It's not a Casio, that's for sure (Photo by Don Pezzano) What do you get when you combine Victorian corsets, aviation goggles, and rocket ships? Why the glorious world of steampunk, of course! This week we celebrated International Steampunk Day, and although June 14th has (like the Victorian Era) sadly come and gone, there are still plenty of ways to embrace your inner 19th century Western space explorer. Steampunk is as much a fashion statement as it is a quirky sub-genre of science fiction. Although the genre is itself inspired by such Victorian science fiction writers as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, steampunk is a relatively new artistic movement. Coined in the 1980's, the term is generally attributed to writer K.W. Jeter, who used it to describe a new type of science fiction novel that combined futuristic technologies with 19th century fashion and old-fashioned steam power. Today, some of the most well-known examples of steampunk fiction include such films as "Van Helsing" and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and Joss Whedon's television series "Firefly" and its companion piece "Serenity" -- although some fans argue that the last two more closely resemble space opera than true steampunk. Beyond the silver screen, many steampunk fans have adopted elements from the genre and turned them into a lifestyle. Fans spend hours creating intricately-designed costumes, retrofitting modern machinery, and crafting sculptures that look like they belong on the inside of a pocket watch. However, unlike other fantasy genres, steampunk culture often requires a large investment of time (and money) to recreate its unique look. Since the genre heavily revolves around 19th century machinery, aficionados find that simulating the mechanical look of spinning cogs and brass gears takes long hours and a keen eye. When you're finally done creating your souped-up Victorian look, you'll want to show all that hard work off, of course. There are several steampunk conventions in the United States, each paying homage to neo-Victorianism, bastardized industrial fashion and other mechanical marvels. So strap on your goggles, hop into your Utopian flying machine, and set sail for uncharted territory. It's going to be a stylish ride. Suggested Sites... Steampunk Magazine - all about steampunk events, fiction, music, and other topics. What Kind of Steampunk Style Do You Have? - take this style quiz and find out which look suits you. Steampunk Empire - photos, forums, events, and links all about culture. Steampunk Workshop - fashion, projects, music, and more. Aether Emporium - links to all things steampunk.

Directory categories: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Sci-Fi Authors, Victorian Era, Conventions

Archived under: 19th Century, Authors, Books, Creativity, Cultures, Events, Fanatics, Fiction, Homemade, Nostalgia, Science Fiction, Society and Culture, Technology, Vintage

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I'll take mine a la mode with a slice of cheddar, please (Photo by Uhuru1701) Saturday, January 23 is National Pie Day. (Don't feel embarrassed if you never knew such a holiday existed -- you're not alone.) Despite how much Americans love pies, it's a holiday you don't have to be as "American as apple pie" to appreciate... though it was designed by the American Pie Council to promote the simple pleasures of making and eating pies. Even as you're reading this, just think of how many millions of pies are being baked, sold, and eaten across the country. Approximately 186 million pies are sold in grocery stores annually in America, a number which excludes those baked and served at cafes, restaurants, and other venues. The origins of pie can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. The early pies or "galettes" were typically made from a mixture of grains -- oats, wheat, rye, and barley -- and honey, baked over hot coals. Our national love affair with pie started not long after the first English settlers set foot on American soil. In those days, pies were predominantly meat dishes and were baked in "coffyn," an inedible hard pastry shell that was used to hold the filling. Over the years, pies have been embraced as a vital part of American culture and have evolved into the delectable pastry treats we savor today. Despite endless pie varieties from which to choose, apple remains America's all-time favorite (followed closely by pumpkin), according to the Schwan's 2008 "Pie Slice of Life" Survey. Unlike making a pie, there's no recipe for how to celebrate National Pie Day. You can learn how to bake a pie from your mother, throw a pie party in your backyard, or challenge your friends to a pie-eating contest. If you can't warm up to the idea of baking pies yourself, simply pick one up at your favorite bakery. And if you're simply unable to bake a pie yourself -- well, there's no shame in not knowing how: whoever said making a pie was as "easy as pie" probably never actually tried to make one. Whether you're enjoying a slice, sharing a whole pie with others, or exchanging your grandma's secret pie recipe with a dear friend, you're already doing your part to celebrate and pass on this sweet American tradition to following generations. After all, pie, like happiness, is best shared. Suggested Sites... American Pie Council - the place for pie lovers to share recipes, get the latest on the pie industry, get discount coupons, and more. What's Cooking America - offers detailed history of pie as well as other food-related information. Baking 911 - pie-making 101 for dummies with step-by-step instructions, useful baking terminology, and tips. BBC: The Science of Pie - baking is an art, but it's also a science. Unusual Pie Recipes - in case apple is just too ordinary....

