I am Jim Henson / The Playful Eye

Books That Belong On Paper Issue No. 16

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

A CHILDREN’S BOOK ABOUT THE LIFE OF JIM HENSON

I am Jim Henson (Ordinary People Change the World)
by Brad Meltzer, Christopher Eliopoulos (Illustrator)
Dial Books
2017, 40 pages, 7.8 x 0.4 x 7.8 inches, Hardcover

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If you grew up at a certain time there were people that were icons. Way past the rank of celebrity, bigger than characters, they were men and women whose beings and creations were intertwined into the very fabric of the things we loved to watch, read, and do. And if you were anything like me, one of those people was Jim Henson. From Sesame Street to the Muppets to (especially for me) Labyrinth, his creations and those that he curated and inspired weaved themselves deeply into the pop culture interests of kids all over the world. They were like the air, they just existed around us and we felt like it was part of the natural order of things.

But in the end Jim Henson was just a person, just an ordinary human who started life simply and lived his life from there. Along the way, however, he changed the world with a piece of cloth he took from his mother’s coat and a ping pong ball.

Creating Kermit the Frog is just one of the stories that you’ll find in I Am Jim Henson, a great entry in the ongoing series “Ordinary People Change the World” by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos (this is one of their more recent releases but the series covers important and fascinating figures like Rosa Parks, Jane Goodall, and George Washington among many others). If you’re familiar with Eliopoulos’ work then you know that you’re in for a visual treat and you won’t be let down. I’ve found his Bill Watterson-inspired art a treat for years now and this series is the perfect showcase for it. It’s cute, it’s funny, and both kids and adults will love it.

I’ve honestly read very little Meltzer as I’m not a big fan of thriller novels or the comic book work of his that I’ve dipped my toes into, but his approach here is fascinating and really resonates with the reader. Meltzer uses Henson as his narrator, even going so far as to use many actual quotes by Henson as dialogue, and as a narrator he’s not telling the reader about his life, he’s telling the reader a story about his life. The distinction is important as the book becomes a testament to storytelling, enriching perhaps the greatest accomplishment that Henson and his co-creators (many of whom are characters in the book) ever made: Using impersonal and inanimate objects to create lively stories that could make a viewer laugh, cry, or think without spending a single moment thinking about the fact that a piece of cloth and a pair of hands was making it happen. Meltzer pulls the same trick in this book, turning an autobiographical book into a parable about the power of storytelling. Not a bad bit of slight-of-hand for something intended to be read by (or to) rugrats.

The book also hones in on the concept of “goodness” that was a hallmark of Henson & Co.’s work and Meltzer builds up to it carefully throughout the story, making the impact ring soundly. Henson believed that this goodness was the key ingredient to his work and that comedy didn’t have to be mean to be funny and you don’t have to be funny by being mean. His approach was validated by the immense popularity of the work he was a part of and while it’s not, of course, the only approach, it put Sesame Street and the Muppets in the heart of millions and millions of people.

And that’s a story worth telling.

– Rob Trevino

THE PLAYFUL EYE IS A VIRTUAL FEAST OF GAMES AND VISUAL TRICKS GATHERED FROM AROUND THE WORLD

The Playful Eye: An Album of Visual Delight
by Julian Rothenstein, Mel Gooding
Chronicle Books
2000, 112 pages, 9.9 x 0.5 x 12.7 inches, Paperback

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These vintage cards and old placards display optical illusions, visual witticisms, hidden images, rebuses, and artistic paradoxes from yesteryear. They were the equivalent of Gifs back then — eye candy worth sharing. Here they are gathered in a oversized paperback for your entertainment and amazement.

– Kevin Kelly

Eyewear

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 88

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Photochromic safety, sun specs

Mag-Safe Safety Glasses

These photochromic safety glasses have an ANSI Z87.1+ rating, which means they’re shatter-proof even when struck by a 1/4-inch steel ball at 150 feet/second. The lenses are polycarbonate, so a significant scrape against sand, ground, etc. would probably scratch them. In the six months I’ve been using them, I’ve dropped them lightly a couple times and they’re still pretty much like-new.

The benefit of these photochromic safety glasses is not only their low relatively-low cost and snug fit, but also their versatility. The lenses run almost perfectly clear to a nice, dark tint in the sun, with nearly 100 percent UVA/B protection. When they are dark they keep off glare when I’m driving. They also protect me from wind when I’m biking — day or night — and shield my eyes when I go to the machine shop to work on projects.

