Stories

Hand Made in 77 Steps. Built to Last. 

You’ve likely seen versions or depictions of this iconic chair on many occasions, and in a variety of places: homes, offices, restaurants, hotels; maybe even prisons and submarines. The chair features regularly in design magazines and movies, such as The Matrix, The Dark Knight, Law & Order and CSI.

It’s called the 1006 (pronounced ten-oh-six) “Navy” chair, and it’s made in Hanover, Pennsylvania, by Emeco, a company that was created in 1944 just to make that specific chair. The back story is a good one.

Something Tiny Tells a Big Story

Pale Blue Dot is the name given to a photograph of planet Earth taken on 14 February 1990 by Voyager 1, a robotic explorer built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In the photograph, taken from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometres, Earth's apparent size is less than a pixel. The planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight reflected by the camera. The phrase "Pale Blue Dot" has come to represent a contemplative perspective on humanity's relationship to the cosmos.

Was it really such a big thing?

The hobo code is a system of symbols purportedly used by hobos to communicate information about resources and conditions at locations along their routes. The pictographic symbols were often scratched or painted on buildings or other structures in locations where hobos were known to congregate. The code was devised as an easy-to-understand, universal hobo language that helped fellow hobos keep one another safe. Nice.

While there may be little evidence to prove that the hobo code was actually widely used and not just a media concoction, we do know for certain that hobos left their marks. 

The World’s Most Famous Meat Product

SPAM is a brand of canned cooked pork made by Austin, Minnesota-based Hormel Foods Corporation. It was introduced by Hormel in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II. SPAM is sold in 41 countries on six continents and is trademarked in over 100 countries. By 2022 Hormel had produced more than 9 billion cans of this gelatinous pink miracle.

Popular cultural references to SPAM are countless, including a Monty Python skit, which repeated the name many times, leading to its name being borrowed to describe unsolicited electronic messages, especially email.

Super Important But Short for Nothing

SOS is a Morse code distress signal (· · · — — — · · ·) that is internationally recognised as a request for help. Contrary to what some people may believe,  SOS does not stand for “Save our Ship” or “Save Our Souls”. The letters "SOS" don’t, in fact, stand for anything. They just happen to be the letters that correspond to the Morse code signal comprised of three dots, three dashes, and then three more dots.