Blog
Posting every Wednesday, with some bonuses
- Pick up a leaf and put it into a book with…
When pressing leaves in a book, write a caption about the leaf on an envelope. Then put the leaf inside the envelope into the book. You'll press a story with the leaf.
- We carry more than we know
Last Wednesday I celebrated 25 years of spudart.org. Today, on the actual anniversary, I totally forgot. I was busy leaving a treasure chest behind the abandoned shopping carts at Jewel.
- 25th anniversary of Spudart.org blog
My first blog post on spudart.org went up on September 28, 2001. It was called "Long Live Long Tables." I proposed that long cafeteria tables are better for conversation than little round ones. This…
- 25 top sculptures since 1945 (nine of them no longer exist)
Four sculptures on the New York Times list don't work until a stranger does something. Bend the aluminum. Take a candy. Eat the pad thai. Follow the instructions on the wall.
- Jim Nollman put 60 hours of orca recordings on a shelf and didn’t listen to them
If you got one night on a boat with an underwater speaker to play music for orcas, what would you play?
- Zooming super-close into a Monet
The Art Institute of Chicago just released a beast of a Monet digital catalog with insanely high res zoom. You can see individual brushstrokes and even photomicrographs of the paint layers.
- Please write a letter on aluminum foil… it has some ties in art history
September 1 is World Letter Writing Day. Everybody gets letters on paper, so this year try aluminum foil and a Sharpie. Your friend will read your words with their own face behind them.
- Mosaic tiles are a great medium for depicting sharks
I thought someone had covered a beach rock with mosaic tiles just because. Then I learned the history behind this famous shark rock.
- The world’s tallest building will have planes going past below the top floor
Jeddah Tower is only 3½ miles from an airport runway. That might be a problem.
- The day I turned 50 and climbed my roof twenty times
It was a fun and memorable day (back on November 20th). I have some fun little stories involving Root Beer Energy drink, busting the belt on my pants, making a graphic that maps out…
- The color palette of croquet in the 1920s
Croquet has two personalities. One is pristine lawns, all-white clothes, and strict rules. The other is blasting your opponent's ball into the bushes and inventing rules like "no boundaries." Turns out The New Yorker…
- The mystery deer of Oregon
A few mystery deer sculptures showed up in an Oregon roundabout. Then more appeared. Then googly eyes. Then a pink flamingo. It reminded me of a weird little toy installation that grew inside Tribune…
- Deciphering the Matrix Digital Rain
Turns out The Matrix's code isn't really made of sushi recipes. I fed it to Google Translate and got back an industrial parts catalog, three real cultures, and one day spa.
- A simple trick for tracking your Sharpie’s age
Tired of digging through a box of dead markers? I started dating my Sharpies with a dab of white-out on the end. Now I'll know exactly how old each one is.
- Introducing the PB&J pancake sandwich
A few life lessons from leftover pancakes: • Order what you like • Enjoy it • Save some for later • Share the good stuff
- Folding the Chicago-style hot dog flag
I folded my Chicago-style hot dog flag using the same 13-fold triangular method as the American flag. Normally you end up with a field of stars. Here the protocol demands a perfect field of…
- Unexpected connection over star stickers
A stranger at Buona Beef gave my daughters foam star stickers as a random act of encouragement. Before we left, I told her I also carry star stickers in my wallet. She couldn't believe…
- The flag that lasted three years
A country adopted a flag in 1992. Two weeks later, the UN, the Olympics, and foreign embassies banned it.
- The real reason there’s an Ewok at the table
One of the hidden perks of having kids: you can put an Ewok on the table at a restaurant and nobody questions it. The catch is that sometimes the Ewok belongs to the adult.
- What does your beach towel say about you?
For a few hours at the beach, your towel becomes a flag.
