For anyone who does car camping, 4x4 exploring, vehicle trips abroad, or just enjoys armchair exploration, I cannot recommend this publication enough. It has amazing comprehensive comparison reviews of the type of gear no other publication would cover, ranging from vehicle rooftop tents to converting a LandCruiser to bio-diesel. On top of the fantastic information and writing in the magazine, it is gorgeously designed and features beautiful expedition shots from around the world. It is the first publication I have come across in years that has me reading every word, review and even advertisement. They publish four issues per year, plus a gear guide and back-issues are available to ’97.

The neti pot flushes your sinuses of pollutants, allergens, pollen and dust that build up during the day. By flushing your sinuses you allow your nose to do its secondary job more effectively -- keep the bad stuff out. It also has the added benefit of relieving sinus headaches and congestion. The interesting thing is, it's been around for a long time (several thousand years) and is used by many yoga practitioners to ease breathing during meditation. Eight ounces of warm tap water and 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (with no iodine) is all it takes to wash the grime away, and that's a lot cheaper than over-the-counter decongestants.

I recommend getting a neti pot with a pot belly look, like the Himalayan Institute one available from Amazon. I've tried two other brands/styles and they don’t provide as consistent water pressure through the nose. Currently I use my neti pot once a day, in the evenings, to wash the day's grime away and help with sleeping.

Try it once or twice and you'll agree your sinuses have rarely felt better or clearer. As a side note, if it burns a little, stop and add a tad more salt. Too little salt and the water won't flow well through the nasal cavity. If you've had a broken nose, please check with your doctor to make sure your nasal cavity is still properly aligned for nasal irrigation.

When we found out that Printed Space also puts your images (or stock images) on blinds and wallpaper, we got a bedroom decorated for a friend's 4-year-old son. (Pictured here).

The company now does flooring too, so I'm planning to get the lobby and other areas of my office covered with custom flooring.

What we liked: Limitless choice in images -- use your own, or images you can buy from any online source. Printed Space has partnerships with a number of stock image sources, photographers and artists, so you're not going to end up with the same all-too-obvious images you see elsewhere.

Fully customized to your space. These are not posters. I've had other canvases made by online poster vendors, but they've been just that -- posters printed on canvas. These are images that can be enlarged, cropped, rotated, whatever, to suit the space you're trying to decorate. Printed Space gave us advice about planning around windows, doors, light switches and power outlets. You pay no extra for this design service.

I couldn't be happier with the quality of their work.

I've also used it successfully to make a huge pan of mac and cheese (mixing the roux/bechamel right in the pan on the stove), and I use it often for large batches of braised lamb shanks and short ribs. In the latter, the low wide design encourages a lot of reduction of the braising liquid to yield a more flavorful sauce.

The extra large size is unwieldy - before buying, make sure it fits in your oven and sink. Although the curved design also makes it very easy to clean with a brush (there are no sharp corners for gunk to get stuck in), this size barely fits in my sink.

And while I love the extra large one and it's great at what it does, it is a bit of a beast to get out (but indispensable if you need the capacity). I've spent the last year wondering how I could justify spending the money for the large version as well, and they made it easier for me by recently releasing an even smaller and cheaper version for roasting chickens.

This one is essentially the same pan in a smaller form factor which makes it much more convenient if you don't need the larger capacity. This has quickly become my standard everyday pan for most things. It also comes with a suspension arm for cooking a chicken elevated.

I've experimented with the suspension arm a bit, which I initially dismissed. At least in my oven, which is not a convection oven, breast side up is a disaster. Not enough heat reaches the bottom, and the white meat gets overcooked while the thighs stay very undercooked. Breast-side down, however, gives outstanding results. Twice in a row, I've gotten evenly cooked meat (very tender and juicy breast meat, properly cooked thighs) and crispy skin, with no added oil or basting (just salt and pepper or a dry rub). The suspension arm can be a little testy. If it's jostled too much, the whole chicken will fall into the pan. It's a bit of work to get it put back up, but it does actually yield good results with less work overall.

Regardless of which size is right for you, these are just great roasting pans, and I highly recommend them. The images are pretty deceptive with respect to the size differences and it's difficult to judge from the picture how big they actually are. It's worth a trip to the store to see which size is actually best for you.

