Finally the jackets are off in the daytime, compulsory sms-sending is off, everyone is off (well, at least until Monday). The prefecture borders were finally opened on Friday and Athenians who had been waiting for months to visit their summer homes left the city in droves. The ones who stayed spent it in cafes and queuing in shop lines – as although the sms and click-in-shop are gone, the limitations concerning the number of people pr establishment square meter are still in place. Now, however, having returned home in anticipation for yet another workweek, let’s get to opening this week’s Crate of Curios without further ado.

1. We all know that the internet belongs to cats. What you might not know, however, is that the success story of the felines started way earlier – namely with the Victorian illustrator Louis Wain whose at the same time fantastic and tragic life will be immortalized in a movie this very year. The incredibly prolific “Hogarth of Cat Life” spent the last 15 years of his life in a mental hospitals, after being a household name in Britain a few decades earlier.

2. Want to disappear off the grid? Welcome to the Earthship community. Apparently some of them even have Netflix.

3. The right to the pursuit of happiness is even written into the US constitution. However, which happiness do you want to pursue – the eudaimonic kind or the hedonistic kind?

4. Ever wondered what birds actually get up to in their nests? (I mean, who hasn’t?). Here’s your chance to peep into an owl’s nest. If owl’s don’t happen to be your cup of tea, there’ plenty of other wildlife livestreams to choose from.

5. Italian on the quest against pasta? That would be Filippo Marinetti, the spiritual father of the futurist movement, a supporter of Benito Mussolini and the author of “Futurist Cookbook” – one of the most eccentric cookbooks in existence. Against all common sense, the dishes have even been taste-tested.

6. And to finish off for this week – remember that you can always say no.

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

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