The last two issues of The New Yorker had a great series of articles on aspects of human culture. Stepping back and looking at ourselves as aliens, it can be hard to comprehend all the “others”.

Bus Ride takes the B46 through Brooklyn. The list of store names passed by is not to be missed.

The Barbarian Group throws a Superdesk Party, centered around the giant desk that weaves its way through their entire office. “You could have an epic game of Flip Cup, with, like, fifty people.”

This Is My Jail chronicles the conditions in Baltimore’s City Detention Center, its male inmates and their female guards, and the effective role reversals that brings about. It’s a long article, but after every paragraph I had the same thought. This must be happening on some other planet.

Deep Frieze starts with a great question. What will future generations think when they examine the ruins of the new One World Trade Center? After that comes a good history of the Parthenon, but which then unfortunately descends into crazy theory land only to conclude that the crazy theory is crazy.

Horseshoe crabs are the original Blue Bloods. Interesting fact: their blood is blue because it’s filled with hemocyanin, the copper based alternative to hemoglobin. More interesting fact: It’s worth $15,000 per quart.

What to serve your vegetarian girlfriend? Thinly sliced ham. Alternatively, try a cookbook reviewed in Good Greens. Apparently eating meat makes you “cruel and ferocious.” Like the English.

Neil Patrick Harris stars in the title role of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”, now on Broadway. Sounds amazing.

Romancing the Stones has many parallels to the Deep Frieze article. Ancient mysteries we are unlikely to ever solve, but with no shortage of theories. The democratically elected ArchDruid of Avebury will be more than happy to tell you his.

It’s back to confined spaces in Shipmates, the story of life aboard an aircraft carrier. The brig here is empty though. “Better to improve than to get worse.”