All-Clad Ultimate Chicken Roaster
$180 (14 1/2" x 11 3/4" x 2 1/2" high)
Available from Williams Sonoma

While I own a variety of Chaco sandals, I primarily wear the general purpose Z/1.The primary advantage of these sandals is their unique means of attachment to your foot; a single slide buckle. The strap for the front of the sandal is one continuous length that is threaded through slots in the sole. You initially adjust the sandal to your feet by pulling until you’ve got the fit you want. You then take the sandal off and on by using the slide buckle. To put the sandal on you slip in your foot and pull down on the buckle strap. To loosen the strap to remove the sandal you pull up on the buckle bottom. This is so easy and natural to do that with reasonable balance you can take them on and off while standing on one foot, then the other. This design provides a superbly comfortable fit, primarily through the elimination of the typical stiff Velcro closures.

Another feature of all Chaco sandals is their unique contoured footbed. First, it has an aggressive arch support (that the manufacturer claims counters pronation). Second, it has a deep heel cup that helps your foot stay centered. For my foot, they are more comfortable than any other shoe I have ever worn. This is, of course, a very personal observation, and you should probably try a pair on before buying. Also, the company has recently switched to a newer footbed material that I haven’t yet tried.

While they aren’t marketed as such, I consider them a hiking sandal. They have a stiff Vibram sole with a very aggressive tread, just like what you’d find on a hiking boot. The slightly oversize footbed protects toes from being stubbed. I wear them for everything: strolling around town, driving, canoeing, biking and hiking. In all these roles they are every bit as comfortable as well-fitting shoes, while also providing the glorious open-air experience. As added bonuses, they float, and can be re-webbed or re-soled.

When I travel to warm countries this is the only shoe I pack. My sandals have experienced Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Death Valley and Petra. The only concession I make for exceptional conditions is to also pack a pair of lightweight neoprene socks. The only place I seldom wear the sandals is hiking in heavily forested areas, where exposed tree roots can be toe-killers.

In the (previously reviewed) Keens, your feet are quite confined, and I can't imagine that they feel anything like sandals. I don't really think of the Keens as sandals; they are really quick-dry athletic shoes with cut-outs. The Keen's soles are similar to those of an athletic shoe, while the Chaco's are more similar to the soles on hiking boots. I wouldn't want to do any serious hiking or rock scrambling, where stiff soles are important, in the Keens.

The Keens definitely offer better toe protection. Still, I've put many hundreds of hiking and biking miles on my Chacos and have never once stubbed my toe. I think that the thick, oversize soles are what provide the protection. If you don't seek the open-air feeling of true sandals such as the Chacos, the Keens would be a fine choice for everyday use. However, for serious hiking and river travel, Chacos are the answer.

As far as cost, the sandals list for $95, but annual design updates result in numerous Internet closeout opportunities in the early spring, and I’ve never paid more than $65 for a pair.

They come in various sizes (12 oz. to 40 oz.) and the 18 oz size fits nicely in a bicycle bottle cage. I take mine through airport security empty and fill it on the other side.

One way this chair saves weight is by eliminating the two front legs; you lean back in it as you would when tipping a chair back on its hind legs, using your own legs for control and balance. At first I thought this would be tiring, but it really isn't. Nearly all of my weight rests comfortably in the seat, with the kind of lumbar support I need. When collapsed, the Monarch fits into not much more space than a water bottle, and it weighs only 18 oz. At least as importantly, it's simple to set up and it seems very solidly constructed.

I've had problems with foam seats such as the Crazy Creek chairs because the stress points don't hold up well to repeated use. And another chair I've used, the GCI Trail-Sling (no longer made, though still available through some online stores) is a light, comfortable chair, but it can be a little tricky to set up and doesn't seem likely to hold up to too much wear and tear. I still have a couple Trail-Slings, but I believe they'll get left behind in favor of the Monarch going forward.

The Monarch's legs are sturdy milled aluminum poles, connected with shock cords like tent poles, and seem designed for years of use. Similarly, the seat appears thoughtfully shaped to minimize possible points of failure, and the pockets into which the poles fit are thick and reinforced beyond what I've come to expect from most consumer outdoor gear. Really, the whole chair has a feeling of quality and craftsmanship. It's not inexpensive at $60, but I find it's worth it.

