corrugator

My Modern Met refers us to a line of attractive and reasonably-priced modular feline furniture, conceived by a couple of human architects attuned to the shelter and comfort of the cats that share their living space. Not only is the design from A Cat Thing expandable and adjustable to hold one’s companion’s attention for longer, it is also expendable should you or your cat grow bored and dismissive of the whole cardboard ensemble and prefer a cosy sock drawer or a laundry hamper (here’s an award-winning thesis on the accommodating nature of the feline form), the material is fully recyclable.

a snappy new day

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the national syndication of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that happened earlier in the week, Public Radio’s Fresh Air has pieced together a very fine retrospective tribute plus an extended interview with creator and host Fred Rogers, who planned to be a diplomat and then an ordained minister before serendipitously given the opportunity to produce a children’s programme for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
The homage included Rogers’ signature sympathy and respect for the unspoken worries of young people and how he tried to couch the news—that we tend to only admit hits children with a glancing blow when in reality they’re fall more empathetic—to look for the helpers or diffusing the border war between the kingdoms of Make-Believe and Someplace-Else—or just a year after his show became available all across the US, having to testify on behalf of Public Television before Congress and successfully persuading the committee to fully fund their endeavours and realise the importance of their work. The deserving accolades and recollections are a preview of several celebrations and appreciations planned for this birthday year.

smitten kitchen

I had been eagerly anticipating trying a simple recipe for an avocado and cucumber salad first recommended by Nag on the Lake for a couple of weeks now but found it was well worth the wait and ought to be incorporated into any meal schedule. My presentation is not the loveliest but the taste and the texture are worth pursuing.  Taking a few liberties with the ingredients, I took:

• 1 large cucumber (Gurke), washed and chopped 
• A small bunch of scallions (Lauchzweibel) diced 
• 1 Avocado (I should have gone bigger), pitted and scooped out 
• For the dressing, 2 tablespoons of Salad Yogurt—the original recipe called for Mayonnaise but I imagine that it or Remoulade would work equally well
• Spice it up with cayenne and black pepper

Combine cucumber, avocado and scallions and whisk in dressing. Repeat again tomorrow.

réfectoire

Inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage in 2016, the priory on the hillside in Éveux near Lyon was commissioned by the local order of Dominican monks from architects Le Corbusier and Iannis Xenakis back in 1953—construction concluding in 1960, with the compound Sainte Marie de la Tourette coming to represent one of the most exemplary structures of the late Modernist and Brutalist style.
Its one hundred cells and study halls still serve an active though declining population of friars but the with the convent having become one of the pilgrimage destinations of adherents of iconic architecture, it still attracts many visitors and offers overnight accommodations to help offset the costs of upkeep.

6x6

a murder most foul: an interactive map of crime scenes and hauntings of Victorian London, via Things Magazine

crying in public: a comparable emotional map of New York City, via Waxy

klimaendring: receding glaciers are revealing ancient artefacts in Norway faster than archaeologists can keep up, via Strange Company

editorial board: moving beyond titles and suggested topics, neural networks are being trained to write Wikipedia articles, via Slashdot

expo 67: Canada Modern archives the early golden age of the country’s contemporary graphic design movement, via Present /&/ Correct

postcards from sakha: photographer documents like in Yakutsk, Russia’s arctic republic

olive garden of eden

Via DaveLog v 3.0, we are treated to a good primer on the theology surrounding Pastafarianism, sourced directly back to the first prophet of the His Noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, physics student Bobby Henderson, who back in 2005 demanded that classroom curricula be apportioned equally in thirds, reserved amongst creationism and intelligent design, evidentiary conjecture-based scientific disciplines that includes the theory of evolution and the Pastafarian gospel, in protest to the Kansas Board of Education’s decision to give equal time under the law to only the former two perspectives.
Though many of its tenets are gentle parodies of religious fundamentalism, Pastafarianism has earned a place on interfaith panels and its priests and practitioners are afforded equal recognition with more established faiths and has been employed, as His Noodliness intended though ever once and awhile ingratiating falsified evidence and testimony contrary to its own origin story, as a persuasive counter-argument against those laws that would ravage the line that separates Church and State or deny others of freedom from religion altogether. Be sure to visit the links above for more Bible studies. R’amen.