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Bag Ladies and Gentlemen....
Yes, you conscientiously refuse plastic shopping bags and use enviro bags as often as you can, but still the plastic bags manage to breed like roaches. How many plastic bags do you have stuffed in (naturally!) a large plastic bag somewhere in your home? And do you despair of ever using them up? Fear not! If you have more bags than home furnishings and décor items, you could make a
chair, a
few throw rugs,
cushions, a
chandelier, or a
Christmas wreath. If you’d like a stylish yet waterproof wardrobe, you could make a
cape, a
raincoat, or a
bra. It would be less utilitarian but equally cool to make your own menagerie:
chickens, a
zebra,
more chickens,
sea creatures, and
still more chickens.
[more inside]
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 8:47 PM on June 11, 2007
(35 comments)
The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations
If you've ever felt knitting was in danger of getting
too sexy these days, the people at
Threadbanger have provided an antidote. They've compiled a list of the ten geekiest projects on the net, which include an Atari 2600 system
(on which you will never max your Pac-Man score), a knitted Hogwarts
(though it appears to actually be crocheted and needlepointed), and a scrollbar scarf. And if anyone wants a crocheted yoda hat and matching light sabre, I am not taking orders.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 5:29 PM on June 3, 2007
(41 comments)
Your real name and all ten of your aliases are on the AOL mailing list.
Or you’re an extreme computer geek and your mother is getting quite irate about the hundreds of used CDs cluttering up her basement.
(And your non-payment of rent. And the smell…) Or your alternative-punk-Celtic-rap band’s release was tragically unappreciated by the public. Whatever, you have piles of CDs sitting around. You’ve followed
this advice on how to minimize CD use and know that recycling CDs is not as easy as it should be, and maybe isn’t even possible in your country. What options do you have? Well, these people are
collecting a million AOL CDs and intend to dump them off at AOL’s corporate headquarters. These people
make clocks from them, and
you could too. Or you could use them to make an ambient
floor or
table lamp, a
throne, a
photo frame, a really huge
mobile, a
disco ball,
shingles for your tree house, or
quite a
few other
things, ranging from postcards to bowls to spinning tops. Or you could play a
quick game of disk hockey with a friend
(that is, if you have time before your mum gets home).
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:57 PM on November 18, 2006
(11 comments)
What to do once your beer is all gone
All right, so you’ve finished your beverage. You’ve discreetly released the gas from your digestive tract via your mouth. And now you want to dispose of the empty can. You consider your options. Public-spirited as you are, you are too savvy to believe that you can
redeem the pull tab for a wheelchair or a dialysis machine, or that an
aluminum beanie will protect your brain from alien forces, and you are far too civilized to smash the can against your forehead. As a responsible, ecologically minded person you could recycle, but you’re also creative, and recycling would leave that artistic urge unsatisfied. So, perhaps you whip up a
morning glory wreath for the front door. Or an
airplane. Or a
honeybee. Or the
Starship Enterprise, a
shark, a
knight in shining aluminum armour, a
piano, a
hot rod, a
Christmas tree,
roses for your beloved, or
Easter lilies for your mother. Or
whatever else strikes your fancy. Then you have twin epiphanies: that you’ve entered the wonderful world of aluminum crafting, and that after emptying all those cans you urgently need to pee.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:39 AM on November 6, 2006
(22 comments)
Conversing with the matchless Judith Martin
I know you are all familiar with the
work of the inimitable (if syndicated)
Judith Martin,
alias Miss Manners, but I dared to presume that you have not come across this 2005 interview with her. In it she discusses the process of becoming Miss Manners, the cyclical nature of etiquette, her historical predecessors, sumptuary laws in Renaissance-era Venice, and the respective natures of aristocratic and democratic etiquette. Fascinating read.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 3:24 PM on October 24, 2006
(41 comments)
Advice for the Chap at heart....
"The web site you are about to enter contains words and images that may induce excessive languidity and an increase in levels of panache, leading to an overall rise in self-esteem. So sink into your deepest armchair, pour yourself a gin and tonic, light a cigarillo, and prepare to join the sophisticated world of The Chap."
Being a Chap is, apparently, much
more than just an excuse to wear a fedora and spats. The proper Chap has a
Manifesto and a
valet, shops at the
Chap Emporium, and possibly practices the
gentle art of househusbandry.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:24 AM on July 12, 2006
(41 comments)
From Muddy York to the Toronto of today....
