Neiman Marcus sold all 50 Jaguar XJs from their Christmas Book in four hours. I’m pretty sure that was without any test drives. I wonder how the cupcake cars are doing. (Here’s a Flickr set of the cupcake cars in the wild.)

My collection of restaurant matches is in a baggie inside a box somewhere. With smoking bans not to mention disposable lighters, restaurants don’t get much goodwill for providing matches for practical purposes but they’re still valuable for publicity and advertising. A matchbox supplier’s perspective: “When a state or municipality imposes a ban, we see a hesitation in reordering and a fall-off in new business. Then the volumes start to creep back up, so that within a year or so we see some resurgence in statewide sales. Matches have universal appeal, and that’s the mystery — that one little package could resonate with familiarity, maybe beauty, and a feeling of value.”

The US Forest Service has compiled links to fall color reports across the country in one handy page.

Elliott Bay Book Co. is a fixture in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Their lease is up in January at the same time the owner’s line of credit comes due. The store may move or negotiate with the building owners. But the underlying fear is that someday it will have to go out of business like so many others.

The White House’s kitchen garden includes beehives tended by carpenter Charlie Brandts. The honey, intended primarily for use in White House meals, has been bottled for gift-giving. Spouses of leaders attending the recent G20 Summit received a special gift from Michelle Obama consisting of “a one-of-a-kind porcelain tea set and honey vase designed exclusively for the occasion of The Pittsburgh Summit 2009, with honey harvested especially for the occasion from the White House beehive.” The tea set was inspired by the gold and purple White House china set purchased by Mary Todd Lincoln. The lovely honey vase was designed by California glassmaker Caleb Siemon.

College students these days don’t sacrifice the comforts of home when they move into the dorms. Flat screen TVs with hundreds of channels, DVRs and game consoles fill out their leisure time. And for busy students or moms and dads who want to make sure someone local is looking after their kids, there are personal concierges. A concierge helped Alexandra Kaplan move into her dorm room and checks in on her weekly, bringing snacks, taking care of her laundry and other chores. Precious Time NY specifically targets the college crowd, offering all the amenities you’d expect from any concierge service, plus tutoring services.

The New York Times’ “Rooms” series has closed its final door and takes a look back at a year of rooms. The backstage room of a conductor, the little known bowling alley at the Frick, a tiny room in the Lincoln Tunnel, the series carries all the variety of the great city of New York. Where weren’t they allowed in? The CIA, Rikers Island, Goldman Sachs, the Metropolitan Club, and a place reportedly run by the Mafia.

Six years ago I wrote a nostalgic post about Weston Woods and their filmstrips which we watched in grade school. The release of Spike Jonze’s movie version of “Where the Wild Things Are” brought to mind their animated version of the book. I dug up the Weston Woods version on YouTube. The visuals are actually animated, not just from a camera panning over the book illustrations. The Academic Film Archive of North America website has pages on Weston Woods founder Morton Schindel and animator Gene Deitch who directed this adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are” (Deitch also created the Tom Terrific series for Captain Kangaroo). The film took five years to complete; Deitch blames author Maurice Sendak’s requests for changes. Peter Schickele, known also as P.D.Q. Bach, composed the music and serves as narrator.

A 1,658 pound pumpkin from Iowa won the 36th annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off in Half Moon Bay, CA this year. It was a new state record, but fell short of the recent 1,725 pound winner in Ohio.

Time Magazine did a round-up of how Nobel winners have spent their prize money and I was happy to notice two of them put their winnings towards advancing women in science. Neuroscientist Paul Greengard created the Pearl Meister Greengard Prize with his $400,000 share of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Named after his mother, the prize is awarded every year to a female biomedical researcher. It is presented by a woman who has distinguished herself in law, politics, the arts or the sciences. 2008 winners Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine this year along with Jack W. Szostak. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, winner in the same Nobel category in 1995, established a foundation that provides female scientists in Germany with funds for childcare and other practical household needs.