Year: 2015

What is the perfect snack to enjoy while watching the moon turns red and slowly disappears? I found myself pondering this question while sitting on my back porch watching this rare celestial event. Digging through the pantry, M&M’s became the…

How is it possible that the hashtag #awesomemonkeypower does not exist on Instagram? Only seven results on Google. “Awesome monkey power” hasn’t been used on Twitter since 2013—and just once during that year. And one time for 2012 and 2011.…

How much is the domain spudart.com worth? Just the domain name itself, not the website. 1,610 domains are listed on Godaddy auctions that are four letters + art.com. The median selling price is $2,195. The list of 4letter+art.com domains selling…

(comic courtsey gocomics.com) The mom has some of Calvin’s style of humor in today’s Calvin & Hobbes. It’s nice that the parents aren’t always prototypical boring stiff parents. Here we see where Calvin potentially gets his wits from.

What would this musical score sound like? The Museum of Contemporary Art posted a photo of a score by John Cage and asked people what it would sound like. See that circular part of the score? Here’s what it could…

The most popular highlight made by Kindle users in the Oxford Dictionary of English is “think deeply about something that makes one unhappy, angry, or worried: she had brooded over the subject a thousand times.” That’s rather bizarre. That is…

Here’s a few fun tweets about Paris and ewoks. It's fun saying the phrase "Paris Ewok" — Spudart Matt Maldre (@spudart) August 27, 2015 I want to meet an ewok from Paris. — Ewok Lumat (@EwokLumat) August 27, 2015 On…

Chicago’s Picasso sculpture isn’t just for looking—it’s for sliding! Kids do it all the time, but today, I joined them. In my tie and work clothes, I climbed up and slid down. And then did it three more times. Every…

If you ask “Where is the sun?” to Wolfram Alpha, you get a cool astronomy diagram! In my case, I had to add on “in Chicago”, because Wolfram Alpha thought I was in Florida, based on our internet provider at…

Snapity is now submitted to urbandictionary.com. Here’s what I wrote: definition: The interjective response to shocking sad news. A combination of “snap” and “pity.” Snap! is your first reaction of surprise, closely followed by pity for the bad news. Snapity!…

An army of caterpillars somehow got onto the median of a busy tourist street in Chicago. How was such an unusual sight discovered? Why through origami butterflies, of course! Being freshly married two weeks ago, we have about four hundred…

With the Stanley Cup in the news again as Chicago won its third Stanley Cup in six years, Chicago’s Adler Planetarium made an infographic revealing that 429,305,338 Stanley Cups stacked on top of one another would reach the Moon. What…

The Muppets comic book (2009-2012) is EXCELLENT! If you like the Muppets, go to your nearest comic book store and pick up the compilation, “The Muppets Omnibus.” (or get it from Amazon) It’s seriously one of the best comics to…

Crowd control gates lined the streets of Michigan Avenue outside Tribune Tower. The kickoff to the NFL Draft in Chicago was supposed to be huge. Such a large crowd was expected that people were going to be spilling over into…

The Tribune Tower has many locked doors leading to secret closets. Walk down any hallway, and you are sure to encounter a locked door that leads to a mysterious place. One of these such doors is on the 14th floor…

What would celebrated architect Renzo Piano be saying in this photo? He clearly looks excited to be sharing something.

“You’re the dreadlock cactus,” says Jason DeVoll the photographer of this image, “I don’t care about ‘official names'” I say, “It’s alive!–oh wait, of course it’s alive. It’s a plant. ha. The sign looks so tiny next to this cactus…

Parked and waiting was the infamous Puppet Bike. Strips of the Carina Nebula in my hand, I was looking for poles and other items to wrap the Nebula around. What great felicity to run into one of Chicago’s most famous…

Every artist has their go-to methods when creativity runs dry. Tools like sketchpads. Working in locations like coffee shops. For me one of my methods is to make artwork to place on the front of Tribune Tower. 149 rocks from…

Scull Chapel, Czermna, Poland / Kaplica Czaszek w Czermnej by PolandMFA, on Flickr Untitled Forms / Dumbo Arts Center: Art Under the Bridge Festival 2009 / 20090926.10D.54894.P1.L1.C23 / SML by See-ming Lee 李思明 SML, on Flickr Angel Christmas cookies by…

An impressive show was put on by this year’s batch of BFA students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The expansive seventh floor of the Louis Sullivan Building on the State Street housed more than 300 artists’…

The fine art of napkins. Art that you can wipe your mouth with. The Art Institute currently has 11 napkins in their permanent collection. The height of the napkin collecting craze occured from 1983 to 1996. Nine of the eleven…

Ever want to get inside the artwork at an art museum? Now you can! Several people on Instagram and Flickr have demonstrate how they interact with artworks in museums. These seven methods are collected under the hashtag, #GetInsideTheArtInstituteofChicago. A clever…

Every year my company, Tribune Media Services, used to have award ceremonies. One of the awards was Rookie of the Year with the trophy/plaque thing being an actual Louisville Slugger baseball bat customized with the recipient’s name and his/her first…

Honeymoon is such an interesting word. The Japanese have a fun way of translating the word (as covered on my wedding blog). The French literally translates it as “moon of honey,” as seen on Etymonline.com: 1540s, hony moone, but probably…

The croquet twitter account @HammerTimeCroqu started following me today on Twitter. That is, they are following my croquet-dedicated Twitter account, @mightymauler. Yes, I have a Twitter account dedicated to croquet. Not just croquet, but my superhero alter-ego persona on the…

I am looking for a resident that lives on the planet Mercury. How do I search for this? Do I do a search on Twitter for “Mercury alien”? or perhaps “Mercury resident”? However on Twitter, you cannot search the location…

Time is short. People are watching you. Will you have the guts to draw something fun on a foggy window on the bus or train? These questions faced me this morning as with below zero degree temperatures in Chicago. Commuters…