Daddy Types: January 2007 Archives

January 2007 Archives

January 31, 2007

Gellibaff: Red Gum! Red Gum! Red Gum!

Looks like we need a WTF??? category around here. Gellibaff is a packet of crystals that turns your kid's bathwater into brightly colored, gelatinous goo. To get rid of it, you just dump in the second packet of crystals,...
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WTF: Park Slope Dad Cheaps Out, Buys Graco Toy Stroller

From the Park Slope Parents listserv, The case of the missing toy strollers:When she lost his other toy stroller, we didn't charge her for it, but this one is just really all the more aggravating because of the prior history...
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Sweet Stainless Steel Sippy

Good morning clean, cool water from a stainless steel sippy cup. Stainless Steel Sippy Cup [Klean Kanteen, Greenfeet]...
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Play Plus Soft: A Playroom With A View

Wow. I've never felt too bad for not giving the kid her own 2,000 square feet to run and play in. Until now. StudioUK has launched Play+Soft [you pronounce the '+'], a 200+piece series of early childhood learning objects...
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Richard McGuire's Random Popeye Generator

Since they haven't grown up, much less grown up with the old cartoons, kids won't get the conceptual elegance of Richard McGuire's P+O shapes, abstracted reworkings of Popeye & Olive Oyl's distinctive profiles. But that doesn't mean they won't...
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Connect The Dots, People! Another Organic Robot Onesie

Two's a trend. How long are we going to shuffle along, distracted by their cute organicity, as little robot-decorated one-pieces infiltrate our society, our nurseries, our diaper bags, where they just lie in wait? Waiting to hit the switch--click--and...
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January 30, 2007

Ikea Commercial: Dad Decidedly Optional

I'll just say that if this ad were for sale at Ikea, you would not find it in the Kids department. Ikea Commercial :: Tidy Up [youtube via dt reader grant]...
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Moms Who Whine: Salon Writer Spits In Your Mac & Cheese

Anastasia's Pointless Rant About Annie's 1 protagonist, Annie Withey 2 successful yuppie product launches, Smart Food & Annie's Mac & Cheese 1 giant packet of powdered marketing buzzwords 1/2 c. piss 1 T. vinegar Directions Throw protagonist into boiling pot....
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Midcentury Family Modernism By Eliot Noyes

The Philip Johnson Glass House mention reminded me of this August 2006 article from Metropolis about Eliot Noyes, who, in his work at MoMA and later at IBM, helped launch the careers of the Eameses and Eero Saarinen. [And...
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Organic Robot Onesie* Elaborately Printed By Canadians

But wait, doesn't that make it Canadian Apparel? Robot Onesie* by Hardboiled, Printed in Toronto, $24 [elswares.com via swissmiss] * Onesie is a registered trademark of the Gerber Childrenswear Co., Inc., the CEO of which has never exposed himself...
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Dear Japan, Maybe It's Your 70-hr Work Week

It's not just Japan. Seems the French birthrate is in the news, too. With their 35-hour work weeks, France now has the highest birthrate in Europe. And if the Minister of Health says that "Women are love-making machines," no one...
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Sure Enough, He Said "Women Are Birthing Machines"

The first wire report over the weekend of Japanese Health Minister, 71-year old Hakuo Yanagisawa, calling women "baby-birthing machines" was the Kyodo English service, and though I dug around, I couldn't find the actual Japanese quote anywhere. Was it one...
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January 29, 2007

Ouch. Target LikeASteamrollers LikeABike

A couple of folks have sent in sightings over the last couple of weeks, but it's not online, and I never go to these kinds of stores myself...unless it's to check out ruthless, fire-at-will Targetting. After all, it was...
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Kid-Sized PJ/Miesian Playhouse By Rirkrit Tiravanija

It's funny the things that get lodged in our brains. In 1997, the artist Rirkrit Tiravanija [Don't worry, the art world has one-name brand stars, too. Did you know Iman's last name is Abdulmajid? True. Our waiter showed us...
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Leaving The Toilet Seat Down: A Game Theoretical Analysis

Am I just blindly internalizing an inefficient social norm as a way to mitigate my own costs? I mean, forget the seat; doesn't the toilet just look better with the lid down, the way it was designed? Siddiqi, H. (2006):...
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Ligne Roset Togo Chair For Kids

I used to live down the street from the Ligne Roset store [which, like everything else, is now an American Apparel], and I generally approve. Still, I've never been a big fan of the Togo Sofa. It always reminded...
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I Oughta Give You A Peg Sandwich

This Creative Playthings Peg Sandwich is about 3-in high, meaning those pegs would probably pass through a paper towel tube, no problem. [That's the rule of thumb that stuck with me about choking hazards during the child safety prenatal...
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You Could Put All The King's Men Back Together Again

