internet explorers club | small town America / Lynchian dress code

Ok first off, there is a Ned Flanders-themed metal band called Okilly Dokilly (!!!), and they dress up like Ned, and it’s fantastic.

Planning a trip? A few options for you, starting with the Twin Peaks-themed pop-up restaurant opening in London. It’s called The Owls Are Not What They Seem, and dress code is “small town America / Lynchian.” Next stop New York, where you can help me go in on Whiskey Island, which is a PROHIBITION ERA WHISKEY HIDEOUT FOR SALE. Finally, to Florida or California, where new Star Wars lands are being added to Disney parks.

While you’re in New York, Hamilton has opened, everyone is in love with it, I am dying to see it, and Lin-Manuel Mirada did an amazing interview which you should read.

From the Slate History vault: the love of post-Civil War-America had for bloodless battle lithographs. I had seen almost all of these, and never actually noticed that there wasn’t any blood. Fascinating.

the Mundane Grimoire Guide to Tasseomancy by Julia Gfrörer

Following up on language changes in our Internet Age, check out the History of Autocorrect, and a discussion of the trend of asking questions that end “y/y?” (if you have received a text from me ever you will be familiar with this)

I asked on Twitter for a word that means horrifying / dismaying, but also compelling, and I have yet to find one. It started from that article on Vine stars a few weeks back, which was so well-written, but I was also un peu horrified with the subject. So here are a few more (some a bit more edge case), while I wait for the term:

• The Ghosts of Pickering Trail is about selling real estate that’s had a major (usually terrible) event attached to it.
• ProPublica wrote this piece about the Red Cross’s work (or lack thereof) in Haiti, and it is a DOOZY.
• Kill Screen Daily has written an article about the long saga of Pictures for Sad Children. PFSC was a wonderful (and profoundly sad) webcomic, and it all devolved when the creator made a (successful) Kickstarter, but eventually didn't send out promised books, but burned them instead, one per each email received. This article gets into what happened when fans started building an archive of the comic on their own.

I got way deep in some wikipedia wormholes about flavoring after reading this article about fake flavoring—which asks the question why banana flavor doesn’t actually taste like banana. Bread that looks like watermelon has been invented in Taiwan, but it definitely still tastes like bread (it just looks AMAZING)

Etcetera: A new pentagon type has been found! Japan gets a new stationmaster cat! There is a Wes Anderson-themed art show in NYC. I desperately want this geological layers bedding set.

—Emily Like what you've read? Forward it along!
Did someone forward this to you? Subscribe!