Chalk

Puma's chalkboard-modern take on the ping-pong table, especially if you like beer

Designed for the “after-hours athlete,” the Chalk ping-pong table by studio Aruliden for Puma puts a seriously social spin on the game. A chalkboard surface allows players to keep track of the score, claim the next game or provoke opponents with a little written banter, and the convenient compartment underneath safely stores beverages and party favors for the ultimate in casual recreation. Each handmade table …

Fomato Cards

An adorably nerdy line of cards that teach as they greet

Charming, witty and altogether unexpected, Emmie Hsu’s Fomato birthday cards make our favorite day a little more educational. Designed with bold graphics, each card starts out as with a mini comic-book-style, non-fiction tale about such subjects as potatoes, samurais and wine before revealing, often on the back page, the ultimate purpose of the card: the greeting. Hsu actually started out wanting to illustrate children’s picture …

Toilets of the World

A new book surveys loos around the world

The new book “Toilets of the World” examines the various approaches that different cultures take for relieving themselves. Authors Mona E. Gregory and Sian James write, “Toilets are bay windows with a view on to a given population.” They begin with a brief history of the toilet, from Middle Ages chamber pots to the invention of the flush toilet—it originated in (where else) Greece, and …