bookofjoe

Little Red Corvette - The Chair

So maybe you never quite got it together enough to buy that Corvette you eyed with such lust all those years ago.

Not to worry: Racing Furniture of High Point, North Carolina has created the next best thing: Corvette chairs.

Licensed by General Motors, the Corvette's maker, the chair was created by independent designers who used details that defined the cars' interiors.

For example, the C1's chunky white stitching is used in the replica chair (above), whose shape is based on the original bucket from 1953.

The candy-apple red is the same signature color that got

Prince all worked up.

$895 here.

[via Nick Kaye and the New York Times]

'No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock—Paintings on Paper'

For a change, I thought I'd feature a show that not only wasn't about to close, but hasn't even opened yet.

This one opens at the Guggenheim Museum in Berlin on January 29; it'll be up through April 10.

Featured will be 40 works by Pollock from private collections and museums, in the first show in 25 years to focus on his works on paper, which he often showed side by side with his larger canvasses.

The exhibition spans the gamut of his career, from his training with regionalist master Thomas Hart Benton to to his break with representative art and turn toward stylistic expressionism.

The museum's at Unter den Linden 13/15; 011-49-30-2020-930.

[via Seth Sherwood and the Washington Post]

Omlet Eglu: Now your chickens really can come home to roost

Just in from the UK is this stylish plastic chicken coop that's become an overnight sensation there, furnishing its owners with the freshest eggs ever.

Invented by four college students for a design-class project, the $600 coop comes with two chickens.

However, the U.S. version, arriving this spring, will require that you supply your own chickens.

Sorry about that, what?

The Eglu features a rounded exterior which doubles as a place to perch, a handy side hatch to retrieve your eggs, and an extendable wire-mesh run

so your chickens don't furnish

lunch for the neighbor's pet.

Choose from red,

yellow,

green

or blue.

If you prefer pink,

then order the T-shirt.

[via Marco R. della Cava and USA Today]

Texas Native Inertia Nutcracker

Just as some people are always looking for a better haircut, I'm always looking for a better nutcracker.

For walnuts, the Indiana Nut Growers Association recommends the Texas Native Inertia Nutcracker.

It's powered by rubber bands with the assistance of Isaac Newton's First Law: "A nut at rest will remain at rest until whacked by something heavy."

Actually, that's Dr. Robert L. Wolke's version.

Wolke writes Food 101, an entertaining feature which appears in Wednesday's Washington Post Food section.

This week's piece was about the art - and science - of cracking walnuts so as to obtain as high a yield of perfect halves as possible.

Anyhow, the website for the Texas Native Inertia Nutcracker ($29.99) is a most enjoyable, down-home sort of place: you learn all about Dr. Haywood Turner, the now-deceased Georgia physician who invented it; that this nutcracker "cracked the pecans that went to the moon on Apollo 13 & 14"; and all manner of other interesting things.

Here's the web page for "HOW IT WORKS":

HOW IT WORKS....


THIS FUN TO USE NUTCRACKER WAS INVENTED BY A MEDICAL DOCTOR IN COLUMBUS GEORGIA. DR. HAYWOOD TURNER (NOW DECEASED). IT DERIVES IT'S UNIQUENESS FROM IT'S SOURCE OF POWER AND THE RESULTS IT ACHIEVES....... IT PRODUCES " WHOLE KERNELS".


DR. TURNER NOTICED THAT WHILE HIS WIFE WAS CRACKING NUTS THERE WAS A SPACE BETWEEN THE SHELL AND THE NUTMEAT AND IF A QUICK IMPACT COULD BE PROVIDED THE SHELL WOULD SHATTER BEFORE REACHING THE MEAT.


THE MEANS FOR PROVIDING THE QUICK IMPACT WAS DECIDED UPON TO BE COMMON RUBBER BANDS PRODUCING KINETIC ENERGY (ENERGY PRODUCED BY MOTION) AND THE DESIRED RESULTS OF WHOLE KERNELS WAS PRODUCED BY A RESTRICTION IN TRAVEL OF THE IMPACT  TRANSMITTED THROUGH A PISTON TO THE NUT.


THE IMPACT WAS CONTAINED BY PLACING A HEAVY ANVIL ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE NUT. SINCE HEAVY MEANS DIFFICULT TO MOVE BECAUSE OF INERTIA, HENCE, THE NAME "INERTIA NUTCRACKER". THE CRACKER ITSELF IS CLASSIFIED AS AN IMPACT TYPE NUTCRACKER.


THE NAME "TEXAS NATIVE" WAS TRADEMARKED FOR THOSE GREAT TEXAS NATIVE PECANS THOUGH THE CRACKER HAS ALWAYS BEEN MADE IN NORTH CAROLINA.


CREDIT MUST BE GIVEN TO A YOUNG MEMBER OF A PROMINENT BANKING FAMILY WHO RECOGNIZED IT'S POTENTIAL, BOUGHT THE PATENTS, ARRANGED MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTED THRU ALL THE MAJOR CHAIN STORES ASSISTED BY SATURATION TYPE TV ADVERTISING. DURING THE EARLY 70's.


SINCE THEN, BILL THE NUTCRACKER GUY , HAS BEEN THE PRINCIPAL PROVIDER OF THIS UNIQUE AND USEFUL PRODUCT AND HAS DISCOVERED A VERY UNUSUAL ITEM OF INTEREST CONCERNING NUTCRACKER BUYERS. THEY ARE ALL VERY HONEST. IN THE 25 YEARS OF HIS ASSOCIATION WITH THIS PRODUCT HE HAS ONLY HAD 3-4 "BAD CHECKS". WHO ELSE CAN SAY THAT ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS?


