Vintage Comics, Retro Signs, Emily Brontë biopic, Garden Gnomes & More: Endnotes 30 April

Every Friday, we celebrate the weekend — and all the reading and relaxing and daydreaming time ahead — with Melissa's favorite book- and travel-related links of the week. Why work when you can read fun stuff?!

This post is part of our Endnotes series.

It’s pretty hard to argue with a bakery whose name translates to ‘all in butter.’ We’ve got butter on the brain this weekend because it’s my birthday! That means we’ll be indulging in breakfast pasty from our favorite bakery in Prague and baking a cake with buttercream frosting. Tout au beurre indeed! Please take this as an invitation to treat yourself to something sweet and know that we’re sending you our Meilleurs Voeux (best wishes). (Pssst… if/when you’re in Paris, look for the straight croissants; those are the ones made with butter. If the croissant is curved, it’s made with other fats, like margarine.)

• In last week’s Endnotes, we linked to a story about the history of paper dolls. Here’s a closer look at the Torchy Brown comic strip by Jackie’ Zelda’ Ormes, the first African-American woman cartoonist.

• This essay about a two-week ‘read better’ course starts out funny and ends with deeper feelings. I loved this unprecious celebration of why reading novels is so great. ‘Unlike self-improvement books, literature isn’t full of common sense injunctions that get straight to the point, that give you the answers outright, that tell you exactly what you need to do to change your life. The books I love the most don’t give you very much direction for your own life at all. They show you different ways of looking at human problems — they teach you how to see.’

• This tiny suitcase video is so charming. Be sure to turn up the volume!

• The Signs that Make a City: ‘From stylish fonts to neon lights, the signs on the street are a measure of how much authorities care about their citizens.’

• Is it wrong that I wish I could time-travel to be part of the ‘ruthless’ Forty Elephants Gang?!

• This is so much nope for me. How ‘bout you?!

• That time when Where’s Waldo? got scandalous.

• Heads up! The role of Emily Brontë has been cast for her upcoming biopic!

• Sorta related: The Rosenbach is hosting a free online series — Sundays with Jane Eyre, starting 11 July. ‘Every Sunday from 2:00-4:00 pm (Eastern), host Edward G. Pettit and a series of cohosts will cover a chapter or two of Brontë’s novel with a conversational annotation and discussion. Together we’ll examine why and how Jane Eyre remains such a fascinating and rewarding book to read, study, and enjoy.’ Free registration and info.

• Which of these over-the-top, first-class airlines suites is your favorite? I’m leaning toward the bed and Dom Perignon on Singapore Airlines.

• This story is very striking and a bit sad — an Italian hermit (!) living alone on an island (!) for 32 years (!) is leaving his island home.

• Get in on this giveaway of The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican. ‘From London to Ireland during the 1920s, this glorious, gripping, and richly textured story takes us to the heart of the remarkable real-life story of the Guinness Girls. Descendants of the founder of the Guinness beer empire, the girls were the toast of 1920s high society, darlings of the press, with not a care in the world… Then, at a party one summer’s evening, something happens that sends shock waves through the entire household.’

• Josip Tito, the once-president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, had a super swanky private train.

• This is a heartwarming story about a man, his daughter, Chicago, and delicious hot dogs. (Can’t get to Chicago to try one of their dogs? We have a recipe for Chicago-style dogs right here.)

• This salt mine near Krakow, Poland, has been active for almost 900 years and produces about 20kg (44lbs) of salt per day. It’s decorated with an underground chapel made entirely of salt.

• Novelist Lauren Groff (author of The Monsters of Templeton) shares a new novella What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? on The New Yorker.

• The more you know: A brief history of garden gnomes.

• Elizabeth McCracken is the author of The Giant’s House. In this Q&A, she talks about her just-released short story collection The Souvenir Museum.

• Only (our excellent, pretend travel-godfather) Rick Steves could do something this corny.

Wishing you lots of things that make you laugh in spite of yourself.

Top image courtesy of Yana Fefelova/Shutterstock.