Lung preservers were recommended as a way of warding off dangerous chills, or worse. The beautiful pink specimen pictured above was found over at the spectacular graphic archive of Sheaff Ephemera. (A word of warning, their site is addictive.) The tomato-colored one is from the Science Museum of London’s website which chronicles the history of medicine. Times may have changed, but who says you can’t wear one of these anyway.

Just came back from Christoph Niemann’s archly funny talk, which was organized by Swiss Miss, for the fabulous monthly “breakfast” lecture series Creative Mornings. While I have paid attention to, and enjoyed Niemann’s work immensely over the years, I have never had the pleasure of hearing him speak. I now understand why the house was packed. The images above are from his forthcoming book entitled That’s How. It’s charming, offbeat and most definitely the product of a fertile mind and a gifted illustrator!

I don’t think there is any stranger picture of dog and ducks. That’s the late Eugene (a homely, but much beloved, muscovy duck) lurking in the background. For the sake of scale, it’s important to note that Pete the pug is still in his youth here. My friends Kevin and Kay are his guardians. This is their photo. And it has not been tinkered with in any way.

It was love at first sight. I knew the very moment I saw this little clip that we were destined to spend the rest of our lives together. What I didn’t know, was how much this three dollar piece of metal and spring would alter my life. Having to search for a pen is the perfect impediment to committing an idea to paper. So the notion that I would always always always be able to find my pen, and that it would be attached to my sketchbook (!!) at all times, was a true game-changer. I spent some time trying to track these down online, with not much success. They seem only to be available in the UK, without any option to ship to the US. How can this be?

Paul Hawken first wrote this book in 1994. I don’t think any of us need to be told that a lot has changed since then.  So, in 2010, he revised the original book to make it more timely. Not sure if what he was saying in the 90s had lost any of its potency, but the newly revised edition brings his philosophy and approach into the here and now. I cannot recommend this book enough if you are looking for answers to questions about sustainability and how we get there from here! Buy it. Read it.