Best Of MetaFilter

Prison by Igwigg (cc by-nc-nd)

In Ask Metafilter, If Johnny Cash's character in Folsom Prison Blues shot a man in Reno, which is in Nevada, why was he serving time in Folsom Prison, which is in California?

"The real collection of patterns is the physical collection. Envelopes are individually sleeved and kept safe in 3-ring Binders. This web page, the digital images of the patterns, are put in place so other people can enjoy these wonderful patterns": cardioid has posted abstractcollage.com's amazing collection of over 500 security envelope patterns — designs printed on the inside of envelopes to obscure the contents of snail mail.

gingerbeer points out Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular Music" in this week's free thread. "Playboy asked a select group of musicians to choose their ten favorite songs of the past millennium. Richard Thompson, believing what Playboy REALLY wanted were only songs from the last 20 years, took them literally. He gave Playboy EXACTLY what they asked for. He chose the best songs of the last 1000 years. Thompson never heard from them again."

modified from an original image from Gareth Simpson on flickr

In Ask Metafilter, Not A Thing is looking for Skilful criminals criming skilfully: "Donald Westlake/Parker fans, what have you found that scratches a similar itch? I'm looking for something where a criminal is at the center of the story: no cops, wannabe cops or vigilantes. Like a police procedural, but for the other side."

Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash

There's a growing band of people digging through library stacks and second-hand bookshops in search of lost classics. I'm one of them. Wobbuffet posted Lucy Scholes' Meet the archive moles about surfacing worthy forgotten or overlooked books for reprint, with links to houses publishing recovered works.

Image via neal.fun

Google Street View, curated: Having fun with Neal Agarwal's "Wonders of Street View."

Illustration by Toby Morris via The Spinoff

Etrigan has posted The Side Eye: The Stink A, linking to The Spinoff's really well-done and fascinating infographic on "the glitchy macron" that highlights how font decisions and usage can have an outsized impact on non-Anglo populations.