Good morning, sweet, vintage, wooden, toy soldiers from Creative Playthings circa 1969. CREATIVE PLAYTHINGS THE KINGS GUARD WOOD SOLDIERS 1969, ends Feb. 4 [ebay]...
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January 28, 2007

Cuusoo Seikatsu's Customer-Driven Design [For Kids]

Look, I just came back from the International Gift Fair at the Javits Center, so I think I know a thing or two about utterly useless crap for sale. Right now, the idea behind Cuusoo Seikatsu ["Imagination Life"] sounds pretty...
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Well, They DO Stink... Biohazard Waste Disposal Can On eBay

For the edgier, industrial-finish nursery, what better diaper pail could there be than an authentic biohazard disposal bin? And shouldn't it come from an authentic family practice exam room, where it was used "mostly for gloves and tongue dipressors...
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January 27, 2007

Five Days Left In Amazon's $99/30 Huggie's Kickback Scheme

Just a reminder to the non-cloth, non-flushable, non-Pampers, non-treehuggers out there: Amazon's offer of a $30 instant refund on a $99 Huggie's order expires 1/31. True, you'll have to take the Hummer out of the garage to make room for...
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January 26, 2007

The State Of The Union Is: Baby Einsteinian

I've been trying to cut down on my GWB:WTF?? Moments for '07, so I didn't know until just now that the State of the Union address included this giant WTF, a salute to Our American Hero, Julie Aigner-Clark--the founder of...
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Ford: Employee Child-Care Centers Definitely Not Job One

Just luxuriate in this description of Ford Motor Company's day care and pre-school centers from Working Mother's 100 Best Companies list:CHILD-CARE KUDOS An impressive 17 full-year on- or near-site child-care centers give moms something to cheer about, with ten accredited...
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Consumer Repents: CR President Says Really, Really Sorry About The Car Seat Deal

Consumer Reports President Jim Guest apologized--again--for the testing errors that led to their alarming report on car seats a couple of weeks back. He also defended CR's practice of using outside labs for some of their testing, even as he...
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Daddy Types Thanks Advertisers, Ad-viewing Cynics For Their Support

A brisk shoutout to the advertisers who provide information on products, services, programs, and information that is of use or interest to dads, new dads, dads-to-be, and their entourage: Javis Davis, who are purveying their custom crib bedding from a...
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Holy Moley, Muji^2 In NYC

I'd gotten several emails about this, seen it on a few blogs, and tried to find an actual announcement/report. Sure enough, it's in WWD. Muji will open two locations in New York City in the latter half of 2007. No...
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Now Soon You Can Put Toddlers Into Orbit

Word on the net is, the Orbit Toddler Seat attachments are finally out. After a hairy tense-plus, stroller dealers can once again walk across their parking lots at night without fear of being hounded by Orbit early adopters whose...
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Super Bowl Shuffle

The kid: "Let's watch somepin else. A shorter one." The Super Bowl Shuffle (1987) [youtube via kottke]...
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January 25, 2007

"Warren Harding. William Taft."

These kinds of stunts are always great. When she was one, I taught the kid "Rauschenberg" and "Ellsworth Kelly" so she could freak people out at MoMA. Baby knows presidents [youtube via dt reader jason]...
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"Oh, The Beemanity!"

Q:Dear Daddy Types, I'm a dad in Florida. Over Christmas, a swarm of bees flew out of my neighbor's wall and engulfed by children's swingset. I tried throwing the 40 lb trailer hitch from our Dodge Caravan at them, but...
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A Fine Addition To Any Modern Toys Collection

An eBay seller named mix-mod has listed a collection of colorful, vintage modern toys—four lots of work vehicles, including a fuel tanker, dump truck, cement mixer and a matched pair of [oil-barrel hauling?] tractors. In the spirit of Ladislav...
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Canadian Critic Harshes On Hipster Parent Buzz

CBC arts critic stopped watching Much Music long enough to dump a Diaper Genie II full of hate on "hipster parents," which this week means Neal Pollack's Alternadad and Nerve.com's new parenting website, Babble.On several occasions, Pollack rhapsodizes about his...
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Computer-Generated 'Reading Cocoon/Bookcase' By Studio Roosegaarde

I'd seen Rotterdam artist Daan Roosegaarde's Variants series of space-creating bookcases a few months ago, and then I lost my reference for it until just now. They're several kinds of awesome all at once. Variants are functional sculptures that...
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January 24, 2007

Testing Your Meddle

Some news links that almost warrant their own posts. If you need a theme here, how about meddling? If you want to keep believing that it's not her parents, no way, Marla Olmstead has been a genius painter since she...
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Q: Painting A Kid's Play Table

OK, so I don't talk about the kid's school on the blog, but this is about furniture. I'm supposed to oversee the class project, which'll be auctioned off to raise money for tuition assistance. We're making a play table and...
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Pacifier Of The Vanities, Ch. 27: On Being Driven To Preschool

