Happy Monday

The week is young. Fingers crossed everyone is off to a great start, and if not, that’s cool too — here is a list of niftiness to distract you from reality. 

If you are going to have an obituary, you might as well write it yourself. And it might as well be pretty rad.

Fascinating infographic of creative people’s routines.

The origins of confetti.

If you are cruising the May 2015 issue of This Old House magazine, check out who is on page 20.

These paper plants are just about the cutest things EVER. And did you see the paper ficus in this incredible house tour? Let’s hope this is a trend!

ALSO. Look at the beautiful hydrangea Amy made! See my original tutorial here, but Amy had a great idea about a different kind of base. She also suggested they might be easy to make in red at geraniums. I’m excited to revisit. Thanks, Amy!

38 foreign words we could use in English.

Yet another reason I need to move to Finland: their public schools are the best in the world.

Yesterday Hillary Clinton announced she is running for President, and whether you vote for her, or don’t vote for her, or just don’t vote at all: we all need to to STFU about her pant suits. Amen!

Why Gwenyth Paltrow is living on food stamps.

And now that California, “America’s bread bowl,” needs to cut back their water consumption by 25%, you have to wonder what foods require the most water to produce? Hint: it’s not what you are thinking.

For the post-Easter crowd: an interesting look at Mary Magdalene and how she figured into a couple millennia of sexism, feminism, and general badassery.

If the New York Times publishes a battle cry for cat ladies, you better listen.

Also, here are cat ladies but cat dudes. And some cute ones at that!

Weird Holidays this Week

April 15 National Rubber Eraser Day

April 16 National Librarian Day

April 16 National High Five Day

Happy Monday Errrbudy!

PS: I’m getting ready to close down my reader survey. If you have 3 minutes, I surely would appreciate your input. Y’all are the best!

The 32 most beautiful words in the English language.

Tourists try to translate Irish slang.

What your favorite ’80s band says about you.

I laughed myself rotten on this. A must read for anyone who gets anxious about what to bring to potlucks.

An in-depth look at the gray hair trend. It’s real and it’s happening.

All the awesome hats at the 2015 Easter parade.

Visit Ramona Quimy’s Portland.

Speaking of awesome hats: my favorite person on Instagram right now is Dee Goldberg. Her outfits are like Jim Henson, Lisa Franks, and your nana from Boca Raton all rolled into one well-accesorized spirit animal.

Hello! The feminist wedding magazine we have been waiting for.

16 Homemade paint brushes (fruit netting?!)

This incredible photo essay from inside the Crayola crayon factory.

A beautiful letter from a seriously rad woman: “To the mom or dad who told their child not to stare at mine.”

Is it happening or not happening? The Full House spin-off series going straight to Netflix. I need to know. Mary Kate and Ashley will probably be party poppers, but really, who wants to party with them anyway? Also did you see Uncle Jessie was hanging out in front of the house in San Fransisco? Everywhere you look…

Hearty congratulations to this kid for making it possible for me to tell people I watched some college basketball in March and enjoyed myself. You go, dude. Dance like no one is watching!

Also, quick shout out to all y’all who have been taking the time to fill out my reader survey. I had seriously been considering getting rid of these Happy Monday posts of my favorite links, but so many of you have already expressed that you like them (without much prompting from me, I might add) that I think they will stay. I might do a themed post once a month or season, hard to say. But please know that I always welcome your thoughts, and I’m constantly cruising for links to include. My usual criteria is a 3 point system of questions;
Is it weird?
Is it undercelebrated?
Does it make me want to immediately stop what I’m doing and do something else?

…if it hits two out of three, I make a note to try and remember it next Monday. If you see something, holler at me at peaches (at) auntpeaches (dot) com.

 

 

One of my favorite things to do is gather weird facts about places I have never been then spot them come up in pop culture years later. We’ll be watching TV and a character will reference Ivydale West Virginia as a place where someone got murdered, and I’ll known Ivydale West Virginia as the place a truck driver mentioned getting lost on that episode of Joanie Loves Chachi. It’s a weird habit but sometimes it pays off on bar trivia nights. I’m guessing there are a few of you out there who also collect town-specific factoids, so I thought it might be fun to share the 411 on my favorite place. Home. 