Over the summer, I worked in a machine shop lathing, sawing, drilling, tapping metal and wood twice a week for 3-4 hours and a couple weekends straight through until Burning Man. Unlike the cheap, standard shop glasses which I’d constantly put on and remove and occasionally forget to put back on, these are so comfortable I rarely take them off. It’s important to note they do not seal all the way around your face the way some safety goggles do — i.e. the ones with flexible rubber sides that press up against the skin. On the one hand, that’s why these are much more comfortable, but then again, that makes these potentially unsuitable for tasks where full coverage is recommended. For my usage, though, which is primarily partial-coverage tasks, they’re great. Definitely one of the most functional things I own, and considering they’re safety glasses, they look pretty good. — Eric Nguyen

Best cheap eyeglasses

Zenni Optical

For the past 5 years I had been using Zenni to purchase inexpensive prescription eyeglasses online. Zenni offers decent glasses for super cheap, is quick to deliver, has a better selection than other online services, and their website is much easier to use and order from. Reordering from the same prescription is a no-brainer, too.

Over the past 5 years I’ve ordered about 10 pairs of glasses from Zenni for different family members and myself, in all different strengths and styles, including sunglasses. The frame quality is okay (great for the price) and the optical quality is A+. My wife has extreme corrections, and I have a very odd combination of factors, while my daughter’s prescription is mild. I’ve ordered single, bifocals and progressives – and the results have all been good. A simple correction and simple frame can cost as little as $10, but our typical glasses will cost about $35. Still a fantastic bargain. Even if you are style conscious, these are great for backup pairs.

One detail you have to pay attention when selecting a frame online is the width of the frame, which varies between models. Pay attention to the size indicator. I once ordered a pair too narrow. Delivery takes only about 2 weeks to my home in California. — KK

Break-away eyewear

CliC Readers

For anyone requiring reading glasses intermittently, these specs are heaven sent! The frame breaks in the front and clicks together once resting on your nose by way of two magnets. When not in use, they stay out of the way — the glasses have a hard frame ‘loop’ that slips around your neck. As soon as you need them, you reach down and pull them up into place. I’ve tried lanyards — they get caught on your seat belt strap and tangeled around your collar. I’ve tried my pocket — they fall out. Nothing seemed to work, so I ended up buying eight or ten pair of cheap glasses and leaving them all over: habitat, car, at work, etc. CliCs are a wonderful way to avoid all that clutter. — Dennis Brittain

Safety bifocals

Bifocal Safety Glasses

I happened upon these while on vacation in a hardware store (yes, I go to hardware stores while on vacation). These safety glasses ($12) provide great eye protection and the bifocal lens allows me to perform close-up tasks without resorting to pulling them off for my reading glasses. Essentially a perfect solution for those who work in a shop with ‘older’ active eyes. — Mark Ramirez

Magnifying safety glasses

Pyramex Onix Plus Reader

The outer lens of these safety glasses flips down for welding, and when you’re done, you simply flip them up. Nothing special. However, I’ve been wearing the recommended Mag-Safe safety glasses for years, and the Onix Plus is the only flip-up pair I’ve found that also has a reader’s bifocal lens. The inside lens is available in two magnifying strengths (+1.5, +2.5), and outer lens in two different IR shades (3.0, 5.0). Makes it much easier for me to see while welding. Preferable to spending an arm and a leg for prescription safety glasses. Quicker than switching between protective eyewear and reading specs. — Byron Hill

Keychain pince-nez

Pocket Eyes Reading Glasses

I’ve stashed cheap reading glasses everywhere else in the house. But inevitably, when traveling around the planet, I have struggles with menus and bank documents and so on. A convenient pair of portable readers can be a blessing.

I started with one of those slim fresnel lenses, shaped like a credit card, in my wallet. They’re fine for emergencies but useless for comfortable or extended reading. An ideal solution would be a small pince-nez. But the cheapo versions – with a plastic nose-bridge – soon break, or they pinch and hurt.

What you want is for the bridge to be made of flexible metal, squeezing the two lenses against your nose with just the right pressure. They can slip off, if you’re sweaty, and there are (ahem) some places you do not want to let them drop-off. But the good ones can squeeze together so the lenses overlap and they fit into a tiny pocket pouch. It’s surprising how comfortable they can be, feeling so natural you forget they are there.

Alas, my first trio of pocket pince-nez all broke in the same place; where the metal bridge was riveted into the glass. I searched all over and finally found better ones from Pocketeyes. These have an improved, adjustable metal-to-glass attachment, a corrugated spot on each lens to help grip the nose, and a split pouch that lets you keep the lenses from rubbing against each other in your pocket. The keychain grommet is another plus.

