Sunday Ritual Spawns Ideas

For as long as I can remember, my family has had the ritual of stretching out Sunday morning in the pursuit of newspaper reading. This tradition involves all kinds of newspapers, depending on the location of any given Sunday, but it ALWAYS involves The New York Times. I almost always go to the magazine first, if I am not sideswiped by an unsuspecting “Style” section headline. (Plus, I have a guilty pleasure of reading the wedding announcements. PURE east coast lineage postings, really…)

This week, the magazine hosted its’ 7th Annual Year In Ideas. I adore this issue. I’m not sure if its because I was blessed with the “wonder bug”, whereas seemingly mundane things become incredibly interesting to me, no doubt implanted by my parents, or if it is purely that some of these revelations are truly incredible.

Some of my favorites this year are:

– Fake Tilt-Shift Photography, which makes pictures of actual life-size vistas look like pictures of miniature model’s of said vistas.

– The Honeycomb Vase, sculpted by bees

– Left-hand-turn Elimination, which would make one of my best friend’s mom proud, as she never made left-hand turns. UPS has incorporated the practice, saving three million gallons of gas and reducing CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons

– Mindful Exercise, a study concluding that self-awareness can lead to actual, measurable health benefits.

– Lap Dance Science, which deduces that women earn more while ovulating.