something like: “WANTED! Ornamental garden hermit“. The profession would essentially require you to become a human ornamental folly on the grounds of a wealthy family…

Wet Hot Parisian Summer: A Lost 1930s Nudist Utopia

In Physiopolis, life was better in the buff. Or at least in a bikini, which was as close as one could legally get to public nudity in 1930s Paris. It was here, on an isolated sun-baked island on the Seine, that a titillating new naturiste-nudiste (naturalist and nude) movement sprang forth. Gone were the days…

René Magritte, Accidental Hipster?

Creative inspiration lives on a carrousel. Meaning, bygone trends and inventions always rear their heads at another point in history, finding relevancy for a new generation — and, yes, usually the generation in question is millennials, who’ve successfully resurrected a love for handlebar moustaches, Bukowski and bespoke taxidermy. Today, we’re making a case for the…

Don’t Judge this Potato Hotel by its er, Skin

Beauty’s in the eye of the beholder, as they say. Especially if that beholder happens to own Idaho’s chicest new B&B, The Big Idaho Potato Hotel. At a glance, the spud seems like another loveable wonky, abandoned roadside gem from the golden days of Route 66. But this six-ton ‘tater has Pinterest-perfect interiors that feel…

Where has the Japanese Art of Synchronised Walking been all our Lives?

Just when you start to feel like a fairly competent human, something like Shuudan Koudou slides into your Instagram feed to prove you wrong. Literally translated as “collective action”, Shuudan Koudou is the Japanese sport – no, art form – of walking. That is, walking forwards and backwards. Walking sideways. Walking whilst lightly squatting. Walking…

B&B of the Month: The Wander Inn

They’re the Renaissance women of the wild, wild west, and today Amie and Jolie Sikes are giving Messy Nessy a taste of their little haven in Round Top, Texas: The Wander Inn. It’s the stuff of southern fairytales, a bed & breakfast where the longhorns graze and the fireflies glow, where folks “can see the…