TO OPERATE : PLACE THE NUTCRACKER ON A TABLE WITH THE LITTLE LEG HANGING OFF THE EDGE. HOLD THE HEAVY STEEL PIECE IN THE LEFT HAND THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS.


PLACE A NUT BETWEEN THE HEAVY STEEL PIECE AND THE PISTON.


SLIDE THE COVER OF THE HEAVY STEEL PIECE OVER THE NUT TO PREVENT SHELL SCATTER.


WITH THE RIGHT HAND PULL BACK ON THE HANDLE TO THE STOP AND RELEASE QUICKLY.


OPEN THE SHIELD TO REMOVE THE CRACKED NUT.


REPEAT AS OFTEN AS DESIRED.


ADD OR SUBTRACT THE NUMBER OF POWER BANDS AS NEEDED.


INSURE A DOUBLED BAND AROUND THE SCREWS ON THE SHIELD TO ACHIEVE THE SPRING LOADED EFFECT.


KIDS ESPECIALLY ENJOY USING THE INERTIA NUTCRACKER.


THANKS FOR BUYING........


BILL , THE NUTCRACKER GUY


PS..You might  buy a cheaper version but I'm the "original" and have the best guarantee anywhere and shipping is always included.............no credit card surprises.

A. Bored

Q. What adjective best describes how American teenagers feel about school?

The Gallup Poll asked 785 students ages 13-17 to look over a list of adjectives and choose the three that best described "how you usually feel at school."

"Bored" was the clear winner, named by half the students, beating out "tired," which was picked by 42%.

Girls and boys were equally uninterested, and 16- and 17-year-olds were more often bored and tired than the 13- to 15-year-olds.

Students who drank alcohol were even more bored: 63%, compared with 45% of nondrinkers.

Tied for third on the adjectives list were "happy" and "challenged"; "pressured" was ranked fourth.

The only thing I can say about the poll and my own experience during junior high and high school is that nothing's changed.

I hated, hated, hated almost every minute of every day: I felt trapped, bored, without any enthusiasm whatsover.

I watched the clock tick, minute by minute, day after day, week after long week, month after boring month, year after endless year.

Horrible.

Thank God I didn't drink: I'd never have made it through.

The findings were reported in a New York Times Education section story last Sunday: it follows.

Behind That Blank Expression

Teaching methodologies change, new technologies are used in innovative ways and many teachers reach out to the worlds of pop music, pop culture and television to augment traditional classroom materials.

So what's the adjective most commonly used by teenagers to describe how they feel about school?

''Bored,'' according to a Gallup Poll report.

In a recent online survey, Gallup asked 785 students ages 13 to 17 to look over a list of adjectives and choose the three that best describe ''how you usually feel at school.''

''Bored'' was the clear winner, named by half the students, beating out ''tired,'' which was picked by 42 percent.

Girls and boys were equally uninterested, and 16- and 17-year-olds were more often bored and tired and less often happy in school than the 13- to 15-year-olds.

Students who say they consume alcohol are even more bored than those who don't.

Sixty-three percent of student drinkers said they were bored in school (compared with 45 percent of nondrinkers) and 50 percent were tired (compared with 39 percent of nondrinkers).

Only 19 percent said they were happy in school, compared with 36 percent of the teetotalers.

Tied for third on the list of adjectives were ''happy'' and ''challenged,'' each named by 31 percent of respondents.

''Pressured'' was ranked fifth, named by 28 percent of the students -- so three of the five most commonly named terms reflect negative attitudes about school.

Gallup also asked the same age group, with 439 responding, about how their parents would punish them for a serious offense, like drinking alcohol or stealing, and for less serious offenses, like cursing or breaking curfew.

In both cases, most teenagers reported that they would be grounded or have their privileges taken away (46 percent for serious offenses, 31 percent for less serious).

Only 8 percent said their parents would ''spank me/beat me'' for drinking or stealing. And 3 percent said they ''would never do those things.''

One 16-year-old minor offender complained: ''They yell at me for excessive amounts of time, usually until they forget what it is they are yelling at me about.''

One 14-year-old endures ''push-ups.''

And one old-fashioned punishment for cursing is still around: 2 percent would get their mouths washed out with soap.

Gas-O-Haul

From the website:

Buy a little peace of mind, cheap.

Emergency "gas cans" store flat until you need them.

Keep a Gas-O-Haul in every car, and you'll be prepared if you run out of fuel.

It takes up very little space in the trunk or under a seat, but in an emergency it transforms into a one-gallon gas container complete with pouring nozzle.

Fill it up at the station, take it back to your car, and off you go!

Two for $19.95.

A Bathing Ape - the (almost) secret address of the new New York BAPE store

I must tell you, I get an awful lot of email asking for addresses of places I feature.

Most of the time either I or a member of my crack research team drops everything and tries to find it and personally email it to you.

Because we know you expect nothing less.

Sometimes as we hunt down these addresses we wonder why you don't simply Google them yourself.

Better not to ask, huh?

So when I got what must be the 50th comment/email I've received in the past couple weeks asking for the address of BAPE's recently opened store in Manhattan's SoHo district I thought here we go again, same old same old.

But after about a half hour of using every tool at my command, when I finally found the address I understood why, in this case at least, you couldn't do it yourself.

Undoubtedly part of the mystique of BAPE is to make it difficult to find.

Without further ado, then:

A Bathing Ape

91 Greene St.

New York, NY 10013

Telephone: 212-925-0222

Click on the map, it'll blow up.

Enlarge, if you prefer, in these security-conscious times.