It is the most reliably divisive question in domestic life, it has broken up less serious relationships than it should have, and it has an answer that is older than…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
In the ceiling of a fire station in Livermore, California, there is a hand-blown light bulb that has been switched on, with brief interruptions, since 1901. It has…
Sewn into the seam of every mattress and every upholstered chair is a white tag covered in small print, and somewhere in that print is a sentence along the lines…
Source: Wikimedia Commons
The home party is remembered as a joke: a living room of women, a demonstration, some faintly humiliating games and a catalogue. It is one of the most…
This is one of those differences that nobody notices until they travel, and then cannot stop noticing.
In the United States, up is on. The toggle points to the ceiling…
There is a pattern in American buildings that is so consistent it looks designed, and in a sense it was.
Commercial, public and institutional buildings use lever handles. Houses use…