The Weekly Thingdown: Candy bars, Oprah chairs, cassettes, etc.
11 Objects That Mattered This Week
2 min readMar 12, 2021
Thingdown is a weekly roundup of things — objects, products, stuff — that are lately in the news or otherwise of interest right now.
- The pathetic absurdity of the limited-edition HerSHEy’s bar. (My latest Object of the Week for Marker.)
- “5G Conspiracy Theories Are Fueling an Entire Economy of Scammy Gadgets.”
- Is “a dirtbag” an actual object? An investigation.
- People reports you can get chairs similar to the ones Oprah provided Harry and Meghan, at Wal-Mart. Now you know. (H/T Gloria Oh)
- The history of clear electronic devices in prisons.
- The fossil fuel industry convinced you to prefer gas stoves. (H/T Danielle Sacks)
- First covid-19 vaccine vial goes to Smithsonian. Meanwhile, there’s a global scramble for syringes.
- “Chinese entrepreneur sells pensive Donald Trump Buddha statues.”
- Jazz Popcorn Robot.
- The inventor of the cassette tape has died. Here’s a fun cassette roundup on Flashbak. Here’s something I wrote about DIY mixtape covers for Design Observer. And here’s a Consumed about the endurance of the cassette idea.
- & finally, here (via swissmiss) is the only good thing to happen involving a selfie stick:
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Leave your object-related tips in the comments — and have a nice weekend!