“Rick Steves’ Europe” isn’t a fancy show even by PBS standards, but it’s no picnic to tape. In his regular column, Steves describes the process for creating his 30 minute show. It’s six days of filming both day and evening shoots. Besides Steves it’s just his producer/director and cameraman. For continuity he wears the same shirt for all filming days (someone in the comments helpfully points out that he could buy multiples of the same shirt). And the weather is a constant concern, though they will adapt by finding indoor sights if needed.

Christie’s has signed on to auction the late Elizabeth Taylor’s significant collection of jewelry, fashion, art and other memorabilia. It’s expected that most of the proceeds will benefit her AIDs foundation. To build anticipation for this large event, Christie’s is putting the collection on a worldwide tour with stops in Moscow, London, L.A., Dubai, Geneva, Paris, and Hong Kong before coming to rest in New York for a multi-day auction in December 2011. Her jewelry will be sold over two days, then her fashion and accessories. Her art and memorabilia is split between the final sale day in New York and a February sale in London of her Impressionist and Modern art. When the catalogue is published we’ll see whether her diamond tiara, Krupp Diamond (33.19 carats), Peregrina pearl (50 carat), and Taylor-Burton diamond (69.42 carats) will be on the block.

The pancake breakfast fundraiser is a mainstay for many community groups, youth sports clubs, firefighters. In the cultural mosaic of Seattle the pancake breakfast practically forms the identity of the local Scandinavian groups. The Swedish Cultural Center serves pancakes (Swedish of course) once every month except for July. Thousands of pancakes are served. A 2008 newsletter lists the raw ingredients: 220 pounds of flour, 100 dozen eggs, 200 pounds of ham, 50 kilos of lingonberry sauce. Several local Sons of Norway chapters also put on regular pancake feasts (some even call them Swedish pancakes — it’s OK, it’s all one Scandinavia here). In a similar vein, the Polish Home Association has a restaurant that serves Friday night dinners and Sunday brunches with a full menu including cabbage rolls, pierogis, Polish sausage. These food events are not only effective fundraisers, they also bring new members into the clubs. And many, if not most of the diners are from different heritages.

The new Muppet Movie, called The Muppets, opens in November and the tie-in publicity is gearing up. Out on August 23rd “Muppets: The Green Album” contains 12 covers of popular Muppet songs by a variety of artists. Amy Lee (of Evanescence) sings a nice version of Robin the Frog’s sweet gem “Halfway Down the Stairs” (Robin’s version on YouTube) based on the A.A. Milne poem. NPR has the entire album available to stream online right now. Not exactly related to the upcoming movie, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a piece on Henson Alternative, the adult-oriented arm (ha!) of the Jim Henson Company. They’ve been doing puppet improv, partnering with a Groundlings improv troupe instructor to bring an ad-libbed live show to adult audiences. Their group, called the Miskreant Puppets, is performing “Stuffed and Unstrung” in San Francisco this month. I guess they didn’t want “Avenue Q” to have all the mature fun. But to really feel our age, let’s go back to 1979 for the original Muppet Movie theatrical trailer.

In one of those fateful coincidences, right after writing about the ZORB globe I went to a party where the kids were rolling around in a very similar, child-sized version. It’s made by Little Tikes but I can’t find it in their online catalog. Toys”R”Us has it listed with mixed customer reviews that, as might be expected, complain that it is difficult to inflate properly and can lose air. The kids at the party had a blast with it, even when they weren’t getting a turn inside, because they could help push it around without adult help and there was a large, flat lawn to roll around on. One of the transparent cells had lost air, but it didn’t seem to hamper the performance. The advertised weight limit is 150 pounds and we had kids jumping all over it, on top too. A potential problem could be when someone gets trapped inside if there’s too many people squishing them from the top, but we didn’t have unhappy kids, just a lot of delighted screams.

If you search for news about “wiffle ball” you’ll find a healthy population of amateur league players who aren’t just hitting with the kids in the backyard. Several regional and small-town papers have stories about wiffle ball tournaments, usually put on as charity events. Wiffle Balls were first produced in 1953 in Shelton, Connecticut and the company is still there. The ball, perforated on one side, curves easily and doesn’t travel too far, saving pitching arms and making it ideal for street and yard games. The official rules state that a broom handle can be used if a Wiffle bat is not available.

The San Francisco Chronicle notes that there’s a “soda revolution brewing” with local restaurants concocting their own carbonated beverages. Fruit purees, fruit syrups, agave nectar, herbs and spices are some of the ingredients being mixed with seltzer from a tap. Two soda specialists are even using fermentation instead of soda water to add the bubbles. You won’t get any high fructose corn syrup from these artisan soda jerks but your adventurous taste buds will find unique flavor combinations. Prickly pear soda, blackberry thyme, grapefruit pink peppercorn, nectarine ginger, carmelized pineapple… the list will go on.

Kyle Durrie combined her love of printing and road trips into a cross-country journey in a Chevy step van outfitted as a letterpress print shop. She’s been on the road since June visiting printers, craft fairs, museums, and other places where a letterpress lesson and a hand-printed poster or two are welcome. She’s got all the requisite modern accompaniments for tracking her old-fashioned occupation trip (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook) and you can ask to host a visit if it fits into the schedule. (thanks for the pointer, Finn!)

While it’s a low point that some would prefer to forget, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is a historical event that needs to be remembered so it isn’t repeated. The Japanese residents of Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle, were among the first of the eventual 120,000 who were sent to detainment camps. The Japanese on Bainbridge had integrated well into the local community and their removal was especially heartfelt. Upon their return many found that their land and homes had been kept for them by their neighbors, unlike other Japanese, even those that were U.S. citizens, who had nothing left. On Saturday, the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community dedicated a wall to memorialize the relocation. Constructed of cedar and stone, the wall has the names of all 276 residents who were sent away. 150 of them returned to island, a high percentage due in no small part to the community who kept their memories alive with newspaper articles of their lives at camp. The local paper and its publisher inspired the novel and film “Snow Falling on Cedars.” The Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho commemorates one of the internment camps and the Bainbridge Island wall has been designated an official satellite of that site. The wall is inscribed with “Nidoto Nai Yoni.” Translation: “Let it not happen again.”

While looking up the 2011 Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling (held unofficially for the second year as the centuries-old “real” event was cancelled again for health and safety), I came across Zorbing. Much safer than racing down a steep hill after a cheese, ZORB globe riding places participants inside a giant inflated ball which rolls down a hill. There are two styles of ZORB: one where you’re strapped in and dry, and the other where you’re sloshing freely around with some water inside. Some models accomodate multiple riders. The first (and only) time I saw a ZORB was during Peter Gabriel’s “Growing Up” tour in 2003 when he sang the tour’s title song while traveling around the circular stage inside one (full video and an article on the tour set design for the Gabriel uber-geeks who I know are out there).

Direct competitor OGO was started by a ZORB co-founder after a disagreement about company direction and the two New Zealand companies are now in litigation. Both companies have locations in the United States along with other countries. ZORB is so concerned with counterfeit operations that they put up a ZORBScams site to list the offending operators who infringe on their trademark. Here’s the 2011 cheese rolling video if you want to watch the fun pain of men and women rather uncontrollably chasing a cheese down a hill. There’s an uphill race for the kids too (I don’t think the cheese wheel gets a chance in that one). Perhaps the safety issues can be solved by a ZORB shaped like a cheese wheel, though I’m sure the purists would complain.

Zorb (photo by Matt & Becky)