Daddy Types: February 2007 Archives

February 2007 Archives

February 28, 2007

Quick, See Neo-Mickey Before His Lawyers Do

Come To Daddy, indeed. The DT jury may be out on the Disney plush toy sofas, but this sweet, little remixing of Mickey as a trance-happy space alien from the planet Murakami is AWESOME. Not clear what the impetus...
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About That BOTTLE OF DEATH You Just Put In The Kid's Mouth. Again.

Bottles of Doom in order of descending toxicity, l to r: Avent, Evenflo, Gerber, Dr. Brown's, Playtex This just in from Environment California, an advocacy group which commissioned the University of Missouri to test five major brands of hard,...
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The Pinstriped Bugaboo, Part 2: The Driver

After spotting the pinstriped Bugaboo Gecko online a few days ago, I tracked down the owners to hear their story. They turn out to be friends of Vanessa, who had published the rig and a link to the annual Blessing...
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If Found, Name "Steve"

For some reason, an excited article about new technology for abandoning babies pops up in the major news media every 13-15 months. It's like clockwork. If only birth control or social services protections for the young illegal immigrants from Eastern...
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Finally, Yoshitomo Nara Rompers At MoCA

Don't cut up your adult-sized t-shirt just yet. After a DT reader reported seeing them at the gift shop of Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, a few rounds of email has led back to Los Angeles. Their Museum of...
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February 27, 2007

Baby Got Back, Live & Unplugged By Jonathan Coulton

Dude recorded a whole Jonathan Coulton concert on his cell phone and posted it to YouTube. All I've heard so far is Coulton's acoustic folk cover version of Sir Mix-A-Lot's classic, "Baby Got Back." Jonathan Coulton in Seattle -...
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Some Random Gear Links: Muji In America, Disney/Campana, Acrylic Cradle, &c.

Here are a few finds that have piled up in my to-link folder: First, two from The Nursery at Apartment Therapy, a blog that's very advanced for its age: You can get Muji's awesome Suburbia In A Bag in the...
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The Kid: The Anime Version

Early on, we made a decision not to publish the kid's name or photo on Daddy Types. Then as she started pre-pre-school, I kind of pulled a curtain around her and her classmates, too. But as soon as Sylvia emailed...
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Miffy Loves New York City; Dick Bruna Loves Cashing NYC's Checks

Starting in the fall of 2003, NYC & Company, the official visitors & tourist organization for New York City, launched a marketing campaign to lure families to the city. Central to that effort was Miffy Loves New York City!, a...
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Swiss-Made Antonio Vitali Dollhouse Will Warm You Up Inside

Before he started making organically shaped, abstract dolls for Creative Playthings in the late 50's, Antonio Vitali was making hardwood dollhouses for abstract dolls, which were sold in the Swiss National Crafts Store. Too bad the dolls and the...
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A Is For Asinine - What You Think: Bertrand Russell's Good Citizen's Alphabet

In 1953, Gaberbocchus Press, the labor-of-passion publishing company run by Polish emigre artists Stefan and Franciszka Themerson out of their London basement, issued The Good Citizen's Alphabet by Bertrand Russell. "B is for Bolshevik - Anyone whose opinions I...
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This Landfill Is Your Landfill, This Landfill Is My Landfill

Idaho dad Anthony Doerr takes a break from hipster parenting to agonize over the devastating amount of trash his family generates. His, yours and ours, that is:Before I became a parent, I didn't bother to think about garbage all that...
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All Hail The Kustomized Bugaboo, Part 1

A customized Bugaboo has been a backburner obsession of mine almost since the beginning of the stroller era. There was a time when I wanted to get the Bugaboo engraved, like a trophy or a piece of jewelry. But the...
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February 26, 2007

Jetta Wagon, Golf Estate, Either Way, You Still Can't Get One

The VW Jetta Wagon, or as it'll be known in Europe, the Golf Estate, will be unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show, and supposedly at NY in April. Which will give you enough time to identify the VW engineers'...
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Paradise For The Bobos! David Brooks Declares Fatwa On 'Hipster Parents'

