Tedium Shorties

This Is Our Red

Over at ColorNames.org, we’re making the case that our tone of red (#c00c20) be forever called “Tedious Red.” Vote for it here.

Mystery Machine: The strange connection between Bobby Kennedy's death and the rise of Scooby-Doo, who represented a new kind of cartoon hero in his day. Read More

The Human Xerox: Why being copycats, something we do in settings big and small, might be key to being human. Read More

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