Manufactured by Alite Designs

Epicurious is my go-to recipe site; I've used it for four years. One of the aspects I like most about it is the user comments. Because the site is older, most recipes have at least a handful of comments, and I've found that most users leave really helpful feedback (usually suggestions for how to scale or tweak recipes). However, it's also very easy to ignore user comments if you just want to stick to the original recipe. I usually cook from printed versions of the recipes (rather than bringing my laptop in the kitchen), and Epicurious offers several options for the size of the printed page, whether or not images are included, and even the option to print a separate shopping list.

Most recipes come from Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines (the site is owned by Conde Nast). Some come from cookbooks published by Random House, with whom Epicurious has some kind of republication agreement, it seems. Some have also been reprinted from other cookbooks, with permission. In addition to the 25,000 recipes from these professional resources, they also boast 50,000 member-submitted recipes. Epicurious is the online food site to beat.

Cookstr publishes recipes by professional chefs, including Mario Batali, Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, Jacques Pepin, Michael Recchiuti, Mark Bittman, and on and on. In addition to recipes, the site also provides informative profiles for each chef. Features are fairly minimal, with a video section still under development, but I do like the simplicity of the site. Site registration allows you to save and comment on recipes. Although Cookstr only has a few recipes from each chef, it's the closest thing to a massively cross-cook[book] database I've found. I hope it grows.

I learned about Food52 when the New York Times ran a round-up of new, crowd-sourced food sites. The hook of this site, founded by two food writers, is that every week there's a theme-based competition; after a year of these contests, the winning recipes will be collected in a book. Any registered user can compete in the competitions, the founders select finalists and post slideshows of them testing the recipes, and then users vote for a winner. The focus of the site is the contests, and all recipes submitted for the contests are accessible, but registered users can upload any type of recipe. Although there is a pretty sizable diversity of recipes on the site, I most often use it when I'm looking for inspiration to try something new, not when I have a few keystone ingredients I'm trying to hang together.

Serious Eats is another curated food community with some social features, including a set of forums, and original video content in addition to a large collection of recipes. Recipes come largely from featured cookbook writers and chefs, but also the wider community base (in the forums). It's more inclusive than Food52, because of its forums, and it's more polyphonous because its cast of contributors is quite long and revolving. However, it's less inclusive in the sense that the Recipes section of the site is limited to those curated by contributors (mostly recipes from featured books and chefs).

Foodbuzz is a network of foodbloggers (more than 10,000). They offer a set of services for "featured publishers," including ad management and other perks, as well as several social networking-type features for individual users. Foodbuzz is one of the few sites I've found that actually aggregates recipes from across the web. You can submit links to recipes to be indexed, and you can also submit recipes for direct publication at the site. It displays some characteristics of a curated site in as much as it highlights recipes from members of its featured publishers network, but overall it's quite open since anyone can submit a recipe or recipe link.

Epicurious, Cookstr, Food52, SeriousEats, and Foodbuzz are my favorite recipe aggregators. To reduce my search load even further, I've created a custom Google search engine that queries these sites in addition to a few of my favorite individual sources (you can see it here).

If you carry it in your tennis bag you can use it to extend the life of your strings, though obviously not indefinitely. It’s essential if you have only one racket and you don’t want to sit any games out.

Eagle Creek makes a handful of practical accessories for space-saving and orderly packing. Their Pack-It Folders compress lots of shirts, pants or skirts into a compact, wrinkle-free stack. And their Cubes are ideal for organizing underwear and socks while compressing them and maximizing space. They also offer Compression Sacs, giant Ziploc-like bags with one-way air valves that can compress your dirties into a fraction of their uncompressed size. All of these accessories work quite well with other brands of luggage; they are by no means specific to Eagle Creek.

Another reason I’ve chosen Eagle Creek: the company’s products are extremely rugged and have a lifetime warranty. I took them up on their warranty on a bag that got slashed. I live in San Diego and found that I could just take it by their headquarters rather than mail it in. They gave me a new bag, no questions asked.

Just to qualify as an experienced traveler, I’ve accumulated more than 6 million lifetime miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage program, more than two million on United, and a million on two or three others.

