messenger bag

Bike Snob
by BikeSnobNYC
Published 5 May 2010

Here are some current cycling fashions that Don’t Always Make Sense: The Messenger Bag Along with fixed gears, the messenger bag has become extremely popular. In fact, it’s become so closely associated with cycling that many people automatically think it’s the only type of bag you should even consider for riding. It’s rare these days that a new rider will purchase something else. Messenger bags for non-messenger use is nothing new, and they’ve been popular with non-cyclists for decades. They actually crossed over to the mainstream well before messenger-style bikes did. This makes sense, because messenger bags are durable and they hold a lot of stuff, and they’re a much better fit for the typical urban person than a leather briefcase.

…

Actually, the messenger bag has become less a bag than another article of clothing. People often opt for the most capacious messenger bag they can find, but since they’re not delivering packages these bags just remain mostly empty. And empty bags don’t swing around; instead, they simply wrap around your body. Really, a better name for messenger bags might be “hipster capes.” The U-lock still resides in the back pocket, and the keys still hang from the waist. And the messenger bag is wrapped around the shoulders, and the shoulders are hunched over ridiculously narrow handlebars. The result is riders who look like James Brown at that point in the concert when he’d fall to his knees and they’d drape him with velvet.

…

However, for on-the-bike use, messenger bags aren’t always the great choice everybody thinks they are. This is because they’re designed to swing around from rear to front quickly and without being removed. This is great when you’re stopping every two blocks to deliver a package; but it’s not such a great thing when you’re just going from one place to another and you keep having to push your bag back around every five minutes. If you’re not constantly going in and out of your bag, you very well may be much better off with a regular backpack. Still, urban cyclists will continue to choose the messenger bag. Actually, the messenger bag has become less a bag than another article of clothing.

The Satsuma Complex
by Bob Mortimer
Published 26 Oct 2022

I have never been tempted to use an online dating site since that evening. I clambered back onto the bar stool next to Brendan. The dark-haired lady was no longer at the bar and I briefly panicked until I saw that she had seated herself in one of the velveteen booths. I watched as she removed a book from her tan leather messenger bag and began to read. She seemed instantly engrossed by its content. Unlike some people, I’m not immediately intrigued by a lass sat on her own reading a book – it always seems a bit arch, even corny, to me. I mean, what’s the big deal about books anyway? It’s probably about futuristic military ducks or some such nonsense.

…

These shoes were a good start. I looked away and took a sup from my pint. As she watched her drink being prepared, I got a better chance to assess her looks, and in doing so my chances of ever being by her side. She was petite, about five foot six inches, wearing light blue Levi jeans and a rolltop black jumper. Her messenger bag was still resting against her hip. Her hair was shoulder-length and thick with a clinically straight fringe lying across the middle of her forehead. I couldn’t see her eyes but was thinking brown. She could have been a teacher or a restaurant manager, maybe even something to do with pottery. She was even prettier than I had first thought.

…

I didn’t make much progress and by the end of my attempts the whole room smelt of warm bananas and even hotter concrete. I arrived back at the bar just in time to see Emily enter the pub, thankfully on her own. She was wearing a light green zip-up running top and baggy black trousers. She had her tan messenger bag slung on her hip and a large rucksack on her back that had some small tartan details but wasn’t overly Scottish in its attitude. I ordered another pint, waited for fifteen minutes, then walked through to the lounge. She gave me a beaming smile and a childish wave. I fancied her so much I suspect it made me blush.

Gray Day: My Undercover Mission to Expose America's First Cyber Spy
by Eric O'Neill
Published 1 Mar 2019

I had cut a pinhole in the front pocket to hide a small concealment camera, and if you looked closely, you could see tiny marks on the shoulder straps that allowed me to hide radio wires. Juliana argued that the backpack wasn’t professional and had insisted I buy a shiny leather briefcase. We’d compromised on a black-and-gray Timberland messenger bag that now hung off my shoulder. While I didn’t wear a suit and tie as effortlessly as Gene, I felt confident that I at least wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of the assistant director. I had stuffed a few items into the messenger bag: a legal pad and pen to take notes, my FBI credentials that told others in law enforcement whom I worked for and the golden badge that proved it, and a letter that Gene had handed me at the field office to make my part in the Hanssen investigation official.

…

“It might be an animal.” Before she could talk me out of it, I disentangled myself from her and padded from the room. I found my shoes and threw on a heavy coat. “This is a bad idea,” Juliana hissed from the bedroom doorway. I stuffed my FBI credentials and a heavy extendable baton from my messenger bag into my coat pockets and handed Juliana my cell phone. “If I shout, you call 911.” Before she could say another word, I was out the door. Our apartment was tucked into the back corner of our building. Our bedroom windows looked past two feet of moss to a massive wooden wall on one side and a parking lot strewn with gravel on the other.

…

The last I’d heard from Kate, a team had him headed west on Massachusetts Avenue past Dupont Circle. I moved slowly with patient purpose past the spot where the search team had shifted Hanssen’s TV stand and bought me a face pressed into the thin carpet. My hands found each other behind my back in quiet agreement not to touch anything. Then I saw Hanssen’s messenger bag. Five minutes later I called Kate. “Remember when you told me never to search GD’s office?” Kate sounded harried. They had followed Hanssen to his old haunt at the Office of Foreign Missions and had no clue why he’d returned. “Yeah. Don’t tell me you—” “Guilty,” I said. “But before you get mad, hear me out.”

Please Report Your Bug Here: A Novel
by Josh Riedel
Published 17 Jan 2023

Black-box image bug, I wrote, and attached Riley S.’s profile photo. I noticed that the photo wasn’t entirely black: the bottom half contained wavy lines. I zoomed in to analyze the image but was jolted out of my investigation by the ding of a new email: Warning: Content Review Queue Full. I printed out the photo and tucked it into my messenger bag to investigate later. DINNER AT THE FOUNDER’S The Founder skipped our one-on-one that week. I knew he was busy preparing for our Series A, but I insisted we meet. I needed to explain, outside of the stressed office environment, what happened to me. In Palo Alto, he texted. Back in the city tonight.

…

If I could make it happen again, I could record the details, collect evidence for the Founder. But nothing worked. No matter how meticulous my tactics, I couldn’t reproduce the bug. “Fantastic statement, man,” the Founder announced as he arrived in the office, late from a meeting that he offered no details on. He slapped my back and tossed his messenger bag on his desk. I took my headphones off. “Thanks. Wasn’t too hard to write.” The Founder ignored me, hooking up his laptop to his monitor. “When’s she start?” I unwrapped my second Nature Valley of the morning. “Next week,” I said, taking a bite. Crumbs rained down on my keyboard. I’ll send her a contract today, the Founder messaged, transitioning our conversation to text.

…

We blasted through the queue at record speed on Friday morning, nearly finishing before the Founder entered the office with the engineer. They were in a heated debate about what the error logs told us about users in Japan. I’d glanced at the logs earlier that day, in bed, but couldn’t translate them on my own. “What’s the issue?” I asked. “Don’t worry about it,” the Founder said. He tossed his messenger bag on a chair and rushed into our tiny conference room, where he took his morning calls. I tried not to obsess about the Founder brushing me off. I put on my Bose noise-canceling headphones—no music, only the steady, distant static of sound erased—and focused on the computer screen. Trusting Noma with the content review queue, I studied our long list of FAQs.

Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places
by Sharon Zukin
Published 1 Dec 2009

He cut the vinyl sheets into pieces, and then he and Funk sewed the pieces together into messenger bags that Avsar designed. Within a few years they had so many orders for their Crypto label that they needed a larger production space, leading them to rent an empty, one-story factory in Williamsburg. Avsar, Funk, and a few employees cut vinyl sheets into pieces on the roof, then took them indoors and sewed them together into messenger bags. Avsar drew the Brooklyn skyline of factory buildings and rooftop water tanks that they could see from their roof and used it as the company’s logo; whether or not this was meant as a challenge to Manhattan Portage, a messenger bag company that was founded in Manhattan several years earlier and used the city’s famous skyline as its logo, it turned Brooklyn into an aesthetic theme.

…

When Aesop Rock, a white indie hip-hop artist who wore Brooklyn Industries T-shirts played clubs in Europe, he was introduced as “straight outta Brooklyn”; this helped to turn the Williamsburg operation—and Brooklyn as a whole—into a global brand.21 Williamsburg’s new entrepreneurs crystallized the neighborhood’s “authenticity” into a product with cultural buzz and shaped their own new beginnings into a powerful story of origin. Art galleries, performance spaces, a microbrewery, and messenger bags shared an urban imaginary that was one part abandoned factories and two parts artistic innovation, all leading to a creative mix that was “made in Brooklyn.” This story had no connection with Williamsburg’s real origins, with either the “scavengers, pimps, [and] gangsters” of the early 1900s or the Domino sugar workers and Puerto Rican mechanics of the area’s industrial prime time, or even with the Polish meat market and Mexican grocery store that are still doing business on Bedford Avenue, though less business now than before Williamsburg became so popular.

…

There are also five shops selling design objects and home accessories, four furniture stores selling “semi-antique” tables and chairs, two furniture repair shops, two shops offering personal services and products for body care, an eyewear store that provides unusual eyeglasses for films and Broadway shows, an art gallery, and stores selling handmade purses, jewelry, children’s toys, messenger bags, candles, and supplies for Wiccans who practice modern witchcraft (“Come in for a spell,” says the sign in their window). Unlike the broad avenues that border the block, which bristle with little restaurants and bars, this street has no bars, and its three restaurants serve only beer and wine: the tiny, dark Ninth Street Market, Mud Truck’s indoor café, and Veselka, a diner for “Ukrainian soul food” that opened around 1960.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
by Marie Kondo
Published 1 Jan 2011

By starting with the easy things first and leaving the hardest for last, you can gradually hone your decision-making skills, so that by the end, it seems simple. For the first category, clothing, I recommend dividing further into the following subcategories to increase efficiency: Tops (shirts, sweaters, etc.) Bottoms (pants, skirts, etc.) Clothes that should be hung (jackets, coats, suits, etc.) Socks Underwear Bags (handbags, messenger bags, etc.) Accessories (scarves, belts, hats, etc.) Clothes for specific events (swimsuits, kimonos, uniforms, etc.) Shoes And, yes, I include handbags and shoes as clothing. Why is this the optimal order? I am actually not sure why, but based on the experience I’ve gained devoting half my life to tidying, I can tell you for certain that it works!

