13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. XCI)

1. The Woman with Ten Brains “A German woman named Thea Alba was known as “The Woman With Ten Brains” because she could write all ten fingers simultaneously.” “Alba, who became famous in the 1920′s, also performed a trick in which we wrote with both hands, both feet, and her mouth at the same time.…

6 Startling Things I Didn’t Know about Bettie Page

Last night, I watched Bettie Page Reveals All, a 2012 documentary about her life history, with much of it narrated by Ms. Page herself and that wonderfully thick Southern accent of hers. Now here is the part where I admit that I ‘ve never really paid much attention to Bettie Page as a cultural icon before; always just putting her in that category…

Life Never Gets Old on one of America’s Oldest Farms

On a traditional 70 acre farm in Marlboro, NY, the stone wall fences are a century old and the barns are more than 200 years old. Meet Howard Quimby, the 86 year-old farmer who keeps on farming and proving that life never gets old…

The Tiniest House in London, possibly the World, is for Sale just shy of Half a Million Dollars

Come and take a tour of this one-bedroom London property up for sale, it’ll only take a second– no, literally. Despite its shortcomings (measuring in at just 17 square meters or 188 square feet), this compact little terraced house located near Angel in Islington, pretty much has everything you could possibly need in a London pied-a-terre (yes, I…

All Aboard the Mortuary Railway (and other Secrets of Sydney)

A sparkling harbor, surfers, beaches, possibly kangaroos and the like tend to pop up when you think of Sydney, Australia. But what about the off-beat? What about the little treasures you may pass on the street that hold a whole history, but are overlooked as simply background and overshadowed by the Opera House’s gleaming sails? Well,…

The Vault

Faded Faces: The Recovered Archives of a Forgotten Photography Studio

The passing of time creeps up around her face like the long arm of a dark shadow trying to erase the memory of her existence. But her gaze remains fixed and strong, as if she refuses to be forgotten. For most of the faces in these photographs, time may soon be running out… We’re looking at the…

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Awakening the Giant: An Abandoned London Icon, Then & Now

Converted lofts, factories, hospitals- I’ve seen them all, but up until a couple of weeks ago I’d never have imagined a derelict 20th century power station would pose such an attractive location to set up home base. Yet here it is, Battersea’s iconic and inspired addition to the London property market, and you can see…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. XC)

1. When Thousands of Cables Crowded the Sky Telephone pole line construction in New York, c. 1903 Pratt, Kansas, 1911 The railway station at Pearl Street, Boston, Massachusetts, after a hurricane in January 1881 A telephone tower in Stockholm, Sweden, with 5000 connected lines. It was used between 1887 and 1913, but the tower stood…

Cruising for Roadside Relics on Route 66

We were greeted at our first stop on Route 66 by the roar of a French biker gang rolling through the forgotten town… Roy’s Motel and Café first opened in Amboy, California in 1938 as a gas and service station along the legendary main street of America, U.S. Highway 66. In the 1940s, Roy Crowl expanded the business to include a café,…

The Veteran Chanel Window Dresser who opened the Oddest Little Art Gallery in Paris

I once read somewhere that if you were to spend eight seconds in front of every piece of artwork in the Louvre’s collection it would take one year to see everything. I believe the same rule holds true for Station Arret Facultatif. It’s as if a tornado swept through Paris and dumped the best of the…