My search to discover the exact age of the house I recently bought led me to the fabulous
Toronto Archives. Even if you don't have the good fortune to live in Toronto and so have the ability to visit the Archives to take a free tour and check out their
massive holdings, they have a whack of stuff on line. Of their million photographs dating back to 1856, over 21,000 are online. Check out some of their
virtual exhibits. I couldn't begin to give you an overview of the site or even the best of its many gems, but check out
Chinatown's VE day victory parade,
Bay and Wellington as it was after a huge fire in 1904,
old advertisements,
letters and
postcards (including
some from the disenchanted), snapshots of a, er,
less politically sensitive time (
thanks, Capn!), and — inevitably! —
hockey artifacts. A friend of mine makes a hobby of Toronto's history, and after this search of mine, I better understand her interest. It’s fascinating to see what lies beneath the
layers of time on a surface so
familiar and
loved.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 7:57 AM on July 4, 2006
(23 comments)
Macramé: the craft that spawned a million eyesores
As every family has its black sheep, so must the world of crafting have its irredeemable craft. Meet
macramé, the
ugly stepsister of crafting. In my recent search for a basic pattern I could use to redo a couple of old lawn chairs, every click revealed some
fresh new horror. I searched on, thinking surely there must be at least one or two examples of attractive macramé products somewhere on the world wide web, but
apparently not. There was nothing but
bad jewellery,
bad home décor items,
bad chairs and
really bloody awful owls. I tried approaching the technique with a designer’s mindset, seeing ugly things not as an end in themselves but as a design challenge. How could the patterns be improved? How could the technique and medium be used to produce something beautiful? Perhaps it was just the macramé cord and not the technique that doomed each project to aesthetic hell? But in the end, the craft defeated me. I declared it
hopeless, decided to do my two lawn chairs in a plain cream and then retreat from the field before some disaster (
possibly one involving a flaming owl) struck. However, that is just my opinion. Perhaps I just don’t appreciate that some people really need that
homemade Christmas tree, or the perfect belt to wear
while impersonating Elvis.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 7:49 AM on January 31, 2006
(62 comments)
Ultimate Recycling
Rug hooking must be one of the simplest and cost-effective of crafts (
basically, cut old clothes into strips, use burlap, insert hook, pull up loop of fabric), and so it’s all the more amazing that it can be used to achieve such
cool,
painterly and
stunning results. If you click on just one link in this FPP, make it
this one, made by a Japanese woman out of her grandmother’s old silk kimonos. I’ve selected just one excellent,
comprehensive rug hooking web site,
but there’s a lot of resources and information available on the web for this craft if you’re interested.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 7:25 AM on January 17, 2005
(12 comments)
Forbidden Love: The Romance That Masqueraded as a Bio
In early 2003, a Jordanian woman named Norma Khouri published a book entitled
Forbidden Love (or
Honor Lost in North America). This book was a memoir about how Norma Khouri's best friend, Dalia, was killed by her own father after she fell in love with a Christian military officer, and Norma's subsequent escape from Jordan.
Forbidden Love was a bio that read like a sensational romance, and it sold 250,000 copies around the world and made Norma Khouri a celebrity in her adoptive country of Australia. However, it turns out that the book really was just a romance. Dalia never existed. Norma Khouri left Jordan at the age of 3 and grew to adulthood living in Chicago. So, one
very disturbed woman has
exploited Western prejudices about Arab cultures,
fooled the general public, plunged her publisher into an enormous legal and financial embarrassment, and impugned the very real and serious problem of honour killings. And she got away with it for a full year and a half.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 7:08 AM on August 5, 2004
(14 comments)
The Harbin Snow and Ice Festival
The temperature in Harbin, China reaches forty below zero, both Fahrenheit and centigrade, and stays below freezing nearly half the year. The city is actually further north than notoriously cold Vladivostok, Russia, just 300 miles away. Rather than suffer the cold, the residents of Harbin celebrate it, with an annual festival of snow and ice sculptures and competitions. The main link actually shows the 2003 sculptures; here are some from
this year.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:11 AM on March 30, 2004
(5 comments)
Babes Against Bush
"It's no secret that a lot of Americans, and particularly American men, don't pay much attention to politics, and don't seem to notice when their leaders are ruining the country they live in. We wanted to find an interesting and attention-getting way to spur at least some people to sit up and take notice of a some basic facts.....
Bush got into office by virtue of a complacent supreme court-and only 537 votes in the state of Florida.
We think we can convince 538 people to vote against him." And if not, they can at least have make some money for some good causes with
their calendar and have a good laugh at some of their hate mail.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 9:18 AM on March 26, 2004
(21 comments)
Whose criminals are they?
