Last year Heinz came out with a clever new ketchup container called the Dip & Squeeze. Perfect for fast food takeout, it lets users dip their french fries in or squeeze the ketchup onto a burger. After this breakthrough idea was promoted on “Good Morning America” David Wawrzynski’s relatives started calling to congratulate him on his invention’s success. But although Wawrzynski had pitched his Little Dipper package to Heinz in 2008, they had cut off contact after an initial interest. He filed a lawsuit against Heinz in October of 2010. No news on the outcome of that yet, but Heinz has just won two industry awards for the Dip & Squeeze.

There are 30 major league baseball parks and Darren O’Donnell plans to see them all in one season — on a bike. He started in Seattle after quitting his job as a Bellingham food co-op (they wouldn’t give him the time off) and he’s made it to Florida with 12 parks done. His father is sending letters to the teams’ front offices, inviting them to meet O’Donnell when he arrives. O’Donnell is tweeting and updating his Facebook page along the way. He expects to reach his final stop in St. Louis on September 25th and doesn’t plan to bike home.

Bell Labs produced a film in 1975 to recruit women engineers. It begins and ends with college students’ impressions of whether women can be engineers. The majority of the film shows the home and work lives of five women at Bell Labs. What’s most striking and indicative of the age of the film is that the questioning and justifications of women as engineers are not really about the industry but about women having careers outside the home at all, any career. The film’s subjects make the statement that it’s OK for both the husband and wife to work, to have kids in daycare, and that those who think a woman’s place is in the kitchen should be ignored. We’ve come a long way in some respects, and yet in others we haven’t. There may be more women in engineering jobs now than in 1975 but there still aren’t enough.

I wrote about this several years ago, but it’s worth a repeat. The U.S. Forest service rents out fire lookout towers for hikers interested in a room with a view. The S.F. Chronicle rounded up the California locations, including the newly opened Black Mountain Lookout in Plumas National Forest which comes with the bonus of occasional “sudden outrageous, mammoth explosions” when the army explodes excess bombs at a depot nearby.  Here’s a list of Pacific Northwest lookouts and cabins available. Search recreation.gov for other locations.

For those so fond of Tiffany Blue that they would love to be entirely surrounded by it, the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan has a suite themed for the jewelry store. The suite partnership between the St. Regis and Tiffany has been around for decades but the rooms have just been redesigned and refreshed for today’s luxury shopper. Behind door 1403, yours for $8,500 a night, lies 1,700 square feet full of silver and crystal accents, a dining room for 10, and plenty of that robin’s egg blue.

Megan Poinski and Tim Fields met in 2003 at their newspaper jobs and became a “powerhouse investigative reporting duo.” Naturally when their thoughts turned to planning a wedding together, the theme was newspapers. Two young cousins dressed as paperboys passed out the programs. Guest place cards were press passes.  The table centerpieces were typewriters decorated with flowers and holding the table numbers. The favors were notebooks and pens. No word on whether they wrote their own vows.

Ten years ago the U.S. Army decided, as part of an initiative to “erase the distinctions between heavy and light forces,” that all soldiers would wear a black beret as part of their combat uniform. Many in the 75th Ranger Regiment protested the decision as the black beret had been their symbol. A tan beret was authorized to keep the Rangers distinct. However, the black beret has now been pulled, ultimately a casualty of impracticality. Soldiers found the wool beret hot and it offered no shade to compensate. They needed two hands to put it on and had to also bring a cap along when their field work required it. The army patrol cap is now once again the default head covering for the Army combat uniform.

Edible Geography takes a look at the history of the pattern on Oreo cookies and, actually, all embossed biscuits. The Oreo started out in 1912 with a wreath design, added turtledoves in 1924, and settled on today’s four-leaf clover and serrated-edge pattern in 1952. Of course as with any good old-fashioned American icon, there are conspiracy theories about its connection to the Freemasons.

The Tony Awards on Sunday were the first time I saw the remarkably lifelike puppet from the play War Horse. Created by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, the life-sized horse takes 3 puppeteers to operate and adds to the depth and emotion of the staged performance. Also, Neil Patrick Harris got to make a grand entrance riding in on the horse as part of his Tony hosting duties (yes it can be ridden!). The two men behind Handspring Puppets spoke at TED about the design and craftsmanship of bringing the horse to life. The horse entrance is at 9 minutes in if you don’t have time for the “making-of” part. Below is the puppet frolicking in a real horse environment: Sandown Race Course in the UK.