bookofjoe

Famous People Painting — "Discussing 'The Divine Comedy' with Dante"

Historical painting with Wikipedia links and mouseover tagging.

Oil on canvas (2006) by Chinese artists Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An.

[via Leah (Kay)]

Gold Glitter Twine

"A spool of white cotton baker's twine with a subtle metallic twist to add sparkle to Christmas packages."

260 feet.

$16.

Why Ashley Bouder loves Beijing

The NYC Ballet principal dancer just tweeted, "This sign was waiting for me at the airport. Love it."

joe's Favorite Thing: Boar's Head Sweet Pickle Chips with Horseradish

Utterly sublime and very, very hard to find, so much so that when I find a store that has them, I buy every last jar.

Oftimes that's six or eight jars but that's just fine 'cause they keep forever and man do they get your mouth's attention.

Tasty as all get out.

Thracian Gold

Below, excerpts from a news report:

.............................

Archaeologists say they have unearthed an almost 2,400-year-old golden hoard in an ancient Thracian tomb in northern Bulgaria.

The treasure was found on Thursday near the village of Sveshtari, 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of Sofia, team leader Diana Gergova said.

She said that among the artifacts, dating back to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century B.C., were gold jewelry and applications for horse trappings, a tiara with reliefs of lions and fantasy animals, and four bracelets and a ring.

The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria and parts of modern Greece, Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey between 4,000 B.C. and the 7th century A.D., when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs.

............................

Above, some of the pieces unearthed.

[via Joe Peach]

Gyro Screwdriver

I've been seeing TV commercials for this device MOS over the past few days so I was pleased to read Mark Resch's review (excerpted below) in today's Cool Tools about what it is and how it works.

............................

The Gyro is a cordless electric screwdriver that uses your hand motion to drive its motor either clockwise or counterclockwise. I bought mine impulsively while gathering materials to install a bathroom ceiling fan last month. It seemed like a nice high-tech take on the old battery-operated screwdriver. I never thought those had enough torque or held a battery charge long enough.

This is a great little addition to my toolbox. It works as advertised: grip the handle to activate the sensors and then turn the body of the screwdriver in the direction that you want the screw — or nut or drill bit — to turn.

I used it to install two bathroom vent fans and their ductwork. I used it to drill pilot holes, loosen switchplates and old switches, to connect ductwork with self-tapping screws, and to install the new switches and switchplates. It worked great. Then I assembled a set of drawers from IKEA — and it still doesn't need recharging.

It's smaller than a  cordless drill, strong enough to do real work, and easy on the hands doing repetitive tightening of screws.

............................

$39.88.

What you look like after eating a Twinkie every day for 64 years

This blast from the past, originally published here on April 15, 2005, seems particularly apt today as Hostess announces the end of the Twinkie.