Canada and the U.S. are deporting immigrant criminals back to the Caribbean -- criminals who were born there but, in many cases, raised in North America. Whose problem are they? Virtually every Caribbean country feels the burden of the deportations,
especially from the U.S., which, in 1998, deported 55,500 "aliens" on criminal grounds, 3,700 to the Caribbean. Defenders of the deportations say Canada and the U.S. are just getting rid of bad apples, many of whom shouldn't be here in the first place. But The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) says that, frequently, the deportees have little more than place of birth to connect them to the region. In most cases these deportees have no money, little education, few relatives or friends to whom they can turn, and many are truly violent and lawless. The culture of drugs and guns that many carry back to their native lands is wreaking havoc in nations that receive them in substantial numbers.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:00 PM on November 17, 2003
(32 comments)
Transformation in a weekend?
Recently a friend told me he'd signed up for the Landmark Forum, a personal improvement seminar offered by the
Landmark Education Corporation. I did some googling on LEC and found
some very disturbing material. Since we're being all "fair and balanced" on MeFi now, I'll add I found
some positive material too. Oh, and since my research tells me Landmark tends to be very litigious about negative publicity, I'll just cover my orange-feathered butt and say that my negative impressions of Landmark are only my opinion, not that of MetaFilter, and I could be wrong. Have any MeFiers had any experiences - positive or negative - with LEC?
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 8:33 PM on August 17, 2003
(47 comments)
Would you prefer this to being patted down?
A scanner the government is testing for airport screening reveals much more than meets the eye to be comfortable for most passengers.
The agency hopes to modify the machines with an electronic fig leaf - programming that fuzzes out sensitive body parts or distorts the body so it does not appear so, well, graphic.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 12:29 PM on June 26, 2003
(38 comments)
Freedom from annoyance vs. freedom of religious expression
A municipal bylaw restricting when Jehovah's Witnesses can go door-to-door protects residents' right to privacy and does not violate the group's right to religious freedom and expression, a lawyer argued Tuesday.
The City of Blainville, which believes many of its residents don't want Jehovah's Witnesses at their door on weekends and in the evening, is appealing a lower-court ruling that declared its bylaw unconstitutional. But the three justices cautioned Mr. Paquin that it's dangerous to distinguish between someone's right to religious freedom and their right to express their religious beliefs.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 1:41 PM on June 17, 2003
(56 comments)
Payboy: the Video Game
"It looks like a lucrative area we're getting into," said Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy. "It's a logical step. One might suggest it's overdue. The video game industry is huge right now and [the games are played] by a lot of people who read Playboy."
Slipping into Hef's silk pajamas, you'll face the challenges and rewards of building the Playboy empire.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 8:01 PM on May 18, 2003
(4 comments)
Gifted Students
Despite her boarding-school education and a personal tutor, Maude Bunn's SAT scores weren't high enough for a typical student to earn admission to Duke University.
But Ms. Bunn had something else going for her -- coffeemakers. Her Bunn forebears built a fortune on them and, with Duke hoping to woo her wealthy parents as donors, she was admitted.
Afterward, her parents promptly became co-chairmen of a Duke fund-raising effort aimed at other Duke parents. "My child was given a gift, she got in, and now I'm giving back," says Maude's mother, Cissy Bunn, who declines to say how much the family has contributed to the university.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 10:31 AM on April 11, 2003
(59 comments)
Hymen and the back seat of your father's car not included
It’s requirement for ladies who looses their virginity (virgin size) usually after delivery and some cases before also and slowly both partner looses interest in each other without knowing the cause, this Virgin cream gives you complete youthfulness and bring back virginity (virgin size) to its original shape. Your partner starts taking interest in you, which you might have not experienced before.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 10:24 AM on April 10, 2003
(55 comments)
Would you like freedom fries with that?
The cafeteria menus in the three House office buildings will change the name of "french fries" to "freedom fries," a culinary rebuke of France, stemming from anger over the country's refusal to support the U.S. position on Iraq.
Ditto for "french toast," which will be known as "freedom toast."
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 11:10 AM on March 11, 2003
(103 comments)
Bush Cited Non-Existent eport
There was only one problem with President George W. Bush's
claim Thursday that the nation's top economists forecast substantial economic growth if Congress passed the president's tax cut: The forecast with that conclusion doesn't exist.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 7:19 AM on February 24, 2003
(82 comments)
Reality Bites?
A reality show featuring Mike Tyson could be announced in the coming weeks, according to a Hollywood TV show producer who says he's been having substantive negotiations with a major television network.
Schreiberg wouldn't give specifics about the format to the show, only to say it would be "Rocky-esque, with good dramatic story telling of characters over many weeks that eventually builds to a live event."
