The Thing: Desktop globes are making a comeback, this time in monochromatic motifs

In the zoomed-in age of Google, with its panoramic street-viewing eye leaving little to the imagination, desktop globes are making a comeback as the nostalgic decor item du jour. But these are not your elemen­tary school models with Crayola-coloured countries—the ones we spun wildly as kids, stopping them with our fingers on far-flung locales where we were going to live when we grew up. The new globes are simple and refined, and come in muted, monochromatic motifs. Yet they manage to evoke the same sense of wonder as the classic versions—this time as objects of design. We especially love the Corona globe from Japan ($300 at Mjölk, 2959 Dundas St. W., 416-551-9853) for its stark black and white rendering of the continents and oceans. This is the globe all grown up—still fun to spin, even if we now do it with much less abandon.