…

Empty your bag every day There are some things you need on a daily basis, such as your wallet, your bus or train pass, and your date book. Many people see no point in taking these things out when they come home because they will use them again the next day, but this is a mistake. The purpose of a purse or messenger bag is to carry your things for you when you’re away from home. You fill your bag with the things you need, such as documents, your cell phone, and your wallet, and it carries them all without complaint, even if it is filled to bursting. When you put it down and it scrapes its bottom on the floor, it utters no word of criticism, only doing its best to support you.

The Money Tree: A Story About Finding the Fortune in Your Own Backyard
by Chris Guillebeau
Published 6 Apr 2020

When he heard a chime that signaled a text message from her, he looked down. “Hey, Jake, this place is cute! I got here a few minutes early and snagged a table by the window. See you soon!” Soon was a highly optimistic prediction, but Maya didn’t know that. “On my way!” he texted, grabbing his messenger bag and running for the door. In his mind he calculated the traffic: at least fifteen minutes, more like twenty at this time of day. Damn. No big deal. It’s only our six-month anniversary. Just like it was only $50,000 he owed, with less than $3,000 in his savings account. Just like all he needed to do was find a way to start paying that off, at the same time he was finding a new place to live.

…

He was impressed with how orderly everything was, with each item in its place and a clear process for assembling the bags. “How did this start?” he asked. She explained that through her dad’s tour guide business, she’d noticed that most visitors carried bags of some kind wherever they went. Backpacks, messenger bags, laptop bags, purses of various types—almost everyone had at least one, and many people had several that they used for different purposes. But even though there was no shortage of bags, most of them fit into one of two categories. Most of the backpacks were cheap and poorly made. There wasn’t anything distinctive about them, and they often fell apart after a few trips to the village.

The Awoken: A Novel
by Katelyn Monroe Howes
Published 8 Aug 2022

I tore through the sliding doors, swept up in a whirlwind of adrenaline and emotions. Then, as if I slammed against an invisible barrier, I stopped in my tracks with a gasp. Damien was there, and he was packing. Actually, he was almost done packing, tucking some final things into a small leather messenger bag that he then slung over his shoulder. Damien didn’t even turn around to see who’d come in. He knew it was me. And he knew why I was there. Even without seeing his face, I felt a coldness in him that seemed so foreign to the man I’d come to know. There were a million things I wanted to say, wanted to shout, but I couldn’t decide what to start with.

…

“Thank you,” I muttered to him, still dazed. He nodded. There was so much that needed to be said between us. So much I needed to say. But another thought quickly pushed into my mind: Damien. Expecting to see him just behind me, I quickly whipped around, but he was already gone. Through the crowd, I could see only the leather messenger bag slung around his back as he walked away. I turned back to Avon just soon enough to see him too disappear into the crowd. In an instant, they both were gone. Eliza and Diana stood guard on either side of me. “Come on, Alabine.” Eliza thumped a white parcel into my chest. Then she slid a gun into my belt.

…

“Two men on the road shouldn’t cause many questions. And Damien has clear papers. They’ll be fine.” Eliza turned to Damien. “There’s an extra van outside. Take Highway 91. It’s a direct shot.” Diana grabbed keys out of the desk drawer and tossed them to Samson. In one scoop, Damien collected his things, slung the messenger bag over his back, and left without a glance. Samson was still fumbling to shove everything into his pack, so I darted out after Damien. I wasn’t going to let him go with so much unsaid. “Damien!” I sprinted through the sliding doors back onto the platform, now eerily empty. He slowly turned back to me.

The Future Won't Be Long
by Jarett Kobek
Published 15 Aug 2017

Don’t ask me, darlings. I’ve read Guy Debord and I still don’t understand late-period capitalism. “One good thing, though,” said Jeremy, “is that they’re having Spider-Man’s reception at Tunnel. Have you gone?” “I’ve yet to attend,” said I. “Why don’t you come?” Jeremy opened his canvas messenger bag and removed a thick piece of pink paper. An invitation to the reception, with this awful little drawing of Spider-Man in a top hat, right hand swinging on his webbing, left hand clutching Mary Jane around her waist. The important words: “This invitation admits two guests.” “I stole a few from work,” said Jeremy.

…

We helped the Captain get his bearings and then listened to L7’s Bricks Are Heavy. We bullshitted about the whereabouts of former Parsons students. “Do you remember Janine?” asked Jeremy. “Nooooooo,” I said. “Whatever did this Janine look like?” “She had black long hair, which I think she dyed, and glasses, and she always carried an unwashed grotty pink messenger bag.” “Oh, her,” I sniffed. “We called her the Pink Princess of Nassau County.” “That’d be the one,” said Jeremy. “Do you want to guess what she’s doing?” “I detest guessing. I’m always wrong.” “Pink Princess is dog catcher?” asked Минерва. “She stayed in New York for a year or two,” said Jeremy.

…

She flipped through the pages of WANT-AD WANTONS. —What a silly book, she said. —Adeline, have you seen today’s Voice? —I attempt to avoid that rag, she said. I become ever so depressed by the constant stream of new films that I’m missing. If I’m lucky, I can manage one flicker a week, and rarely am I lucky. I opened my messenger bag and took out the Voice. —What in the name of Jesus Cristo? she asked. —Read the story, I said. She pored over the pages. —Baby, she said, what are you going to do? —This has nothing to do with me, I said. I haven’t seen Michael in over a year. I have a new book coming out. SEPTEMBER 1996 Baby and Adeline See Freaks Summer disappeared, bleeding into September, into the month of publication.

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words
by Eddie Robson
Published 27 Jun 2022

When Lydia lived at home, if Mum asked where she was going and she didn’t want to say—for instance, if she was on her way to go driving with Gil—she’d just pretend to be wearing her buds and walk out of the door. But Logi know when you’ve heard them. It’s like a pingback, they feel the thought as it lands in your mind. Lydia pauses, adjusts her messenger bag so it’s more or less hidden behind her body and moves back into the doorway. I was about to go out, she replies. Where? Madison says, looking up from a folder of Fitz’s paperwork. She’s sitting in the exact spot where he died. Lydia wonders whether or not to point this out. To get something to eat.

…

She’s momentarily distracted so Lydia chooses to assume that’s all, and she quietly moves away and out of the front door. A cop is stationed on the porch along with a police drone: Arthur and Martha have been requisitioned as evidence, and in any case need to be given a full overhaul before they can be trusted in service again. The porch cop nods and makes no move to stop Lydia or check her messenger bag. Even if he did, would he think there was anything odd about her carrying a couple of dusty old books? He surely wouldn’t realize that, being a first edition of Thackeray’s two-volume novel The Newcomes liberated from the shelves in the dining room, they were actually worth stealing. But then that’s the kind of assumption Lydia hates when other people make it about her

One Less Car: Bicycling and the Politics of Automobility
by Zack Furness and Zachary Mooradian Furness
Published 28 Mar 2010

Sadly, it was this faux pas rather than the corporation’s abominable record of human rights abuses—li Qiang, director of China labor Watch, states that “puma is the worst company in the industry” with respect to social responsibility—that seemed to cause the most consternation among participants, observers, and, eventually, online commentators.88 Consequently, while puma has backed events like the Bicycle Film Festival and lent financial support to messengers who, in turn, used the money for the benefit of the entire messenger community, it is one of a growing number of companies that are eager to cash in on the cultural cachet associated with urban bicycling. yet unlike patagonia’s Critical Mass messenger bag, pedro’s Critical Mass Mini Tool, the vans Fixed Gear authentic shoe, or iron Heart’s $360 Cyclist Jeans (bicycle not included), the product puma is most interested in producing and marketing is not a tangible commodity, but rather, bike culture itself: it wants nothing less than to infuse its own brand name and iconography into the media and cultural practices that co-constitute bike culture, thereby creating a bizarre feedback loop in which it can sponge the very authenticity it is attempting to manufacture.89 Fixed-Gear Bikes and Messenger Aesthetics, or “Give Hipsters a Brake”90 Of all the phenomena in american bike culture to prompt questions about cultural authenticity, media representation, and especially the uses of technology, the popularity of fixed-gear bikes has to be the most polarizing. as noted earlier, the recent visibility of single-speed bicycles is indicative of a growing interest in technological conviviality, utilitarian design, and a stripped-down aesthetic. yet, the less-is-more impulse buttressing the single-speed trend hardly explains the current fascination with fixed-gear track bikes that, while beautifully refined, are designed in such a way that riding—and more important, stopping—is an unnecessarily complicated endeavor that requires a rider to apply resistance with his or her legs in lieu of handbrakes, since the pedals and rear wheel turn continuously in one fixed direction (like bicycles used in the 1890s).91 Originally designed for high-speed track racing (hence “track” bike) and subsequently appropriated by urban bike messengers who praise them for their lightness, speed, and style, fixed-gear bikes—also called “fixies” or, in the United Kingdom, “fixed-wheel” bikes—are in some ways the antithesis of utilitarian transportation, save the minimal parts one must buy or replace on the machine itself.92 What the bicycles lack in their ease-ofuse is made up for with their mechanical elegance, their durability, and the way they reconfigure the act of cycling and the relationship between bicyclist and machine—an experience devotees habitually describe in quasi-spiritual language peppered by illusions to the “purity and simplicity” of the machine, the “almost mystical connection” between rider and bicycle, and the feeling that one’s bicycle is an “extension of [one’s] limbs,” allowing one to achieve “Zen,” or a “Zen-like state” comparable to “being in the ‘The Zone’ all the time.”93 at the risk of minimizing the joy of riding fixed-gear bikes, let alone the corporeal and spiritual apexes their fans apparently reach through this practice, their desirability also seems tied to something much more basic, which is the cultural cachet one gleans by owning, riding, and/or displaying one: the fixed-gear bike has become a trendy icon of urban coolness, a “hipster gold card,” as one magazine article puts it.94 in this sense, riding fixed-gear bikes seem to offer a form of mediated or indirect utility to their users, inasmuch as the difficulty of riding them allows bicyclists to demonstrate their level of cycling skill, fitness, or mastery over their machine.95 One can draw this inference from the slew of films, Web sites, and blogs devoted to fixed-gear bikes that focus much less on transportation and advocacy issues than on stunt riding, tricks, and aggressive maneuvering through dense urban spaces.96 On the internet, one also finds that showing off one’s riding skill is seemingly of equal or lesser importance than simply showing off one’s bike.

