Mardi Gras ‘House Floats’ For Mardi Gras 2021, when the very idea of a large, tightly packed crowd feels years away, New Orleans has adapted. Instead of floats following parade routes, the city’s artistic verve has turned its attention to dozens of homes and businesses across the city, transforming them into Bourbon Street–worthy thematic “house floats,” made by artists and everyday citizens. The mood-lifting response to the cancellation of the traditional events also helps support artists who would typically have year-round work preparing the gaudy, celebratory floats for their time in the spotlight. The show, as they say, must go on… safely!  READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA The ‘Brandy Belt’ Most of the world drinks brandy—if they drink it at all—as an after-dinner digestif, and in most of the United States, its popularity is limited. But Wisconsinites love the stuff, using it instead of whiskey or gin in classic cocktails such as the Old Fashioned, Manhattans, and martinis, or freezing and mixing it with sweet tea and juice to make Wisconsin’s version of sangria. Distributors consider Wisconsin the center of the “brandy belt,” which stretches into Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. For years, local bartenders and journalists traced brandy’s popularity back to the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. Now, it seems, that story might be downright wrong. READ MORE → SEDONA, ARIZONA Mayhew Lodge Deep in Oak Creek Canyon, a trail meanders among the crumbling remains of some stone buildings. Mostly forgotten and partially consumed by vegetation, these former buildings were the home to some unusual occupants and visitors, including a famed Western novelist, a former President, and Hollywood powerhouses such as Walt Disney. READ MORE → Indian Railway Fans The Indian Railways is famously among the 10 largest employers in the world, with about 1.4 million employees. The rail system has over 76,000 miles of track and transports over eight billion people a year. It is often called the lifeline of India, and rightly so, for it remains the cheapest way to travel across the vast country. To celebrate it, nine rail enthusiasts founded the club IRFCA—Indian Railways Fan Club of America. Today, the club has expanded from a mailing list to a ginormous website full of facts, photographs, technical data, and resources so well organized that IR officials themselves have been known to consult its archives, albeit not in their official capacities. READ MORE → BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WASHINGTON The Labyrinth Mosaic and Halls Hill Lookout A well-to-do suburb across the Puget Sound, Bainbridge Island is home to a garden labyrinth based on the 13th-century French Chartres Cathedral. Designed by the Portland-based garden designer and stone artist Jeffrey Bale, the garden sits on a hilltop overlooking the Puget Sound. Consisting of 12 circles that tie the labyrinth to both lunar and seasonal cycles, the labyrinth also features Native American symbology and celestial references. READ MORE → FROM THE ARCHIVES The Soviet View of Outer Space From the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s, the cosmos became a battleground for world powers jockeying for global dominance. So it comes as no surprise that Space Age artwork proliferated alongside the Soviet Union’s popular science magazines—there were up to 200 titles at their peak—during the Cold War. Soviet illustrations, even ones with whizzing UFOs and bafflingly futuristic machines, were not drawn to entertain as much as to educate and promote the Communist project, which suggested that the idea of cultural revolution need not be limited to Earth. READ MORE → AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS Oost-Indisch Huis Today part of the University of Amsterdam’s science-centered library, this building once served as the headquarters of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC). Also known as the Dutch East India Company, the VOC was established in 1602 CE as the first formally listed public company and megacorporation in history. READ MORE →