Time was, it was so embarassing to be dropped off at school in a limousine, that kids would ask the driver to let them off around the corner. Obviously, that doesn't work with pre-schools, where a 3-year-old has to be...
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Foamy Karelia Chair By Liisi Mogenson Beckmann

Productporn from the International Furniture Fair in Cologne is starting to hit the web, and Zanotta's reissue of the Liisi Mogenson Beckmann's 1966 Karelia chair is one of the first kid-friendly designs to turn up so far. Which is...
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What, No Angel? Observer Observes New Baby Naming Trend

New Yorkers are giving their babies foreign, literary, or "'unusual'" names like never before, reports Daisy Carrington [umm...] in the NY Observer. But watch out, even seemingly simple, two-syllable names can be hard for kids to pronounce, causing lifelong self-esteem...
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January 23, 2007

DIY Uh, Duct Tape Baby Bjorn

Good to see the many uses of duct tape are not lost on the new parents of the world. If anyone has made a full-fledged Bjorn-like infant carrier out of duct tape, definitely drop us a line. Miantro's album:...
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Parents Whine After AirTran Kicks Toddler Off Plane

So a Boston family gets tossed from an AirTran flight from Ft. Myers, Florida when their 3-year-old daughter freaks out and won't sit in her paid-for seat. After holding the flight for 15 minutes, and refusing to let the too-old...
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Gawker T-Shirt: 'I Hate Your Kids'

What more can you say? It's brilliant. If only they came in kid sizes... I Hate Your Kids T-shirt, $18.99 [gawker shop]...
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DIY Stem Cell Harvesting, In 22 Easy Steps

Feeling a little out of place in the delivery room? Looking for a meaningful way to contribute? Well, suggests Atilla Csordas in his 22-step, fully illustrated [!] tutorial, there's always prepare to harvest the stem cells from the amniotic...
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Sooooooooey!

Awesome t-shirt from The Grateful Palate. Available in kid's size 7/8, $16.95. Previously: Lips Stuck On A Pig...
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eBay Roundup: Changing Tables

clockwise, from top left: VINTAGE ART DECO SERVER BUFFET CABINET deskey rhode era Reserve not met. Located in Providence, RI. NYC delivery for $125. Perfectly sized for a standard changing pad (18" deep). Has a nice, little rail on...
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Do Barenaked Ladies Cruises And Kids Go Together?

DT reader Matt didn't go--this time--but he pointed to an extended discussion on the fanboards about whether it was appropriate or advisable to bring kids along on Ships & Dip, the Barenaked Ladies fan cruise. I mean, there's Camp Carnival,...
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Overinflated Designer Makes Inflatable Plane For Habitat VIP For Kids

Before you say it, I will: Yes, I am slightly jealous of the Miura, but no more so than any other Miura before it. But ever since the Paramount opened with his silly, useless blobject lounge chair in the...
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"Someday You're Gonna Have To Learn To Wipe Your Own Butt."

Call me a dreamer, but I'm kinda hoping that day will come before the kid turns five. "Children Are A Gift," written and directed by Terry Timely [territimely.com via waxy]...
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Cool/Weird Crawlie Crab Pulltoy & Stuff From Creative Playthings

There was a lull right after Christmas, but an eBay seller named imspes just posted a little collection of vintage Creative Playthings toys in really nice, boxed, apparently unplayed condition. There's a nice townhouse/dollhouse [in chipboard, not, alas, the...
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Baby Gift Arbitrage

There's some great stuff in the One Dad-To-Be Tip To Rule Them All post from last week, hats off to everyone who's contributed. This one just caught my eye, though, from Michael: baby gift arbitrage:Return 80% of the clothes...
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January 22, 2007

The Balloon Of The Immaculate Inflation

Our little Grasshopper has been learning about the transient nature of existence and the importance of non-attachment to material things from balloons. They're fun. We love getting them. We love playing with them. If it's from the haircut place, the...
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Lips Stuck On A Pig

If you're really, irrationally attached to your Denny's Extreme Slam breakfast with the all-bacon option, I suggest avoiding this BoingBoing roundup of the evils of the industrial hog farming world. Also don't read if you're really, irrationally attached to...
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What Birthday Party Pressure? Just Outsource, Duh.