Directory categories: Pie Recipes, Desserts and Sweets, Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Holday Recipes

Archived under: Apples, Baking, Celebrations, Cooking, Desserts, Eating, Events, Food and Drink, Fruit, Holidays, Homemade, Pies, Pumpkins, Recipes

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Well, at least it goes with the painting (Photo by Cathy, Sam, Max and Mai) Thursday was National Regifting Day, celebrating and encouraging recycling and reuse of old, unwanted, unloved, or otherwise extraneous gifts and presents. The occasion got us to wondering how common the practice is, anyway. Here in the Yahoo! Search Editorial department, we have an annual white elephant gift exchange, but those "presents" are usually (and intentionally) pretty lousy and we couldn't imagine our colleagues inflicting them on anyone they actually liked. Regardless, and (mostly) prepared for the answers, we asked our fellow Yahoo!s to tell us about the best and worst gifts they ever received. Dave: The best gift I ever got? Not even close. It's a plastic swing in the shape of a Heinz pickle. Bright green, about 18 inches long and six inches in diameter, it has "Heinz" stamped right into both sides of it, and chains on either end to hook it up to the playground set. The only drawback with it is, the plastic is so old and fragile that if anyone ever tried to use it for its intended purpose -- that is, to swing -- it'd probably shatter into a million pieces. So it remains strictly a display piece. Probably the worst gift I ever got was a "Cuban" cigar. I'm not really a cigar smoker (maybe one a year -- if that), but I was in Russia and thought, "Well, if I'm ever going to smoke a genuine Cuban cigar, this is the place to get it." An acquaintance got me one, and even as I lit it up, I knew something was wrong. Rather than a divine combination of fine Caribbean tobaccos, this one smelled -- and tasted -- like a combination of unwashed socks and damp cabbage. I fought my way through about half of it before throwing in the towel. Eugenia: The best gift I have ever received from my parents was a Big Mouth Billy Bass. Initially, I thought it was the worst gift ever, so I gave it away in a yard sale the following year. I wish I had kept it because now I know that it would have made me the most popular person at the Annual Yahoo! Search Editorial White Elephant Party. Ricky: My best gift was a Nintendo system with the red Zapper, Power Pad, and two (not one, but two!) controllers. Worst one I ever gave -- a "naked guys with balls magnet set." Suzi: I'm split on the best and worst I've ever received or gifted. But I'm entirely smitten with one white elephant I never managed to get: Octodog's Frankfurter Converter! Of course, I spend time every year perfecting my "Present Face" for those times when it comes in handy. Mitzi: Okay, the worst gift would have to be the year my sister and I desperately wanted Barbie dolls and got something called a Debbie Dunbar doll instead -- purchased from the Fuller Brush man (if you can remember that far back). I remember being perplexed and disappointed (never having heard of the doll) and trying my best to act happy. Best gift goes to the Creepy Crawler set (the old-school one that came with metal plates that you learned to never touch when they were heated). It was my "Santa pick" and I didn't think I had any chance of getting one. But I had a great time cooking up spiders and centipedes to put around the house -- and on my sister's bed. Sebastian: My first year of teaching, a freshman who was Italian (like me) was determined to make me a scarf. I insisted that she not do that, since I felt there were certain boundary issues. But in Italian culture -- and just about every other one -- teachers are considered to be almost a family member. After all, teachers do take care of one's children six to eight hours a day, and give them the tools to be adults. She demanded, in a very Italian fashion, to know what color I wanted, so I gave in. I chose burgundy, the unofficial color of my Venetian ancestors. I wear it to this day. There is nothing like the class of your first year of teaching; it's much like your first love, or your first year away from home. I'm glad I have a memento, and glad there's Facebook, so I can keep in touch with the Rascals from '06. Suggested Sites... National Regifting Day - guide to regifting and office parties. Five Ways to Fake Delight Over a Crummy Gift - just because you never know. How to Organize a White Elephant Gift Exchange - why keep all the crap you don't want when you can unload it on someone else? You Received a Lousy Gift, Now What? - it's gonna happen; you know it is. How to Receive a Lousy Gift Graciously - step 1: smile and say "thank you." It won't kill you.