I live in Evanston Illinois, which is a Midwestern college town wedged between Chicago and Lake Michigan. People like me dig it because you get all the charm and conveniences of a small town with all the privileges of living near a big city. I like it here. Sometimes Chicago folks write off Evanston as a fancy place where people go when they can’t handle the city –and don’t get me wrong, there are areas of Evanston that look like the living definition of White Privilege– but there are other areas look too rough to get mentioned on Good Times. Most of it falls in the middle. My neighborhood, my block – actually, includes folks from every age, race, religion, sexual-orientation, and socio-economic strata the IRS can dish out.  Which is exactly why I want to live here. Weirdly enough, I was born just a few blocks from my current home but didn’t actually live here until I was 32. And as much as I like travel, I would be totally okay to never move again. Very few people love this place as much as I do, so, with that in mind, I thought it might be fun to use this week’s Happy Monday post to share some stuff about this little town by the lake. Not everyone can come for a visit, but this can be my way of giving you a taste.

Welcome to Evanston!

Do you have March Madness on the brain? Interesting fact: The first NCAA championship game was held in Evanston. A lot of bad stuff was going on in the world in 1939 (I’m looking at you, Hitler. Side eye on you, Stalin)….so folks got together and said, “You know what we need? A distraction. Let’s distract folks with an elaborate scheme to get good looking men run around in shorts putting balls through nets. That’ll do it!” That’s a direct quote. I’m not saying that first NCAA championship game changed the outcome of WWII, but I’m not saying it didn’t.

In addition to it’s NCAA heritage, Evanston’s Northwestern University is home to Dillo Day which is the largest student-run music festival of it’s kind. The event brings in some pretty major names and takes over most of downtown each May, which the locals don’t really like, but it’s a big deal. Northwestern also boasts some pretty big name alumni, including these weird kids who once plastered my street with fliers for a missing unicorn named Yolanda. You should totally come hang out!

Last year, Evanston was voted the second smartest suburb in America. I really don’t like calling it a suburb, but yeah. Okay, it is.

Evanston is often considered the birthplace of Prohibition as it was ground central for the Temperance Movement. Their latter-day incarnation can still be found at the historical Woman’s Club of Evanston, and on a very different end of the spectrum, the newly founded Temperance Beer Company (which has a very charming tap room, btw).

Speaking of religious people over-regulating drinks…Ice cream sundaes originated in Evanston after a local ordinance prohibited the sale of ice cream sodas on Sunday. Not wanting to lose business, drugstores started selling them without the soda, called it a sunday then later sundae…and the rest is history. And by “history” I mean “in my mouth.”

Speaking of local ordinances: It is illegal to spit on the sidewalk in Evanston. People think that is one of those weird ‘You Can’t Keep Three Goats in a Truck on a Tuesday’ type of arbitrary law, but no, it’s real. If a police officer sees you spit on “any public conveyance or upon the floor or wall of any theater, hall, assembly room or public building” she can arrest your butt, take you to the station, and shake your tree until something bigger falls out. So, get your civil liberties together and whatever you do, don’t spit.

Also. Whistling is forbidden between 11pm and 7am.

Did you ever wish you could be an Oscar Mayer wiener? Well now you can buy his house.

Here’s a thing! Few toys can claim to have been responsible for more architectural innovation than Tinkertoys, which were invented in Evanston in 1914.

I cannot believe I never knew this until I was stalking watching an interview with Mandy Patinkin: The Princess Bride takes place in Evanston! While never stated in the movie, according to the screenplay, the story is told in an Evanston bedroom (remember the grandfather Peter Falk/Columbo telling the story to his grandson who is actually Baby Fred Savage?). Locals will have guessed this by the Chicago themed sports paraphenalia hanging in the room, but yeah, it’s supposed to be Evanston. Sometimes I pretend it’s my house. Shut up. You can let me have my dream. You have seen my Mandy Patinkin on black velvet painting, yes?

Also set in Evanston: the movie Mean Girls took place at Evanston Township High School, although the movie was filmed  Canada.

Tina Fey (who wrote Mean Girls) knew Evanston well after working a day job at the local YMCA for years, while spending her nights on her comedy career at Second City. She goes into this quite a bit in her book Bossy Pants, which is an excellent read for a lot more reasons than name dropping her favorite Evanston landmarks (shout out to Gigio’s Pizza!).

Evanston is the birthplace to an unusually large number of seriously nifty people like, Seth Myers, Eddie Vedder, John Cusak, Charlton Heston, Bill Murray, Donald Rumsfeld, and my personal favorite: Countess Cora Crawley aka Elizabeth McGovern, not to mention a slew of Nobel and Pulizter prize winners and some nifty athletes I don’t recognize but maybe you will. Even though Marlon Brando was not born here, he considered it his childhood home.

If you watch the PBS series Mr. Selfridge you may know that it is based on a long-time Chicagoan Harry Gordon Selfridge (later of Selfridges department store in London, based on my former employer – Chicago’s Marshal Fields), and is played by Evanston’s current favorite native son Jeremy Piven, who once drunkenly goosed my ass while I was waiting on his table, but I got over it because his mom is really nice and still runs the local playhouse: the Piven Theater Workshop. Before his PBS success, Piven might be best known for playing the character of foul-mouthed Hollywood manager Ari Gold in HBO’s Entourage, which was openly based on a real guy named Ari Emanuel, who was born next door in Wilmette like his brother to Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago. That last part has nothing to do with Evanston I’m just running my Chicago-incestous Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Introduce John Hughes movies and I could do this all day.

