Singing Blobs (12/20/20)
Hey Friends,
Welcome back to Sunday School, a weekly newsletter to give you a boost in consuming interesting content.
We. Are. So. Close. This newsletter sits at a tidy 96 subscribers, and I’d love to get this to 100 before 2020 wraps. If you’d like to share this newsletter as a Christmas gift this year, I’ll make it easy for you:
Happy holidays to all of you who read this each week, thanks for your support!
We’re going to keep things super light today because we’re all about to head into a week where we just want to coast until Christmas.
Let’s go!
Singing Blobs
Link: Google Blob Opera
We’re going to kick things off with a bang today. If you click the link above, be ready to be lost in hours of entertainment.
Google builds experimental apps from time-to-time, and this is one of those. It’s a machine learning app with opera singing blobs. And let me tell you, it’s an absolute blast to play around with.
Take a look and click around. Be sure to click over into holiday mode and let the blobs sing you a few Christmas carols.
Holiday Homes
Link: I Know a Spot
I have a weird and unexpected favorite Christmas movie.
That’s right, I like The Holiday. You do too, admit it.
The Holiday is a great movie. It has humor, it has love, it has Jack Black playing the most serious role of his career. But most of all, it has the most perfectly charming settings with a mix of Hollywood luxe and English countryside. The homes showcased in The Holiday steal the show. We’ve all pictured ourselves living in Iris’s country cottage. It’s picturesque.
Fun fact: this isn’t actually a real cottage, it’s just a facade constructed for the movie set. You can read about that here.
Anyhow, what we’re here to discuss is this article by Arielle Norling from I Know a Spot. If you like homes or browsing Zillow for hours on end you should subscribe to this. Each week Norling scours Zillow to find the most interesting homes in the world that fit a theme, and it’s fantastic.
This week we have real-life homes that fit the homes of characters in The Holiday. I’ll share a photo from each of the homes, but you should check them all out.
Get a look at that kitchen in Miles’ house.
Loving the exposed beams and natural light in this version of Iris’ cottage.
This backyard at this version of Amanda’s house with the pool and the outdoor sitting area with the fireplace all the way at the back of the photo. Get out of here!
Another English countryside home with tons of natural light and exposed beams for Graham’s house.
Finally, for Arthur’s house, I love this great room with the fireplace and library with round-top doors.
Nasty Oreos
Link: Why Does Oreo Keep Releasing New Flavors? - New York Times
Well…that’s a valid question. Why does Oreo keep releasing new flavors?
Have you ever been strolling down the snack aisle at the store and come across a box of Oreos with a repulsive flavor on the cover? Of course you have!
🚫 🚫 🚫
🤔 🤔 🤔
🤮 🤮 🤮
They’ve released 65 specialty flavors since 2012 and not a single one sounds appetizing. What is Oreo thinking with all of these strange products?
It turns out that the answer is pretty amazing and somewhat unique.
Oreo doesn’t make these to sell them at scale. Sure, whatever sales they get out of them are icing on the….cookie. But they don’t spend time and money creating these because they sell tons of them.
These are advertisements.
These strange flavors catch your eye in the aisle at the store. They make you say: “Ew, why is Oreo making all these strange flavors?! Nothing can beat the original. You know what? I think I’ll pick up a box of the original Oreos, it’s been a while since I’ve had those…”
And that’s the trick. They have gross flavors to bring you in for the classic cookie that can’t be beaten. The original Oreo.
To all of you and your families, happy holidays. Although this has been the strangest year of all, I hope next week you’re able to recognize the things you’re most grateful for and take time to process where you’ve been and where you’re going.
Instead of a traditional quote this week I want to leave you with these words from Amanda Goetz, head of marketing at Teal. It’s an important reminder to do what we can to stay healthy through a fantastic, yet potentially challenging time of year.
Best,
Ryan