Wooden toy makers are doing a brisk business this year. Who thought we’d ever see a resurgence in American manufacturing? Making things out of wood, at that? It’s just great to read about this.
Category Archives: General
Dominion customers can buy clean-ish power.
I like to think of myself as being well informed on the topic of energy savings and Virginia law, at least more informed than your average consumer. So I was surprised to learn this evening that Dominion customers can sign up to buy clean power. Wha? Picking up a hint from the article, I checked …
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5 insults I wish I could remember to use.
chucklehead mook puzzlewit giblet head craphound
Powerhouse.
I’ve seen dozens of Warner Brothers cartoons that involve factories. Bugs Bunny chasing Daffy Duck through a manufacturing plant, Daffy Duck narrowly avoiding having his head chopped off by an automatic chopping machine. The exact same music is played every time, a jaunty, rhythmic song that is in my mind synonymous with automation. I hear …
Oz remakes planned.
I was an Oz buff as a kid — I read every book by every author, and I name all of my computers with an Oz nomenclature. (I’m typing this on Spezzle. The iBook that I just sold was Kiki Aru. My G4 was Kabumpo. My PowerBook was Woot. My WiFi network is Gillkin Country. …
Virginia Route 40.
Wikipedia points out that Route 40 is the longest primary state highway in Virginia. I’ve driven across it now and again, but I’d never paid it any mind. Turns out it runs 229 miles, clear from Woolwine (just north of Martinsville) to Spring Grove (across the river from Williamsburg). Along the way it passes through …
Recycling polystyrene.
Closeup of polystyrene. By Crispin Semmens, reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. You know that white, lightweight, molded polystyrene foam that so many electronics (especially computers) comes packaged in? It’s huge, making it expensive to throw out, and your recycling center never accepts it. It’s a pain in the ass. But the Alliance …
Homemade pickles.
I got a half dozen pickling cucumbers with my CSA delivery a few weeks ago, and did the only logical thing: I pickled them. This was a first for me. I combined a couple of different recipes for deli-style dills, tossing in some cloves of garlic, a few tablespoons of fresh dill, and an assortment …
Bottled water is worse than I thought.
I’ve always thought that bottled water is bullshit. Lord knows I’m offending 75% of my readers in writing this, but if you’re buying bottled water, you’ve got more money than sense. Get yourself a bottle. Fill it with water. Repeat this every day for the next decade and then, finally, the cost of that water …
The book meme.
Hans tagged me with a meme and, like Hans, I have no patience for these goofy little memes. But, hey, it’s Hans — what, I’m gonna say “no” to him? The idea is to grab the closest book and post the fifth full sentence on page 161. I’m afraid that, no matter what the sentence, …