…

Consequently, it is one of the salient reasons why they are often denounced as a trendy, faddish, or indicative of a cooler-than-thou, urban chic—a material artifact on par with the now passé icons of “trucker hats and pabst Blue ribbon beer.”101 Bike messengers are some of the more jaded critics of the fixed-gear bicycle craze, seeing as how the trend is part of a broader co-optation of messenger culture in which track bikes (once ridden almost exclusively by bike couriers) as well as messenger bags, walkie-talkies, cycling caps, and even the most minute details of messenger garb (such as elastic key chains worn at the elbow joint) are donned by messenger look-alikes who are variously denounced as “missingers,” “fakengers,” “posengers,” “dressengers,” or, as one person bluntly puts it, “fake ass messengers.”102 indeed, some of bike messengers’ very own grassroots cultural practices, such as “alleycat” races—urban races organized by and for messengers since the 1980s—are also widely copied in recent years by cyclists with little or no connection to messenger work, save their look.103 Corporations and designers similarly glean the “street creed” of messengers when it suits their financial interests: [in 2006] lincoln wanted some well-known nyC messengers to appear in a print ad for their cars.

…

The north american Handmade Bicycle Show is one of the barometers for this trend: it began in 2005 with 23 exhibitors and now features as many as 150 custom bike builders who take part in the event and display their creations to thousands of visitors.118 in portland, Oregon, alone, one can find more than two-dozen independent bike builders, many of whom either apprenticed with other local builders or learned their craft at the United Bicycle institute in ashland, Oregon.119 Custom builders, who range from single individuals to family-run businesses, not only exert “an influence on trends and styles that is disproportionate to their market share”; they also constitute part of a broader movement of artisans, tinkerers, and skilled workers who are at once reconfiguring the role of independent, small-scale businesses in the north american bike industry and also demonstrating a sense of pride that famed messenger bag maker Eric Zo associates with Diy production: “i’m in the society of people who actually make their own shit.”120 This bloc includes messenger-owned bag manufacturers, utilitarian vehicle builders (namely, cargo bicycles and tricycles), specialized welders, artists who use scrap bike materials to make everything from jewelry to furniture, and bicyclists who are running successful bike shops and pedal-powered delivery services based on cooperative, worker-owned business models.121 in addition to newer businesses, long-established independent companies are also getting a second look from cyclists who are (re)discovering the importance of durability, craftsmanship, and more localized modes of production embodied by companies like Wald, the Kentucky group responsible for producing most of the bicycle baskets seen in the United States since 1905.122 Worksman Cycles, the oldest U.S. bike maker still in business, is another company that perseveres despite radical transformations in the bike industry since the company was founded in 1898.

Pump Six and Other Stories
by Paolo Bacigalupi
Published 15 Sep 2010

And they would both go back inside and stand in the bathroom's doorway, studying Jonathan's floating lily and the clerk would nod his snowy head thoughtfully and suggest that she'd probably prefer to be buried in the back yard, in her garden. After all, that was what his own wife had wanted, and she'd been a gardener, too. On Monday, Jonathan emptied his bank accounts and IRAs and changed everything into cash: fifty and hundred dollar bills, fat wads of them that he stuffed into a messenger bag so that he walked out of the bank carrying $112,398. His life savings. The wages of sin. The profits of dutiful financial planning. The clerk had asked if he was getting a divorce, and he blushed and nodded and said it was something like that, but she didn't stop him from clearing out the account, and mostly seemed to think it was funny that he was beating his wife to the punch.

…

But Pia had held together all right, even after a couple days. She was gone, but still recognizable. He, on the other hand, was still around—and yet utterly changed. A sporty RAV4 hit the on-ramp. It whipped past him in a flash of white, then slowed suddenly and pulled onto the margin. Jonathan jogged after it, his messenger bag of cash jouncing against his hip. He yanked open the little SUV's door. A kid with a crushed cowboy hat studied him through mirrored Ray-Bans. "Where you headed?" "San Diego?" "You pay gas?" Jonathan couldn't help grinning. "Yeah. I think I can help with that." The kid motioned him in, gunned the little engine and accelerated onto the highway.

Simple Matters: A Scandinavian’s Approach to Work, Home, and Style
by Jenny Mustard
Published 3 Sep 2018

Plus, they give any outfit a relaxed tone, as if you’re not trying too hard. And they’re comfortable as can be. You don’t want your adventurous spirit held back by something as mundane as blistered feet. The backpack. Invest in one and thank yourself later. Again, it’s all about traveling comfortably, and not getting stuck with a shoulder-killing tote or messenger bag. (Or something as inappropriate as a clutch for that matter, a.k.a. the only bag ever invented even less practical than no bag at all.) When exploring, you probably like to pack quite a lot of stuff: the security blankets and necessities—the cameras, tampons, water bottles, extra sweaters, and sunscreen.

San Francisco Like a Local: By the People Who Call It Home
by Dk Eyewitness
Published 5 Apr 2023

Expect jumpsuits galore: possibly bright-pink and covered in bananas, or purple and dotted with dalmatian-like snakes The store partners with a rotating cast of female artists, so you’ll need to go back to see the latest stock. » Don’t leave without pondering a potential buy while sipping an artisanal tea at the excellent Samovar Tea Bar, located just next door. g US Design g Contents Google Map TIMBUK2 Map 2; 506 Hayes Street, Hayes Valley; ///email.normal.grand; www.timbuk2.com Techies and utilitarians looking for durable accessories love Timbuk2 for its fashionable, long-lasting backpacks and messenger bags in various muted shades. They also carry a pretty good range of beanies and panel caps, if you’re after some new headgear. g Shop g Contents Record Stores Put Spotify and iTunes aside for a minute. To keep it real, join San Francisco’s punks and mods, jazzheads and club kids between aisles of vinyl, swapping stories as you leaf through records.

Fuller Memorandum
by Stross, Charles
Published 14 Jan 2010

Probably a new game of bureaucratic pass-the-parcel, seeing if some poor schmuck--I was already in charge of departmental IT services, for my sins--could be mugged into taking on responsibility for exorcising hovercraft or something. Back to the here-and-now. The carriage is slowing. A minute later I realize it's pulling into a main line station--Wolverhampton, where I get to change trains. I shove my reading matter back into my messenger bag (it's a novel about a private magician for hire in Chicago--your taxpayer pounds at work) and go to stand in the doorway. The air in the station hits me like a hot flannel, damp and clingy and smelling slightly of diesel fumes. I take a breath, step down onto the concrete, and try to minimize my movements as I go looking for the Cosford service.

…

(External Liaison will raise hell about it tomorrow, but tomorrow can fend for itself.) The middle-aged man in the loose-cut Italian suit is already there and waiting for her, sitting in the middle of a silent ring of empty tables while his dead-eyed bodyguards track the access routes. "Mrs. O'Brien," says Panin. "Welcome." She pulls out a chair and releases her bulky messenger bag, dropping it between her feet as she sits. She has her violin case slung across her chest, like a soldier's rifle. "Dobryi viechier, kak ty?" Panin's lips quirk. "Quite well, thank you. If you would prefer to continue in English ..." "My Russian is very limited," Mo admits. "My employers are more interested in Arabic--not to mention Enochian--these days."

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You
by Dina Nayeri
Published 14 Sep 2020

I came from test-taking stock. We did such good work, Baba and I. He emptied his pockets of pistachio and chocolate and sour cherry and we sat together on the floor, cross-legged and knee-to-knee, whispering secrets and jokes as we drew bold, stouthearted Ks and Gs. I clicked our finished pages into my rawhide messenger bag and, the next day, I took them to show my teacher, a woman whom we called only by the honorific Khanom. Khanom scanned my pages as I straightened up in my chair, my hands tucked beneath my haunches. She frowned and exhaled heavily through her nose. Then she glanced at the girls watching us from the edges of their scarves, tapped the pages straight against my desktop and tore them in half.

…

‘I’ll do the work over. I do love you.’ She gave me a strange look. I had said the wrong thing. You don’t tell teachers you love them. Why had I said it? For a moment, we both stood our ground, Khanom determined to ignore me, as I remained planted in her line of vision. I shifted onto my other foot, moved my messenger bag to my back. She glanced up again, smiling kindly now. ‘It’s OK, Miss Nayeri,’ she said. ‘I’m OK. I’m stronger than you think.’ She made muscle arms under her chador and we both laughed. ‘How would you like to do a very special job that only the top students can do?’ My fingertips went cold – I knew my school’s rituals and rewards and yet I wanted so much to please her.

Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent
by Douglas Coupland
Published 29 Sep 2014

Everything is changing, and far too quickly to be absorbed, especially by people who lived in the 1970s, when the single biggest tech improvement over a decade was the addition of an FM dial to car radios, or people who lived in the 1980s when the single biggest tech upgrade was the ability to create a mixed-tape cassette for your girlfriend. Acceleration is accelerating. I think of this while watching Bell Labs workers bustle into the building. They’re mainly flowing up from the lower parking lot where they parked a fleet of silver, white and black sedans. Many are carrying briefcases and messenger bags containing laptops: these days you bring your own computer to work. I enter through gold-tinted glass doors on the west side of the building, and the early-1980s fantasia continues. The high-ceilinged concrete space is filled with display cases filled with artifacts filled with astonishing significance: the world’s first transistor (1947); the world’s first laser (1957); a replica of the world’s first satellite (1961).