A/the handful of non-icefishing Minnesotans have formed Birthdays Without Pressure, an advocacy group designed to bait the media into writing about get parents talking about stressful birthday party oneupsmanship:ST. PAUL, Minn. — Having decided on a ballerina theme for her...
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Baby-Smugglin' Romas Busted

A trial just got underway in France for 56 people--including 41 buyer/families--charged in a baby smuggling ring. For around $10,000, French Roma/gypsy families who couldn't qualify for adoption because of their itinerant lifestyle, would buy a baby from Bulgarian Roma...
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Hans Wegner Children's Furniture

Someone at Architonic must have just had a baby, because they've blown out a whole product category of furniture for kids ["Almost every designer has designed something for children, but few of these designs become known to the wider...
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January 21, 2007

The 100-Year, 5-Min. History Of US/NY Playgrounds

I know it was a big deal when it was leaked/announced a couple of weeks ago, but the NYT's article about a proposal for the Burling Slip Playground near the South Street Seaport kind of slipped off my radar....
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DIY Chalkboard Table?

The idea of chalk dust all over the house wasn't enough to deter me from getting the kid some chalkboardy furniture. Time was when Offi was about the only chalkboard table in the game. But in the last little while,...
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January 20, 2007

Los Folding Rocking Chairs De Costa Rica

Stumbled across this on the Surfing Cowboys' site the other day, and I've been trying to research it a bit, with no real success. Apparently, these folding rocking chairs made of saddle leather and plantation-harvested mahogany are a crafty,...
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New York, Aka City Of Angels

This may be slicing it a bit thin, newsworthiness-wise, but, after a generation of Anglo names like Kevin and Justin, an ethnic name--Angel--has become the most popular name for Hispanic boys in NYC. Still, a hundred more people/month naming their...
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Realtor: We'd Like To Show Your Apartment During The Kid's Nap

This NYT article is ostensibly about the disruptions and inconveniences associated with selling/showing your house--always having to keep it clean, disappearing on an hour's notice, Pottery Barning it up by stashing all your personal mementos and photos. But judging...
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January 19, 2007

Michael Lewis, Minivan Virgin

He's taking Kid 1 and Kid 2 to the hospital to meet Kid 3.This minivan is new. I've never been in the same car with a person who still seemed so far away. In the rearview mirror, her little blond...
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Whoa. Sweet Vintage Riding Toys You I Didn't Get

You know what I said about rethinking my dewy-eyed fixation with mid-century vintage toys and design? Yeah well, forget it. If only I'd been a little faster, my kid could've been riding into the glorious future on one of these...
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The Maclaren Volo Leaves Its Mark

It took me a while, but I finally figured out why the backs of my pantleg was always getting these big black streak marks. I thought it might be from oil leaking from the gearshift console, maybe grease from the...
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Rare Play Sculptures Catalogue, Blueprint For Postwar Suburban Utopia [sic], On eBay

I haven't decided if I'm going to bid on it yet, but with a starting bid of $45, I guess there's no use worrying if it'll end up being expensive. This is the first copy of the 1957 catalogue...
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Le Petit Prince, Le Grand Prix

$10,450. A signed, numbered first edition of Antoine de Saint Exupery's Le Petit Prince was the 7th most expensive book sold on AbeBooks in 2006. Considering the other two copies for sale at the moment are 70-80% more than...
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January 18, 2007

Q: Strollers On Escalators?

Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up sucking up to the Baby Industrial Complex. First, Consumer Reports blows it, so the kid's riding around in a European deathseat; the shady phone store can't unlock my new,...
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AWKWARD! Consumer Reports Updates Car Seat Study: 'Never Mind."

Yeah, so. Have you put that deathtrap carseat of yours on Craigslist yet? You might want to just hold off for a minute while Consumer Reports gets their glasses checked. They recalled their recent pot-stirring car seat test results after...
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Tide Chandelier By Stuart Haygarth

A post about rubber ducks and plastic flotsam collectors. A post about laundry detergent. A post about a moon-shaped lamp. One never knows what the Information Ocean will wash up on the Daddy Types shore, does one? Artist Stuart...
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January 17, 2007

Habitat VIP For Kids By Kinda Random VIPs

Marcel Wanders, Paco Rabanne, Kate Winslet, Buzz Aldrin, Miss Piggy, Loïck Peyron... I would have loved to be in the room when Habitat finalized the list of celebrity designers who would be invited to create their new VIP For Kids...
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Method Or Madness?

Now that I think about it, right before the kid was born, someone mentioned the name--Dreft--of the only laundry detergent for newborns in the world. Naturally, we rushed to buy it/some. It was fine, I guess; the kid wasn't one...
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At-Home Harvard Dads Wanted

My bad. This reminded me that 02138, the lifestyle magazine for Harvard alumni, had been looking for Stay-At-Home-Dads who went to Harvard--and ideally, whose spouses went there, too. Not sure if they're still interested, given the, uh-- Anyway, if you...
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Q: One Good Piece Of Advice Of Pre-Dadhood Advice?

