Silly Season's Farewell Tour

We’re nearly at the end of “silly season,” those once-upon-a-time late-summer weeks when everybody went on vacation, and there was precious little going on anywhere that was newsworthy of people’s serious attention. August was the traditional time for newspapers to put out fun, silly, attention-grabbing stories to boost lagging readership during the late-summer news drought.

Cut to 2026 when we are bombarded with news — mostly dire or maddening — every waking moment of every day. We desperately deserve a break from most of it, and our recent stories on here were meant to do just that. Now, we are extending the silly season with one last post that requires only the minimum of attention. It contains links to three charming websites that you can use to amuse yourselves without a care, browsing from the hammock, poolside chaise lounge, or back seat of the car:

Window Swap

Started by Singaporean creative directors Sonali Ranjit and Vaishnav Balasubramaniam in 2021 as a delightful COVID escape, with 60 videos showing views outside friends’ windows, the site now boasts 12,000 window-view videos from homes, offices, trains, bicycles, and boats around the world. There’s still nothing else online as quietly lovely or delightfully addictive and relaxing to surf — a true hidden gem.

The Wonders of Street View

I know. We’ve all had surprises in the Google Street View alternate universe before, especially in its earlier, wild-west days. Who can unsee the pigeon people of Tokyo, the bodyless legs walking along the sidewalk in Anchorage, the melted-down Golden Gate Bridge? Good times!

Now, programmer and game designer Neal Agarwal saves you the trouble/hours/years of joyriding every street in the world by bringing you hundreds of the latest, gleefully idiotic street pix, courtesy of the erratically nosy Google-mobile!

Elevator Music

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Nuvoluxe offers the best-curated elevator music collections out there, and there are many! Relax to the tinkling piano and 100-string renditions of your fave elevator, shopping mall, and hospitality-suite musical compositions of the late 20^th century. We dare you to stay grumpy listening to these tunes as you mix up those Saturday night highballs. We double-dare you!

Relax and enjoy these last sweet days of summer. See you back here in a few weeks!

😊 If you like, please share this story with anyone who needs a brief break from serious stuff – Thanks!

Header photo: elements.envato.com