Seriously, where to start? It was only a matter of time until NY Times columnist David turned his shopping=culture magnifying glass onto 'hipster parents', who are identified by their "hummus snacks," and their "abusively pretentious children’s names like Anouschka...
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Ten Plagues Of Egypt Finger Puppets

When it rains, it pours. And pours frogs to boot. One of the kid's first toys was a set of Hindu deity finger puppets, which we threw into the diaper bag to keep her quiet at church. [Nothing like...
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Club Libby Lodz

Apparently, little girls in Poland may all dress like skanky tramps, but except for an unusually violent hatred of musical instruments, the omnipresent, conservative, heavily Catholic official culture keeps them in line. These tots in PVC don't scare me...
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February 25, 2007

Nice Grouping: Block Puzzles From Creative Playthings And Naef

Great minds thought alike back then, I guess. Both Naef and Creative Playthings made square puzzles cut into strips. Turn them over, and there's a different animal on each of the four faces of--you know, why is it so...
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The Terrorism Finger Puppets Have Already Won.

Who cares if it's only February, if the awesome crochet artisti at Il Golfini della Nonna had just called these Axis Of Evil Finger Puppets, I would have annointed them the Daddy Types Toy Of The Year. Or maybe...
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February 24, 2007

Honda Crossroads: Where Element Meets Scion xB

Honda launched a new cross-over [and over] in Japan yesterday: the Crossroad. It's a block-shaped SUV/compact/minivan that comes in 2WD and 4WD models, and which reconfigures to hold up to seven passengers [i.e., 5-friends/2-enemies or 7 monks who've sworn...
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Now Don't Think About Your Parents Having Sex

They say 10% of Europeans were conceived in Ikea beds. If this giant collection of vintage magazine ads is any indication, at least 10% of Americans born before the Dodge Caravan was introduced were conceived in customized vans. I'll double-check...
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February 23, 2007

Karim Rashid Kozmos Blocks Also Rarer Than You Think

Me, I don't think about them too much. I'm not a huge fan of Karim Rashid, mostly because of the hype-y celebrity design thing. ["Karimanifesto"? I rest my case.] We have and love us some O-Chairs, don't get me...
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Yoshitomo Nara Plush Doll Rarer Than You Think

I know there are some pull toys out there, but I'm still surprised that Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara's malevolent-looking little kids or sleepy-eyed puppies haven't made it onto actual kid-sized t-shirts or Onesies yet. Still, when I was trying...
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Jim Carrey Shares His Weirdness, Children's Book Ideas

Apparently a couple of hundred million dollars in the bank is enough to eliminate human beings' innate desire to impress magazine reporters. Also, it clears your mind and helps you think about--if not actually write--that children's book:You see, Carrey has...
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Obama Bama Bo-Bama T-Shirt

Has anyone trained their kid to do a YouTube version of this yet? Obama Bama Bo-Bama kid's t-shirt, $17 [lowercasetee.com] previously: what if daddy wants a new president, too? Red, White & Blue Diaper Babies...
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February 22, 2007

You've Come A Long Way, Brah!

Now that's what I call progress! Just a couple of weeks ago, MomsRising was just another post-feminist attempt to reinvigorate interest in demanding improvements to intractable issues of work-family balance that nevertheless focused exclusively on women and mothers, basically taking...
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Q: Has Anyone Ever Had Their Euro Car Seat Confiscated At Customs?

A freaked out British DT reader emailed, wondering if their Maxi-Cosi Cabrio was going to get confiscated by US Customs when they landed at the airport. Seems they were reading along in an otherwise uneventful and mildly informative messageboard thread...
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And That, My Friends, Is What A Publicist Can Do For Your Business

Things like get you full credit in the New York Times [!] for someone else's products which have been online and available for at least a year, some for two! AWESOME! Congratulations! Babesta Loves The 80's! [nyt] ...aaaand so...
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Gooooooooal! World Cup Sex Produces German Baby Mini-Boom

OK, so the only actual data mentioned in the article is a 10-15% increase in births at the "largest birth clinic in Kassel." The German media is convinced there is a baby boom right now, and that it's related to...
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Personally, I Blame Monocle For The Sudden Rash Of Prince Pickles Coverage