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So that is all I can think of right now, but I’m sure there are plenty more.
Do you know anything weird and wonderful about Evanston? Chime in the comments!
Do you have an idea for another person, place, or thing suitable for Happy Monday exploration? Holler. I want to hear!

 

 

After last week’s Girl Scout Cookie rodeo, AP reader Stephanie sent me an email suggesting this week should be about everyone’s favorite marshmallow Easter tradition: Peeps. I’ll admit, it’s been about 20 years since I have eaten a Peep, but I am always happy to celebrate puffy things dipped in sparkle sugar. Let’s do this!

Before you buy a package of Easter peeps, look at this photo essay from inside the factory. Fascinating.

13 Hilarious Peep dioramas. (Even lawyers love a good Peep diorama).

Did you know there is an entire Lord of the Rings movie done with Peeps? And by “movie” I mean “outdated slide-show” but it’s worth a gander just the same.

Peeps are known for their two-year shelf life and for being considered “indestructible.” In fact, scientists at Emory University tested their dissolve rates in various liquids and found that Peeps “wouldn’t dissolve in anything.”

Did you know the company that makes Peeps is called Just Born? No clever link here. I just thought that was sorta weird.

Three words: marshmallow candy vodka. (They also double as champagne garnish).

Do you work with someone who hates peeps? Thought so. Let’s play a prank: Easter Monday, go to the market and buy all the leftover peeps for half-off. Then use them to fill that person’s desk drawer. They will be dusting off yellow sprinkles through Christmas. You’re welcome.

Not into pranks? Just buy up all the Peeps and make a wreath.

You can also turn them into homemade playdough.

Do you have an interesting way to use Peeps? Let’s hear about it!

 

 

It’s Monday, which is usually the day I round up a bunch of my favorite links from the past week and share here. This week, there is really only one thing on my mind worth talking about: Girl Scout Cookies. Mostly because I don’t have any. This is because, 1. I’m trying to be good and not do things like buying enough cookies to warrant little girls to ask me, “Are you building a fort?” (<<–that really happened) and 2. My so-called-friend who usually tells me when his daughter is selling cookies didn’t tell me (YES I’M LOOKING AT YOU BRENDAN) (AND NO FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATES DO NOT COUNT).

Everywhere I go this week, I see people carrying these little over-priced boxes of fudge rippled rainbow happiness. It is maddening. This morning I was driving and I saw a woman with them loaded in her bike basket on her way to work and it occurred to me, for a fleeting moment, that it would not take much effort to knock her bike over with the car. Would I kill her for cookies? No. Of course not. Would I strategically bump the bike thus sending 12 boxes flying out of the basket thus allowing me time to scoop them up and get back in the car before said bike woman was back on her feet? Absolutely. Let’s just take a moment to sit back and admire the strength it took for me to not do that. That’s pretty effing admirable. And yet, despite my admirable restraint, everyone has these cookies BUT ME.

Can you even imagine the horror? The horror. I’m okay with this, but I thought now might be a good time to talk about everything Girl Scout Cookie related that we don’t talk about the rest of the year. It’s a seasonal thing. And people in Canada probably won’t understand so let’s just bundle it all together and get it out of our system, K? K.

And yes, Girl Scout Cookie needs to be in title case. I don’t care if you can’t cite that in the Chicago Manual of Style, some things are just common sense.

Does your dog want too dress up and sell Girl Scout Cookies? Yeah. She does.

Take the quiz: What kind of Girl Scout Cookie are you? PS: I’m a Thin Mint. I knew it!!!

A comprehensive list of beer pairings for Girl Scout Cookies.

Talk about ambition: Congrats to this 11-year-old for hustling her way to selling 18,000 boxes. (Watch the video – Mom looks exhausted).

If you were outside a vintage typewriter shop in Los Altos California last weekend, you could have bought your cookies from Tom Hanks!

Speaking of vintage…interesting fact: In 1942 the Girl Scouts sold calendars instead of cookies because of WWII flour and dairy shortages.

Another fact: for the first 90 days of the year, Girl Scout Cookies are the #1 cookie brand in the USA. Oreos are #1 for the rest of the year.

