You’ve gotta love hybrids. They incarnate the fashionable trend of combining two seemingly unrelated objects/ideas/categories into one harmoneous, and functional, whole. We have hybrid cars, hybrid produce, and hybrid phones. Why not hybrid bookshelves?

The Italian designers at Nobody & Co. have combined a chair with a bookshelf to develop the Bibliochaise. Although not the only bookshelf/chair hybrid, this is definately one of my favorites. Removable cushions are available in many colors, and the chair itself can be finished in oak, black, or white. The designers claim the chair can hold 5 meters of books. A matching ottoman is also available…you know, for paperbacks. (Iwould love to see an entire sofa version.) I imagine if Plato had envisioned a throne for his philosopher king, it would have looked something…

When my father first came from India to the United States in 1970, he began his new life by sailing from Europe to New York aboard the SS France. In a strange twist, the legendary liner is now ending her life on a beach in India where shipbreakers are dismantling her hull. I only saw the ship in person once as a kid while on vacation (she was anchored a distance off shore), but I remember vintage photos of my father onboard during his crossing wearing thick black framed glasses, his hair caught in the sea breeze. (Photos of my father with hair are rare, so I tend to remember them.)

Many ship enthusiasts fought hard to preserve the vessel as a hotel or museum. It may seem…

I’m a big fan of shelves. What’s not to like? They’re immensely practical. Beyond holding items of importance off the floor and tables, they’re great parenting tools. Putting a misbehaving child’s toy on an out-of-reach shelf is a basic disciplinary tactic. The child can see the toy but cannot reach it…clear incentive to improve his or her behavior.

Can you imagine a house without shelves? What would we do with all of our stuff? It would be chaos, pandemonium, anarchy! We’d never find anything, and the dog would have unfettered access to un-canine materials. Beyond such tangible matters, we’d lose all kinds of great idioms like, “You’ve got to put the cookies on a lower shelf.” And, “It’s ready off the shelf.”

I could go on indefinitely about the…