About six weeks before the kid was born, I was checking out a flock of strollers parked in the gym lobby, when the owners, a group of Tribeca moms, showed up. After figuring out I wasn't trying to steal their...
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January 16, 2007

The Gunslinger: You Can Pry My Cup Holder From My Cold, Dead Hands

I've got a full-blown review of the new Bugaboo Cup Holder in the works. But before we get to that, I want to make sure the newest dads in the audience fully understand the seriousness of the Bugaboo cup...
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Mustela Hydra-Stick Lets Kid Self-Balm, Self-Moisturize

Putting lip balm on a toddler is like slipping a harness over the biggest pig in the pen and getting him to pull the portable pump back to The Man With The Yellow Hat's House so you can get the...
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Jizo, Mizuko, And The Japanese View Of Miscarriage

After her Princess Industrial Complex article a few weeks back, a friend reminded me of a much earlier article Peggy Orenstein had written for the NY Times Magazine about having a miscarriage while on assignment in Japan. I vaguely remembered...
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"That's My Friend!"

You want your kid to have friends, but then what if you don't like their friends? "Elmo and the Gecko Frog are my friends!" [via the kid just outside Baltimore on the way to NYC last week, image via usatoday]...
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January 15, 2007

You'd Think Hummers And Woody Are A Match Made In Heaven

And you would be wrong. There's a vintage Jeep Grand Wagoneer owner crying into his single-malt scotch right now because of this. If this one's too small, Winding Road has a bigger one. Of course, everyone has a bigger one...
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Rubber Duckie, You're The One

Still not quite sure what it was about, but with a giant rubber duck looming on the cover, there's no way I wasn't reading "Moby Duck: On the Synthetic Wilderness of Childhood," Donovan Hohn's 150,000-word [+/-] article in the...
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January 14, 2007

Story Time Rocker By Hal Foster Taylor

We've seen master furniture maker and heirloom rocking chair guru Hal Taylor on DT before; a dad-to-be used Taylor's Rocking Chair University system to make his own rocker. Well, the Story Time Rocker is Taylor's solution for reading to...
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Lindam Worship: Another Sweet Slot-Together Crib

Whether it's the island nation thing, the imperial past thing, or the driving on the wrong side of the road thing, the UK sure has more than its fair share of slot-together cribs. OK, so it has two. [This...
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January 13, 2007

Modern Nursery On/At Target: Slotti Crib By Cosatto

You want a slightly slick, modern-style crib but you don't want to spend a freakin' fortune? You hear that Wal-Mart's starting to offer slightly modern-style cribs and stuff, but your grandpa ended up spending his retirement as a Wal-Mart...
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Unidentified Local Hordes Fill Bags In Style Villa

Once when I was staying at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City, I came back to find a stranger working at my desk, smoking,. Turns out they'd checked him into my room while I was at lunch. The...
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Attention Wal-Mart Non-Shoppers! Modern Nursery Collection??

"Modernist" may be a stretch, but it looks like "Modern" is officially becoming a mainstream, mass-market selling feature for nursery furniture. Wal-Mart has introduced a Modern Nursery set: a crib, changing station, and dresser in a blink-and-it-looks-like-Netto Collection combination...
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January 12, 2007

Sen. Stevens: 'Parenthood Is A Series Of Fallopian Tubes'

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has "introduced a bill that would provide eight weeks of paid leave to federally employed women after childbirth and five days of paid leave for new fathers. The bill also would...
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January 11, 2007

Talk, Talk, Talk, Talk, Talk: What A Dude'll Do To Sell His Book

Neal Pollack has an interview with Radar v3.0 about his new book, Alternadad, the Eggers, and The Wiggles. But mostly, he talks about weed. I'm looking forward to the book, and to more interviews and reviews, and not just because...
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Photos d'Espion! La Nouvelle Volvo XC70

...basee sur la dernière S80... fonh fonh fonh... la possibilite du V8... fonh fonh fonh... presentation officielle... Salon de New York... fonh fonh fonh Translation: I just deleted my daily "240 GL Wagon MINT lo miles, one owner, all records"...
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New Bed, New Nightlight, Now If Only She'd Sleep...

After an enthusiastic embrace of the new toddler bed and love-at-first sight with the ghost, the kid has had a really rough week sleepwise. Most nights, the problem's been not going to sleep. The first couple of nights were great,...
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Strange Stories For Strange Kids Is Actually Pretty Strange

Give Art Spiegelman the Truth In Titling Award. I bought Strange Stories for Strange Kids, Book Two in the Little Lit series he edited, which brings together well known graphic novel and comic book artists as well as other writers...
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Muji-pped

I guess I could be pissed that half the toys--and basically all the multi-piece toys--in our Muji "Outer Space in a Bag" bag broke, several within minutes of taking them out of the bag. But when you look at...
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Child Friendly Australia's Ad Campaign Packs A Punch

