How Much It Really Costs To Do Nice Things

The most popular link last time was this piece on computer literacy, with this piece about managing anxiety second.

1. An appreciation of graphic designer Margaret Calvert (yes, my fellow font people, she is that Calvert) who created the visual language of Britain's road signs. Among the many excellent facts that I learned here, I now know that the cow on her "beware, cows" sign was based on a real animal called Patience.
2. I would like a gossip bench, please.
3. Such paintings!
4. If you would like to be someone who can do cryptic crosswords, this single clue a day game, with hints, might help.
5. Hay stocks are running low because of how hot and dry the summer was in 2025.
6. Also becoming scarce: pie and mash shops.
7. There's a new Nancy Myers film on the way!! And Roman Roy is in it!
8. This is one of those weird article-length X/Twitter posts, and I'm sorry about that, but it makes an interesting point about how the tide is finally turning on optimisation-hustle culture.
9. I think Rebecca Black doing Addison Rae's "Fame is a Gun" might be one of the best live covers I've ever seen — both musically, and for the layers of internet bullying lore it draws on.
10. I'm always fascinated to learn how much it really costs to do nice things on the internet. Here, the creator of openbenches.org (which is a free, crowd-sourced map of memorial benches all around the world) explains how it stays online.
11. I loved this piece about "New York City Ghosts", a phrase the writer has coined to explain the feeling when the city itself trying to scare you off: "When New York is actively ejecting you like a transplant that won’t take."
12. A much easier word game than the one above.
13. A visual map of photographs from 1970s Paris.