I called up my local Toronto public library branch to see if I could somehow give library cards as gifts to friends. New signups require a health card or similar identification, so I knew it wouldn’t be that easy, but maybe they had a pretty gift-form or something. Their response:

“I’ve never heard of that. You know library cards are free?”

I think the idea has merit regardless of the cost, or lack thereof, but I wasn’t making a believer out of the librarian. The public library has extremely limited time and money, but I think there’s something to this. Making membership social, fashionable, and all that.

Taking a page from here and here, I decided to refurb my nasty old white sneakers. Here’s the “before”:

To do the refurb, I employed nothing but the most cutting-edge tools:

For the price of the least-sexy toothbrush ever (sexier models here), a tube of toothpaste enriched with the magical properties of baking soda (from a company that does nothing but baking soda), and a pair of new laces, here’s the result:

Not bad! Plus I solved the mystery origin of Arm & Hammer’s logo: The Socialist Labor Party!