On Returning to Childhood Hobbies

I really enjoyed this Cup of Jo essay about the pleasure of coming back to childhood hobbies as an adult:

The student in the session before mine is a hedge-fund guy in his 50s, and we giggle at each other in the doorway between our two lessons, as if we’re seeing through the graying hair and trench coats and wedding rings to greet our promising, 16-year-old selves.

I know I’ve mentioned this here before, but my own life transformed when I got back into what I loved as a kid (drawing!). I picked it up when I stopped drinking, and it’s since become one of the cornerstones of my day.

And then on the other end of the spectrum are the hobbies we discover in mid-life, when there’s less expectation of doing “well” or of turning anything into a career, and those rule, too. It’s never too late!

• hobbies

The world’s largest ball of paint is

The world’s largest ball of paint is a baseball covered in 19,100 coats of paint, weighs 1700 pounds, and has taken 28 1/2 years to get to this stage.

• hobbies
• world records

A history and examination of paint by number

A history and examination of paint by number. “It invited people who had never before held a paintbrush to enter a world of art and creativity.”

• art
• hobbies
• paintbynumber
• painting

The decline of the baseball card industry

The decline of the baseball card industry. I collected in the late 80s, early 90s. It became a lot less fun when the companies started releasing special editions in limited quantities just to drive up value and demand artificially.

• baseball cards
• business
• donruss
• fleer
• hobbies
• sports
• topps
• upperdeck