81. Buses
:a bus in london:
Think about how many people take the bus every day. In your city, in every city, in the world. A lot of people in a lot of rectangles.
:school bus:
The buses to my house are the M4 and the E2 or E4.
The bus is also an integral part of the children’s song “The Wheels On The Bus.”
:children in rectangle:
However, the wheels themselves are not rectangular.
Question of the day:
Why don’t coin machines on buses make change?
:city bus:
80. Microwave Ovens
:woman and rectangle:
The History of the Microwave:
by wikipedia
“The heating effect of microwaves was discovered in 1945 by…Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine…He was working on an active radar set when he noticed that a peanut chocolate bar he had in his pocket started to melt. The radar had melted his chocolate bar with microwaves.
…The first food to be deliberately cooked with Spencer’s microwave was popcorn, and the second was an egg, which exploded in the face of one of the experimenters.“
Since then, the Microwave Oven has become an important part of pop culture. In television shows like “The Office” and “Arrested Development,” starting a fire in a microwave has become a symbol of a character’s idiocy.
:ryan did it:
Storytime.
My cousin Evan is the lamest superhero in the world. He stood in front of the open door of an old microwave. Now, he gets a splitting headache just before the phone rings. Siiick superpower.
:beware radiation!:
Cool Shit.
:portable microwave:
and finally,
Words of Wisdom.
Daniel:
“i think you should include lifting the stigma of putting metal in the microwave. it’s basically safe. as long as it doesn’t touch the sides.”
79. Parking Spaces
:a parking lot:
Washington, DC has had an awful lot of snow lately. Now the streets are kind of clear – some are slushy, some have a fine layer of ice, but for the most part, the city is drivable. Parking lots, however, are not.
My most frequented lot is that behind Politics and Prose and Comet Ping Pong.
:mural in the parking lot behind p&p and comet:
People go crazy in this lot, whether it’s icy or not. There are never quite enough spaces to satisfy the customers of these establishments, who tend towards impatience. Seriously, it’s an intense experience parking here.
Now the parking lot is covered in ice. I wiped out on it the other day and bruised my hip.
:not my bruise, not my hip:
In the snow and ice, parking everywhere has become that much more valuable. These little rectangles are suddenly treasures. It took me fifteen minutes to find parking by my therapist’s office today. And I had to drive into a snow bank and park illegally.
:almost like this:
Keeping a clear parking space free is also an issue in the snow nightmare.
Some people use chairs:
:chaise longue:
Some use trashcans:
:traish:
This person used dead plants:
:so nice:
Whatever the issue behind parking, there can be no question that the parking space is a highly undervalued rectangle. Trying to lose weight? Park further from the mall. In a hurry? A clear space starts to feel essential. We cannot forget these oft-overlooked rectangles in the hullabaloo of the big, round world we live in.
78. Fireplaces
:wonderfully tacky rectangle:
Fireplace:
[ˈfaɪəˌpleɪs]
n
The fireplace is commonly a rectangular shape, whether rural
:the chimney don't count:
or super mod
:dude:
or shaped like a bench.
:still a rectangle:
Here are some sweet fireplaces to check out. All rectangles.
:wall mounted fire place:
:"travelmate":
:this is your multimedia fireplace:
:construction paper fireplace:
77. Hobby/Craft Squares
I discovered these beauties in the bargain aisle of the CVS. While they are not strictly squares (more like cubes), they’re even better – since they have six rectangular sides.
Featuring colors like red, yellow, green, blue, orange and purple, Hobby/Craft Squares just may be a revolution in cheap craft technology.
They are particularly convenient should you need to build a tower, a checkerboard or a small arrangement of colored cubes. Design and fabricate away!
One crafter’s work:
:cubes:
:boom! she painted them and made a pokemon (or something):
Here are some of my creations.
Tower:
:my tallest was 22 stories:
Pattern square:
:6 x 6 x 6 x 6:
If you want some cubes of your own, a more expensive version is available here.
:bougie cubes:
As you can see below, my pack contained:
14 reds
14 greens
13 yellows
13 blues
11 purples
and
7 oranges.
:you never know what you're gonna get:
It’s always a surprise in cube-town! Now get to hobbying.
