(Roughly) Daily

There are moments, Art Ledbedev observes, when one just needs the juice…

Vilcus plug dactyloadapter

Ledbedev (whom pre-blog readers may recall), is ready to oblige:

Many people get a kick out of direct contact with AC power supply. To that end, people normally use U-shaped fragments of bare wire, paper clips or even usual metal forks. All these gimmicks are unreliable, short-lived and, most importantly, tend to cause  short-circuit failure  or even inflammation.

Vilcus dactyloadapter was developed specially for people who enjoy closing electrical circuits with their own fingers.

More info and pix here; one can order ones own here.

As we brace ourselves for the jolt, we might commiserate with Irish playwright, politician, and impressario Richard Brindsley Sheridan; his Theatre Royal Drury Lane, in London, burned to the ground on this date in 1809.  The structure was in fact the third theatre to stand on that location, starting at the end of the Puritan Interregnum.  It hosted productions of works by Beaumont and Fletcher, Davenant, Dryden, and Sheridan himself (School for Scandal); it was home to stage giants like Nell Gwynne and David Garrick (who was, before, Sheridan, an owner).  The current Theatre Royal– the fourth– opened in 1812 on the same site.

Sheridan is reputed to have said,when found drinking a glass of wine in the street while watching the fire, “A man may surely be allowed to take a glass of wine by his own fireside.”

Sheridan’s theatre, pre-ignition

The fire, as seen from Westminster Bridge