Tedium Shorties

Hydrogenated Marketing: How Crisco, which avoided naming its primary ingredient in ads, toppled lard more than a century ago—and made Americans believers in industrial food. Read More

Grab Your Rolls: There's plenty of toilet paper in the U.S. So why are people hoarding it? And what makes toilet paper the hoarding object of choice? Read More

Lateral Move: Five ways life would be better if it were always daylight saving time, rather than the clock changing up on us twice a year. Read More

Now You See It …: A brief history of invisibility on screen, one of the most effective special effects ever created in film. Read More

Thanks, Craig: Hitting its 25th anniversary this month, Craigslist remains a reminder that a more democratic version of the internet can still thrive. Read More

Reading Materials

Wanna check out some of the books we’ve written about in Tedium over the years? Check our list—we’re keeping a running tally, and any purchases support both Tedium and independent booksellers. (Win-win!)

Not All Heroes Wear Capes: America’s postwar fling with romance comics—and the massive collection of those comics that was recently donated to the University of South Carolina. Read More

Cosmic Mistake: Why your zodiac sign—that thing that supposedly defines your personality—is probably wrong. Sorry, Gemini. Read More

Headbanger’s Ball: How do woodpeckers avoid brain injury? It all comes down to their bones. Read More

Lag City

Someone figured out how to run Stadia on an e-ink reader. Surprisingly not terrible speed-wise.