實際上是為太空計劃發明的，然後找到了商業應用？

你們中的一些人可能熟悉麥克斯威尼的《關注季刊》，人們很想將其描述為一本文學期刊，但這個詞很難準確地描述它。

1970s was cutting-edge? Yet they managed to send two probes out of the solar system, Voyager 1 and 2. And they’re still going.output:

20 世紀 70 年代是前沿？然而他們成功地將兩個探測器——航海家一號和二號——送出了太陽系。

Boxing Day: McSweeney’s Celebrates 25 Years with a Lunchbox Issue

節禮日：McSweeney's 推出午餐盒慶祝成立 25 週年

Some of you may be familiar with McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, which one is tempted to describe as a literary journal, but that term hardly does it justice. Sure, it regularly (well, quarterly) publishes new literary fiction in an honest-to-goodness physical edition, but one of their hallmarks is using print in unusual and creative ways. They say:

你們中的一些人可能熟悉麥克斯威尼的《關注季刊》，人們很想將其描述為一本文學期刊，但這個詞很難準確地描述它。當然，它定期（好吧，每季）以誠實的實體版出版新的文學小說，但他們的標誌之一是以不尋常和創造性的方式使用印刷品。他們說：

Ever changing, each issue of the quarterly is completely redesigned (there have been hardcovers and paperbacks, an issue with two spines, an issue with a magnetic binding, an issue that looked like a bundle of junk mail, and an issue that looked like a sweaty human head), but always brings you the very best in new literary fiction.

季刊不斷變化，每一期都經過徹底重新設計（有精裝本和平裝本、有兩個書脊的期刊、有磁性裝訂的期刊、看起來像一捆垃圾郵件的期刊、還有看起來像出汗的人頭），但總是為您帶來新文學小說中最好的作品。

And now they are celebrating their 25th anniversary by publishing their 74th issue as a lunchbox. Says Printmagazine:

現在，他們以午餐盒的形式出版了第 74 期，以慶祝成立 25 週年。印刷雜誌說：

McSweeney’s developed, designed, and produced a retro tin lunchbox with a “cover” illustrated by Art Spiegelman (author of the graphic novel Maus). The tin is filled with “author baseball cards,” among other thoughtfully designed trinkets.

麥克斯威尼開發、設計和生產了一款復古錫製午餐盒，其「封面」由阿特·斯皮格曼（圖像小說《鼠族》的作者）繪製。罐子裡裝滿了“作者棒球卡”以及其他精心設計的小飾品。

The author baseball cards feature a lineup of literary giants, including Sheila Heti, Hanif Abdurraqib, George Saunders, Sarah Vowell, Michael Chabon, Eileen Myles, and more. The pencils feature original pieces by Lydia Davis, Catherine Lacey, and David Horvitz printed on them, with meaning designed to change as you use the pencil. Additional art rounds out the 25th-anniversary issue, in which Art Spiegelman teases out images from random watercolor inkblots.

作者棒球卡上有一系列文學巨匠，包括希拉·赫蒂(Sheila Heti)、哈尼夫·阿卜杜拉奇布(Hanif Abdurraqib)、喬治·桑德斯(George Saunders)、莎拉·沃威爾( Sarah Vowell、邁克爾·查邦(Michael Chabon)、艾琳·邁爾斯(Eileen Myles) 等。這些鉛筆印有莉迪亞·戴維斯(Lydia Davis)、凱瑟琳·萊西(Catherine Lacey) 和大衛·霍維茨(David Horvitz) 的原創作品，其含義會隨著您使用鉛筆的變化而變化。 25 週年紀念特刊還增添了更多藝術作品，其中阿特·斯皮格曼 (Art Spiegelman) 從隨機的水彩墨跡中梳理出圖像。

Pretty neat. Pick up a copy here.

很簡約。在這裡領取一份副本。

Dime Novel: Ray Bradbury Typed ‘The Fireman’ on a Coin-Operated Typewriter

廉價小說：雷·布拉德伯里在投幣式打字機上打字“消防員”

Once upon a time, if you were an aspiring writer and couldn’t afford your own typewriter, there were actually coin-operated typewriters in places like libraries, hotels, train stations, etc. Says Boing Boing:

曾幾何時，如果你是一名有抱負的作家，但買不起自己的打字機，圖書館、酒店、火車站等地方實際上都有投幣式打字機。

To use the typewriter, you would insert a coin or token, and it would unlock for a specific period of time. Once the time was up, the machine would lock again, requiring another coin to continue typing. Typically, these typewriters had a timer mechanism that would stop the carriage return when time ran out, ensuring that users paid for every minute of use.

