smart & curious

A list of intriguing things

• A Kerala startup has developed an app called BevQ to tackle those rugby-sized scrums outside liquor stores. Now we all can virtually queue up instead.
• Speaking of apps, the Remote Cheerer developed by Yamaha allows fans following a match on TV, the radio or online to cheer or boo players—and be heard loud and clear in the stadium.
• ‘Mrs Doubtfire’ is getting a socially distanced makeover on Broadway. Its choreographer has taken out “anything involving people being very close to each other.”
• So we couldn’t watch Elon Musk launch NASA astronauts into space thanks to bad weather. But we can still admire these Mandalorian-esque space suits.

Short list of good reads

• BBC talks to Martin Scorcese about the anxiety and freedom of making a short movie in isolation. Yes, he made a movie!
• Washington Post has a fun piece on how lockdowns have changed recipe purists: Optional is the new buzzword in culinary gyaan!
• We greatly enjoyed this first-person read in Indian Express: How the pandemic broke long-held religious (and gendered) rules in Muslim homes.
• So how did Victorian women work out? In corsets and according to a guide written by a man, of course. Atlas Obscura has more.