Child Friendly Australia is an advocacy initiative launched last year by National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN). Their first advertisement, titled "Children See, Children Do," is aimed at getting parents--and all adults, according to the...
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CES Update: Mercedes R-Class Still Not A Minivan

Just to be clear, it was Engadget who called the UWB-to-RSE-equipped MB R500 exhibited at CES an SUV. It is, in fact, a Not-A-Minivan [or Grand Sports Tourer in German]. As for what to call HD video beamed non-stop...
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On Pregnancy & Drywall

Another datapoint for the Doing Major Renovation Projects While Pregnant file, from the NYT. The Olsons' blog about their DIY renovation is called HouseinProgress.net:“One thing I always ask myself is, ‘is this really about the light fixture or something more?’...
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January 10, 2007

Unidentified Local Couple Score Customized Bugaboo Cameleon

When a working mom who was still breastfeeding after more than seven months contacted Bugaboo about getting her Cameleon made with some Rasta fabric she had lying around, the company hopped to. And delivered some very nice craftsmanship. Her unidentified...
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Daddy Types Wishes To Thank The Adver--WHOA, A SALE!

I was going to thank Vincent, the super-cool kids' shoe company from Sweden for their super cool kids' shoe ad, but then I saw they switched it. There's a sale going on, up to 50% off. Hop on over. Those...
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PeeWee Was A Grup: Baby Boomer Talk Design For Children, c.1994

Funny, I don't remember 1994 looking like the zany cruft on an Exersaucer. And I don't recall Post-Modernism retaining even half that credibility as long as it does in Steven Heller and Steven Guarnaccia's book, Designing For Children [first mentioned...
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Heyo, ModernTots The Website Now ModernTots The Store

I met Sarah and Bruce, the ModernTots.com folks, in Las Vegas last year at the ABC Kids expo. They were super-cool and surprisingly nice to me, considering the hassle Daddy Types' "Sure, it's custom-tinted, super-dense, has sweet bamboo veneer,...
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No, Suck On The Other End

Let's look at the facts: Armies of towering stewardesses A bunch of hippiesploitation flicks that, one way or another, obsessed our parents' generation Tiger Woods' bikini model wife The beds in which 25% of Europeans were conceived Is it any...
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Panton Junior: Duh? Or FINALLY?!

Doesn't it kinda feel like this classic Verner Panton chair has already been around in kid-size for, like, ever? Well, probably not if you've actually tried to buy one. As Vitra puts it, "Soon after its introduction, Verner Panton...
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DT Readers Get A Jump On Sparkability Nurseryworks Sale

If you're in the market for some Nurseryworks furniture, frequent DT advertiser Sparkability has given readers here the first heads up about a sale: They have a handful of pieces in stock in discontinued colors they're selling for half...
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Rubber Baby Cribby Bumpers By Creative Playthings

Literally, the first phrase I wanted imprinted in my kid's brain from birth was "plastic bags not a toy." I don't think this is a result of my own traumatic childhood memories, since my parents did not--to my knowledge--install Creative...
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January 9, 2007

DT Car Seat Week: Not Safe Enough At Any Speed? UK Car Seat Test Results

After Consumer Reports' tough love car seat tests were announced, several people emailed me about similar tests conducted annually by Which, the UK's version of a feisty, take-no-crap, independent consumer advocacy and testing organization. The tests are remarkably similar in...
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Leo Schmeo, Can You Get Me An iPhone?

Yeah yeah congrats, etc. to James Vincent on the birth of his son. Now about that phone... [actually, with this announcement coming the same day as my shipping confirmation and tracking number, it looks like I picked the wrong...
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You Bindi, The Jungle Girl. Me Totally Not Surprised

Anyone besides me have an idea what the lead time is for a 26-episode television show? Four months after the death of her "Crocodile Hunter" father, eight-year-old Bindi Irwin is poised to step into his shoes, embarking on a high-profile...
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Baby Names Inspired By NBA Players

LeBron: not yet Kobe: yeah, pretty much Shaquille: maybe Jordan: sure, but how can you tell? At True Hoop, sportswriter Harry Abbott poked around the Social Security Administration's name database, trying to find any discernable trends of people naming their...
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Pick Up Walker/Scooter/Carrier Thing By Alfredo Haeberli

Yeah, I should really give the first part of that exchange between Nico Schweizer and Alfredo Haeberli:N.S. Your works have high production values, but at a price. Kids' Stuff, a 10-piece place setting for children, sells in the States for...
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Sweet Juniper Butter Knife For Kids By Alfredo Haberli, $150

Swiss designer Alfredo Haberli created Kid's Stuff, a complete dinnerware service for kids, for the Finnish dish company Iittala [that's two i's, two t's, btw] in 2003. It's thought through to the smallest details, to like making sure the...
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Sad Ghost Lamp, 2004, By Marcel Dzama

Like I said, I'm glad I don't have to compete with Ikea for anything. But I wonder if artist Marcel Dzama said the same thing back in 2003-2004 when CerealArt released his Sad Ghost Lamp. Made of ABS and...
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Yawaraka Sensha Teaches Futility, Cuteness Of War

Translated variably as The Fragile Tank or The Soft Tank, Yawaraka Sensha is a Japanese Flash animated series on Livedoor, a big Japanese site run by a guy who thinks he's Mark Cuban. A bunch of cute little tanks...
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January 8, 2007

Laurie Berkner To Large Pile Of Money: Clean It Up. Clean It Up.

