This day in history: Lunar Lunacy

"On August 28, 1835, one of newspaper history's most notorious hoaxes was perpetrated by the New York Sun. An article in a week-long series about the telescopic 'discoveries' of esteemed British astronomer Sir John Herschel -- an alleged reprint from the nonexistent Edinburgh Journal of Science -- described his detection of winged, humanlike beings on the moon. Sir John was quoted as saying, 'We counted three parties of these creatures walking erect in a small wood... They averaged about four feet in height, were covered, except on the face, with short and glossy copper-colored hair, and had wings composed of a thin membrane without hair, lying snugly upon their backs, from the top of their shoulders to the calves of the legs. The face, a yellowish flesh color, was a slight improvement upon that of the large orangutan.' The ruse temporarily catapulted the Sun ahead  of its rivals and went on to badly embarrass those who copied the story without authenticating it. The New York Daily Advertiser, for example, wrote that Herschel 'added a stock of knowledge to the present age that will immortalize his name.'" (via my Dictionary of Forgotten English desk calendar)

More on the Sun's moon hoax here.

Duck and cover: The Pelican Project

The Pelican project: a collection of Pelican paperback covers from the 1930s to the 1980s

Wednesday coffee break: Never too late anymore!

(Foamy) Heads of State:

From Wilson’s brewery ban to J.F.K.’s French champagne, parsing a president’s drink choice (Wall St. Journal)

Friday coffee break: the weirdest thing you will see all week

One Got Fat: Bicycle Safety, 1963. "A group of children, all wearing ape masks, rides their bicycles to the park for a picnic. Along the way, all but one are eliminated for violating basic bike safety rules. This strange film was narrated by Edward Everett Horton."



"Farewell, Mossby Pomegranate -- victim of fallen arches."

Thursday coffee break: the suprisingly cool history of ice

"Perhaps it was his Yankee entrepreneurial spirit, or perhaps monomania, but [Frederic] Tudor was obsessed with the idea that ice would make him rich. During the next decade, he developed clever new techniques to convince people that they actually needed ice, including a “first one’s free” pitch. While living in a South Carolina boarding house in 1819, Tudor made a habit of bringing a cooler of chilled beverages to the dinner table. His fellow boarders always scoffed at the sight, but after a sip or two, they’d inevitably fall in love with his ice. Tudor traveled around the country and convinced barkeeps to offer chilled drinks at the same price as regular drinks—to see which would become more popular. He also taught restaurants how to make ice cream, and reached out to doctors and hospitals to convince them that ice was the perfect way to cool feverish patients. The truth is that people never knew they needed ice until Tudor made them try it. Once they did, they couldn’t live without it." (mental_floss)

100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About

33. Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive
...
45. Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment
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71. Remembering someone’s phone number
...
And 97 more... (wired.com)

A question of balance: redesigning the Atlantic

Look behind the scenes at last fall's redesign of an icon of American journalism.

1. A general discussion: "For a graphic designer, few jobs are as challenging as designing a magazine. Unlike a logo or a poster, the design of which can rely on blunt simplicity, a magazine is a complex organism, the result of an intricate interplay of words and pictures. Any single issue represents thousands of minute decisions about typography, layout, photography, and illustration. And these decisions are made within an accepted system of conventions -- preconceptions we all share about how a magazine is read -- and more practical and mundane limitations like budgets and schedules...." A Question of Balance, the atlantic.com

2. A slightly more detailed take from the design studio: "When Pentagram undertook a redesign of the Atlantic -- the eighth in its history -- the goal was to establish an intelligent and striking framework for the magazine’s wide-ranging editorial voice."

3. Bonus gallery: 151 Years of Atlantic covers

"There is nothing to be gained on that score"

An amazing letter from Jourdon Anderson, an ex-Tennessee slave, wherein he declines his former master's invitation to return as a laborer on his plantation. (Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865.) Digitized by the University of Houston.