Available from Amazon

Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Folder 20 Organizer
$30

Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Eagle Creek

Please accept my apologies for not publishing this notice sooner. When we discovered the issue, we immediately and completely locked down site publishing for the clean-up and initial diagnosis, hence the silence on our end. I do want to address a couple of specific concerns you may have. The malware that the hackers injected onto the site was located in an invisible link -- this is not something you could have accidentally "clicked on." So visiting Cool Tools would not put you in any danger of malware. The reason these folks embed links in high-traffic sites like this in order to get higher page ranks from Google. Second, our sys admin has tested the site extensively on multiple machines, both Windows and OSX -- all of our machines remain uninfected.

We're continuing site updates this weekend and should be back to a normal publishing schedule Monday morning. You may notice some lag time in comment publication until then. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience, and our thanks and appreciation for your concern.

-- CC

Online source for 3D table maps from around the world
Best Satellite phone rental service
Pro-quality online photo printing service with poster-size print capabilities
Company that turns your photo or other design into wallpaper
Best emergency hand-crank/solar radio
Best backpack for hiking with a toddler on board
Best beginner's field guide to North American insects
Best guide to growing medicinal herbs

What do you use and love? Tell us about it. Tell me about it: elon {at} schoenholz.com

Keith Smith’s book is completely different. He illustrates basic techniques that can be used to create a wide variety of bindings. He encourages the binder to explore how books move, how structural variations influence that movement, and how both movement and structure can lead the binder to fully engage the creative intent of the author’s work. He is even more enthusiastic about the possibilities for binders who are the creators of content or those who we now call book artists.

I started bookbinding in 1991 and Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Bookbinding was the first manual I ever bought. As Smith required very few tools and almost no equipment, I was able immediately to start making dozens of books based on his instructions. His drawings of often complex sewing patterns sometimes confused me (and sometimes still do!), but after having now tried to illustrate bookbinding or repair techniques of my own, I’m amazed at how much he conveys so clearly.

It has become more apparent to me with time and experience that his book is a deeper resource than it may first appear. While his methods are simple and often result in astonishingly modern looking bindings, his book is profoundly informed by historical methods and models. Unlike a bookbinding manual that represents a defined tradition, he uses the knowledge of earlier binders to encourage new binders to create their own paths.

Smith’s Non-Adhesive Binding may be almost 20 years old, but it remains a vital resource for bookbinders, book artists, and anyone who wants to creatively understand the book form.

It would appear that at one extreme, the content is quite separate from the process of binding. For me, nothing could be farther from ideal. I sometimes think about the physical object. There is concrete space between words and/or pictures. Movement is constructed through content, which determines the rate of turning pages.

*

*

*

ASA-NO-HA TOJI
Hemp-Leaf Binding

*

A book can be created through a play upon the action of turning a page. Indeed, a lifetime's work can have as one under-pinning the exploration of what physically transpires in turning the page. Becoming involved and excited about any aspect of the physical book can reveal potential which, once understod, can easily be expanded as theme.... A book grows out of an understanding of its inherent properties, rather than the inclusion of outside elements. Conception springs from the physical format, evolving into a realized book.

I had a terrible experience with the Oxo mug. It was impossible to clean due to the enclosed design of the lid, and eventually accumulated way too much gunk inside for me to be comfortable using it. The lid on Contigo’s mug is fairly open and easy to clean, and the entire thing is dishwasher safe, though they also sell a model with a colored body that isn't. They sell replacement lids for $7 if you have a problem, but I've been using four of them for over a year in heavy rotation with no issues.

Contigo also makes plastic smaller containers for kids and larger water bottles (both of which are BPA-free) with the same Autoseal design.

The Lenspen’s other end, has "a special non-liquid cleaning element" that can be used for more aggressive cleaning. Wipe it over the lens and magically watch fingerprints disappear. The manufacturer explains that there’s a carbon compound under the cap that cleans lenses much like the ink in newspaper works to clean glass. It does work. It can be used many times over, as long as every time you put the cap back on and rotate it, to clean and recharge the pad.

This has become my most used cleaning tool, second only to the Giottos Rocket Blaster. And the two complement each other: while the Lenspen works to clean the glass surfaces of the lens and the camera’s lens mount, I use the Rocket to remove dust from the sensor.