They also have a fun factor. People do double-takes and even strike up conversations asking about them. They won’t help with driving or distance. But if all you need is readers to help while traveling around, this may be your answer. — David Brin

Second Brain/Attention/Find Your Books

Recomendo - issue #411

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Mathematica creator Stephen Wolfram discusses AI

Don’t miss this Reason Podcast interview with computer scientist Stephen Wolfram on the future of artificial intelligence. Wolfram, the creator of Mathematica and Wolfram Alpha, offers insights on the capabilities and limitations of current AI systems like ChatGPT. He discusses the prospects for AI solving fundamental scientific problems, concerns about AI outputs reverting to the mean and dampening originality and innovation, and the choice between allowing powerful AI systems to operate in unpredictable ways versus constraining them to only do predictable things, limiting their capabilities. – MF

Build a soulful, second brain 

Sublime is a personal knowledge management tool crafted with soul. I’ve been allowing myself to digitally hoard all the beautiful words and insightful advice I come across online. Everything you save in Sublime becomes a card, and these cards can be organized into collections. There’s also a communal aspect to Sublime; you can follow other users and search public collections for cards to add to your library. I love that it encourages connections, synchronicities, and learning. I imported all of my Readwise book highlights and have been using Sublime as a literary Pinterest. The app is still in beta, and there is a waitlist, but Recomendo readers can skip the line and test it out for free. If you do sign up, here’s my profile — follow me and I’ll follow you back! — CD

Battle for attention

In an age of abundance, attention is our only scarce resource. Yet we know so little about it. This wonderful article in The New Yorker, “The Battle for Attention,” gives attention its own attention. I love the part about a secret movement that has evolved a 3-part method for paying attention collectively, which entails examination without judgment. – KK

Scribd for free

Scribd is a document hosting service that charges $12 a month to download the files it hosts. Since it makes money offering books I’ve written without paying me royalties, I have no compunction recommending this website that lets you download files that Scribd hosts for free. Note that I am not suggesting you download copyrighted material. I use it to download public domain documents, such as court records. – MF

Instantly catalog your personal library 

I have bookshelves in my living room, office, bedroom, and basement. Thanks to a Reddit Life Pro Tip, I can now find any book in my house with ease. All you need to do is take photos of all your bookshelves and give your phone a few minutes to process and index the text from the spines of the books. Once the little OCR icon appears in the corner of your photos, you can search for a title in your photo app at any time. It will show you exactly where the book is located on your shelf by highlighting the text found in the photos. This method worked on my iPhone, and I’m hoping it works on Android too, because it’s so useful. — CD 

Popup Japan

Craig Mod is a writer, designer, photographer, friend, and world-class walker who lives in Japan. He is currently walking from Kyoto to Tokyo (for the third time!) along a traditional route at the crazy pace of 30-40 km per day for 18 days. At the end of each looooong day, Craig is writing up the most lyrical and lovely observances of modern Japan along the way. His daily letters are insightful, honest, dark, luminous, sweet and prolific. When the walk is done at Tokyo, the daily newsletter stops and all emails are deleted. He’s one-third done, but you can sign up for his “popup newsletter” called The Return to Pachinko Road here. – KK

Argentina Cash/Weak Currencies/Cameras in Airbnbs

Nomadico issue #105

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

A Smaller Currency Spread in Argentina

Back when Nomadico was getting started two years ago, I noted from a recent trip that Argentina’s market “blue rate” for cash on the street was 204 to $1 and the official rate was just a tad more than half that. Now your premium for bringing hard currency cash is not so large. The blue rate is around 1,070 and the bank rate (which now floats freely) is a realistic 882. You won’t get penalized so much for using a credit card.

Countries With Weak Currencies in 2024

Speaking of currency fluctuations, where are the great bargains this summer if you’re traveling with dollars or euros? At the high end on the expense scale, Japan and Sweden are looking more attractive than usual. The countries that were already a deal and have gotten even cheaper include Egypt, South Africa, Turkey, Malaysia, and Laos. See the full rundown here.

No More Indoor Cameras at Airbnbs

I don’t think this was a widespread problem, but Airbnb removed any doubt by prohibiting any indoor security cameras in listed units as of April 30, regardless of their location, purpose, or prior disclosure. A host who violates the new policy could face consequences including listing or account removal on the platform.

