Welcome to this week's selection of Picks, where we've been waxing nostalgic over all the silly googaws and gimcracks that we lusted after as kids: the fully functional robot butler, the hovercar, the neon orange zoot suit. Childhood longings die hard, a fact that we were vividly reminded of when we came across the Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Facility, which was recently put up for sale. As disbelief turned to curiosity and then to excitement, the cries soon went up: "Can we get it? Can we? Huh? Huh? Pleeeeeeeeeeease!"
Lucky for us, cooler heads prevailed and we won't be taking ownership of the decommissioned nuclear plant anytime soon. That's probably a good thing, since the combination of highly toxic nuclear waste and our notorious "devil-may-care" atttitude is definitely not a match made in heaven. We wouldn't want to end up on the Environmental Defense Fund's Chemical Scorecard, which allows citizens to locate and learn about facilities that pollute their local areas. The site also provides links that allow you to email the EPA, network with environmental groups, or learn how to prevent pollution in the first place. Our anti-pollution tip: Hovercars. Now, if only we could get our hands on one...
Back in the day, another of our adolescent fantasies was to dress just like the Beatles. Unfortunately, Sears didn't stock Nehru jackets in junior sizes. Of course, now we wear whatever we like. It helps to have a good sense of history before putting together a new ensemble. We use 1966 as our guidebook. The site presents a full run-down of the "Mod" look, from hair and makeup to the models and designers that defined the era. We hungrily devour the scrapbook photos of wacked-out sixties get-ups, and eagerly explore the movies and books that 1966 recommends. It's shag-a-licious, baby!
As wide-eyed whippersnappers we often dreamt of packing our Wookiee action figures into a bandana at the end of a stick and taking off for Europe. Yes, sir. We would storm castles and eat PBJs and wave hello to all the friendly Europeans like the ones depicted in The Portuguese Pedestrian, a fascinating collection of old-fashioned European roadsigns. Ah, the glory years when the roadsign silhouettes of pedestrians, schoolchildren, and workers resembled actual human beings. Men smoked pipes. Women wore hats. Children played with balls. What are we left with today? Generic standardized dummies that look more like airport floor plans than people. It just ain't the same.
Of course that doesn't get us down, since now we can make our own roadsigns on the Web, without lifting a finger. SignMaker, a groovy little Java applet from kurumi.com, lets you create authentic US freeway signs with just a few mouse clicks. Simply type in a destination and a few obligatory preferences and Signmaker will clearly demarcate your own little exit off the information superhighway. The program uses a convincing freeway font, provides bona fide state markers, and mounts each virtual sign on metal struts against an azure background. Next exit: fun!
Another passion we harbored as rascally anklebiters was watching guys in green rubber suits thrash the heck out of matchbox cars and cardboard skyscrapers. If you're like us, and prefer old-school Godzilla to new-fangled Hollywood makeovers, stomp on over to Kaiju Conversations. The site features interviews with the professionals who created Tokyo-trashing flicks like Terror of Mechagodzilla, Ghidrah the Three-Headed Monster, and the immortal classic Transparent Man Against Flame Man. Screenwriter Wataru Mimura on early drafts of Majin Counterattack: "I originally envisioned the battle god of outer space as a mass of luminescent particles instead of a huge metallic samurai." Amen to that.
Don't misundertand us, we weren't deprived during our childhoods. We had the usual assortment of treasured playthings: random bottlecaps in a cigarbox, gravel from six different states, and 23,000 used beer coasters. In fact, we still have the coasters, and after our weekly sessions of inspecting and alphabetizing, we usually head on over to beercoasters.com. The site has everything a cardboard connoisseur could possibly want, including a trading forum, a marketplace, an image archive, and a brief beer history lesson. We reckon the only thing missing is a big bag of peanuts, but you can't have it all. Or can you? And if so, how?
Maybe "having it all" is too much to ask. As kids, we would've been satisfied with a tree-house and a spy camera. Kind of like those two Northern Barred Owls nesting in Eastern Massachusetts -- the ones from OwlCam. Catch a glimpse of the photogenic fowl as they raise their family, preen the occasional feather, and calmly devour field mice and other small rodents. As the site's title suggests, there's a camera trained on the birds as they live life and make good on the old parental instincts. Stop by for image updates and a running commentary of their 1998 nesting season. It's owl in a day's work. (Insert parenthetical self-rebuke here.)
Well, it been fun reminiscing about the loot we never got. Now we're heading over to The Edge Company to pick up a couple of laser pointers, remote-controlled boats, night-vision goggles, and things shaped like Darth Vader's head, just for old time's sake. The best thing about their online catalog is deciding between the hover shoes or the certified lock of Elvis's hair. You know which one we want. As for you, you'll just have to take your pick(s).