If the phrase "guitar-strumming earth mother" doesn't make you fling your remote, full-on Wii-style, at your TV screen, then you may read this NYT article about Laurie Berkner and the debut of the second season of Jack's Big Music Show...
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Dad Again Again, By Michael Lewis

Fortunately for fans everywhere, writer Michael Lewis and his wife Tabitha Soren decided to have a third kid. And fortunately, Slate decides a five year gap in Lewis's Dad Again column needs even less explanation than that season of Dallas,...
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My Little Cthulhu Vinyl Doll

Every once in a while, I worry about getting totally busted by nerds, who'll realize I'm actually cool, and all along, I've just been pretending, walking around with a fake nerd ID in my wallet. This usually happens when...
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Tetris Blanket Damn, It's A Wall Hanging

"Hand wash only and low iron." Bah. There's gotta be some way to use this 29 x 24-inch, hand-pieced Tetris quilt as a baby blanket. Someone get me Grandma on the horn. Tetris quilted wall hanging, only $50 [etsy...
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DT Car Seat Week: JPMA Responds To Blows Smoke At Consumer Reports Test

Who knew? If you decry a whole industry's safety testing standards--and there are cute little babies involved--people get worked up. Reactions and discussion raged all weekend over Consumer Reports' announcement of its car seat crash test findings. Now the Juvenile...
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Dinkins-Era Throwback NYC Baby Gear

In the pursuit of pre-Seinfeld, pre-Friends "authenticity," the designs of official NYC logo merchandise have switched from trade show-impressive to retro-bureaucrato-geeky. I generally approve. Except the only baby gear at the moment is from the FDNY and NYPD. Not...
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A Is For Ant. B Is For Blocks. C Is For Colette-esque

The pattern on these sweet Ant Blocks reminds me of the first collection of vinyl wall decals by Domestic, which were launched in late 2005 at Colette. Colette of Paris. Well, the fact that they're only $27 should be...
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Pre-School Play Audition Smackdown

When little Natalie was almost two, her entire future hinged on how well she performed during the succession of 30-40 minute play auditions for Brooklyn's private pre-schools. A veritable Burgess Meredith to Natalie's Rocky, dad Tom Roston accompanied his daughter...
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They're Baaack: Amazon Offers $30 Back For $99 Huggies Order

Seeing as how it's about to be filled with several months' worth of Huggies, I have a feeling you won't be parking in the garage for a while. I'd all but given up on Amazon ever trying to bribe...
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January 7, 2007

Shocker: Free Audi Q7 Gets Approval Of Seal

I think it's clear now that Seal is a total car freak. But before you criticize, answer me this: if someone offered you a free Audi Q7, would you schlep to Detroit for a day and sing your 16-yo hit...
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Awesome Lo-Res Doll House By Kidsonroof

Critics of the extravagant toys always say a kid can have as much fun with a cardboard box. Now you can split the difference with this, the MobileHome, by the new Danish Dutch [1] firm Kidsonroof. This incredible-looking toy...
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Power, Kooky Names, To The People In Venezuela

Nixon Moreno, Stalin Gonzalez, Taj-Mahal Sanchez, Elvis Presley Gomez Morillo, Darwin Lenin Jimenez, Hitler Eufemio Mayora. Apparently during the oil boom of the 1970's, Venezuelan parents discovered the fun of defying the traditional, class-defining, naming system, and began giving their...
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Spoka The Friendly Ghost-Shaped Night Light

The other day the wife and the kid went back to Ikea to get some toy bins. [Turns out they fit perfectly under the kid's Ikea bed, much better than the The Container Store ones. Plus, they're only a buck....
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January 6, 2007

Please, Sir, Can I Have Some Momoll?

Andy emailed this a few days ago, and it is absolutely the most insanely awesome toy/furniture I have seen all year. Momoll is the creation of Nico Schweizer, a dad who was previously design director for I.D. [not i.D.]...
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January 5, 2007

Babies R USA! USA! USA!