Check for Foreign Transaction Fees

Wallethub put out survey results recently with some surprising results. Apparently 82% of Americans don’t know that using a credit card gets them the best exchange rate when traveling abroad and nearly 1 in 3 didn’t know whether their card charges a foreign transaction fee or not. Before you head abroad, check on this for every card because 63% charge one and it’s not always obvious. I’ve gotten burned not realizing an airline or hotel card levied a foreign transaction fee—which seems ridiculous for international companies—so now I never use those outside the USA. See the results here.

What’s in my NOW? — Isaac Stephenson

issue #180

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WFH public health professional, passionate Detroit Tigers Fan. — Isaac Stephenson

PHYSICAL

• 8 X 11 Whiteboard — My note taking apparatus. Erase when done to save paper.
• Win Schuler’s Cheese — Great tasting snack. Eat it with sausage or pretzels. Low fiber key for my diet.
• Bottle Bottle — Great bottle with straw option. Also has storage for snacks or pills on the bottom.

DIGITAL

• MeteoBlue — Weather app that not only gives your current weather and forecast but shows predictions of various weather models.
• Ten Percent Happier — Keystone to my meditation practice. Access to great teachers. Listen to the podcast as free .

INVISIBLE

“Optimism is true moral courage.” — Ernest Shackleton

One of the great leaders and adventurers. Has kept me moving forward positively for years.

What’s in your NOW?

We want to know what’s in your now — a list of 6 things that are significant to you now — 3 physical, 2 digital and 1 invisible. 

If you’re interested in contributing an issue, use this form to submit: https://forms.gle/Pf9BMuombeg1gCid9

If we run your submission in our newsletter and blog, we’ll paypal you $25.

Frontiers of Space / Garbage Night

Books That Belong On Paper Issue No. 15

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

PROFESSOR ASTRO CAT TAKES YOUR CHILDREN ON A JOURNEY TO THE VERY FRONTIERS OF SPACE

Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space
by Dominic Walliman, Ben Newman (Illustrator)
Flying Eye Books
2013, 64 pages, 11.5 x 0.6 x 11.5 inches, Hardcover

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Cats are innately curious creatures, innate scientists and explorers constantly exploring their environments. Perhaps that’s in part what prompted physicist and YouTube personality Dominic Walliman and illustrator Ben Newman to decide on a feline protagonist for their book, Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space. Newman formerly worked at a bookshop and wasn’t impressed with the children’s non-fiction section, so he asked Walliman to write a children’s book on space for him. “My inspiration was all of the books that I used to read as a kid,” says Walliman. “I used to love getting lost in books about space and nature and dinosaurs, and I wanted to have characters to make the books more Ben came up with Professor Astro Cat and it all fell into place.”

Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space charms the reader immediately. Newman’s clean, modernist illustrations have a strong retro-futuristic bent that suggest the golden age of science fiction pulp magazines ,while Walliman provides lucid prose to help Professor Astro Cat explain topics such as the birth of stars, the speed of light, the solar system and the history of space exploration. A rapt audience of dapper birds, cats, insects and bears are enraptured by all of the professor’s lectures, acting as stand-ins for the readers who share their curiosity.

The book is a delight of design in its own right. It’s an expansive hardcover volume with vibrant pages and even a bookplate on the inner cover that makes it strongly reminiscent of the classic children’s books which Walliman remembers so fondly. Children will want to make many return voyages with Professor Astro Cat, but so will the generations before them who still fondly look to the stars for inspiration.

– Lee Hollman

GARBAGE NIGHT EXPLORES HOW ANIMALS MAY INTERNALIZE THEIR CHANGING ENVIRONMENT AND EXPRESS THEIR FEARS AND HOPES

Garbage Night
by Jen Lee
Nobrow Press
2017, 72 pages, 9.8 x 0.6 x 7.2 inches, Hardcover

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Garbage Night may be the most beautifully colored graphic novel I’ve seen. These colors are somehow moody yet vibrant. The characters and the story, meanwhile, are somehow whimsical but also somber…clearly this is a book that’s comfortable playing with surprising combinations.

The story centers on three friends who are scrounging and scavenging for survival. With their hoodies and beanies, they look like a lot of teens who spend most of their time on the streets. But this is a trio of abandoned or semi-wild animals – a dog, a deer, and a raccoon – searching for a better life.

The plot is a simple one, about tested loyalty. But the impressive artwork, like the moods it conjures up, is richly layered.

– Christine Ro

What’s in my NOW? — Isaac Stephenson