bookofjoe

Who rules the social web?

[via David McCandless's Information is Beautiful]

Forked Up Bottle Opener

Sweet.

Designed by Kunlanath Sornsriwichai for Propaganda.

[via Milena]

Former gossip columnist Diana McLellan invents Topiary Trash-Can Topper

Now retired from her writing gigs, she lives on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., where she tired of looking out the window of her basement sitting room and seeing her trash can, sitting on the front patio of the house she shares with her husband.

She told John Kelly, in his December 10, 2009 Washington Post column, "It was just an affliction upon my eyesight."

So she took a coil of fencing and formed it into a cylinder, then festooned it with green plastic leaves made by a company that sells its product as privacy fencing to create her Topiary Trash-Can Topper (above, with the inventor), which for all practical purposes is a giant cozy that fits around the can.

Her patent application is pending.

McLellan told Kelly, "All my neighbors want them."

Mini Sink Strainer

A couple weeks ago the metal plug thingie in my bathroom sink came out in my hand when I lifted it.

I looked underneath the sink but there was no leak, so I figured it had somehow broken off the lever that connected it to the vertical rod between the faucets.

No big deal, but I'm sure not gonna call my excellent plumber Kevin Burns of Blue Ridge Rooter to fix it — not at $75 just to knock on my door.

I ordered a rubber plug but that doesn't solve the problem of using the sink routinely and having stuff go down the drain, especially big stuff now that that metal disc isn't there to occlude the opening.

I noodled around on Amazon and found the set of three mesh strainers below,

the smallest of which (2.5" outer Ø) looked like just the ticket.

They arrived a few minutes ago, which got me all excited (it's nice that it takes so little... but I digress) and when I put the little strainer into the hole it looked like it'd been there since forever, very harmonious.

For $2.95 (for the set of three — I put the two larger ones aside for who knows when/what/why) you could do a lot worse.

Bonus: the mesh should prevent not only stuff like rings from falling down the pipe, but also decrease the amount of cat hair going down the drain.

Win-win.

New York Times Twitter Lists

Res ipsa loquitur.

What is the sound of one hand calculating? Now you can find out.

Slim design with pop-up screen turns on automatically when opened.

Auto-off after 10 minutes.

Battery included.

4.25"L.

$9.95.

How to get me to buy a book

It's so easy: just begin your New York Times Sunday Book Review piece like this: "The Germans must have a term for it. Doppelgedanken, perhaps: the sensation, when reading, that your own mind is giving birth to the words as they appear on the page. Such is the ego that in these rare instances you wonder, 'How could the author have known what I was thinking?' Of course, what has happened isn’t this at all, though it’s no less astonishing. Rather, you’ve been drawn so deftly into another world that you’re breathing with someone else’s rhythms, seeing someone else’s visions as your own."

That's what Leah Hager Cohen did in her appreciation of Alice Munro's latest collection of stories, "Too Much Happiness," in the November 29, 2009 issue.

Here's how illiterate I am: this will be the first book of Munro's I've ever purchased or read.

But you know what?

I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Why?

Because my credo is, "No shame + no pride = no limits."

You can go a significant part of the way toward being pretty much OK with yourself if you can manage to internalize that.

Though it's easier said than done.

Trust me — and those I know who've tried but in the end are simply too embarrassed to proceed.

Squishy Silicone Shotglasses

Say that three times fast.

Soft cups hold 1.5 oz.

Heatproof to 400°F.

Two for $7.95.