Directory categories: National Regifting Day, Pickles, Cigars, Hot Dogs, Knitting and Crocheting

Archived under: Christmas, Crafts, Games, Hanukkah, Holidays, Homemade, Hot Dogs, Italy, Knitting, Nintendo, Shopping, Video Games

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Failed craft (Photo by Chauncey P. Graham) Anyone who makes crafts -- whether they're professional iPod cozy designers or amateur macrame owl enthusiasts -- knows that crafting takes trial and error. Crocheting homicidal vegetables or felting Jabba the Hutt miniatures takes skill and practice, and before you get that knitted digestive system to look just right, you're probably going to make some mistakes. But be warned: the Internet is not kind to ugly, misguided, or ineptly executed crafts. If you've got a thin skin when it comes to your homemade chicken poncho, perhaps it's best if you don't list it on etsy until you're sure you've got it right. Because crafters, while creative and wily and determined, can also be -- well, snarky. In the defense of sites like Regretsy and Homemade Hilarity, which poke fun at the bizarre, confused, and unintentionally hilarious crafts of the Internet, there are some terrible crafts out there (we know -- we've made some of them), and it's hard to resist making comments at their expense. Do we feel bad about it? Sure. Will that stop us from giggling madly at the crocheted beer can Darth Vader helmet or the toilet paper cover and/or hat? Not a chance. But it will stop us from posting our own, um, "awesome poop earrings" -- unless we decide to embrace our failures and share them for the education -- and hysterical, mocking laughter -- of others. Suggested Sites... Homemade Hilarity - giving misguided crafts the fond, snarky commentary they deserve. Regretsy - showcases the handmade gems that were never meant to see the light of day. CraftFail - crafters fess up to their own terrible works by sharing their crafts gone awry. Craftastrophe - proceed with caution.... Cake Wrecks - still makes us laugh after all these years.

Directory categories: Bad Crafts, Crafts, Crafts for Sale, Folk, Self-Taught, and Outsider Art, Bad Art

Archived under: Arts, Blogs, Cake Decorating, Crafts, DIY, Flops, Homemade, Humor

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(Photo by toonbobo) When I was a kid, we were the family that put up a homemade Halloween display every year, each more elaborate than the last. My dad built dummies out of junkyard scraps and old clothes, and animated them with small motors, pulleys, and fishing line. My mom and I designed tombstones bearing terrible puns and my friends' names in cheesy rhyming epitaphs. For most of October, our house was lit by garish green floodlights, and we dramatically increased traffic on our little dead-end road. We even made it into the local paper. I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled. The more charitable ones probably called us The Addams Family; the less charitable -- well, I'm sure they had a nice party when we moved away. If only we'd had the Internet for advice and inspiration we could have really annoyed the neighborhood! Thanks to some thriving online communities of Halloween fanatics, home haunters can now put together props and decorations that rival the ones at professional haunted houses. They can pick up theatrical special effects tricks, get advice on getting the audience to suspend their disbelief, and get instructions for their very own flying ghosts, bottomless pits, and even ghoulish Santas. Best of all, a haunter doesn't need to spend, er, an arm and a leg, getting fancy decorations from the local party shop or Halloween store. The best props are homemade, because they're unexpected. After all, neighborhood trick-or-treaters have probably seen the motion-activated screaming skull in someone else's yard, but they won't be ready for a DIY rotten, lurching scarecrow! Our homemade haunt was far from professional. By day the paper mache heads, curtain ghosts, and wooden tombstones wouldn't fool anyone, but by the light of the moon, they were surprisingly effective (especially when we sat among the dummies wearing masks and suddenly jumped up to greet guests). I always knew the display was good if I got up during the night, glanced out the window, and felt a jolt of panic at the crowd of hunched, misshapen figures gathered on the front lawn. Waiting for the adrenaline to wear off before going back to sleep was a happy Halloween tradition -- for my family, if not for the neighbors. Suggested Sites... Halloween Forum - a community of Halloween freaks who are full of ideas and advice on everything from home haunt props to party themes to costume ideas. Phantasmechanics - step-by-step instructions for mechanical props that will scare the pants off your neighbors. Halloween Front Yard Displays - find inspiration from these horrific haunts. Haunters Hangout - be sure to check out the props section of this Halloween community. Monsterlist of Halloween Projects - lots of DIY Halloween links.

Directory categories: Halloween Displays, Haunted Houses, Halloween, Halloween Activities and Crafts, Stagecraft

Archived under: Crafts, DIY, Decorating, Halloween, Holidays, Home and Garden, Homemade

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