So the week after Wallpaper*-founder Tyler Brule's new magazine, Monocle runs a 17-page cover story about the Japan Self-Defense Force, the International Herald Tribune has a story about the JSDF's deployment of Prince Pickle, their anime character mascot, to...
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Awesome Felt Rocks By Molo Design

More Toys From The Glorious Future. This time, it's Felt Rocks:In their raw form, they are lumps of felt formed as a by-product in the industrial process of making felt polishing wheels for optical lenses...In the felting process, with...
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February 21, 2007

Crochet+Atari Mash-Up: Now That's A TV For The Kid's Room

Artist Christine Domanic made this sweet, sweet crocheted TV with Pitfall playing on it under her etsy handle, JackRabbit. Which does not, unfortunately, mean it is for sale. Of course, it doesn't matter for you, because if it had...
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Forget The iPod, Bring On More Nylon Mesh Teddy Bears

As far as the iPod player and light show goes, I think this iPulse Bear from Sharper Image is a bit overkill. Obviously not as ridiculous as the toilet paper dispenser/iPod speaker combmo, but it's in the same quartile....
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Q: What Makes A Nice Restaurant High Chair?

I've been thinking a couple of things about restaurant high chairs recently [yes, forecast calls for a high dad-dork alert in the area. whatryagonnado?]. 1) We went to the cafeteria at MoMA last week for lunch. [A pannini, ravioli,...
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City Bakery, 3 West 18th St, (betw 5th & 6th Aves) - YES

Says DT reader/changing table scout Daniel, "One more strike against patriarchy! [?]"...
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Why Rent A Room When You Can Trade The Breast Milk For Free?

DT reader Mimi has a communal living situation next door to her that involves a mime. So she was perhaps better prepared to see this recent Craigslist posting than I was: We are offering a free room for a woman...
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February 20, 2007

Also, They're Boxy

Terry just figured out what Good Morning America's Car Mom figured out two years ago, and she wonders if it's a conscious attempt to get men interested, maybe break the association with "suburban women, specifically mothers":I've driven plenty of...
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Baby Tattoos: "FDA and Mother Approved," Dad Vetoed

WTF is with the played out 100-year-old tattoo cliches? Look, if you're gonna tattoo your child, at least get a design that shows a couple of creative synapses are firing up there. I mean, it's gonna be on there...
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Hallmark Tries To Conceive...Of More Occasions To Send A Card

I guess cards with ready-to-go, sympathetic sentiments about infertility and miscarriage signal some kind of lifting of lonely taboos of silence, but still, they seem a little odd. Hallmark Journeys: The Right Words Help Cope. With Family Matters [hallmark...
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Soft, Smooth, Stop-Action Felt Video For DJ Klock

If you're ever in need of a five-minute music video to mellow the kid out a bit, there's always DJ Klock's "Theme." Klock is a hard-to-classify turntablist with a slight jazz overtone and an appreciation for the offbeat and...
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Interpreting Kids' Drawings For Fun And Profit

The artist Yeondoo Jung began staging and photographing elaborate re-enactments of children's drawings in 2001. New Museum curator Yukie Kamiya sees the project as an attempt to clarify the "terrible freedom of a child's unbridled ideas." And really, is...
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RIP: Mice Twice Illustrator Joseph Low, 95

This is one well-packed sentence, from Steven Heller's obituary for Joseph Low, author of Mice Twice, which won the Caldecott Honor award in 1981, and who just passed away last week at 95:In the 1950s Mr. Low was known for...
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February 19, 2007

Rhyming Names

I know the mob has spoken, but I, for one, kind of miss the DT Namewatch feature. I might have to talk to someone about that... Anyway, names that rhyme: Jack Black's nothing. I just came across a great white...
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LOL (On The Inside): Ben Weber Dad Videos

You know how you fall asleep with public radio on, and when you wake up, it's Joe Frank, and you're tired, but you're also too transfixed to turn it off? Ben Weber's YouTube videos are kind of like that, only...
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The Color of Music

