Month: September 2016

Cooking may be an art form, but baking is an exact science. Add too much or too little of an ingredient and your cookies could come out looking like pancakes, or something that’s inedible. If you’ve been leveling off measuring spoons with an index finger, a product (spotted by Core77) is here to make life in the kitchen a lot easier.

With a quick pinch, Dreamfarm‘s Levoons produce precise measurements. The unique design includes a metal handle that, when squeezed, scrapes off any excess dry ingredient like flour or baking powder that is sitting above the rim of the spoon.

For $14.95, Levoons come in fanned sets of four spoons and can be purchased in a variety of bright colors. Now, you can get to work on baking the perfect chocolate chip cookie as soon as possible.

[h/t Core77]

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

If you’ve ever fantasized about wandering down an endless, winding road of sweet-smelling flowers, a farm on Lake Michigan can help make your dreams come true.

Cherry Point Farm and Market in Shelby, Michigan is home to a lot of fanciful (mostly edible) things, like cherries, pies, breads, jams, fudge, and even summer fish boils. The fruit and farm market has been in operation since 1961 and is currently run by the fourth generation of the founding family. As if a homegrown roadside cherry shop wasn’t meditative enough, in 2001, owner Barbara Bull started work on a lavender labyrinth, which is now a popular attraction that’s large enough to be seen on Google Earth.

With the help of artist and architect Conrad Heiderer, Bull designed an asymmetrical flower maze with an herb garden at its center. It takes about an hour to walk to the center on one long, meandering route. “Walking into the labyrinth is only half the journey,” Bull told MLive. “You need to walk out again.”

While it might be way too late for the primary flower season—the labyrinth’s French lavender peaks in the springtime—it continues to bloom throughout the summer, and then dries up at the end of fall when it’s collected. The space is also home to other seasonal flora like apple, peach, and cherry trees—which are ready for harvest in the autumn—and all kinds of plants that are endemic to the area, like black-eyed Susans and wild hollyhocks.

A journey into the labyrinth is free and doesn’t require reservations, so you can drop in and take a walk among the flowers anytime you like.

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

If you’ve ever fantasized about wandering down an endless, winding road of sweet-smelling flowers, a farm on Lake Michigan can help make your dreams come true.

Cherry Point Farm and Market in Shelby, Michigan is home to a lot of fanciful (mostly edible) things, like cherries, pies, breads, jams, fudge, and even summer fish boils. The fruit and farm market has been in operation since 1961 and is currently run by the fourth generation of the founding family. As if a homegrown roadside cherry shop wasn’t meditative enough, in 2001, owner Barbara Bull started work on a lavender labyrinth, which is now a popular attraction that’s large enough to be seen on Google Earth.

With the help of artist and architect Conrad Heiderer, Bull designed an asymmetrical flower maze with an herb garden at its center. It takes about an hour to walk to the center on one long, meandering route. “Walking into the labyrinth is only half the journey,” Bull told MLive. “You need to walk out again.”

While it might be way too late for the primary flower season—the labyrinth’s French lavender peaks in the springtime—it continues to bloom throughout the summer, and then dries up at the end of fall when it’s collected. The space is also home to other seasonal flora like apple, peach, and cherry trees—which are ready for harvest in the autumn—and all kinds of plants that are endemic to the area, like black-eyed Susans and wild hollyhocks.

A journey into the labyrinth is free and doesn’t require reservations, so you can drop in and take a walk among the flowers anytime you like.

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

We all have one friend who, when the bill arrives, is MIA. That friend, if they can ever be located, doesn’t believe in tipping either: They’re a true skinflint who holds their money in a death grip. Though skinflint and tightwad are terrific words, there are quite a few synonyms and adjectives sprinkled throughout the history of English. Even when the subject matter is parsimonious, the lexicon is always giving and ready to buy another round.

1. DRY-FIST

Many stingy words mention the hand or fist, and this one equates dryness with cheapness. The Oxford English Dictionary examples include mentions of “filthy dry-fisted knights” and “dryfisted patrons.” Today we’d talk about cheap bastards or miserly garbage people.

2. MINGY

This unpleasant-sounding word rhymes with stingy and may be a blend with mean. Mingy has been around just over 100 years and is used in an absolutely juicy insult from a 1912 letter by poet Rupert Brooke: “I called you a mingy and coprologous Oxford poetaster.” Rarely, mingy can also be a noun, as seen in a reprimand from 1939’s To Love and to Cherish by Michael Egan: “Don’t be a mingy, father; they only cost a shilling.”

3. NARROW-SOULED

Of course, narrow-minded is a common word for someone with a one-track mind, but this word applies to someone with an unusually svelte soul. Narrow-souled has referred to various types of pettiness since the 1600s, including penny-pinching. At times, narrow all by itself has also meant stingy, if you’re looking for a new euphemism for an embarrassing companion.

4. PARTAN-HANDED

Partan was originally a word for a crab in the 1400s, and in the 1800s it evolved into an insult for people who were a bit, well, crabby. From there, it spawned a variety of insults such as partan-faced and partan-handed, which suggests a rather specific sort of closed-fistedness.

