Archive for Clever Ideas
June 23, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Clever Ideas, Food & Drink
Cherry pie has always been one of my favorite desserts, and this preference was only reinforced by my repeated viewings of the TV series Twin Peaks. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Pat Cokewell, erstwhile owner of the Mar T Cafe (now called Twede’s) in North Bend, Washington. The Mar T achieved fame as the “RR Diner” on Twin Peaks, and it was Pat’s cherry pies that inspired director David Lynch to make the diner (and the pies) a central feature of the show. The cherry pies Pat bakes are indeed unimpeachable (and I’m sure even her peach pies are excellent). After sampling them I decided to teach myself how to bake cherry pies, and while I can’t yet claim to match Pat’s expertise, I’ve done OK.
The Crust of the Matter
The crust, of course, is the trickiest part of the pie to master, and I’ve messed […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
June 6, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Science & Nature, Clever Ideas
When I was about 12 (give or take a couple of years), I had what I thought was a fantastic idea. I was going to build myself a volcano. I’m not talking about a little model made out of clay with vinegar and baking soda for the special effects. I wanted to construct a dirt cone in the backyard that was hollow inside and large enough to use as a clubhouse. I was a bit sketchy on the actual structural details, but I figured I’d start by digging a nice big pit, then add some sort of frame and cover it over with the dirt I’d removed previously. So I got an old piece of garden hose and formed it into a circle about 15 feet (5m) in diameter on the lawn to mark the perimeter of the volcano. The actual digging turned out to be a lot harder than […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
May 7, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Clever Ideas, Food & Drink
I may not be the most agriculturally sophisticated person in the world, but I always felt pretty confident in my basic belief that frost was a Bad Thing when it came to growing produce. If whatever crop you’re growing hasn’t been harvested by the time temperatures dip below freezing, serious damage can be done, right? Common sense, however, frequently turns out to be wrong. At least for grapes, freezing is eagerly anticipated by vintners in certain parts of the world. It’s a key factor in the production of an expensive variety of dessert wine known as icewine.
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Original post by Joe Kissell
February 25, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Clever Ideas, Food & Drink
Switzerland is a country known for, among other things, cheese and engineering. These are two concepts that, while important individually, generally do not go together. (In fact, I have been wary of cheese engineering ever since I read The Absurdly Silly Encyclopedia and Fly Swatter by Jovial Bob Stine in 1978. It cautioned the young reader not to build a raft out of cheese, because cheese does not float.) Nevertheless, the great minds of Switzerland have produced a fascinating, interdependent pairing of cheese and machine, neither of which is complete without the other. As both a cheese lover and a gadget lover, I was delighted to discover a unique device called a Girolle. It’s the world’s most clever cheese slicer, and it’s designed to work with just one very special kind of cheese.
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Original post by Joe Kissell
February 20, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Clever Ideas, Food & Drink
A few years ago, when Interesting Thing of the Day was just a gleam in my eye, I started asking people for their ideas on interesting topics I should write about. One of my wife’s friends made the very first suggestion. “You should write about French butter dishes,” she said, “—you know, the kind that keep butter fresh without refrigeration.” I had no idea what she was talking about, but I wrote it down on my list anyway. After unsuccessfully trying to locate one of these things in France, I did a few Web searches and sure enough, French butter dishes—like the one now in my kitchen—are quite interesting.
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Original post by Joe Kissell
January 14, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Music & Sound, Clever Ideas, Society & Culture
The acoustics in my apartment are lousy. I have too many work deadlines. The dollar-to-euro exchange rate is depressing. It always rains when I want to go for a walk.
It’s not hard to come up with things to complain about, but who wants to listen to someone else complain? The surprising answer: just about everyone, as long as the complaints are set to music and delivered in four-part harmony by a choral ensemble. In the past few years, musical groups called complaints choirs have sprung up all over the world, drawing sell-out crowds (and Internet fans by the hundreds of thousands).
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Original post by Joe Kissell
January 9, 2008 at 10:00 am · Filed under Technology & Computing, Clever Ideas
Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there may be an elegant solution on the horizon to the gigantic problem of garbage—and not just the kind that gets dumped in landfills, but sewage, too, along with agricultural wastes, used tires, and just about everything else. More good news: we might get to reduce dependence on foreign oil and pay less for gasoline in the process. The bad news? Forget about those electric cars or increased fuel efficiency; abandon hope of seeing your city skyline again—this solution, if it works, will keep internal combustion engines running forever.
What many investors are hoping will be the Next Big Thing is a technology called the thermal depolymerization process, or TDP for short. This patented process is being developed by Changing World Technologies of West Hempstead, New York, with its first full-scale plant already in operation in […]
Original post by Joe Kissell
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