Hasta La Ideas

Often whilst wandering the narrow yet visually cacophonous aisles of Manhattan supermarkets, we find ourselves wishing that more companies would revert to the guileless, occasionally awkward, and often delightful branding of a simpler time. WD-40 has heeded our call by issuing a special “collector’s can,” a fully functional reproduction of the original black and yellow spray can from the 1950s. Created (on the fortieth attempt) in 1953 by a fledgling enterprise called Rocket Chemical Company, WD-40 is a water displacer (WD) that was first used to protect the Atlas Missile from corrosion. Since then, the miraculous lubricant has soared even higher, becoming what WD-40 Company president and CEO Garry O. Ridge describes as “the number one brand of multi-purpose maintenance product in the world,” a vaguely omninous superlative that we wouldn’t mind seeing printed on a distressed t-shirt.

For ease of comparison (and so as not to confuse shoppers trained to search for the iconic blue and yellow container), the new retro can is part of a limited-edition “Now & Then Twin Pack” (pictured) that hit store shelves nationwide earlier this month. Just don’t look for the nostalgic can to come with a “smart straw,” the permanently attached flip straw whose 2005 introduction was lauded by users who were forever losing the ignorant, detachable straws. “While the smart straw represents the latest in WD-40 innovation, the collector’s can represents a rich heritage and America’s love affair with the WD-40 brand,” said Tim Lesmeister, vice president of marketing for WD-40 Company, who favors a broad and slippery definition of “love affair.” Then again, how many spray lubricants do you know with a bustling fan club?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Flaky salt crystals made according to age-old fishermen methods

Embracing traditional production methods, Falksalt’s large, pure crystals easily crush between fingers for a more hands-on approach to cooking. The Swedish brand, which has been making salt since 1830, uses the same combination of heat and time that fishermen stumbled on centuries ago to produce delicate pyramid-shaped flakes.

With flavors like Citron, Rosemary, Red Chili, Smoke and Wild Mushrooms, in addition to Natural (white) and Black crystals, the naturally-processed sea salt makes a great way to finish a dish but also works exceptionally as a marinade for meats or as an additive when baking bread (particularly Rosemary).

Falksalt sells online or at grocers around Sweden for about $5 a jar.

Former European skateboarding champion and architect Matthias Bauer of MBA/S Associates has designed a skatepark and youth club in Stuttgart, Germany. (more…)

It’s always interesting to read of the gifts exchanged by world leaders at their official meetings. Famously, when Barack Obama met Gordon Brown in 2009, he presented him with a set of classic movie DVDs, in response to Brown’s more thoughtful gift of an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet. After the media stir Obama’s perceived snub to Brown received, David Cameron must have thought long and hard before deciding on his gift for his meeting with Obama this week. So what did he end up getting? A piece of grafitti art, naturally.

The artwork is by Ben Eine, who is famed in London for his distinctive alphabet letters, which are painted on shop shutters across the city. The work, shown above, is titled Twenty First Century City, and, according to a report on the BBC News site, Eine is “one of the PM’s wife Samantha’s favourite artists”. Eine, in response to the news, said it had been a “weird day”. Indeed. Is this the end for graffiti art’s anti-establishment credentials?

Perhaps smarting from media rollicking that he received after his gift to Brown, Obama has upped his gift-giving game this time around, and also followed the art route, gifting Cameron an Ed Ruscha painting, titled Column with Speed Lines.