I never knew that Do-Re-Mi, etc. is called solfege, and that the syllables associated with each note are credited to the same guy as modern musical notation itself, a 10th-century monk known as Guido of Arezzo. All this time, I...
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Hot! Naked! Cam! Swedish! 2008 C-Class Wagon Spyshots

Gotta hand it to the test drivers at Mercedes Benz, they sure know what color of car photographs best against the snow drifts of their Swedish proving grounds. The Car Connection has some new spyshots of the largely undisguised...
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Wha Wha Wha?? 6-Foot Ugly Dolls

I've seen these in convention booths and even at store, but I just assumed they were display/fixtures, kind of like the 8' Stokke Tripp Trapp we saw in Iceland. But no, you can buy six-foot tall Ugly Dolls of...
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Little Bony By David Horvath

This just in from the Show You Can't See and Stuff You Can't Buy Department: In a long interview with Crown Dozen in 2005 about the explosion of the Ugly Dolls phenomenon [which is only continuing, of course. There were...
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Unfortunately, Brio Never Heard What Happened In North Haverbrook

You know, a wooden train company with a monorail is a little like the mule with a spinning wheel. No-one knows why they made it and danged if he knows where to get it! Actually, they made it in...
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February 18, 2007

Things A Sperm Bank Director Would Say

“It’s kind of an arms race.” “If you have a 5-foot-7 or -8 donor who is a medical student or Ph.D. scientist, that outweighs the height issue in many situations.” “Women sort of fall in love with him." “We...
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Uptight Censorship Nuts Sack Award-Winning Children's Book

The Higher Power of Lucky, by librarian Susan Patron, illustrated by Matt Phelan, won the Newberry Medal, which some librarians want to affix to the first page, over the word, "scrotum." That's where Lucky hears another character talk about...
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Quiltsrÿche: Put Them In The Quilted Maiden

Perfect post for a Sunday morning. Seattle metalhead artist Boo Davis picked up quilting from her grandmother, who, in her long quilting life, probably never realized the traditional Half-Log Cabin design would look good transformed into a giant, grinning...
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February 17, 2007

In Case You Didn't Think Sportacus Was Annoying Enough Already...

On the bright side, when Lazytown comes on TV, you can turn it off. If you worked for Magnus Scheving--or if you set one single foot in Iceland, which he apparently rules with a rubber-gloved fist--there's no escape. At...
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Daddy Types Advertisers Would Totally Knit Breasts For You

Thanks to the advertisers who provide the information, products and services that new dads--and those who love them--might find useful [1]: Javis Davis custom crib bedding, who has a new website Hello Kitty Stump Village, a claymation DVD no claymation...
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February 16, 2007

What I Got From Katsucon13: Day 1

I stopped by Katsucon 13 this morning, the big anime convention that happens to be down the street from our joint in DC. [Yes, I just called our house a joint. But after chilling at the con, my nerdmeter is...
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Some TV Mook 'Invents' Product That's Been Around For Years

It probably shouldn't be a surprise that the producer/host of some random, me-too reality TV shows, now thinks that he's invented a nipple that fits on a water bottle. The only thing he deserves credit for is getting them...
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No YouTube For A Week

ouch. [flickr via daddyinastrangeland]...
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Sweetness In Seattle: CalderEagle Now A Parent

Someone abandoned these little baby sculptures under the Alexander Calder sculpture, Eagle, in Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park. Says Belltown: The eaglets' birth parent(s) - we'll assume father(s) - were nowhere to be found, leaving behind only a small sign...
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It's An eBay Morning: Sweet Creative Playthings House, Furn.

This sweet Creative Playthings doll house has a bit of play wear on the edges--and, uh, it's missing the bottom floor--but the only thing bad I can say about all the furniture is that the doll family appears to...
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Follow-up: Kids In Cages Somewhat Frowned Upon In Ohio

In the end, the Ohio courts did not accept Sharen and Michael Grevelle's interpretation of "strict rules" to improve their 11 adopted special needs kids' behavior. It wasn't the starving them and forcing them to steal food, so much as...
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February 15, 2007

Holy Smokes, Actual Gerhard Richter Carpet

Rugs by artists are not new, but there are a couple of outfits now commissioning contemporary artists to design rugs and carpets. This Gerhard Richter carpet, though, I gotta say, I wouldn't have thought it. But sure enough, there...
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Reckon Shirts I Reckon I'd Buy

[02/08 update: check the comments below; unfortunately, a number of people over an extended period of time have complained about problems or delays completing their orders from Reckon. Lead time on orders not-in-stock have stated leadtimes of up to 3...
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"Boo-Coo Minivans!"

