Best Of MetaFilter

image via Gabby’s Mermaid Postcards

Who among us has not at least once longed for a pink heart-shaped bathtub, a tunnel of love ride, and an underwater mermaid show? Where in America can I find these things? 🧜‍♀️

A hollow way at La Meauffe, Manche, France By Romain Bréget, CC BY-SA 4.0, By Romain Bréget, CC BY-SA 4.0

"Also known as holloways, they have inspired literary and artistic reflection, conjuring images of fantastic landscapes" ... cupcakeninja leads our path to a "serene and tranquil post" about the sunken roads of the Anthropocene. (Also, don't miss 43rdAnd9th's delightful tidbit about drovers getting geese to market)

Terrible National Park Reviews (Illustrated)

TruTone by Steve Walser (cc by-nc-nd)

The MetaFilterMusic Podcast is BACK, BABY, thanks to greenish, who has also put up a new MeFi Music Challenge, The Collaboration Station. Meanwhile back in Metatalk, want a letter in your rl mailbox? Cos you can totally get a letter. Check out chiefthe's Modern Pen Pal Project, before Kristi's Metatalktail topic sends you back, back in time, to the small moments.

$20 by Sh4rp_i (cc by)

Jessamyn has been making sponsored posts for Mefi fundraising month, and so far we have great posts on accidental isolators, Black Monday and other days of the week, Nadia Comăneci, guitar effects pedals, the first Black woman to visit every country in the world, how maps in the media make us more negative about migrants, and Hetty Green, the Witch of Wall Street.

Photo by Dina Litovsky

The co-ordinates are: 53.136107, -0.222877 ♰; Where the Amish go on holiday ⛱; Life on the Slow Train: Views of a Vanishing China 🛤; The Castles of Wales 🏰

Push to travel by whatleydude (cc by)

Peter Brathwaite recreates historic Black portraiture at home; 2020: A sheltering in place Space Odyssey; hopping back in time to Chrono Trigger; posting Cats of travels past; Star Trek, The New Regeneration: integrating the outtakes; revisiting the prescient Hollow Man; back to the future with the first science fiction story, second century AD.

Transportations by AlexRamat

Travel demand modelling is an entire (small) field, I've been doing it for 20 years... Homeboy Trouble with some great suggestions for someone looking for data and info on how people travel

Farewell to good old times 2 by elitatt (cc by)

Looking for outstanding travel clothes, shoes, accessories: in Ask Metafilter christa asks, What specific items have you found to be particularly useful when traveling?

packing... by hans s (cc by-nd)

I find myself fascinated with packing lists. I scour the Peace Corps country-specific packing lists, despite not joining the Peace Corps. I found myself fascinated with the lists of items taking on the Oregon Trail (taken, abandoned, packed, included in the game, included in the Frontier Trails Museum ...

In Ask Metafilter, Ms Vegetable asks for directions to Weirdly Specific Packing and Possession Lists

Of Monsters And Men - From Finner

In Ask MetaFilter, all the light we cannot see is looking for new / lesser known music with a travel / adventure theme ("Bonus points if the songs are European or have a European feel. They don’t have to be in English.")

Joy by __MaRiNa__ (cc by)

For the month of June, folks are posting things that bring them joy -- check out the tag JoyInJune to see the posts. Also for June, share your travel and place posts, under the tag JuneJourneys.

inside elevation by parramitta (cc by)

Why does Wyoming have such a low population compared to neighboring states? barchan explains, jeb adds: "everything in the West comes back to water".

Ever wonder what a "nor'easter" is? Check out the great answers from Seymour Zamboni, plastic_animals, and weathergal in rules of thumb for weather patterns in the USA.

Lots of different places have unique colloquial weather terms too. (Gullywashers, the foxes' wedding, and lots of wind terms again from barchan.)

Also in language surveys: What are some antiquated place nicknames (like the Borscht Belt)? What do other languages call it when your foot "falls asleep"?

Different cultures also have their own languages of flower-meanings. Plus some cool info from sukeban on how new imported flowers like roses made their way into kimono designs in the late 19th century.

For geography/history detectives: How can I tell, just from clues in the document itself, when a world map was made or figure out when a photograph was taken?

Did you see the new photos from the formerly-hidden-from-visitors North Korean subway system?

Some great answers in travel threads recently: Italy: non-traditional but amazing?, and also Scotland: what not to miss.

The Green Book

We're working on some neat ideas for a project around these materials -- not quite ready for me to link to, but if anyone wants access to the OCR data of the page images, or anything like that, just let me know!

Cool! NYPL Labs' Josh Hadro (who also happens to be Mefi's own Hadroed) shows up in the thread for MonkeyToes' great post about the now digitized "Green Book" travel guide that provided black motorists with peace of mind while they drove through a country where racial segregation was the norm.

Hawaii by tico_manudo (cc by-nc-nd)

My family and I are planning a trip to Hawaii, but we don't know where to even start.

Kathryn gives great, detailed advice for visitors to the Aloha State.