The institute for ordinary things est. not especially recently
Illustrated guides, gloriously opinionated lists and Deep Dives into things you now need to know — with helpful pictures, no baffling jargon, and just enough research to be worrying.
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Social Survival Deep Dive
Five theatrically different ceremonies (the Quiet Archive, the Flame Emoji Burial, the Roast & Release) with exact AI prompts and a script so you can ceremonially retire group threads nobody replies to anymore.
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Domestic Chaos Deep Dive
Thirteen ordered prompts that escalate from affectionate to operatic (’Mum’, ‘General of the Tea’, ‘Duchess of Leftover Pizza’), with usage notes and staging tips so you can debut each nickname at the perfect awkward family dinner.
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Food & Drink Deep Dive
Seven outrageously specific, theme-ready drink concepts (including garnish instructions and a scandalous backstory each) so you can pour something gloriously inappropriate and watch the guests pretend elegance while their tastebuds file an
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Domestic Chaos Listicle
Six playful repo concepts—leftover-ethics linter, overcook-penalty timer, portion-apology generator—ranked by how ruthlessly they would verbally, digitally and ceremonially scold your reheats. The ranking is a deliberately ridiculous editorial judgement: lower numbers mean your microwave will develop a posture and possibly a résumé.
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Making & Mischief Listicle
A hilarious, honest ranking of seven tools — from pumpkin saws to spoons — grading mess, dignity lost, safety, and the exact theatrical flourish each tool adds to your carving montage.
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Domestic Chaos Deep Dive
Nine field-tested hacks—peelable table liners, a seed-skim ring, a one-bucket pulp command, zipper bag cut-extract and a napkin mortar—to keep carving contained and your tablecloth untraumatised.
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Food & Drink Deep Dive
Seven concrete afterlives for your pulp and seeds: thickening stock, breakfast bake-ins, firestarter pellets, bird-scatter, seed roasting, papier-mâché and quick dye—each with one-line prep and why it beats the trash bin.
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Words & Nonsense Deep Dive
A sharable lexicon—Glowergloom, Smirkspice, Creepsquash—eleven invented words to caption photos, deliver compliment-slash-critique and escalate your Halloween group chat with perfectly absurd vocabulary. Use these single-word judgments to signal admiration, mild alarm or ceremonial condolence without becoming the neighborhood menace in a judged pumpkin contest.
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Words & Nonsense Listicle
A gleefully specific ranking of invented words — from mild PR trickery to outright legislative prestidigitation — with definitions, mock headlines and a sneering one-liner so you can name a claim faster than it can spin. Ranked by how theatrically useless the promise feels (our obviously scientific editorial judgement).
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Social Survival Deep Dive
Body language is a seductive detective: a raised eyebrow, a clipped sentence, a flash of a smile feel like evidence. This deep dive separates the usable behavioural red flags from theatrical guesswork. We cover microgestures, vocal cues, the need for baselines and clusters, and the cognitive traps that turn ordinary signals into a courtroom in your head.
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Food & Drink Deep Dive
Seven theatrical desserts — shell‑shaped macarons, “404” checkerboard cake, mousse domes labeled with filenames — ranked by how dramatically they communicate betrayal. Includes plating ideas and one‑pan recipes you can actually make.
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Social Survival How-to
Turn a viewing party into a live fact-checking salon: five simple steps to prepare claim cards, brew suspicious tea, time answers, compare sources and award polite biscuit-based verdicts so every dubious Reform UK line gets a proper dunking
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