Perigee Bookmarks is run by the editors of Perigee, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA). Like our books, every post offers useful, useless, curious, or creative insights on everyday life.
Wreck This App
The endlessly fun and creative app based on Wreck This Journal.
I’m traveling to our nation’s capital this week (a decidedly inopportune time considering the blisteringly hot temperatures in Washington, DC, lately), and as a history buff I’m pretty excited to spend a few days gazing at the White House and roaming the Smithsonian, the Newseum, and the Library of Congress – yes, I am a huge nerd.
Luckily I will be armed with a vast array of knowledge that will serve me well in our capital city. Thanks to Perigee’s extensive collection of trivia and reference titles, I already know that:
The Pentagon was built with about twice as many bathrooms as would have been expected for a building of its size to comply with Virginia’s then-legal code that required racial segregation of public buildings. (from Sorry, Wrong Answer)
Foggy Bottom is not, in fact, a highly amusing insult, but the name of one of DC’s oldest neighborhoods, dating back to the 1700s and prone to river fog from the nearby Potomac. (from Wicked Good Words)
Rosa Parks was the first woman to ever lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda when she died in 2005. The catafalque that is used for anyone who lays in state there is the same one that was hastily constructed in 1865 to support the casket of Abraham Lincoln, and is stored in the never-used Washington’s Tomb when not in use. (from Morbid Curiosity)
The Washington Monument is still the tallest building in the city thanks to a 1910 building height restriction, and is also the tallest stone structure in the world. (from The Book of Useless Information)
Wherever your own travels take you, I hope you find them relaxing, affirming, and enlightening!
Today, I have been fretful and nervous and excited—running around the building like Cinderella waiting for the ball, or a young book editor waiting for the first copy of the first book she edited. But I could probably be most accurately described as a somewhat seasoned editor waiting to hear how the first app she’s worked on will be received.
This morning, Apple released our interactive foray into the app world: Wreck This App. It’s based on Keri Smith’s phenomenally successful book Wreck This Journal, and like the book, the app invites users to explore their creative tendencies—drawing, scribbling, defacing, doodling, dripping, cutting, pasting, and more—without worrying about the end result.
The book has a hugely supportive online fan base, with readers sharing pictures of their Wrecked Journals on numerous Flickr and Facebook pages. So reaching out to them and new users through an app seemed like a natural next step for us.
The process has been a surprising exploration—much like engaging in one of Keri’s books. While a lot of it felt familiar—planning content, running ideas by the higher-ups, working with a team of smart people, writing copy, talking strategy with publicists—an equally large part has been like exploring a strange and foreign land.
I’ve had to rethink what it means to edit content when the medium is different and the available functionality is different (e.g. with the app, you can virtually drip water across the page, or smear colors together, or tap “holes” into the page). We’ve had to engage testers to try out the content multiple times—looking for bugs and confusing spots—along with having the text copyedited. Our team has reframed their publicity campaign, targeting tech bloggers and planning for pieces to run on pub date (vs. working long leads—a strategy that isn’t as useful with apps, as they aren’t available for preorders).
We’re all sitting here with our fingers crossed, because unlike answering a prompt in Wreck This Journal, the end result will count. But on the other hand, like engaging in the prompts in Keri’s beautiful book, we’ve learned some stuff along the way:
1) It helps to have guides. We’ve relied heavily upon the experience Penguin had with their incredible On the Road app, from targeting reviewers to pitching the app in-house.
2) It’s also good to have a developer who gets the project. Citrus Suite developed this app for us, and they responded with more enthusiasm than we could have hoped for to every single request and idea we shared. Plus, they brought their own ideas to the table, and helped us expand our original idea to something more.
3) It’s important to have an established fan base in place. While releasing an app into the world is a risky venture, we’re hopeful that Keri’s fans will embrace it in the same way they’ve always embraced her content: imaginatively and passionately. It’s like waving goodbye to a child on the first day of school; it’s less scary when you know your kid has friends already waiting for him or her on the bus.