要使用打字機，您需要插入一枚硬幣或代幣，它會在特定的時間內解鎖。時間一到，機器就會再次鎖定，需要再投一枚硬幣才能繼續打字。通常，這些打字機有一個計時器機制，當時間用完時，它會停止回車，確保使用者為每分鐘的使用付費。

You can imagine how frustrating that would be if you were on a roll and out of coins. About as frustrating as…using a typewriter these days, perhaps. But any port in a storm, and one famous author who started humbly on a coin-operated typewriter was Ray Bradbury.

你可以想像，如果你一路順風，卻沒有硬幣，那將是多麼令人沮喪。也許就像…現在使用打字機一樣令人沮喪。但在暴風雨中的任何港口，雷·布拉德伯里（Ray Bradbury）都是一位謙卑地開始使用投幣式打字機的著名作家。

In 1949, Ray Bradbury typed a short story, "The Fireman," on a coin-operated typewriter. He spent $9.80, which is equivalent to around $110 today, over a span of nine days in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library to complete his manuscript. The story was the bases for his novel, Fahrenheit 451.

1949 年，雷‧布拉德伯里 (Ray Bradbury) 在投幣式打字機上打出了一篇短篇小說《消防員》。他在加州大學洛杉磯分校鮑威爾圖書館的地下室花費了 9.80 美元，相當於今天的 110 美元左右，花了 9 天時間完成了他的手稿。這個故事是他的小說《華氏 451 度》的基礎。

If you have a few hundred euro to drop, you can bid on an IBM coin-operated electric typewriter from 1954.

如果你有幾百歐元的錢，你可以競標一台 1954 年生產的 IBM 投幣式電動打字機。

To be cheeky, you could pay for it in dimes.

厚臉皮地說，你可以用一毛錢支付。

Excel-lent Gaming: The World Championship of Competitive Microsoft Excel Spreadsheeting

卓越遊戲：Microsoft Excel 試算表競技世界錦標賽

Here’s the perfect sport for WhatTheyThink’s client engagement coordinator and data wrangler Debbie P.: competitive Microsoft Excel spreadsheeting. We kid you not. The Verge takes a look at the Excel World Championship games, held in Las Vegas. What exactly does competitive spreadsheeting entail?

對於 What TheyThink 的客戶參與協調員和資料管理員 Debbie P. 來說，這是一項完美的運動：競爭性的 Microsoft Excel 電子表格。我們沒有騙你。 The Verge 報導了在拉斯維加斯舉行的 Excel 世界錦標賽。競爭性電子表格到底意味著什麼？

At 6PM on the dot, Andrew Grigolyunovich, the founder and CEO of the Financial Modeling World Cup

下午 6 點準時，金融建模世界盃創辦人兼執行長 Andrew Grigolyunovich

Also, apparently, a thing. Who knew? We continue.

顯然，還有一件事。誰知道？我們繼續。

the organization hosting these championships, takes the modular stage in the ballroom. He loads an unlisted YouTube link, which begins explaining today’s challenge, known as a “case.” It’s a puzzle called “Potions Master,” and it goes roughly like this: You’re training to be a potions master in Excelburg, but you’re terrible at it. You have a number of ingredients, each of which has a certain number of associated points; your goal is to get the most points in each potion before it explodes, which it does based on how much of a white ingredient you’ve added.

主辦這些錦標賽的組織在宴會廳採用模組化舞台。他加載了一個未公開的 YouTube 鏈接，該鏈接開始解釋今天的挑戰，稱為“案例”。這是一個名為「魔藥大師」的謎題，內容大致是這樣的：你在 Excelburg 接受訓練，成為一名魔藥大師，但你的表現卻很糟糕。您有多種成分，每種成分都有一定數量的關聯點；你的目標是在每種藥水爆炸之前獲得最多的分數，這取決於你添加了多少白色成分。

OK, that’s not even remotely what we would have expected, which would have been something like “format a y-axis for a chart of unemployment claims during a pandemic.” Apparently not.

好吧，這根本不是我們所期望的，這就像「為大流行期間失業申請圖表設定 y 軸格式」。顯然不是。

The Potions Master case, like so many of the puzzles conquered by these competitive Excelers, is not

魔藥大師案，就像這些有競爭力的卓越者所解決的許多難題一樣，並不是