Lazy August internet essentials

Is this going to be a monthly thing? Probably. Let’s just go with it. Here are some things on the internet that I think are pretty great:

• 61 Exceptionally Creative Wine Label Designs, via WebUrbanist. I’m huge a sucker for labels when it comes to picking out my grapes–my palate is still at that point where a box of Franzia sounds like a great idea, so I pick my standards where I can get them. I don’t think label design is a bad place to start.

• Feeling down about HHS Secretary Sebelius’s admittance that the public option is an expendable component of the Administration’s health care reform option? Pep up a little with this sobering but ultimately level-headed assessment of the situation on the ground from one of the best wonky blogs in the biz, FiveThirtyEight.

• My late, lovely mother grew up in Marshalltown, IA, which got a well-deserved spotlight in this restaurant showcase from A Hamburger Today, a division of Serious Eats. Taylor’s Maid-Rites are awesome–friends down in Iowa sent us boxes of them while Mom was sick, and they’re one of my big-time cravings.

• This guy, being awesome at a health care rally in New Hampshire.

• And this 15-second onslaught of manic Japanese advertising. CH-CH-CH-CH-CH