To properly crown a high school prom queen and king, you need headgear. Jewelry company Bailey Banks & Biddle saw a marketing opportunity and is now the exclusive provider of tiaras for Southlake Carroll Senior High School in Texas. The company paid $14,540 to the school for advertising and prom tiara exclusivity. The sterling silver tiara that this year’s prom queen received was worth $695.
San Francisco’s Ocean Beach was once the setting for an amusement park of some significance. Built up since the arrival of a roller coaster in 1884, by 1934 Playland had 14 rides, 25 concessions and 4 restaurants. After the wars, the park went into decline and was finally torn down in 1972. Certain attractions went to various locations near and far. The carousel went to Long Beach, CA but eventually came back to Yerba Buena Gardens. The notorious Laughing Sal and other fun house mechanicals have recently gone on display at a nonprofit museum, Playland-Not-at-the-Beach. Located in El Cerrito, CA, the museum is open by appointment (to allow for availability of volunteer staff). The 18 rooms are filled with the former Playland relic stashes of Richard Tuck and other collectors.
The last Faberge egg was made in 1917, with production halting after the Russian revolution. The jewel-encrusted eggs sell nowadays at auction for several millions of dollars. The Faberge brand itself was sold in 1989 for $1.6 billion to Unilever. Pallinghurst Resources, a private-equity fund, acquired the name last year for an undisclosed price. And they are reviving the Faberge egg with a new commission. Descendants Tatiana and Sarah Faberge were brought in to lend credence to the rebirth of an old icon of Russian wealth. (via Luxist)
“They’re totemic of old growth and indicators of healthy forests. They’re the little guys who build the forest by processing the material and pooping out the good stuff.” That’s David George Gordon, biologist, defending the honor of the banana slug. Turns out that the banana slug’s little relatives who enjoy munching on our veggie gardens are stowaways from European countries. Banana slugs are supposed to be here in our moist Pacific Northwest and, says Gordon, “They make good pets.”
At Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, you can spot several edibles in the landscaping. I took snapshots of the red chard and strawberries. I also noticed a small grove of citrus fruits. I’m not sure if they get consumed by guests stuck for hours the Nemo Submarine line.
CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) are known for providing boxes of local produce to their subscribers. In the San Francisco area there now three active meat CSAs. One sells beef, pork, chicken and eggs from a single farm. The other two combine meats from several sources.
Would I decorate my nails with binary numbers? Yes I would. But I’d do Matrix glyphs first.
Dr. Bonkers’ Online gallery of modern and vintage psychiatric drug advertising. 7-up for babies? Maybe you’ve been seeking these genuine placebo pills from Eli Lilly. (via Neurophilosophy)
I’d forgotten about Woxy Vintage until someone reminded me that Woxy.com was running its Modern Rock 500 this past weekend. 1980’s alt/modern/synth/new wave rock fans point your streaming media players at Woxy.com’s sideline Woxy Vintage.
Two nostalgia-filled articles in the N.Y. Times caught my eye over the weekend. First, the management of the Empire State Building, looking to complement their historically accurate renovation, commissioned formal uniforms for their guards and other public staff. The design is reminiscent of the 1930s, the same Art Deco style and color of the building and its marble corridors. Although the uniforms are old-fashioned, their distribution and collection system is not. Employees use an ID card to collect and return their clothing from an automated rack. Over at Lord & Taylor, a NYC institution of the retail kind, they continue to play the Star Spangled Banner every morning before opening time. Called “the longest-running daily ritual that can be traced to the 444-day Iran hostage crisis that began in 1979,” the tradition has been kept alive, even after an accompanying coffee service (originally on matching cups and saucers no less) was halted a few years ago.