HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

It's that time already! New Year's Eve 2019! And it's time to open that other gift, the one I've promised for so long now: Monopoly Millennium, Collector's Edition.

Merry Christmas, one and all!

It's time to open your present: The "Millenniumopoly" board game!

Happy Seventh Anniversary!

Next Sunday...WE HIT LUCKY SEVEN!

Yes, it's true! The Millennium Museum will celebrate its seventh anniversary next Sunday!

I can hardly believe it myself. At the beginning, it seemed like something that would last a couple of months until I found a proper job. Yet here we are, still going strong.

Cheers and happy birthday!

Coming January 2020: A commentary track for "The World Is Not Enough"

Last New Year's Day, I tried to write an in-depth review of the James Bond movie "The World Is Not Enough." It didn't go too well, so this year I'm going to try something new: my own commentary track.

Stay tuned!

Cristal d'Arques Millennium Champagne Flutes

We're a little over two weeks away from saying au revoir to 2019, and I hope you're using this time to stock up on things you'll need, like party hats and champagne flutes.

Speaking of champagne flutes, how about these?

I bought these, box and all, from eBay this past June. The box is about all I have to say for them, because they arrived in a million pieces. At least the seller refunded me as soon as I showed him the proof. 

Right. Griping out of the way; let's get on with the history lesson. 

The parent company, Arc International, began producing handmade glassware and crystal in 1825 as Verrerie Cristallerie d'Arques. For simplicity's sake, I shall call it Arc from here on.

 Arc grew and innovated in the 1930s when it imported American glass-blowing machines and other equipment, then unheard of in a Europe still rebuilding after World War I. This ultimately led to the founding of Cristal d'Arques in 1968, the first company to automate crystal stemware. 

Arc is still producing glassware and fine crystal to this day, and their latest products employ cutting-edge science to provide consumers with ever finer and more durable goods. 

...Which leads us back to these fine flutes. They were much larger and more finely-made than the other 2000 flutes I've featured. For one thing, the zeroes are hollow rather than filled-in, and they look rather more like they were carved from ice than turned from lead-crystal; for another, these things--or at least what I could hold on to--were heavy. If treated well, they could conceivably last for decades.