Baking soda is quite good for absorbing odours. You can leave a box out and also mix some with water and spray it in the air with a little natural scent like lemon or vanilla extract.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 5:18 PM on June 27, 2008

Well, there are some people out there who are professional Lego builders, like Eric Harshbarger, but I agree that it is probably very competitive and not very reliable income if it's just on commission. If you contacted him though, he might be able to give you some advice. Just for fun, the photos in his portfolio are astounding, for example these Golden Gate Bridge and Eiffel Tower sculptures.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 6:35 AM on June 27, 2008

I'd wholeheartedly recommend Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, which features authentic recipes and was actually recommended to me by an amazing Chinese cook. It's been republished, so previous Amazon reviews are to be found here.

I'm not sure how posh they are really but some of the dishes I've made to great success from the recipe book are: clear steamed sea bass (impressive looking and so good it's one of my favourite foods, even though I don't like fish!), golden... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 3:12 AM on June 18, 2008

My favourite short story anthology is Black Water, a collection of fantastic literature edited by Alberto Manguel. That's 'fantastic' in the fantastical sense of the word (but also in the amazing sense too). A brilliant mix of mystery, horror, fantasy, magic realism, scifi, ghost stories, and many that defy categorization, from all around the world. I never tire of reading this collection and always find something new to amaze me.

Also, thirding Saki's short stories-... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 4:34 PM on May 29, 2008

Another example of a papyrus being found (albeit with a brand new ancient Egyptian literary text rather than Greek or Roman), is Papyrus Queen's College Oxford which was found in 1998 wedged between the pages of an old book in the library!
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 6:11 PM on May 19, 2008

My grandparents are in their mid-eighties and they are wonderfully happy and celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this year! They're amazing and I only hope that I can emulate them when I get older. I think their happiness can mainly be attributed to them keeping an active interest in doing things that they enjoy and their generosity and willingness to make new friends.

My grandfather is really into early music recordings and early radio. He hunts down old... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 3:21 AM on May 15, 2008

I'm in Oxford and haven't climbed in London myself, but my friend there absolutely loves the Castle climbing centre near Finsbury Park in North London. It's supposedly huge, cool, and it also actually looks like a castle! (Even though it isn't really one, the history of the building is rather interesting).... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 1:39 PM on May 8, 2008

Frank Madsen, the Danish comic strip artist
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 8:50 AM on May 6, 2008 marked best answer

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster, a wonderful story of a young English girl visiting Florence, Italy, torn between upholding stuffy social respectability and living for love, full of wonderful characters, wit, and romance.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 6:09 AM on April 21, 2008

I'm not the biggest fish fan and I used to think I'd always hate fish. It's mainly the fishy taste I can't stand, but I understand what you meant about the texture too. I think you've been trying the wrong kinds of fish though. I've taught myself to like a lot of kinds of fish but I still can't handle strong flavoured fish like salmon. Sushi on the other hand doesn't taste like fish at all, so I agree with the above users who recommend it. Bodd's suggestion of fish and chips is great too.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 4:58 AM on April 7, 2008

The Crime of Father Amaro (O Crime do Padre Amaro) by Portuguese author José Maria Eça de Queiroz. It was also recently made into a film starring Gael Garcia Bernal.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 10:01 AM on April 6, 2008

I agree that clear back straps would be the way to go. One Hanes Place does one in your size.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 5:14 AM on April 2, 2008

That book is one of my all-time favourites too! I still wish I could live in a museum, but at least I get to work in one now! There are lots of museums now that have sleepovers, which is really rather cool.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 6:46 AM on April 1, 2008

Yes, it was a movie too, known by the book title in the US and as 'The Hideaways' in the UK apparently- it's on IMDB.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 7:11 AM on April 1, 2008 marked best answer

I've never lived in Alexandria so I can't offer much advice, but I have visited the city twice before which was enough to learn that English is a lot less prevalent there than other major cities in Egypt. Doesn't mean that no one there speaks English, but I was stuck by the fact that we couldn't find a single taxi driver who could understand a request to drive us to the Catacombs (one of main ancient tourist attractions). I don't remember hearing anyone speak French, but that's just a general... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 4:02 AM on March 4, 2008

I've previously read that your immune system is weakened for a few hours immediately after exercise, especially high intensity exercise, so you might want to slow it down a bit as people have suggested already, but also take extra care not to expose yourself to any potential viruses.

This study says that your NK cell (natural killer cells, a major component of the Innate immune system that fight off cells infected by viruses) numbers decrease immediately after exercise.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 4:42 AM on February 11, 2008 marked best answer

Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet is set in a fantastical post-apocalyptic London. Not as long as Jonathan Strange, but there are four books, so at least they add up! It's the first sentence that really grabs you: "It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea". It's well worth checking out the rest of it for it's wonderfully dark world of traction cities and "Municipal... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 8:23 AM on February 1, 2008

The British sitcom 'As Time Goes By' is a wonderful show about a couple who reunite many years after they lost touch during the Korean War, starring Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. It's quietly charming with brilliant acting and great scripts that manage to make a story of the day-to-day lives of an ordinary couple in their sixties really entertaining.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 6:21 AM on January 11, 2008

The Arcade Fire is by far the most outstanding live act I've ever seen. Their electrifying energy is contagious and makes you feel truly alive. Whenever they play Wake Up, crowds go wild. They also often play impromptu songs outside after a concert.

Hawksley Workman is not only a brilliant singer-songwriter but he also has the best banter I've ever heard on stage. He sometimes even pauses right in the middle of a song to tell hilarious stories and interact with the crowd.... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 2:57 AM on April 16, 2007

I absolutely love The Best Years of Our Lives! Mrs. Miniver is in a similar vein of family-focussed war weepies.

The Palm Beach Story is a hysterical screwball comedy in the vein of 'Some Like it Hot' brilliantly written by Preston Sturges.

Ship of Fools is definitely an all-out weeper, a voyage set in the shadow of WWII and filled with numerous doomed romances. Over-the-top, but the story of the exiled Contessa and the ship's doctor is... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 5:54 PM on April 15, 2007

The Music Garden in the heart of downtown Toronto is a very unusual and beautiful park whose design was inspired by the cello music of Bach as part of a project involving Yo-Yo Ma. It hosts weekly concerts throughout the summer.
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 5:28 PM on March 18, 2007 marked best answer

While texts certainly can provide useful information to archaeologists, I can't think of any examples of ancient texts directly leading to a discovery, even though I've studied archaeology and Egyptology at university. Going a bit off topic like everyone else here, an interesting aside from your question is that the ancients themselves used this kind of fictional plot device just like in Indiana Jones etc. of trying to find a mystical text. The Westcar Papyrus records an ancient Egyptian story... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 2:00 PM on March 15, 2007

Well, I've been inside the pyramids in the months of July and December. It was really quite crowded in July and practically deserted in December. I suspect the level of busy-ness will be somewhere in between in March. I didn't feel claustrophobic, but it *can* be a bit stuffy inside and overly cosy if you're climbing up or down steep ramps with people squished in all around you... Perhaps before you go in, you can check with the guards to see how busy it is inside. The earlier in the morning you... [more]
posted to Ask Metafilter by Kirjava at 11:13 AM on March 11, 2007