4) It’s fun. Watching people try out the app—from a writer at Publishers Weekly, to my boss, to my colleague down the hall who said she’d bring the iPad back after twenty minutes but kept it for forty—it has been invigorating and inspiring to see people let loose on the screen, trying and creating and wrecking, and most of all enjoying.
Our friends at Penguin en español recently published their own edition of Perigee's Images You Should Not Masturbate To. Their book trailer is as, ahem, stimulating as the book itself. Even if you're not a Spanish speaker, check it out--you may still pick up on a few things.
Images You Should Not Masturbate To is available now.
Kathie Lee Gifford's handshake was cold and clammy, and the "Today” show host knew it.
"It's hand sanitizer. I was petting a lemur!" she told us.
Of course. Of course you were. That is perhaps only the third weirdest thing that happened to us the day we discussed our book on NBC’s “Today” show.
Both of us are trained in journalism, so even when the national talk show booked us to discuss Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the 70s and 80s, we weren't sure it would actually happen. Things fall through all the time in the harried world of daily TV, and we didn't want to brag about it to our friends and family and then have to explain why we weren't on. It wasn't until our plane tickets from Minneapolis to New York were actually booked that we started to spread the word. Not everyone was impressed. Gael's mom asked "What's the Two Day Show?"
As the taping date approached, we worried about everything—from the colors of our outfits to defending against bedbugs in our Manhattan hotel room to whether it was possible to lose 30 pounds before stepping in front of cameras beaming our images to 5.5 million viewers. But our number one worry was how to get our cumbersome props, which included a 1972 Mystery Date board game and easily crushable retro Doritos, to the show. We were just planning on packing the largest suitcases we could find until the day before the trip. Standing in the parking lot on a 100-degree Midwestern day after just filming a local TV appearance, we received an email from the helpful "Today" producer who offered to let us FedEx two boxes of props to the studio overnight. First problem solved!
One prop that wasn't possible to ship was the very item in our title—frozen pudding pops. The prepackaged ones aren't easy to come by, so at the last minute, we sent the show a recipe and some plastic ice pop molds from Target.
And just to cover all our bases, we kept a few of the smaller props out of the shipment, figuring if FedEx failed us and lost both boxes, we'd still have a few things to discuss with Kathie Lee and her partner, Hoda Kotb.
We flew in on a Wednesday, and there was little time for exploring the city or a Broadway show—we were taping on Thursday for a show to air Friday. (In the summer, Kathie Lee and Hoda pretape their Friday shows so they can enjoy longer weekends.) Fortunately, each of us had a good friend in the city so we met for a group dinner and discussed the absolute weirdness that was about to occur.
Of course, there was some last-minute monkey business. Turned out we'd forgotten to pack one of the toys we'd promised, so on Thursday morning, Brian was the first customer at the Times Square Toys R Us, dashing in just as the opened the doors, buying a Barrel of Monkeys (and some extra Pop Rocks—you can never have too many), and heading back to meet Gael at 30 Rock, where the “Today” show tapes.
Friendly faces helped ease our nerves. First we met up with some of Gael's colleagues from MSNBC.com, who took a photo of us standing in front of Brian Williams' NBC Nightly News desk. And then outside the "Today” show" studios we met our fabulous and friendly editor, Meg Leder, and charming publicist, Jennifer Bernard, for the first time!
After being greeted by a page (sadly, not played by Jack McBrayer), the four of us were taken to the green room. On our way, we were serenaded by a group of teenagers singing Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” in a very Glee-like fashion. We would later meet them again in hair and makeup—yes, unlike the local TV shows we were used to, "Today" glammed us up professionally before sending us out on stage. (Gael noted that Kathie Lee's dressing room nametag read "Maestro Gifford.")
Those singing kids were there, too, and we finally figured out that they were Glee-like for a reason: they were from Oxygen network’s “Glee Project” reality show, one of whom would eventually win a recurring role on “Glee.”