5. PURSE-BOUND

The idea is that your purse is so tightly wrapped—perhaps with ropes, chains, and crazy glue—that it’s never opening again. The first known use, by playwright James Shirley in 1653, includes a preview of the next term: “I may Tell you, my Father is a little costive, Purse-bound, his pension cannot find me tooth-picks.”

6. COSTIVE

The first uses of costive, from around 1400, refer to a constrictive state of affairs far beyond the scope of this list: the costive are constipated. By the 1600s, this word for hard, unyielding bowels had spread to vicious, close-fisted tightwads. Costive could also refer to any type of ungenerous behavior, as seen in a 1606 use by George Chapman in the amusingly titled Sir Gyles Goosecappe: “Is your Lorde Costiue of laughter, or laxatiue of laughter?” Apparently the bowel-y origins of this word were not forgotten.

7. SAVE-ALL

This mostly self-explanatory word has had a few meanings over the years, but in the 1700s it meant the opposite of a spend-all. Poet John Keats used the term in an 1820 letter that offered an unflattering description: “There is old Lord Burleigh, the high-priest of economy, the political save-all.”

8. AND 9. CHINCHERD AND CHINCHY

Today chintzy is still used as a synonym for stingy, but there are some older relatives with similar meanings: chincherd (a noun) and chinchy (an adjective). They all derive from chinch, an adjective for tight-fisted behavior since the 1400s.

10. SNUDGE

In the 1500s and 1600s, this was a common word for a miser. Snudge can also be a verb: You’re snudging if you’re holding your wallet tight in the manner of Ebenezer Scrooge. This word demands a revival. When someone stiffs us on a bill, we should say they snudged us or acted like a total snudge.

11. AND 12. CLUSTERFIST AND CLOSE-FIST

First found in the 1600s, clusterfist can refer to a few types of disappointing individuals. In one sense, cluster means clumsy, and a clusterfist is a type of oaf or boor. But cluster can also mean closed, and this is a synonym for another tightwaddy term, close-fist. This 1655 use by Charles Sorel describes a disgusting lack of generosity in the important realm of cake: “My owne cakes..of which he never proffered me so much as the least crum, so base a Cluster-fist was he.”

We all have one friend who, when the bill arrives, is MIA. That friend, if they can ever be located, doesn’t believe in tipping either: They’re a true skinflint who holds their money in a death grip. Though skinflint and tightwad are terrific words, there are quite a few synonyms and adjectives sprinkled throughout the history of English. Even when the subject matter is parsimonious, the lexicon is always giving and ready to buy another round.

1. DRY-FIST

Many stingy words mention the hand or fist, and this one equates dryness with cheapness. The Oxford English Dictionary examples include mentions of “filthy dry-fisted knights” and “dryfisted patrons.” Today we’d talk about cheap bastards or miserly garbage people.

2. MINGY

This unpleasant-sounding word rhymes with stingy and may be a blend with mean. Mingy has been around just over 100 years and is used in an absolutely juicy insult from a 1912 letter by poet Rupert Brooke: “I called you a mingy and coprologous Oxford poetaster.” Rarely, mingy can also be a noun, as seen in a reprimand from 1939’s To Love and to Cherish by Michael Egan: “Don’t be a mingy, father; they only cost a shilling.”

3. NARROW-SOULED

Of course, narrow-minded is a common word for someone with a one-track mind, but this word applies to someone with an unusually svelte soul. Narrow-souled has referred to various types of pettiness since the 1600s, including penny-pinching. At times, narrow all by itself has also meant stingy, if you’re looking for a new euphemism for an embarrassing companion.

4. PARTAN-HANDED

Partan was originally a word for a crab in the 1400s, and in the 1800s it evolved into an insult for people who were a bit, well, crabby. From there, it spawned a variety of insults such as partan-faced and partan-handed, which suggests a rather specific sort of closed-fistedness.

5. PURSE-BOUND

The idea is that your purse is so tightly wrapped—perhaps with ropes, chains, and crazy glue—that it’s never opening again. The first known use, by playwright James Shirley in 1653, includes a preview of the next term: “I may Tell you, my Father is a little costive, Purse-bound, his pension cannot find me tooth-picks.”

6. COSTIVE

The first uses of costive, from around 1400, refer to a constrictive state of affairs far beyond the scope of this list: the costive are constipated. By the 1600s, this word for hard, unyielding bowels had spread to vicious, close-fisted tightwads. Costive could also refer to any type of ungenerous behavior, as seen in a 1606 use by George Chapman in the amusingly titled Sir Gyles Goosecappe: “Is your Lorde Costiue of laughter, or laxatiue of laughter?” Apparently the bowel-y origins of this word were not forgotten.

7. SAVE-ALL

This mostly self-explanatory word has had a few meanings over the years, but in the 1700s it meant the opposite of a spend-all. Poet John Keats used the term in an 1820 letter that offered an unflattering description: “There is old Lord Burleigh, the high-priest of economy, the political save-all.”