San Francisco Like a Local
by DK Eyewitness
Published 4 Oct 2021

Expect jumpsuits galore: possibly bright-pink and covered in bananas, or purple and dotted with dalmatian-like snakes The store partners with a rotating cast of female artists, so you’ll need to go back to see the latest stock. » Don’t leave without pondering a potential buy while sipping an artisanal tea at the excellent Samovar Tea Bar, located just next door. g US Design g Contents Google Map TIMBUK2 FACTORY STORE Map 4; 587 Shotwell Street, The Mission; ///mirror.vets.beams; www.timbuk2.com Techies and utilitarians looking for durable accessories love Timbuk2 for its fashionable, long-lasting backpacks and messenger bags in various muted shades. They also carry a pretty good range of beanies and panel caps, if you’re after some new headgear. g Shop g Contents Record Stores Put Spotify and iTunes aside for a minute. To keep it real, join San Francisco’s punks and mods, jazzheads and club kids between aisles of vinyl, swapping stories as you leaf through records.

The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties
by Christopher Caldwell
Published 21 Jan 2020

“What I couldn’t find, I’d design, using original fabrics if I could find them, and if not I would find natural fabrics that were as good as the originals.” It was an extraordinary elision: a promise of authentic merchandise, with a codicil permitting the seller to substitute something inauthentic and even scrambled up. It was impossible to tell from the early Banana Republic catalog description whether the “Israeli paratroopers messenger bags” had been bought in bulk from some newly demobilized sabra quartermaster in Haifa or whether it was just some Bay Area executive’s idea of a comely tote bag, contracted out to a factory in Thailand. As for whether the company’s cotton backpack had really been “slightly used by British soldiers serving in the tropics,” you would have to give it a sniff to find out.

…

“the specter of technology”: Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (New York: Harper, 2005 [1974]), 246. the adjective “compelling”: Google Ngram Viewer. “Authentic bush garments”: Banana Republic, Winter 1979 catalog (San Francisco, 1978). Quoted in Robyn Adams, “A Rare Look,” Abandoned Republic, June 2, 2011. Online at secretfanbase.com/banana. “Israeli paratroopers messenger bags”: Robert Klara, “Before Banana Republic Was Mainstream Fashion, It Was a Weirdly Wonderful Safari Brand,” Adweek, March 16, 2016. In 1980, the Häagen-Dazs ice cream company: Häagen-Dazs, Inc., v. Frusen Glädjé Ltd., United States District Court, S.D., New York, June 9, 1980. [493 F.Supp. 73 (1980)].

Zero History
by William Gibson
Published 6 Sep 2010

Later she’d be unable to say exactly what had been so ugly about it, except that it was somehow beyond punk, beyond art, and fundamentally, somehow, an affront. Diagonals at the edges continued around the sides, and across the short, loose sleeves. Pep leered at her, or perhaps only looked at her, and pulled the strap of a dark green messenger bag over his head, tucking what she recognized as Garreth’s other party favor into it. “Don’t forget to take that bag off,” Garreth said. He was seated in a black workstation chair that appeared to have been taped to the shiny aubergine floor. “Queer the visuals, otherwise.” Pep leered, or perhaps smiled, in reply, then stepped past her, through the open zip in the second scrim of black canvas.

…

The car had been empty, and Fiona, aloft again, had found them easily, still moving, but the one Garreth thought was Gracie was gone, missing, and still was, his package with him. Fiona had been unable to look for him then, because Garreth had needed her back at the car, so that he could vet Pep’s arrival and subsequent burglary, which had taken all of forty-six seconds, passenger-side door, complete with lockup. Pep, following instructions, hadn’t been wearing the messenger bag, and Hollis assumed he’d deposited the other party favor, whatever it might be, in the car, that being evidently the plan. And then he was gone, his dual-engined electric bicycle, utterly silent, capable of an easy sixty miles per hour, never having intersected with the focal cones of any of the cameras showing on the screen of Garreth’s laptop.

Lonely Planet Pocket Berlin
by Lonely Planet and Andrea Schulte-Peevers
Published 31 Aug 2012

(Click here) Boxhagener Platz Treasure-hunting grounds with plenty of entertainment, cafes and people-watching. (Click here) Best Made in Berlin Ausberlin Great for scene-savvy label hunters. (Click here) Bonbonmacherei Find a new favourite in this old-fashioned candy kitchen. (Click here) Frau Tonis Parfum Get a customised scent. (Click here) Ta(u)sche Ingenious messenger bags with changeable flaps to lug your Berlin purchases. (Click here) Ampelmann Galerie Berlin’s iconic traffic-light man on T-shirts, towels and more. (Click here) Best Food & Drink KaDeWe Luxe department store’s 6th floor is foodie heaven with massive selections of first-rate anything. (Click here) Fassbender & Rausch The finest pralines and truffles, plus Berlin landmarks built of chocolate.

Snowden's Box: Trust in the Age of Surveillance
by Jessica Bruder and Dale Maharidge
Published 29 Mar 2020

Days later, the Washington Post revealed federal investigators had also seized personal email and phone records for Fox News Washington correspondent James Rosen, in connection with another leak probe. In one affidavit, an FBI agent referred to the journalist as “an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” — words that still give me the chills. I called Dale to let him know the elk antlers had arrived, then tucked the box into a messenger bag and headed into Manhattan. When I arrived at Dale’s apartment, I thrust the box into his hand. “Check this out!” I gestured at the return address. “Your friend sure has a puckish sense of humor.” Dale looked it over. He was perplexed. I wondered what he knew — and what he didn’t — about the package, but I’d promised not to ask questions.

Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia
by Anthony M. Townsend
Published 29 Sep 2013

The meetings began in the early evening with demos and discussions about new wireless gadgets. They ended, as often as not, well past midnight over beers at a downtown bar. Around tables strewn with empty glasses and bottles, a dozen or more geeks would stay up late making plans to spread free networks throughout the city. Bike messenger bags stuffed with wireless routers, antennas, and patch cables lay underfoot. One of those nights, I actually ended up in a bar fight wielding nothing but a surplus military laptop. My partner in this crusade to light up Manhattan with public Internet service was Terry Schmidt, an engineer who was fascinated by wireless networks and mobile computing.

…

Now you would have to settle for the posh Bowery Hotel just fifty feet to the south, where a suite will run you $600 a night. It was 10:00 a.m. on a Friday in early May 2011, and a small flock of disheveled twentysomethings trickled into Foursquare’s offices with their MacBooks tucked into their bike messenger bags. Tweets and check-in alerts percolated through the air like cricket chirps as the staff slowly recovered from the Foursquare-fueled night before. Being your own lead user is always hard work, but when your product gives you an easy way to find a place to drink and meet new people, it takes its toll.

Intertwingled: Information Changes Everything
by Peter Morville
Published 14 May 2014

Through splitting, lumping, and labeling, we reveal choices and invite questions. Hardsides protect, spinners roll, carry-ons fit, and backpacks are hands-free. Which features matter most? Which bag is best for you? Figure 2-7. Categories reveal choices. Of course, all taxonomies are imperfect, as is the language they’re built upon. Let’s say you want a messenger bag. Is that under backpacks or duffels? Or how about a lightweight, hardside carry-on with two wheels? Does that even exist? Like maps and myths, taxonomies hide more than they reveal. They bury complexity to tell a story, and they always miss someone out. Some things, like luggage, get lost by accident, while others – people, places, and ideas – are buried by design.

Lonely Planet Pocket San Francisco
by Lonely Planet and Alison Bing
Published 31 Aug 2012

This scrappy zine/craft/how-to/art gallery delivers the inspiration to create your own magazines, rehabbed T-shirts or album covers. Nab an issue of Crap Hound , or find lucky symbols intended for collages; check out Nigel Peake’s pen-and-ink aerial views of patch-worked farmland, and buy alphabet buttons to pin your own credo onto a handmade messenger bag. (www.needles-pens.com; 3253 16th St; noon-7pm; 16th St Mission) 40 Bi-Rite Market Food & Drink $ Offline map Google map The Tiffany’s of groceries, with spotlights trained on dazzling local artisan cheeses, chocolates, organic fruit, sustainable meats and the city’s best-curated wine selection.

Pocket New York City Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet
Published 27 Sep 2012

The store goes to great lengths to tie fashion to rock and roll, with records, ’70s audio equipment and even electric guitars for sale alongside JV’s wares. ( 212-358-0315; 315 Bowery btwn 1st & 2nd Sts; noon-9pm Mon-Sat, to 7pm Sun; F/V to Lower East Side-2nd Ave, 6 to Bleecker St) 58 Moo Shoes Shoes Offline map Google map Socially and environmentally responsible fashion usually tends to entail certain sacrifices in the good-looks department. Bucking the trend is Moo Shoes, a vegan boutique where style is no small consideration in the design of inexpensive microfiber (faux leather) shoes, bags and motorcycle jackets. Look for smart-looking Novacas, Crystalyn Kae purses, Queenbee Creations messenger bags and sleek Matt & Nat wallets. ( 212-254-6512; www.mooshoes.com; 78 Orchard St btwn Broome & Grand Sts; 11:30am-7:30pm Mon-Sat, noon-6pm Sun; F, J/M/Z to Delancey-Essex Sts) GAVIN HELLIER/JAI/CORBIS © Greenwich Village, Chelsea & the Meatpacking District There’s a very good reason why this area is known as the Village: it kinda looks like one!

Avogadro Corp
by William Hertling
Published 9 Apr 2014

Email finished, Gary sat and gloated for a minute. Then he heaved himself back up, and headed out to find a coffee shop and a newspaper. Naturally, it was too early to do any real work. He’d read the paper and come back in a couple of hours. Gary sauntered down the hallway whistling. * * * John Anderson gratefully let his heavy messenger bag slide to the floor. He shrugged out of his wet raincoat, hanging it behind his desk. Dropping heavily into his chair, the pneumatic shock absorber took his weight without complaint. He sighed at the thought of another day in the Procurement department processing purchasing requests. Tentatively peeking at his inbox, he saw more than a hundred new email messages.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation: A Novel
by Ottessa Moshfegh
Published 9 Jul 2018

Have you seen any Tarkovsky? Haven’t you read Rousseau?” “I was born into privilege,” I told Ping Xi. “I am not going to squander that. I’m not a moron.” “I might have to, like, downgrade to Super 8 then. Can I take down the blinds in the bedroom?” He pulled a handwritten document from his messenger bag. “Put the contract away,” I said. “I won’t sue you. Just don’t fuck this up for me.” Ping Xi shrugged. I gave him the key to the new lock. “If I need anything, I’ll stick a Post-it note here,” I said, pointing to the dining table. “You see this red pen?” Each time Ping Xi came over, he was to mark off the days on a calendar hanging on the door to my bedroom.

Whistleblower: My Journey to Silicon Valley and Fight for Justice at Uber
by Susan Fowler
Published 18 Feb 2020

At night, long after dinner had been cleared away, he would sit at the kitchen table with his notebooks and books in front of him, his head down, a pen in his hand, studying and learning. On his way to and from sales calls, he listened to foreign language tapes, and he never left home without his “book bag,” a little black messenger bag that held his notebooks, pens, books, and Pimsleur cassettes. More than anything, he wanted to be a writer; he wrote several books and sent them to Christian publishers, but none of them were ever published. He also dreamed of someday preaching at a large church, and of never having to sell vacuums, pay phones, or insurance ever again.

The Bend of the World: A Novel
by Jacob Bacharach
Published 13 Apr 2014

Bye-bye. 7 I was not a libertarian. I wasn’t anything, and I didn’t vote or much care, but the other thing was easier to explain to my mother. 8 The museum party started at seven, so I’d told Lauren Sara six, and she clicked into the apartment in her bicycle shoes at twenty to eight. I think she was on to me. She tossed her messenger bag onto the floor with a metallic thud. Careful, I said. Jesus, what’s in there? Engine parts, she said. I need a shower. We’re so late already. She shrugged. That’s cool. I can go like this. She was in a pair of dungarees cuffed to just below the knee and a sleeveless T-shirt that read EAST END ORGANIC URBAN FARMSTEAD with a cartoon lion and a cartoon lamb both giving the peace sign.

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion
by Elizabeth L. Cline
Published 13 Jun 2012

Still imagining Communist-era austerity ruling the Chinese fashion winds, I didn’t want anyone to be overwhelmed by my New York fashion sensibility. But as I walked down the palm-tree-lined pedestrian plazas of Shenzhen in a pair of khakis, canvas slip-ons, and a plain black blouse, I was decidedly outdressed by sharply dressed twentysomethings in knee-high boots and chic leather messenger bags. Lily and Katy were both better dressed than I, in the latest styles for China’s college-educated up-and-comers. A decade ago China’s fashion industry was almost nonexistent. Today, it’s on the verge of exploding and the country has the world’s fastest-growing fashion and luxury markets.17 China has had its own edition of Vogue since 2005, and the Shenzhen Garment Industry Association has organized a collective runway show for the city’s designers at London Fashion Week since 2010.

The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future
by Chris Guillebeau
Published 7 May 2012

To my surprise, the name of the Amtrak train from Chicago to Portland was the Empire Builder. Hmmm. I began to get an idea, but initially thought it was too crazy to implement. That same evening, the doorbell rang and the UPS guy dropped off a package. When I opened the box, I discovered a free messenger bag sent by some new friends at Tom Bihn’s company (profiled in Chapter 13). The name of the bag was … Empire Builder. I’m not sure if God, the universe, or Tom Bihn’s company was sending me the message, but I decided to follow the idea where it led. I made plans to go to West Africa then fly home via Chicago and launch the Empire Building Kit on a single day, live from the Empire Builder train.

Primates of Park Avenue: A Memoir
by Wednesday Martin Ph.d.
Published 1 Jun 2015

It was an insouciant, self-confidently uncommon brick-red, the lipstick color you have been looking for for years and never found, the platonic ideal that drove you to buy tube after tube of not-right reds in pursuit of The One. The shape, too, was just right—just off the visual map of things you were used to, provocative in its subtle difference from a purse or a messenger bag. There were file folders in there, barely peeking out, suggesting a life of work and beauty. I actually followed the woman a few blocks through the Eighth (of course it was the Eighth, the arrondissement of all things starchily, sexily French), stalking her handbag, trying to figure out what it was.

So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y'all Don't Even Know
by Retta
Published 28 May 2018

I was earning my own money and was going to enjoy it, with some limits. But first I was about to learn those limits. I was one of those suckers in college who signed up for a “starter” credit card with a crazy-high interest rate at the campus bookstore and then immediately bought shit I couldn’t afford. Duke sweatshirts. Duke sweatpants. Duke messenger bag. Duke pajamas. Did I mention I went to Duke? Go Devils! I’d get a bill and think nothing of it. Seriously, I thought N O T H I N G of it. When you get a bill you normally think, At some point, I’m going to have to pay this bill. Not me. That minimum payment and due date were merely suggestions that I could or could not adhere to.

Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
by Mary L. Trump
Published 13 Jul 2020

Seventy-five percent of the time it was a Jehovah’s Witness or Mormon missionaries. The rest of the time, it was somebody wanting me to sign a petition. When I opened the door, the only thing that registered was that the woman standing there, with her shock of curly blond hair and dark-rimmed glasses, was someone I didn’t know. Her khakis, button-down shirt, and messenger bag placed her out of Rockville Centre. “Hi. My name is Susanne Craig. I’m a reporter for the New York Times.” Journalists had stopped contacting me a long time before. With the exception of David Corn from Mother Jones and somebody from Frontline, the only other person to leave a message before the election had been from Inside Edition.

Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior
by Jonah Berger
Published 13 Jun 2016

Then, at each corner, I would stop and try to guess which direction had the best chance of success. Dentist’s office to the left? Dentists tend to drive nice cars, so why not do a quick loop of the parking lot. High-end grocery store to the right? Worth a shot. Every time I found a BMW, I reached into my messenger bag, pulled out a piece of paper, and gingerly tucked it under one of the windshield wipers. These weren’t coupons for body shops or advertisements for auto detailing. We weren’t selling anything at all. Instead, Princeton professor Emily Pronin and I were interested in how different factors influenced car buying.

The Zero-Waste Lifestyle: Live Well by Throwing Away Less
by Amy Korst
Published 26 Dec 2012

Two layers at a time are sandwiched between layers of freezer paper and ironed at a low setting until they are melted together. Additional layers are added the same way until a thick, tarp-like plastic fabric has been formed. Lou uses this plastic fabric in all kinds of marvelous creations, including baby bibs, coin purses, messenger bags, checkbook covers, and zippered pouches. She sells these at craft fairs in her area and online through Etsy.com. Although Lou has turned trash into a booming business, she has a real concern: “I am afraid Lou’s Upcycles has become a place where plastic can be delivered so consumers do not have to feel guilty about buying hundred-packs of chips, cases of water bottles wrapped in plastic, tiny candy bars, and other scary overpackaging.… I think we may have forgotten that what I make should be unnecessary and unfortunate, in a way.

The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City
by Alan Ehrenhalt
Published 23 Apr 2012

Judging from the profusion of strollers in the late afternoon, and the seemingly ubiquitous presence of children’s clothing stores on Armitage and Halsted, you begin to suspect that census data on household size in Sheffield—a median of roughly two people per household in the two main census tracts—is somehow in error. By five thirty most of the strollers and children are gone, and the scene has begun to change significantly. There are middle-aged men with white shirts and briefcases now, younger men carrying messenger bags, women lugging big round papasan wicker chairs from a neighboring furniture store, and quite a few people carrying clothes on hangers from the dry cleaner that sits next to the station. The Starbucks on the corner of Armitage and Sheffield is busy at this time of day, as it was early in the morning, but the scene is much more social.

Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet
by Andrew Blum
Published 28 May 2012

On his website, Jon Auer listed among his favorite books Router Security Strategies and How to Win Friends & Influence People. His Flickr page consisted mostly of photos of telecommunications equipment. In person, he had pink cheeks and metal-rimmed glasses, and on that frigid Wisconsin winter day he wore a hooded sweatshirt with no coat, and he carried a camouflage-patterned messenger bag. He fit the stereotype of a geek, but whatever social liability that might once have been, it had transformed into unadorned passion—and yielded a good job, running the network of a company that provides Internet access to towns across southeastern Wisconsin, mostly places too distant or too sleepy to attract the interest of the big telephone and cable operators.

How to Kill a City: The Real Story of Gentrification
by Peter Moskowitz
Published 7 Mar 2017

But even five years ago, this scene—people walking downtown, shopping, buying hundred-dollar bike saddles—would strike many Detroiters as ridiculous. Inside the shop, Detroit Bikes founder Zak Pashak served up locally made tamales as potential customers milled about the store and surveyed the company’s offerings: two models of bikes, each priced at $700; $100 leather Brooks bike seats; $65 Bern helmets; some high-end messenger bags; other standard bike gear. “I love downtowns, and this is the middle of a historic city,” Pashak told me after we took a seat on a bench in Capitol Park. “You just have to be aware of what you’re moving into and be as good a guest as possible.” Not long ago, Capitol Park was crumbling. But in 2009, the city undertook a renovation of the park and sold several city-owned buildings surrounding it to private developers.