If there ever was a reason to get a good night's sleep, it's to avoid watching all eight minutes of this commercial for a Florida used car dealer who calls himself The Family Man. Of course, you with the...
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Pregnancy T-Shirt Helps Skinny Women Celebrate A Little Bit Of Fat

After she had a kid, Frederique Daubal designed this limited edition t-shirt for Hint, the online fashion magazine: "It's an homage to femininity," she says about the pregnancy motif, "and the poetic explosion that happens in the belly and...
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Natural Cleaning Supplies Popular Among "Science Is Hard! Let's Go Shopping!" Crowd

Prompted by their school's switch to natural cleaning supplies, parents are switching, too...says Don Imus's wife, whose non-profit group tries to get schools to switch to natural cleaning supplies. And science schmience, if ammonia residue on the coffee table...
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February 14, 2007

Entirely Unprompted Dream Furniture For, By Italian Kids

Tell me if I'm reading this right: One of the educational consulting offerings of Pesce Colorato is to develop children's creativity and deepen their understanding and mastery of the creative process through collaborative design and manufacture? Because from here,...
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Grease Babies, Or The Scary Underbelly Of Canadian Daycare

Here's a documentary that's long overdue: turns out kids in those lavishly subsidized Canadian daycare centers are being terrorized by Rizzo, and they're dropping out of beauty school faster than you can say, "Go, Greased Stroller." Next up: John...
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Should You Watch The Manny's YouTube?

If you want to see him giving the blowup killer whale a reacharound and hear his folk songs about buttsex, then duhyeah. Being quick-on-the-draw with an improvised lyric is a priority in any childcare professional's life, not just the...
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Leggo My Lego!

The kid doesn't know what a Lego is, but, thanks to Kellogg's™ Lego® Fruit Flavored Snacks, she can learn a valuable lesson: Legos are for putting in your mouth! Also, they're an important source of vitamin C, almost as...
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Whoa, Kid-Sized Tetris

First off, that Play+Soft series of Reggio Emilia-inspired playroom furniture posted here a couple of weeks ago? Tip of the iceberg. Their catalogue is full of incredible, fun-looking, and well-thought-out designs. [It's for sale here for $22.] Play+Soft was...
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Will You Be My DIY Wall Mural/Decal Friend?

Here are some great-looking techniques for turning any image you want into a wall-sized mural or decal, whether it's digital or analog, an Eric Carle kangaroo or a crazed, hammer-wielding yakuza. At his new blog Daddyhack, frequent DT contributor Eric...
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Pampers Chairs, Recycled

In the early 1990's, the German artists Beata and Gerhard Bär and Hartmut Knell began developing techniques to reuse consumer plastics, not as ground up, grey park benches, but in a way that underscored their past lives. It was...
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February 13, 2007

Choke-Proofing Your Child-Proofing: Outlet Cover Edition

There are a couple of solutions for making electrical outlets safer for mobile kids. Especially when bite-sized outlet covers can be nearly as hazardous as the sockets themselves. In DC, the real electrical outlet threat is in the living room,...
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Headfake Your Medicine-Spitting Kid With The Kidzmed Pacifier

It may look like a harmless pacifier, but when you push the plunger on the Kidz-Med Medicine Dispenser--BAM!--the medicine hits the back of the kid's throat, bypassing his tongue, and most all his spitting reflexes. So if the trick...
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Whatever Happened To Rosemary's Berceuse?

When the definitive history of wicker rocking chair/cradle combos is written, it looks like the incep date'll need to be pushed back a decade or so. Artist/designers [1] Elisabetta Gonzo and Alessandro Vicari created Rosemary's Berceuse, a combination rocking...
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"Fun On Wheels" By Stephan Gip: Furniture In Disguise

This might just be cool enough to make up for the high chair. