One Thing I Love Love Love:
Egg cartons. Just THINK about it: here you have items that need to be delivered. And these aren't just ANY items, these are incredibly FRAGILE items, items that consist of a viscous liquid inside a thin, delicate shell. And they need to be delivered en masse and frequently. But you can't put them in a bucket, a box, or a bag. To wrap them individually would be both inefficient and expensive. So what came out of it? The EGG CARTON. Seriously. Look at this beauty. You cannot get more efficient than this: it does not waste material or space. This design has existed since 1911 and has not been improved upon since--with the exception of a curved edge here and there, or a thinner cardboard, or a taller internal divide. This. is. design. perfection. And it makes me happy every time I open the fridge. Thank you, random Canadian newspaperman, for making the world a better place. (Also, CANADA? Who saw it coming? Dude, they don't flaunt it often, but when they do...ba-BAM!)
One Thing That Drives Me Crazy:
I know what you're thinking: check out that hot bar! Are the cocktails innovative, is there lounge seating, is there a decent happy hour, a mixologist, and a deejay? The answer to all of these questions is no, no, and NO. Because it's NOT a bar, IT'S A NEON SIGN STORE. This leads me to One Thing That Drives Me Crazy: neon sign stores. They drive me absolutely nuts. They have got to be the most misleading of all storefronts. Every time I pass one (and I know what you are thinking here: how often do you pass neon sign stores? Well, I'll tell you this: WAY TOO OFTEN, like the one on Fillmore Street in San Francisco, just north of Haight--you know who you are--and this one I photographed above at Mile End here in London), I get ALL excited, all 'oooh, what's the name of that bar, I'm going to check out its zagat review!' and then I look at the name, and then I see THIS, and oh how my spirit deflates like so many balloons at the birthday party of Edward Scissorhands:
I fall for it every time. I really do. I am drawn to the lights like a moth to a flame, only to be told lights are the only thing for sale.