Check out the awesome brain trust running this Toys R Us/Babies R Us promotion, which offered a $25,000 savings bond to the first American baby born in 2007. Contest administrators chose new New Yorker Yuki Lin in a random...
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Consumer Reports: Daddy Types Was Right About The Car Seat

Sheesh, for going on three years now, I've had to be all equivocating and diplomatic and hedgy when writing about car seats, and facing regular email criticisms about how we must not love our child, and how could we use...
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Baby's House: Another Vintage Mary Blair Book Scan

You want a bit of the Disney magic without, you know, the Disney part? ASIFA-Hollywood, The International Animated Film Society's animation art archive added some more scans of children's books by longtime Disney artist Mary Blair. Looking around for...
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Tony Scott Lives In A Movie Fantasyland

The NY Times film critic tries to buck the imagination-stifling money machines that are "family films":I cringe at the sight of strollers at “Apocalypto” or “Saw III.” But I also cringe at the timidity and cautiousness — the hypersensitivity —...
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January 4, 2007

Bugs Vs Crips In Clinton Hill

The barrage of comments on Brownstoner's 2007 Market Predictions thread cover every possible conversation topic you'll need for living in New Brooklyn: real estate prices, Atlantic Yards, and Park Slope sidewalks clogged with "doublewide Bugaboos." Yes, Virginia, Brooklyn is a...
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Well, Glutes DO Usually Travel In Pairs

So how's the book going, you ask? [hey, thanks!]. Well, until new dad Matt Leinart totally threw off my chapter headings by making out with new mom Britney Spears, it was going great. Totally expected, though, since their kids are...
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In The 1980's, Jamie Lee Curtis Focused On Glutes

It's well known that Jamie Lee Curtis immerses herself in the worlds of her characters. While her sweaty scenes with John Travolta grabbed our national imaginination in the 1985 aerobics thriller Perfect, they also tend to obscure the empathetic...
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Eames Solar Toy Does Nothing, And Very Well

While researching Richard McGuire's The Solar Toy, I stumbled across The Solar Do-Nothing Machine by Ray and Charles Eames. They created it in the late 1950's for Alcoa, who was just launching a Forecast Collection, a series of artist-...
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January 3, 2007

Day Ambushed By Ikea Furniture

20 hours. That's how long a piece of Ikea furniture, somewhat impulsively acquired, can sit in your foyer without being assembled. 3 hours. That's how long it takes to assemble it [and, let's be fair, to disassemble the furniture...
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Crumpler Bags: Australian For Insanely Customizable Bags

I can't believe I've been sitting on this for so long, sorry. [New Year's Resolution: clean out to-post file.] Crumpler is an Australian bag company that made a name for itself by giving away beer, and lots of it....
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January 2, 2007

Arts & Crafts Auction To Benefit The James Kim Memorial Fund

Over 40 artists, designers and artisans from around the world have donated their works to an auction to benefit the James Kim Memorial Fund. Bidding begins tomorrow [Jan. 3rd] on eBay, and will continue through Jan. 7th. 100% of...
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I Smell A Conspiracy

Whoa, it's only Jan. 2, and already, I've uncovered the coverup of the year. Lane Smith, the guy who illustrated the classic with John Scieszka, The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales. The kid's had The Stinky Cheese...
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Pampers Of The World: One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

Unpacking the diaper bag today for the first time in over a month, and I realized we had Pampers from three countries: the US, France, and Japan. The Japanese ones [lower left] are far softer than either of the...
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That's Odd

The kid's had hot air balloons on the brain lately. Penguins are birds, but they don't fly? "Well they can fly in a hot air balloon." Tomorrow we're going to Hong Kong. "On a hot air balloon." &c., &c....
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Golf Cub

Buick spokesmodel Tiger Woods announced his wife Elin Nordegren [check all that apply: Swedish/bikini model/twin/nanny], is pregnant, and so far, the sports world's headline writers have showed remarkable restraint. [Though at least one true believer has already predicted that the...
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DT Namewatch #26: Clearance Clarence Edition

Any names still ringing in your new ear? Send them in: names [at] daddytypes [dot] com "Is this Terrence or Kerrence?" [guy behind us on cell phone this afternoon last week] Morton, composers like Feldman and Lauridsen [via my John...
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January 1, 2007

2007 On Daddy Types: What Are You Expecting?

Yeah, I know most of the posts today were either grumpy and/or depressing. How's that working for you? As regular readers of Daddy Types well know, most, if not all, of the best content, news, tips, and advice around here...
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Kid Steps On A Tack, Freaked Out Mama Calls Back

Consumerist got a report from Brady, a dad in Burlington, Vermont who works nights and stays home days with his 14-month-old son during the day. Turns out Brady & Son went to Playdate, and indoor gym-type deal at the University...
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Well, FU2! Bratz Babyz??

No, MGA Entertainment, having it say "F--- You" does NOT make the toddler versions [!??] of your oversexualized, trampslutBratz dolls suddenly edgy and/or cool. They're still lame as hell, and they're never coming near my daughter. That said, there's...
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