Another less perky fact: For many years Girl Scout Cookies were made with a controversial ingredient — palm oil. Harvested by major commodity middle-man Cargill, the palm oil used to create Girl Scout Cookies was linked to the destruction of thousands of acres of Indonesian rainforest every year. Good news: after a handful of renegade Girl Scouts recognized the problem (and the whole “make the world a better place” hypocrisy) and demanded change, Girl Scout Cookie adult people listened, made adjustments, and are now are majorly choosy about where they source their ingredients. Way to go, girls!

More good news: Put your zip code in the “Find Cookies” box at the top and it will tell you when a troop near you is selling. This takes out all the serendipitous joy of stumbling into a GSC sale, but this is what it has come to. I have also heard you can buy them online and on Ebay, but you have to go through somebody like you are buying Avon and it’s unnecessarily complicated, which is a lousy way to teach our girls capitalism so I’m keeping it in person.

Thin Mint fan? There are about eleventyseven hundred ways to scratch that itch with recipes you can make at home. Like; this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this.

There is also a recipe for samoa pie that I may or may not be having for breakfast tomorrow.

And while I’m eating it, I may or may not be watching these lost scenes from Troop Beverly Hills!

Now everybody, get on up. It’s cookie time!

Happy Monday everyone! Here are a few distractions to keep you busy through the week.

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The gray hair trend. It’s real, and it’s happening!

This man was body shamed and now thousands of women (including some major celebrities) want to throw him a party. MORE OF THIS PLEASE!

The one Dutch word you need to know.

Don’t you love it when celebrities embrace the F word?

Naught, naughty: McCalls sewing patterns behaving badly.

Meet the young woman who made it on to Forbe’s list of self-made billionaires by doing something helpful for all of us.

Eight of history’s greatest cat ladies.

And great news: we’ll never drink alone again. It’s here! Wine for cats!

I know at least five people who read this post, bought the book, and now owe me a cocktail. Your’e welcome. 

Here is something I always wondered; Why do sandwiches come with pickles? Shout out to all the ass-nasty pieces of pickle juice soaked buns I have tossed out over the years. RIP

Dresses made from crayons. Unbelievable! Of course, as soon as I saw all those orange crayons stacked up I needed to youtube this old video from Sesame street.

You can smell the paraffin through the screen!

 

Because it’s Groundhog Day, I thought it might be fun to theme out today’s Happy Monday in honor of Groundhog Day (the movie) star, Bill Murray. True fact: Bill Murray and I were born in the same hospital on the same day. Not exactly the same year, but whatever. This makes us twins and thereby it’s okay if I gather weird facts about him like some people collect their fingernail trimmings. Don’t act like this doesn’t impress you.

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What’s the safest way you can spend $6 on the internet? Bill Murray fingernail decals. PS: She also does Benedict Cumberbatch.

Ten surprising facts about the movie Groundhog Day. Did you know they cut out the most expensive (and arguably signifigant) scene, which was one of the reasons why Bill Murray and Harrold Ramis did not speak for many years after? me neither.

A tour inside the town where Groundhog Day was filmed, Woodstock Illinois.

Did you know Bill Murray was nearly cast to play Hans Solo in Star Wars until Lucas decided to cast his carpenter — a guy named Harrison Ford.

He’s also missed out on a lot of film roles because he doesn’t have an agent or a manager and only gets offers for scripts from people who leave phone messages on a 1-800 number that he rarely checks.

This Bill Murray cocktail looks fantastic, as do these 22 Bill Murray themed gifts.

Remember that time Taylor Swift and the Haim sisters went to Hawaii and wore Bill Murray sweatshirts to be ironic and stuff? Yeah. That was weird.

Also, remember the time Bill Murray dressed up like Liberace and drove a white Rolls Royce onto the stage for his interview with David Letterman?

Apparently, there is a list of songs inspired by Bill Murray but I am currently unable to locate it. Anyone?

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Unrelated news: The 2015 Valentine swap is in full swing! I sent out several hundred emails yesterday. If you signed up and did not get an email yesterday with your addresses, please check your junk mail first. If you still don’t see one, please make it easy for me to find your information by replying directly to the automatic confirmation email (it arrived just after you signed up).

 

Someone needs to buy these Labyrinth door knocker earrings. Someone.

Four Disney artists paint trees in their own iconic ways. (<<< You need to see it!)

Hero therapy cat helps art and autism.

As a graphic designer, I get a lot of frustrating-yet-well-intended feedback from clients. This series of posters made me smile.

Did you hear? Bill and Kathy are on Instagram!

These Brooklyn home photos from the 70s are like the best decorating porn I’ve seen in ages.

Top DIY trends of 2015.

Texts from the Dashwoods.

There were some serious, serious feathers going on at the Miss Universe pageant last night.

A cat cafe just opened in Rome. That means we are all going to Rome. Pack light – leave room for pasta and cats.