Fascinating  

I prefer to use this method as "blogging-of-last-resort" but I've seen some extremely interesting things on the internet recently.

Two things make tall buildings possible: the steel frame and the safety elevator. The elevator, underrated and overlooked, is to the city what paper is to reading and gunpowder is to war. Without the elevator, there would be no verticality, no density, and, without these, none of the urban advantages of energy efficiency, economic productivity, and cultural ferment. The population of the earth would ooze out over its surface, like an oil slick, and we would spend even more time stuck in traffic or on trains, traversing a vast carapace of concrete. And the elevator is energy-efficient—the counterweight does a great deal of the work, and the new systems these days regenerate electricity. The elevator is a hybrid, by design.

While anthems have been written to jet travel, locomotives, and the lure of the open road, the poetry of vertical transportation is scant. What is there to say, besides that it goes up and down?

That's from a New Yorker piece called Up and Then Down. Check it out.

Another N.Y. piece from a while ago by the esteemed Malcolm Gladwell: The Ketchup Conundrum. Who knew this condiment had such an interesting history?

¿Qué mas? Here's a link for the "50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time", which so far we've found to be very spotty but probably worth your time. Avoid #49.

Finally, I really enjoyed this little article about typographical errors. Maybe that's just me.