The words "New" and "York " can sell just about anything. Artist Justin Gignac is collecting rubbish from New York streets, popping it into plastic boxes and selling them on the web.
All garbage has an NY theme : metro tickets, take-out containers or leftovers from a Yankees game. The boxes cost $50 (€40) or $100 (€80) from www.nycgarbage.com Nicoline Greer
A nation at play
Hard to imagine life before the superpub? Well, the one thing that hasn't changed in the past few centuries is that we Irish certainly know how to have a good time, as demonstrated by a major exhibition opening this week at the National Gallery of Ireland. A Time and a Place: Two Centuries of Irish Social Life shows the Irish enjoying all sorts of activities, including sport, music, dance, theatre, religious ceremonies and pilgrimages.
It features more than 80 paintings from the 18th to the 20th century by the likes of Muriel Brandt, Sean Keating, Jack B Yeats and Louis Le Brocquy. The exhibition opens in the Millennium Wing on Wednesday and continues until January 28th, 2007. Tickets cost €10/€6. For more details call 01-6633513 or see www.nationalgallery.ie. Eimear McKeith
How cock-ups go down
"It's the little things that trip you up," former taoiseach Albert Reynolds once said. How right he was, as proved by Donough O'Brien's new book, Banana Skins, which contains tales of "lust and love" and "lies and treachery" that have been the undoing of princes, politicians and personalities throughout history.
Jonathan Aitken (who writes the foreword to the book) is deemed to be the victim of "pride and inattention" for allowing Saudi business interests to foot the bill for his stay at the Paris Ritz, thus providing the evidence to bring down his libel case, send him bankrupt and land him in prison for perjury.
"Sloth and inattention" is blamed for Archduke Franz Ferdinand's misfortune in taking the wrong route through Sarajevo and being assassinated by an opportunist gunman. For Gary Kildall, the man who should have been home when IBM executives called with a deal, but who went flying instead, resulting in IBM offering the contract to Bill Gates. Mind how you go. Banana Skins by Donough O'Brien, published by Liberties Press, €14.99. Nicoline Greer
Souped up and ready to go
Cully and Sully, the entrepreneurial makers of ready-made pies, have brought out a range of comforting soups just in time for the chill in the air to take hold. Their customers were asking for soup, so the pair obliged and have spent the past eight months researching the range of five flavours. They have teamed up with chefs JJ Coppinger, formerly of the Malthouse Restaurant in Galway, and Ivan Whelan of Cork's Grapefruit Moon restaurant to create soups with mouthwatering names, such as Silky Smooth White Winter Vegetable Soup, Positively Pea and Distinctively Minty Soup, and Velvet Creamy Tomato and Basil Soup.
You'll find the range in the fridge department of your local convenience store. Sold in one-person portions, €2.49 each. www.cullyandsully.com. Nicoline Greer
Experimental dating
A new form of speed dating is about to put the "opposites attract" theory to the test. For "Seed Dating", artists and scientists are invited to come together to see if there's any chemistry between them - creative, rather than romantic, that is. With an increasing amount of artistic work being inspired by scientific theories, the evening will give both sides "a few minutes to talk to members of the opposite species to see if they'd like to work together", according to organisers.
Whether you call it a scientific experiment or an imaginative idea, it's sure to have intriguing results. The first Seed Dating event takes place this Tuesday at Odessa Club, 13 Dame Court, Dublin 2, 8-10.30pm. For more details call Eimear Bruen on 086-3043303. Eimear McKeith
Fiesta Mexicana
The Mero Mero team have been braving the elements at the Temple Bar Food Market for 10 years now, serving up their Mexican burritos, quesadillas and tostadas. You can join them and learn how they do it at the Cup 'n' Coin Cafe in Blackrock Market and the Tree House Cafe in Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, as they cook up their "La Tamalada" meal of taquitos and tamales (maize dumplings with savoury or sweet fillings) finished off with tequila sangrita, or the "La Veracruzana" meal of enchiladas and red snapper.
You'll get to enjoy the meal and go away with recipes for all of the dishes and a gift bag of chillies and spices. Classes cost €60 and are on October 17th and 18th and November 1st and 7th. Contact Theresa Hernandez on 086-3534369. Nicoline Greer
That takes the biscuit
Have you ever wondered what goes into dog treats? I mean what exactly are those "meat and animal derivatives" mentioned on the package? Trust me, you don't want to know. The Dublin-based Scallywags Dog Bakery, however, uses only "human quality, natural ingredients". And we're talking healthy, gourmet-standard stuff: organic flours, herbs, honey, cold pressed pure vegetable oils, Parmesan cheese and free-range eggs. The biscuits contain no added salt, saturated fats or refined sugars. They're reassuringly bland for human tastes (well, we had to try them all: Peanut Butter, Oatees and Barley Bites). Man's best friends wolf them up too, and sit nicely, asking for more.
The biscuits, which come in a range of shapes and pack sizes, are available at the new Red Stables food market in St Anne's Park, Clontarf, Dublin 3, on Saturdays (10-5pm), from Gardenworks, Malahide, selected veterinary clinics, and via an on-line "doggy bag" ordering system. www.scallywags.ie. Jane Powers