I know this is a long post, but it wouldn’t be as fun if it were just a few images. Incidentally, these are not my photos, they are the work of Leandro Lattes, an industrial designer and one of the founders of El Vivero, a design studio based in Madrid. He has authored two books that beautifully document many of the less homogeneous design details of Madrid — things that are heading towards obsolescence from the urban landscape such as bar stools, door knobs, signage, facades, store displays, and on and on. The on and on part is what I love!! These intercoms are some of my favorites. Please note that these pictures are but a small percentage of the total for this particular category. Do yourselves a favor and check out the rest of the books. Do it here.

I attribute these few words to Eric Asimov, a food and wine writer for the the NYT. He was referring to choosing a wine to pair with food (specifically oysters), not ruminating on the creative process. Although I suppose picking a wine to be compatible with a certain aliment could fall into that category. Anyway, I wrote it down and have been trying to remember it ever since. This is not to say that I don’t strive for exactitude, but I try to be mindful of it not becoming an end in itself. Or an obstacle to everything.

I know, some of these items are decidedly creepy. But if you don’t think about their use, they are quite striking. As a small bit of trivia, Elvis used one of the small glass ones (shaped sort of like a duck) before every concert.

Before you bake that cake, do you need to know if that egg you have falls into the jumbo, large or medium category? Well, plunk it down on the Acme Egg Scale and rest easy. I wish I could convey the coolness of the weighing mechanism. This is my friend Dave’s scale. He has chickens, so probably uses this instead of just admiring it. If you too have chickens and need a scale, these are available on ebay.

These three beauties are nasal irrigation devices. I’ll let your imagination do the rest. And, for goodness knows why, I happen to have quite a few of these.