Lockdown is proceeding along with the winter months of 2020 and bookshops will be open from tomorrow on! As relishing small joys is all 2020 has been about, let’s waste no time in diving into yet another Crate of Curios.

1. Gingerbread houses seem to be the place for major overhaul this year. I already touched upon charcuterie chalets in Crate no.9, but now it’s time to modernize the construction itself and move from the Middle Ages to Mid Century Modern gingerbread architecture.

2. An interesting table I came across, that shows the crossroads between tea-making and philosophy (well, ontology in particular) and examines how far the concept of tea can possibly stretch.

3. If you ever gave much thought to the ex-Soviet countries, I’m quite sure that mind-enhancing drugs were not a part of that mental image. However, Czechoslovakia was the leading manufacturer and exporter of LSD in the 1960’s. (Picture is of the rock group ‘Plastic People of the Universe’ – one of the most famous psychedelic Czech bands of the era.)

4. Although now we are very familiar with the concept of x-rays and their effects, it was not always so. Marie Curie, when working to extract radium wore ordinary lab clothing and often handled the materials with her bare hands. As a result, her notes and other belongings are still radioactive and will continue to be so for the next 1500 years.

5. Instead of poetry spamming, today I’ll add a literary tweet by Tom Waits.

And that was it for this time. Happy reading and until next week!

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