FAUX REAL THO

Behind Signage, City Code, Street Art, and the Banana House

At question this month in West Lafayette is the sudden presence of the “banana house” and whether or not it should be allowed to stay or if it must go. Many locals in local media turned out with lots of opinions about the banana house: some grumbled about graffiti and street art in highly visible…

On the Vintage Spiro Agnew Watch by Dirty Time Company

I ran across this hilarious Spiro Agnew watch this weekend. Spiro Agnew was Nixon’s extremely unpopular vice president, and the first VP to resign from office due to criminal charges. One of the many jokes targeting Agnew was: “Did you know that Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch?” I don’t get it either. During…

Best Movie Trailer of All Time: The Shining

We’ve been having a Stephen King revival at my house lately. My oldest child is an avid reader who recently discovered Stephen King’s short horror stories from the 1970s, and then devoured The Shining within a couple of days. His enthusiasm was contagious, so as we did for Harry Potter, the Hunger Games series, and…

Great Local Business: Virtuous Cycles

I’ve had the occasion to visit my local bike shop on several occasions this year, and have been blown away by the fine people at Virtuous Cycles. Their business model coordinates new and used bike retail business, cycling and cyclist rights advocacy, and does so with a very homey aesthetic that’s friendly for die-hard and…

The Quadricycle

I spotted these folks riding their quadricycle to the grocery store the other day in West Lafayette. It was quite a contraption — a four-wheeled, two-person bicycle hauling a long trailer behind it. It looks like you can get a four-wheeler for one person, too. I was grateful that they weren’t too irritated when I came…

Three Easy Steps to Good Customer Service on Social Media

The bad thing about social media is that as a business owner this is an opportunity to fall on your face, and an opportunity for the Internet (capital “I”) to laugh at you. However, it’s also an opportunity to show how classy and gracious to are to your clients and how eager you are to see they have a good experience.

Beginner’s Guide to Lafayette: Purdue University Campus

So you want to see Purdue campus? You want to be literate in the highlights of Purdue culture? This is a beginner’s guide to the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette, Indiana. You must see the following, red brick and all. View Beginner’s Guide to Purdue University Campus in a larger map See a Game…

How to Blog, For Real

I’ve been blogging for roughly twelve years, and writing online daily for longer than that. It’s both just a habit and vastly more than a habit. Sometimes it’s nearly compulsive. There are so many listicles online about what makes an effective blogger, and how to blog to succeed in business, but I think it can…

Bike Stuff and Ticket Sales

I’m pretty excited about this one. Today Think Lafayette started ticket sales. Our first event is sponsored by Bicycle Lafayette, a national dinner and movie screening tour that will take a stop in Lafayette this May called “Dinner and Bikes.” “Dinner and Bikes” (official site) is a national tour that shows communities around the U.S….

Free Vintage Clip Art!: 170 Vintage, Retro, Mid-Century Fair Use Images for Download

For many years, I designed all my personal sites with a 1950’s era, mid-century vibe. During this time I amassed a huge collection of free, fair-use, mid-century clip art. Behold, free vintage clip art for you to use on your own projects! The following may include space references, pro-cigarette ads, martinis, kitsch, weird babies and/or Ronald…

One of my favorites: Schoolhouse Auctions in teeny-tiny Yeoman, Indiana.

That Auction Life: When all your belongings are disposable, for sale, or have a price.

One of my many hobbies is moonlighting as a vintage jewelry dealer. I’ve been thrifting since I was a teenager, and started getting into auctions in a serious way a few years ago. About that time, I started to specialize in jewelry and sell jewelry online. Why jewelry? It’s the subject of another post. Just…

Does Baby Einstein Help or Harm Children?

Last time [writing at Feministe in 2007–ed] I wrote a long entry on some of the spurious advertising techniques made to push products on children under the age of five. Since then, a major study was released suggesting that many of the educational videos aimed at very young children not only have limited to no educational…