8. AND 9. CHINCHERD AND CHINCHY

Today chintzy is still used as a synonym for stingy, but there are some older relatives with similar meanings: chincherd (a noun) and chinchy (an adjective). They all derive from chinch, an adjective for tight-fisted behavior since the 1400s.

10. SNUDGE

In the 1500s and 1600s, this was a common word for a miser. Snudge can also be a verb: You’re snudging if you’re holding your wallet tight in the manner of Ebenezer Scrooge. This word demands a revival. When someone stiffs us on a bill, we should say they snudged us or acted like a total snudge.

11. AND 12. CLUSTERFIST AND CLOSE-FIST

First found in the 1600s, clusterfist can refer to a few types of disappointing individuals. In one sense, cluster means clumsy, and a clusterfist is a type of oaf or boor. But cluster can also mean closed, and this is a synonym for another tightwaddy term, close-fist. This 1655 use by Charles Sorel describes a disgusting lack of generosity in the important realm of cake: “My owne cakes..of which he never proffered me so much as the least crum, so base a Cluster-fist was he.”

The Waste Shark is like a Roomba for the ocean. A small aquatic drone that can vacuum up 1100 pounds of floating trash, the Waste Shark was designed by Richard Hardiman of RanMarine to keep the Earth’s oceans clean. Now, Popular Science reports, it’s embarking on its first official mission: To pick up trash in the waters around Rotterdam before it travels too far out to sea.

Hardiman is providing the Port of Rotterdam Authority in the Netherlands with four Waste Shark prototypes, which will patrol Rotterdam’s waters through the end of the year. The sharks, which are approximately the size of a passenger car, pick up trash in a 14-inch “mouth” that extends below the surface of the water. They’re autonomous, which means they’re able to patrol for trash 24/7 without oversight.

Hardiman hopes that the Waste Sharks could eventually help make ocean trash a thing of the past. In a statement he explained, “It may sound like a strange thing to say for an entrepreneur, but my mission will only truly be accomplished when I’m ‘out of business.'”

[h/t Popular Science]

The Waste Shark is like a Roomba for the ocean. A small aquatic drone that can vacuum up 1100 pounds of floating trash, the Waste Shark was designed by Richard Hardiman of RanMarine to keep the Earth’s oceans clean. Now, Popular Science reports, it’s embarking on its first official mission: To pick up trash in the waters around Rotterdam before it travels too far out to sea.

Hardiman is providing the Port of Rotterdam Authority in the Netherlands with four Waste Shark prototypes, which will patrol Rotterdam’s waters through the end of the year. The sharks, which are approximately the size of a passenger car, pick up trash in a 14-inch “mouth” that extends below the surface of the water. They’re autonomous, which means they’re able to patrol for trash 24/7 without oversight.

Hardiman hopes that the Waste Sharks could eventually help make ocean trash a thing of the past. In a statement he explained, “It may sound like a strange thing to say for an entrepreneur, but my mission will only truly be accomplished when I’m ‘out of business.'”

[h/t Popular Science]

After having lunch at Little Caesar’s one afternoon, Hannah Spooner, a 19-year-old Michigan resident, and her boyfriend Pete Kadry entered a sweepstakes to win free pizza for a year. That decision paid off, the couple took home the grand prize—and now, they’re paying it forward, Fox News Detroit reports.

Spooner gifted the pies—52 pizza vouchers valued at $500—to local charity Covenant House Michigan, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter, vocational programs, and three meals a day to homeless and at-risk youth in Detroit.

“I just lost a lot of weight, I wasn’t trying to eat a lot of pizza,” Spooner joked with Inside Edition. “Detroit is going through a lot of negativity,” Spooner told InsideEdition.com. “I wanted somewhere close to home that would be affected by my donation.”

Employees at Covenant House admitted they were surprised. “I look at young people and they believe it’s very important to give back to the community,” an administrator from Covenant House said in the video below. “But I don’t know if they would give pizza back.”

[h/t Fox News Detroit]

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.

After having lunch at Little Caesar’s one afternoon, Hannah Spooner, a 19-year-old Michigan resident, and her boyfriend Pete Kadry entered a sweepstakes to win free pizza for a year. That decision paid off, the couple took home the grand prize—and now, they’re paying it forward, Fox News Detroit reports.

Spooner gifted the pies—52 pizza vouchers valued at $500—to local charity Covenant House Michigan, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter, vocational programs, and three meals a day to homeless and at-risk youth in Detroit.

“I just lost a lot of weight, I wasn’t trying to eat a lot of pizza,” Spooner joked with Inside Edition. “Detroit is going through a lot of negativity,” Spooner told InsideEdition.com. “I wanted somewhere close to home that would be affected by my donation.”

Employees at Covenant House admitted they were surprised. “I look at young people and they believe it’s very important to give back to the community,” an administrator from Covenant House said in the video below. “But I don’t know if they would give pizza back.”

[h/t Fox News Detroit]

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.