Infinite Detail
by Tim Maughan
Published 1 Apr 2019

Scott has a jacket on, faded blue denim. He’s wrapping a gray cotton scarf loosely around his neck. “How d’I look?” “Great. As always. I—” “Thanks, boo. I’ll catch you later.” “Okay. We … we can talk while you’re on the way?” “How? My fucking spex are dead. And I’m going to be out all day.” Scott grabs a messenger bag off a chair, slings it over his shoulder. “I mean, maybe if I can get some charge somewhere. But otherwise it’ll be tonight.” “Okay. Hopefully I’ll be up, I guess. It’s just—” “What?” “It’s just I wanted to … tell you about something—” “What? Can’t it wait?” “I … sure. It can wait.” “Okay.

Bully Market: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs
by Jamie Fiore Higgins
Published 29 Aug 2022

“The answer is, ‘I don’t know, sir, but I’ll find out.’ ” I looked at Tom’s face on the projection screen and noticed the edges of his mouth were lined with white foam. “I don’t know, sir, but I’ll find out,” John corrected himself. I could hear him push cries down his throat. “Good,” Tom said. “Now leave, and report back to us tomorrow at 7 a.m.” John stumbled over the people sitting in his row as he rushed out, running once he hit the aisle, his messenger bag flopping against his shoulder. “Welcome to Goldman,” Tom declared. “Home to the most paranoid and insecure people in the world. That’s what it takes to put up with this environment.” What the hell did I sign up for? My body shook as I wrapped my arms around my waist to try to stop the trembling.

Hatching Twitter
by Nick Bilton
Published 5 Nov 2013

On weekends his computer time was interrupted by his mother, Marcia, who would drag Jack and his brothers through the streets of St. Louis in search of the ultimate purse, “the one true bag,” as she called it. Jack would sit quietly in the aisles of women’s clothing stores while Marcia shopped. There he also started to develop a fascination with bags himself. Rather than opting for purses, though, Jack found comfort in messenger bags. In San Francisco years later, he wore one daily. A light-colored Filson bag that contrasted with his dark clothing: black T-shirts, zip-up sweaters and jeans, bulky sneakers to match. His shoulders, which sloped down steeply, made his jackets hang on his skinny and lanky frame. He sometimes played with a silver nose ring that hugged his nostril.

Upgrade
by Blake Crouch
Published 6 Jul 2022

With a sigh, he polished off his glass of champagne and lifted his satchel from the floor. We drove back into the city, with Nadine Nettmann behind the wheel of the modified company Edison and I-70 virtually empty at this hour of the night. Soren had been installed behind the passenger seat with his wrists zip-tied behind his back. I’d searched his carry-on—a Gucci messenger bag—but the only item of interest was a laptop, which we’d need a federal warrant to break into. “You’re Logan Ramsay, right?” Soren asked, his first words spoken since we’d escorted him out of the airport. “That’s right.” “Son of Miriam Ramsay?” “Yes.” I tried to keep my tone neutral. It wasn’t the first time a suspect had made that connection.

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now
by Douglas Rushkoff
Published 21 Mar 2013

Likewise, real-world grups are hip, indie fortysomethings who, according to Sternbergh, “look, talk, act, and dress like people who are 22 years old. It’s not about a fad but about a phenomenon that looks to be permanent.”12 Grups wear the vintage sneakers of their own childhoods, put their babies in indie rock T-shirts, and use messenger bags instead of briefcases. Eventually, the time compression takes its toll, requiring some pretty intense mental gymnastics: “If you’re 35 and wearing the same Converse All-Stars to work that you wore to junior high, are you an old guy sadly aping the Strokes? Or are the young guys simply copying you?

The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers
by Emily Levesque
Published 3 Aug 2020

That was intense, but I guess I’m just overreacting. I tried to calm myself down and return to the task of choosing a pair of lucky observing socks. I mean, the cable still works, so maybe I’ll just…huh, the local news station is out. That’s…probably normal. I unplugged my fully charged laptop and tucked it calmly into my messenger bag as the lights started to darken and the power went out. Totally normal. Noises from outside my window told me that people were, in fact, starting to congregate in the street. I’d just added my wallet and folder of observing notes to my bag when the floor starting bouncing again as an aftershock arrived.

Reamde
by Neal Stephenson
Published 19 Sep 2011

This was based entirely on appearance: his size, build, and extremely close-cropped copper-blond hair, his coat—dark green canvas, hanging to midthigh, with a vaguely military cut about it, looking like it could conceal just about anything short of a bazooka—and his scuffed black steel-toed boots. As he reached the top of the steps he swung a large shoulder bag down to the deck. It was a somewhat hip bike messenger bag with a broad padded strap meant to go diagonally across the body. The first thing he wanted to look at was the cockpit, and so all they could see for a few moments was the back of his head, supported by an unusually thick neck. After he’d gotten his fill of looking at the plane’s control panel, which took a while, he turned to inspect the door of the lavatory.

…

“Hello,” they responded. “I am Csongor.” “Csongor the hacker?” Peter inquired. “Yes,” Csongor answered, amused, or at least bemused, that Peter had been able to identify him in this way. He stepped into the passenger cabin. He and his luggage were too wide to move abreast down the seat-row, so he held the messenger bag out at arm’s length and allowed it to precede him. “I’m Peter. You’ve apparently heard of me,” said Peter in a tone that was sour, verging on openly hostile. Csongor, seeming to take the matter very seriously, stepped forward and extended his hand. Peter, incredulous, shook it. Csongor then turned toward Zula and waited for his cue.

…

And so the email pipeline now worked like this: down in Douglas, which was the primary city of the Isle of Man, the girlfriend of one of the medievalists, who dwelled in a flat there (“I happen to rather like tampons”), would read D-squared’s email as it came in, filter out the obvious junk, and print out a hard copy of anything that seemed important, and zip it up in a waterproof messenger bag. When it came time to walk her dog, she would stroll up the waterfront promenade until she reached the wee elven train station at its northern end, where she would hand the bag to the station agent, who would later hand it over to the conductor of the narrow-gauge electrical train that wound its way from there up into the interior of the island.

The new village green: living light, living local, living large
by Stephen Morris
Published 1 Sep 2007

This is one of the most professional and interesting Web sites that you could possibly bookmark on your browser; almost every day they describe a new technology or technique for environmentalists. Their book, a compilation of their work over the last few years, is nothing less than The Whole Earth Catalog, that hippie bible, retooled for the iPod generation. There are short features on a thousand cool ideas: slow food, urban farming, hydrogen cars, messenger bags made from recycled truck tarps, pop-apart cell phones, and plyboo (i.e., plywood made from fast-growing bamboo). There are many hundreds of howto guides (how to etch your own circuit board, how to break in your hybrid car so as to maximize mileage, how to organize a “smart mob,” a brief gathering of strangers in a public place).

The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World
by Alexander Roy
Published 13 Oct 2008

He believed in basic tenets of goodness common to all religions, and, he hoped, other atheists—honesty, hard work, and loyalty. What he saw when his U.S. Army unit liberated Buchenwald turned out the light upon whatever faith he had remaining. “Please,” he said, pursing his lips. The rumble grew closer. I fell into a fetal position and pulled my messenger bag over my head. It was time to pull out whatever prayers I knew, except that I didn’t know any. “Here it comes!” someone yelled. I prayed that whatever God was listening would grant me this one reprieve and forgive my minor sins. I couldn’t remember any major ones, and I wondered how many minor ones equaled…but by then it was too late to equivocate or lie to the creator(s).

Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe
by Roger McNamee
Published 1 Jan 2019

The company had only nine million dollars in revenue in the prior year. But Facebook had huge potential—that was already obvious—and I leapt at the opportunity to meet its founder. Zuck showed up at my Elevation Partners office on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California, dressed casually, with a messenger bag over his shoulder. U2 singer Bono and I had formed Elevation in 2004, along with former Apple CFO Fred Anderson, former Electronic Arts president John Riccitiello, and two career investors, Bret Pearlman and Marc Bodnick. We had configured one of our conference rooms as a living room, complete with a large arcade video game system, and that is where Zuck and I met.

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
by David Epstein
Published 1 Mar 2019

Something is not functioning as expected, so anything outside that temperature range is unknown territory. He knows his recommendation comes off as extremely arbitrary. The group moves to a final tally. With Mei’s conversion, it’s four to three, they’re racing. The students continue to chat as they stuff the case study papers into their backpacks and messenger bags. Martina quickly reads aloud a part of the case study where team owner BJ Carter asked his chief mechanic, Robin, for his opinion. “The drivers have their lives on the line, I have a career that hangs on every race, and you have every dime tied up in the business,” Robin told him. Nobody ever won a race sitting in the pits, he reminded his boss.

Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women's Pain
by Abby Norman
Published 6 Mar 2018

In fact, several more years would elapse, during which time my efforts to prevent it were motivated by a secret fear that I did not share with anyone, because I found it humiliating. Then, my first year at Sarah Lawrence, it happened again. I don’t remember exactly what preceded it. I’d probably been up too late having too much coffee. I think I’d eaten a strange concoction of crispy, undercooked Ramen and fuzzy candy I’d dug out from the bottom of my messenger bag. I tried, earnestly, not to vomit. Soon, though, I realized that I was wasting time—precious time that I needed to work and, God willing, to sleep. It was over in half a second, and there wasn’t even much to show for it. But immediately I was flooded by that feeling that couldn’t be matched, that I hadn’t forgotten but had been too afraid to chase.

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators
by Ronan Farrow
Published 14 Oct 2019

I’d suggested we meet at the Brazilian restaurant where I got the recording from Gutierrez. I arrived on time, asked for a table for two, sat down. The phone rang with an encrypted Signal call. “Axiom” appeared on the screen again. “Don’t order,” said a man’s voice. I looked around again. No one I could see. “You are wearing the messenger bag, light blue shirt, and slightly darker jeans,” he continued. He told me to leave and walk slowly. “Walk against traffic, please.” I craned my neck around. “Don’t look around,” he continued, a little annoyed. “I’ll be about a half a block away, so please stop for 1–1.5 minutes at the intersections.

Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life
by Kristen R. Ghodsee
Published 16 May 2023

They might assume that caregiving responsibilities would hamper my ability to produce the quality and quantity of research and teaching necessary to succeed. Fearing my new mother status would harm my candidacy, I never mentioned my daughter’s existence. I thought I had everything planned. Because I was nursing, I carried a handheld breast pump in my messenger bag, hoping to use the breaks between my campus interviews to express my milk. But every moment of my day was scheduled as I walked from faculty office to faculty office, guided by a program coordinator who waited outside of the bathroom for me when I went in. By my four o’clock interview, my breasts had swelled up like basketballs.

How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir
by Cat Marnell
Published 30 Jan 2017

“I just . . . don’t . . . know . . . what is wrong . . .” I met Jean’s eyes. “With me.” We both sat there. “What else can we do to help you?” For the thousandth time. “I’m just going through a rough patch,” I said. I returned to my cubicle and sat down. Jean resumed editing with her blue pens. I started opening messenger bags with my numb hands. Then I stopped. It was silent in the beauty department. Cristina wasn’t there; neither was Simone. It was just my boss and me. I stared at the gray carpet for a long time. “I can’t do this anymore,” I blurted out. What are you doing? someone screamed inside of me.

Fall; Or, Dodge in Hell
by Neal Stephenson
Published 3 Jun 2019

Corvallis inferred all of this from sounds; he could see nothing through his tears but the fake wood grain of the conference room table. When he sat back up again, he could see her standing outside wringing her hands. He blotted his eyes with tissues and then used them to wipe tears that had spilled onto the tabletop. He threw the damp tissues into a convenient receptacle, then slung Dodge’s messenger bag over his shoulder and tucked the canvas tote under his arm. The office manager opened the door for him. He nodded to her and walked out of the medical practice without looking back. On the sidewalk outside, someone had, during the last few minutes, placed a bouquet of grocery store flowers on the picture of Egdod.

…

ELSH is second to none in this field. And I intend to be very active in stating our case. Making sure that there are no misunderstandings. Protecting our brand.” “I wish you all the best of luck with your brand,” Corvallis said, sliding out of the booth, reaching out, almost as an afterthought, to throw an arm over Dodge’s messenger bag and the sack full of his effects. He turned without shaking El Shepherd’s hand and stalked away. His exit route took him right along the line of bar stools. Four of these were supporting humans. For midday drinkers, they seemed curiously fit. Maybe it was because they were all drinking water. They raised their heads and tracked him in their peripheral vision.

Jennifer Morgue
by Stross, Charles
Published 12 Jan 2006

One of them is paused and zoomed to fill the middle of the screen. It's an airport terminal and it looks vaguely familiar, if a little distorted by the funny lens. Several people are crossing the camera viewpoint but only one of them is centered — a woman in a sundress and big floppy hat, large shades concealing her eyes. She's got a messenger bag slung carelessly over one shoulder, and she's carrying a battered violin case. Very carefully, I say, "I haven't a clue." Hopefully the noise of my heart pounding away won't be audible over the ship's engines. "Why do you think I ought to know her? What is this, anyway?" I force myself to look away from Mo and find I'm staring at the console instead, tier upon tier of nineteeninch rackmount boxes stacked halfway to the ceiling.

Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs
by Lauren A. Rivera
Published 3 May 2015

“Yes,” I replied with a smile, the Californian in me trying to coax a grin out of him. “Great,” he said, with no trace of a smile. Adam then shut down his laptop—without modifying any of his online candidate scoring sheets to reflect the decisions that he and Stefan had just agreed on—and stuffed it in his black Tumi messenger bag. Turning to Stefan, he said, “Great meeting you.” Stefan replied in kind. Adam then fumbled with his BlackBerry, put it up to his cheek for a call, and darted out of the room. “Thanks!” I said to Stefan. He nodded, “Thank you.” I kept these interviewers’ rankings with my own notes for our hiring committee callback meeting, which was scheduled for Tuesday, the night after the second and final day of first-round interviews.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two?
by Temi Oh
Published 15 Mar 2019

she yelled, pushing him away. But more people were bounding towards her. ‘Can I get a picture with you?’ asked a woman, grabbing at her sleeve. Everywhere she looked there were people, their voices slipping into a white-noise of urgent clamour. Sweaty fingers tugged at her blazer and the strap of her messenger bag. She pictured her own face, petrified in black and white on the cover of a newspaper. In a moment of panic, she kicked over a large plastic bin, which crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, the contents flying out. The crowd dilated, giving Poppy enough time to scramble over the fence into the darkness of someone’s garden.

Straphanger
by Taras Grescoe
Published 8 Sep 2011

When you think style over speed, cycling is going to be safe.”* In the United States, Colville-Andersen said, cycling is perceived either as a leisure activity or the transportation choice of marginalized subcultures. “We have to re-democratize the bicycle. Forget the hipsters on fixies with their messenger bags, forget the spandex-clad men riding around in packs, forget the vehicular cyclists.† In Paris, they had no existing subculture of messengers or urban cycle gear, so, when Vélib’ came to town, there was no stigma attached to cycling. The people you see riding Vélib’, in their suits and skirts, are the same people you see riding the métro.”

Lonely Planet Barcelona
by Isabella Noble and Regis St Louis
Published 15 Nov 2022

Amapola Vegan ShopFASHION & ACCESSORIES map Google map (%93 010 62 73; www.amapolaveganshop.com; Travessera de Gràcia 129; h5-8.30pm Mon, 10am-2pm & 5-8.30pm Tue-Sat; mFontana) S A shop with a heart of gold, Amapola proves that you need not toss your ethics aside to get stylish clothing and accessories. You’ll find sleek leather alternatives for wallets, handbags, messenger bags, belts and boots by Matt & Nat, and elegant vegan scarves by Barts. Pieces are hand-picked by owner Raquel and many are locally made. BeGIFTS & SOUVENIRS map Google map (%93 218 89 49; www.bethestore.com; Carrer de Bonavista 7; h10am-9pm Mon-Fri, from 10.30am Sat; mDiagonal) With several branches around town, Be is a fun place to browse for clothes, accessories and all kinds of trinkets.

The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School
by Alexandra Robbins
Published 31 Mar 2009

But no one explains to them why. Enter quirk theory. Chapter 1 MEET THE CAFETERIA FRINGE DANIELLE, ILLINOIS | THE LONER When the bell rang, Danielle slowly gathered her books as the rest of her class scrambled out of the room. She reluctantly made her way into the hall, slinging her green messenger bag—backpacks were too commonplace—over her shoulder. The hallway was already beginning to empty as people disappeared into classrooms. Students didn’t acknowledge Danielle and she didn’t acknowledge them. She walked with her head down, slouching her five foot ten frame, her dark, shoulder-length hair shielding her face.

San Francisco
by Lonely Planet

Needles & Pens Gifts, Books Offline map Google map (www.needles-pens.com; 3253 16th St; noon-7pm; & 16th St Mission) Do it yourself or DIY trying: this scrappy zine/craft/how-to/art gallery delivers the inspiration to create your own magazines, rehabbed T-shirts or album covers. Nab Jay Howell’s Punks Git Cut comic illustrating failed fighting words, Nigel Peake’s pen-and-ink aerial views of patchworked farmland, and alphabet buttons to pin your own credo onto a handmade messenger bag. SCRAP (Scroungers’ Center for Re-Usable Art Parts) DIY Offline map Google map (www.scrap-sf.org; 801 Toland St; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat; Totland St) Renew, recycle and rediscover your creativity with postindustrial salvage arts and crafts from SCRAP – you’d be shocked what perfectly good raw materials San Francisco throws out.

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley
by Antonio Garcia Martinez
Published 27 Jun 2016

If I held out for a few more minutes, he’d be out of the office, and I could ignore the boys on email and have a night to think about it. British Trader and I kept on going, and sure as shit, Argyris got a phone call from the better half, and took off with a wave and a concerned look. With considerable relief, I hung up with British Trader, gathered my startup kit of messenger bag and laptop, and cleared out in case Argyris came back. Here’s some capital-H History for you: Right around 1961, when the Cuban government was televising political executions like they were the Super Bowl, with death warrants signed by that Argentine mama’s boy Che, whose face graces more than one misguided hippie’s T-shirt, my parents fled Cuba.

Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth
by Elizabeth Williamson
Published 8 Mar 2022

Cooper aired a brief interview with Tracy by a reporter from Florida TV station WPEC, who found Tracy on the university campus. “You had twenty families that were mourning, that buried children. Are you concerned about that at all?” the reporter asked. Tracy, in jeans and a white button-down, a battered cloth messenger bag slung over his shoulder, struck the classic conspiracist’s pose: arch, secure in his superior knowledge. “Once again, the investigation that journalistic institutions should have actually carried out never took place, as far as I’m concerned.” He scratched a graying temple. “We need to, as a society, look at things more carefully.

Bleeding Edge: A Novel
by Thomas Pynchon
Published 16 Sep 2013

Just as she’s about to head out with the boys to school, the doorbell rings its usual Big Ben theme which somebody a hundred years ago figured would be appropriate to the grandiosity of the building. Maxine squints through the peephole and here’s Marvin the kozmonaut, dreads pushed up under his bike helmet, orange jacket and blue cargo pants, and over his shoulder an orange messenger bag with the running-man logo of the recently failed kozmo.com. “Marvin. You’re up early. What’s with the outfit, you guys folded weeks ago.” “Don’t mean I have to stop ridin. My legs are still pumpin, no mechanical issues with the bike, I can ride forever, I’m the Flyin Dutchmahn.” “Strange, I’m not expecting anything, you must have me mixed up with some other lowlife again.”

Fodor's Oregon
by Fodor's Travel Guides
Published 13 Jun 2023

b Shopping CLOTHING HKeen Garage SPORTING GOODS | Known for its wildly popular and often playfully colorful hiking sandals, boots, and water shoes, this spacious showroom occupies a splendidly restored 1907 steamship factory that also houses this eco-conscious company’s headquarters. In addition to just about any kind of footwear you could need to tackle Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors, you’ll also find backpacks and messenger bags along with socks, pants, shirts, and other rugged outerwear. E 505 N.W. 13th Ave., Pearl District P 971/200–4040 w keenfootwear.com. Nau MIXED CLOTHING | Specializing in men’s and women’s sustainable clothing, from rugged hoodies and urbane down jackets to dressier threads made with cotton, Tencel, and other breathable fabrics, Portland-based Nau ships all over the world, but you can try on products and ask questions at this sleek flagship retail store in the Pearl District.