Then, off to the studio. We stood backstage with crew members and also two women who had been plucked from the crowd and given Ambush Makeovers. They looked great—all the more so when their "before" photos were shown—and if you watch as one of them is brought on stage, you can sneak a peek of Brian hiding behind the door.
The props we'd so worried about had all arrived safely, and they were beautifully arranged across two wheeled tables. Most of it was stuck in place by invisible tape, so everything—even the little cars on the Game of Life board—stayed put. And at the last moment, someone pulled a crystal bowl of homemade pudding pops fresh from the freezer as a centerpiece.
And then, in swept the very friendly Hoda and Kathie Lee. They introduced themselves, made sure they could pronounce Gael’s often-tricky last name correctly, and then thanked Brian for having a relatively easier-to-pronounce one. “You’re trying to remember the ‘70s and ‘80s?” Kathie Lee deadpanned. “I’m trying to forget them.”
We joked around and chatted for a few seconds while they dealt with a camera issue (we didn’t break it, we swear), and then they launched into the segment. After we talked a bit about why we wrote the book, we led them from item to item, touching on everything from Connect Four to candy cigarettes to Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific shampoo. Hoda expressed her undying love for Quisp, so Kathie Lee scooped up a huge serving of it in a trowel-sized spoon, and jammed it into Hoda’s mouth—dry, no milk.
Then, it was over. The segment felt like it was about 30 seconds long, but we’d been talking for almost four minutes. Hoda and Kathie Lee thanked us, and we left—the Teamsters were going to pack up our props and ship them back to us. After meeting back up with Meg and Jen and hearing that we didn’t embarrass ourselves on national TV, we headed to the NBC Experience store, where Brian bought—what else?—a mug with Hoda and Kathie Lee on it.
In nearly 100-degree heat, we rushed back to the hotel, grabbed our things, and high-tailed it to the airport to catch our flight home. Due to stormy weather, we ended up sitting on the tarmac for five hours before we took off. As you’d probably expect, tensions and frustrations were running high on the plane. But two people were sitting there with goofy grins on their faces, recounting a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Can you guess who they might have been? Hint: Their hands smelled a bit like lemur.
We at Perigee have published our share of trivia books. From our #1 New York Times bestseller The Book of Useless Information to our colorful new release Learn Something Every Day, we are big fans of little facts. Who isn’t?
One of my personal favorites in the genre is Tom Cutler’s recently published compendium The Gentleman’s Bedside Companion. Intended for the last fifteen minutes of the day – “before the snoring starts,” as Tom puts it – the book is jam-packed with tidbits of history and culture that will add panache to the cocktail-party chatter of any aspiring gentleman (or lady).
Like his fellow Brits, Tom has a knack for collecting arcane facts. We Yanks prefer simplicity, clarity, and a bright, shiny future (along with winning at everything, and ice-cold beer, but I digress). Brits, on the other hand, seem to favor obscure, historical, and often highly debatable notions that can be batted around over a pint on a rainy day (if you’ve seen the movie or BBC series The Trip you know what I’m talking about).
With Independence Day behind us, I give you a sampling of bits and bobs courtesy of The Gentleman’s Bedside Companion. I hope it will make you smile, or at least not compel you to shoot off limb-endangering fireworks while singing “Born in the USA” at the top of your lungs. Let’s all try to be gentlemanly.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was banned in China in 1931 for anthropomorphism.
During WWII, the British government outlawed cuffs on trousers, to save cloth.
The modern sewing machine was invented after Elias Howe dreamt of being chased by warriors wielding spears (with holes in their tips).
TV remote controls come in six basic shape profiles, including the Captain Kirk, the Darth Vader, and the Ironing Board.
Tom Selleck wore a chevron mustache in Magnum P.I.
North America is comprised of 38 countries. (Don’t forget Saint Pierre and Miquelon.)
