As a child, I nearly got to ride in the sidecar of a Brough Superior. Nearly.

Alas, the point was moot – the bike lasted 45 minutes before it was stranded on the side of a mountain road, mechanically cactus (not before nearly killing the man in its saddle). At least in the few hours the novice owner (he’d won the bike at auction the week before) was waiting for assistance, he was able to just sit and look at the beautiful, beautiful Brough. Which is probably all it was good for.

Moral of the story? Before you charge off to buy a classic bike, determined to look as cool as TE Lawrence, do your research. It’ll save you from buying a mechanical basketcase and possibly save your life. (Remember, TE Lawrence died on a Brough).

Connoisseur’s Guide – Collecting Vintage Motorcycles [Forbes]

On TV, you only ever see people using cardboard boxes as furniture when their house has been burgled. Or all their worldly goods have been repossessed. Or they’re homeless.

Now that stereotype has been blown away by the surprisingly attractive ZenTable from NYC’s Cardboard Design.

It’s made from recycled cardboard and eco-friendly glues, requires no assembly and can even be custom decorated if you don’t want to feel like you own furniture made out of carboard.

For only $105, you can finally ditch that milk crate coffee table, and replace it with boxes…

Cardboard Design’s ZenTable [via Treehugger]

This is not tequila. I repeat, NOT TEQUILA.

Tito’s grandfather made hooch during Prohibition, and his uncle is known for his firey pepper vodka; it was only a matter of time before Tito started making alcohol himself…

Tito’s Handmade Vodka comes from Texas’s ONLY licensed distillery. It’s award-winning, expertly-crafted and very reasonably priced.

And it’s not tequila. I can’t emphasize that enough.

Tito’s Handmade Vodka [via Cool Hunting]

30% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 100% immortal.

Even by the standards of the Southern Rhone, Chateau de Beaucastel are quirky traditionalists:

This wine is a blend of 30% Mourvedre, 30% Grenache, 10% Syrah, 5% Cinsault, 1% Cunoise, and smaller amounts of Vaccarese and Muscardin. It is hand harvested and destemmed and after crushing, undergoes fermentation in cement tanks for three weeks before being aged up to 18 months in large, old oak casks known as foudres. It is lightly fined with egg whites before bottling, but never undergoes any filtration whatsoever — filtering being one of the chief evils of modern winemaking according to the Perrin family tradition.

Fossick hard enough, and you can find this classic for under $100.

1988 Chateau de Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France [Vinography]

Due to what we can only imagine was a sport photographers’ strike in the mid-’60s, Sports Illustrated were forced to fill their magazine with images of bikini-clad models rather than the usual boxers and ball players.

Although relations were patched up, and the snappers all went back to work, SI still commemorate the help of those brave swimsuit photographers who stepped into the breach (on the beach, arf).

They do this annually by releasing one issue consisting only of swimsuit images (a practice which would seem bizarre, without knowledge of its historical significance).

The folks at the (unfortunately-titled) Horny Oyster have compiled all 40 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition covers and, in the process, unearthed some inalienable truths:

• somehow, seeing a girl wring water out of her hair is sexier than seeing one remove a bikini top;
• despite what everyone says, the 1970’s was NOT the decade that fashion forgot; and
• there must be some very attractive 60-something women out there.

40 years of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition covers [*achem* Horny Oyster]

China, famous for its fundamental scientific successes (gunpowder, paper, compasses, printing), can now add a failure to its list of experiments - dogs driving cars.

Mrs Li from Inner Mongolia, seemingly trusting her dog’s judgment better than her own, let the eager mutt take the wheel and, well, need we finish the story?

Even Kommissar Rex, the greatest dog EVER, makes Peter do all the driving.

Dog crashes car during driving lesson [The Register]

Greetings!

I’m Nic, from Melbourne, Australia, and I’m now trying to maintain the fine standards of this publication, starting with my first posts yesterday.

I’m a frustrated former features writer, with an unhealthy passion for gin, cigars and retro gadgetry.

If you’ve any suggestions for my tenure here at TSL (or anything, really), let the comments fly.

Cheers!

Somehow, these are the colors of success. Sky blue, magenta, chocolate and “French” gray. Just ask the English.

Harlequins FC, one of the greatest (or at least most recognizable) rugby clubs anywhere, ever, are again set to take on the best in England. What better way to celebrate than in your own classic ‘Quins strip?

Free of sponsor or apparel logos, space-age fabrics or any other 21st century features, it’s just a standard rugby jumper, with long sleeves, a button-up collar and an idiotic jester logo. They’ve just put it back on the market, and it’ll set you back about $85.

And what’s more, you can use wear it almost anywhere in the world, cheering on copycat teams from Pittsburgh to Melbourne to Nairobi.

Product Page

Remember all the times you’ve been away from your house, in need of a cocktail and had no time to waste pouring it into a glass?

Yeah, we hate that too.

Luckily, Dunhill have teamed up with their own awesome, awesome back catalogue to bring us this classic cocktail kit.

Shaker, stirring sticks, olive sticks (all in sterling silver, of course) and coasters, all packed into the kind of stylish leather case that the modern world seems incapable of designing anymore.

And no glasses. Perfect.

Will magically reappear in Dunhill stores sometime in October.
Magically. From the past.

[via Sybarites]

On erom feeb, gip, bmal!

And all these years you thought it was the masons who were talking a secret language behind your back.

The real secret society are butchers. And now their secret is out.

Since Elizabethan times, butchers have supposedly spoken a secret language amongst themselves. And, in truth, you’d think over that time they’d have thought up something a little more inventive than just saying everything in reverse. But that’s apparently all it is.

Tsuj teg em ym nmad nosinev…

It begs the question. Have we been eating feeb this whole time?

[via The Age]