Can you (legally) go camping in New York City?
It might be a stupid question to ask about a heavily populated urban area that, save for Central Park, is notoriously devoid of large green spaces. Yet, in honor of Ask a Stupid Question Day (September 28th), we thought we’d research that very topic.
Turns out the answer is: Yes, there is a campground in New York City.
And we aren’t talking about pitching a tent on a desolate plot of concrete either. Take the 2 train to Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue, then hop on the Q35 bus, and you’ll be find yourself at a campground by Jamaica Bay. A campground with, you know, dirt and trees. The sort of campground where you can roast s’mores.
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One day you’re in. The next day you’re out.
Heidi Klum’s golden rule of Project Runway fashion is also the reality for the characters that comprise signs. One day you are an L or an R proudly pointing the way towards an attraction along with your fellow letters. The next day you are discarded.
Usually old signs end up in landfills or incinerators. But an especially lucky, and especially artistic, few have their letters go on display in museums. There people look at them not for any direction they can provide but for the works of art that they are.
Here’s a review of Spot Cool Stuff’s favorite unusual typography museums:
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Ask longtime Michigan residents where in the state they live and chances are that they’ll hold up their right palm and point out their hometown upon it—the shape of a hand held up approximating that of Michigan’s lower peninsula.
Ask an outdoor enthusiast who’s in-the-know where Michigan’s best kayaking trip is and chances are said enthusiast will hold up a right palm and point to its thumb. It is at the thumb where paddlers find the wonderful cliffs and clear waters of Lake Huron and Saginaw Bay.
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The airline business has to the dogs. Literally. On Pet Airways, the world’s first animal-only airline, pets fly in the main cabin and not in the cargo hold.
What’s it like on a Pet Airways flight? If you are imagining a Boeing 747 with dogs and cats curled up in business-class seats while watching Lassie on their personal television screens as flight attendants stroll the isles with carts of chewy treats and catnip . . . well, you are a little off. Pet Airways isn’t some bad Disney movie. But it is a very cool service. Here’s how it works:
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Since June 2010, the hottest attraction in Orlando has been the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a part of Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park. If you are vacationing in Central Florida with young Muggles, odds are high that they’ve tugged on your arm begging you to take them there.
The good news for adults is that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, while far from mind blowingly amazing, does have cool elements to it. There’s also one piece of advice that in itself can make your visit there turn out somewhere between tolerable and fun.
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Spot Cool Stuff recently reviewed Google’s Chromebook netbooks on our tech blog. The new computers runs the Chrome operating system is almost entirely integrated in with the cloud. The major disadvantage of the Chrome OS: It renders a computer mostly useless if it isn’t online. The major advantages: With a Chromebook there’s no need to worry about updating software, backing up files or running out of storage space.
If you’d like to try out a Chromebook for yourself on your next trip you now can. For a limited time, passengers on Virgin America and guests at New York’s Ace hotel will each be able to borrow one, for free.
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Youth, they say, is wasted on the young. And maybe summer camp is too. Twelve-year-olds can’t fully appreciate the joys of carefree days playing volleyball and failing at archery, taking afternoon swim breaks and roasting marshmallows by a fire, raiding rival cabins and sneaking out after curfew for stolen kisses behind the equipment shed.
For those who miss the summer camp of their youth—or missed out on the experience all together—start packing your duffel bags. Club Getaway, a New England resort, and Jetsetter, a flash-deal website with travel bargains, have teamed up on create a summer camp experience; one that’s for adults only.
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Is chocolate good for you? Researchers, conducting highly scientific studies, have found chocolate beneficial in preventing a plethora of ailments including cancer, stroke and heart disease. But Spot Cool Stuff has a more simple theory:
If it makes you smile, it’s health food.
In honor of National Smile Month—and to the dismay of dentists everywhere—here’s our look at 12 wonderful chocolate shops. We hesitate calling them the “best” chocolate shops given how there are easily 60 or more stores that we could have included on this list. All the shops we did include are superlative in some way.
Note that this overview is a companion piece to our equally dentist-horrifying review of the world’s best candy shops.
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