Doubt it will happen since none of the networks seem to admitting interest... but if it does, could this be the lowest low for reality TV?
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 12:37 PM on February 20, 2003
(15 comments)
Court Grants Blacks Special Sentencing
Sentences for black offenders can be reduced or tailored to reflect the systemic racism that has historically plagued their community, the Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled.
The 3-0 judgment came in a case involving Quinn Borde, a black gunman from Toronto's seedy Regent Park area. The 18-year-old admitted to firing a gun repeatedly into the air while being chased by a gang and pistol-whipping a rival later.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 9:05 AM on February 13, 2003
(15 comments)
Email as the new foreplay
E-mail conversations between men and women have a way of turning flirtatious far more rapidly than do their telephonic equivalents. People are less inhibited in e-mail: It's why flameouts happen so quickly. One cannot temper anger or dismay with tone and body language (and those awful emoticons don't come close to substituting for the human face). It's easier to be brave when talking to a screen.
Not that we MeFiers would know anything about flameouts.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:23 AM on January 22, 2003
(21 comments)
Steal cars and kill prostitutes for points
The fourth instalment of the popular Grand Theft Auto video game has become the fastest selling title of all time in the UK. In its first five days on the U.S. market, GTA:VC sold 1.4 million copies of Grand Theft Auto. Entertainment Weekly rated it No. 1 on its 10-best-game list for 2002.
But unlike most video games, where the player represents a hero struggling against evil, Grand Theft Auto invites players to pose as a vicious criminal named Tommy Vercetti. Tommy earns money for his crimes, which include running over pedestrians, hiring and then murdering prostitutes, and killing other gangsters with guns, Uzis, swords and Molotov cocktails.
Unsurprisingly, the game has its critics and protestors. Real life crimes have been linked to it.
Well, MeFiers, is a society ever justified in banning something like this video game?
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 6:36 PM on December 24, 2002
(39 comments)
Bomb Shelter Gets Makeover
Got an old bomb shelter sitting around? Wondering what to do with it? Why not turn it into a shopping mall?
Across China, more than 3,700 hotels and dormitories and 1,270 shops and restaurants have been created in former bomb shelters, according to an article in Beijing Youth Weekly last year. In Beijing, a youth hostel has been established in a bomb shelter below Wangfujing, the glitziest shopping street in the city. An estimated 20,000 workers are employed in businesses in former bomb shelters in Beijing alone.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 2:12 PM on November 28, 2002
(6 comments)
This article is about new border crossing security measures that are supposedly in the works.
Cross the U.S. border in a few years, and a hidden camera may zero in on you from 150 metres away, able to recognize you by the shape of your face, perhaps by the telltale markings of your eyeball or even in the way you walk past the border guard.
In milliseconds, a supercomputer would sift through a massive "data warehouse," able to dip into your life: Credit-card purchases, travel patterns, health and banking records would all be scanned. Your old telephone conversations -- in any language -- would be instantly available, along with e-mails that you sent years ago.
Perhaps they'll even be able to read your MetaFilter posts.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 2:05 PM on November 25, 2002
(36 comments)
Are newspapers becoming opinionpapers?
Interesting article on the current preponderance of op-ed materials in newspapers. The papers are cutting back on news, especially international news, in favour of news lite or opinion columns. Or what's styled as opinion but is really pieces by "columnists" who are totally
self-referential and whose idea of research is interviewing their own friends.
The article is very Can-Con (high Canadian content) but it'll be interesting if Me-Fiers from other countries weigh in with data/observations about their own media. Canadian media doesn't probably doesn't stand alone in this trend.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 10:31 AM on November 15, 2002
(19 comments)
One big happy family
Ottawa granted permission for three wives of a polygamist to stay in Canada permanently and an immigration official has warned that several more applications from polygamists' wives are likely on the way, according to internal government documents obtained by
The Globe and Mail.
The report says the women filled in "housewife" as their occupation on their applications for immigration. They stated they would receive financial assistance from Mr. Blackmore. Under marriage information, they wrote "not available."
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 7:24 AM on October 7, 2002
(39 comments)
Poetry or propaganda?
Gov. James E. McGreevey [of New Jersey] has called for the resignation of the state's poet laureate, citing a poem critical of Israel that Amiri Baraka read at a festival earlier this month.
"Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed," read a line from the poem, which was cited by the Jewish Standard weekly newspaper. "Who told 4,000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers to stay home that day? Why did Sharon stay away?"
Read the poem in question
here.
posted to MetaFilter by orange swan
at 9:17 AM on October 1, 2002
(112 comments)