San Francisco
by Lonely Planet

Needles & Pens Gifts, Books Offline map Google map (www.needles-pens.com; 3253 16th St; noon-7pm; & 16th St Mission) Do it yourself or DIY trying: this scrappy zine/craft/how-to/art gallery delivers the inspiration to create your own magazines, rehabbed T-shirts or album covers. Nab Jay Howell’s Punks Git Cut comic illustrating failed fighting words, Nigel Peake’s pen-and-ink aerial views of patchworked farmland, and alphabet buttons to pin your own credo onto a handmade messenger bag. SCRAP (Scroungers’ Center for Re-Usable Art Parts) DIY Offline map Google map (www.scrap-sf.org; 801 Toland St; 9am-5pm Mon-Sat; Totland St) Renew, recycle and rediscover your creativity with postindustrial salvage arts and crafts from SCRAP – you’d be shocked what perfectly good raw materials San Francisco throws out.

The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
by Timothy Ferriss
Published 1 Dec 2010

Important note: There is also some evidence that select antibiotics may also make contraceptive pills less effective because of their negative impact on gut flora and absorption of estrogens. To prevent unplanned pregnancy, consult with your doctor if taking antibiotics while on birth control. THE MEATLESS MACHINE I Reasons to Try a Plant-Based Diet for Two Weeks Bacon: the gateway meat. —Pin on messenger bag in San Francisco The Power of Positive Constraints Limiting options is usually thought of as a bad thing. But how would your speaking improve if you couldn’t use the adjective “interesting” and had to be more precise? How would your planning skills improve if you had to go without a cell phone for two weeks?

Fodor's Rome: With the Best City Walks and Scenic Day Trips
by Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.
Published 24 Sep 2012

His shoes have adorned the art-in-motion feet of Fred Astaire and proved that lightweight shoes could be comfortable and luxurious and still make heads turn. Today the Testoni brand includes an extraordinary women’s collection and a sports line that is relaxed without losing its artistic heritage. The soft, calfskin sneakers are a dream, as are the matching messenger bags. | Via Condotti 80 | 00187 | 06/6788944 | www.testoni.com. Bruno Magli. Bruno Magli has high-end, well-crafted, classically styled shoes for both men and women. Magli and his siblings Marino and Maria learned the art of shoemaking from their father and grandfather. From its humble family origins to the corporate design powerhouse it has become today, Bruno Magli footwear always has kept the focus on craftsmanship: it’s not uncommon for 30 people to touch each shoe during the course of its manufacture. | Via Condotti 6 | 00187 | 06/69292121 | www.brunomagli.it.

Bernie Madoff, the Wizard of Lies: Inside the Infamous $65 Billion Swindle
by Diana B. Henriques
Published 1 Aug 2011

He then went into private practice and, in 1984, was hired to handle his first SIPC liquidation. Over the years, this became one of his specialties. The other half of this odd couple was David J. Sheehan—small and shaggy, a mercurial, combative litigator with a biting wit, a grizzled beard, a messenger bag to throw over his parka, and impishly chic black-framed glasses. Sheehan was the son of a janitor in the urban New Jersey town of Kearny. He worked his way through university and law school. In the face of the Vietnam draft, he enlisted as a lieutenant in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps and spent his tour of duty handling legal matters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Lonely Planet Switzerland
by Lonely Planet

Elsewhere, funky boutiques abound in places like Niederdorf and Züri-West, Popular street markets include the Bürkliplatz flea market ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.buerkli-flohmarkt.ch; Bürkliplatz; h7am-5pm Sat May-Oct; j2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 to Bürkliplatz), Flohmarkt Kanzlei ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.flohmarktkanzlei.ch; Kanzleistrasse 56; h8am-4pm Sat; j8 to Helvetiaplatz) and Rosenhof crafts market ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; Rosenhof; h10am-8pm Thu, to 5pm Sat Mar-Dec; j4, 15 to Rathaus). oFreitagFASHION & ACCESSORIES ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %043 366 95 20; www.freitag.ch; Geroldstrasse 17; h10.30am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-6pm Sat; j3, 4, 6 to Schiffbau) The Freitag brothers recycle colourful truck tarps into water-resistant messenger bags in their factory. Every item, from purses to laptop bags, is original. Their outlet is pure whimsy – a pile of shipping containers that's been dubbed Kreis 5’s first skyscraper. Shoppers can climb to the rooftop terrace for spectacular city views. Max ChocolatierCHOCOLATE ( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; www.maxchocolatier.com; Schlüsselgasse 12; h10.30am-7pm Tue-Fri, 10am-5.30pm Sat; j4, 10, 11, 14, 15 to Paradeplatz) Of all Zürich's tempting chocolatiers, Max has the edge.

Rough Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area
by Nick Edwards and Mark Ellwood
Published 2 Jan 2009

True 1415 Haight St at Ashbury, Haight-Ashbury t 415/626-2882. Urban clothing from Enyce sits alongside a strong selection of classic sneakers like Nike Dunks, plus watches by Dixon at this store owned by Michael Brown, son of ex-mayor Willie; the womenswear branch nearby (no. 1427) has a wall filled with vinyl and messenger bags as well as clothing by New York skate label Triple 5 Soul and others. Urban Outfitters 80 Powell St at Ellis, Union Square t415/989-1515. Slackerwear for the college-aged or -minded: great for ironic, irreverent T-shirts and offbeat accessories. Noted, too, for its cheap and kitschy homewares.

Central Europe Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet

August’s Street Parade (www.street-parade.ch) is Europe’s largest street party in any given year, attracting well over half a million ravers. ONCE A TRUCK TARPAULIN, NOW A BAG Freitag ( 043-3669520; Geroldstrasse 17; 11am-7.30pm Mon-Fri, 11am-5pm Sat) , run by two ambitious Swiss dudes, proves everything can have a second life. Choose an industrial-looking messenger bag, travelling tote or women’s purse made from 100% recycled materials (truck tarps, seat belts etc) in this flagship store housed in a 26m-high stack of retired shipping containers in Züri-West. Even if you can’t afford the pricey bags, hike up to the alfresco viewing platform in the top container.

Lonely Planet Brazil
by Lonely Planet

Aside from handicrafts, the store also stocks baskets, hammocks, pottery and woven rugs. 7Copacabana & Leme Gilson MartinsFASHION & ACCESSORIES (map Google map; %21 2235-5701; http://shop.gilsonmartins.com.br; Av Atlântica 1998, Copacabana; h9am-8pm Mon-Sat, 10am-4pm Sun) S Like its flagship store in Ipanema, this colorful shop sells well-crafted wallets, messenger bags, purses, key chains and other items with images of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), the Brazilian flag and other iconic designs. Products are durable and use recycled and sustainable materials – and are not available outside of Rio. Loja FlaFASHION & ACCESSORIES (map Google map; %21 2295-5057; www.lojafla.com.br; Av NS de Copacabana 219, Copacabana; h9am-7pm Mon-Fri, 10am-4pm Sat) With more than 30 million fans worldwide, Flamengo is one of the most-watched football (soccer) teams in all of Brazil.

Fodor's California 2014
by Fodor's
Published 5 Nov 2013

Downtown As Downtown revitalizes, a handful of edgy and avant-garde shops have moved in; but you’ll also find ethnic pockets, with their own trinket shops and markets, that testify to L.A.’s diversity. Clare Vivier. Clare Vivier’s chic handbags are classic French glamour by way of laid-back California, and her eponymous Silver Lake boutique, designed by Barbara Bestor, follows the same aesthetic. Inside, find her full line of messenger bags, foldover clutches, and iPad cases, all of them made locally in Los Angeles. | 3339 Sunset Blvd., Downtown | 90026 | 323/665–2476 | www.clarevivier.com. Heath Ceramics. This loft-like outpost of the beloved Sausalito-based ceramics company stocks everything from Coupe dishes, a line created by founder Edith Heath herself in the 1940s, to glass tumblers handblown in West Virginia.

Germany Travel Guide
by Lonely Planet

For outdoor shopping, there’s a bustling flower market Offline map Google map (Schillerplatz; 7am-1pm Tue, Thu & Sat) and a flea market Offline map Google map (Karlsplatz; 8am-4pm Sat). Tausche ACCESSORIES Offline map Google map (Eberhardstrasse 51; 11am-7pm Mon-Fri, to 6pm Sat) Berlin’s snazziest messenger bags have winged their way south. Tausche’s walls are a technicolour mosaic of exchangeable flaps: from die blöde Kuh (the silly cow) to Stuttgart’s iconic Fernsehturm (TV Tower). Pick one to match your outfit and mood. Brunnenhannes FASHION Offline map Google map (Geissstrasse 15; 11am-7pm Tue-Fri, to 4pm Sat) Nothing to wear to Oktoberfest?

Germany
by Andrea Schulte-Peevers
Published 17 Oct 2010

Stilwerk ( 253 6713; www.stilwerk.de; Königsbau-passagen; 10am-8pm Mon-Sat) Some of Germany’s top design stores cluster under an elliptical glass roof at Stilwerk, specialising in everything from space-age bathrooms to stylish rattan creations. Tausche ( 414 8490; Eberhardstrasse 51; 11am-7pm Mon-Fri, to 6pm Sat) Berlin’s snazziest messenger bags have winged their way south. Tausche’s walls are a technicolour mosaic of exchangeable flaps: from die blöde Kuh (the silly cow) to Stuttgart’s iconic Fernsehturm (TV Tower). Pick one to match your outfit and mood. For outdoor action, there’s a bustling flower market (Schillerplatz; 7.30am-1pm Tue, Thu & Sat) and a flea market (Karlsplatz; to 4pm Sat).