We get it: the best dinner parties can get messy and the first casualties are usually your placemats. But cleaning placemats isn't as simple as popping them in the dishwasher post-feast along with ...

Fine grades of excelsior, the 19th-century wood shavings product often used in packaging (in the antediluvian days before styrofoam peanuts) are finding a new application: interior acoustic panels.

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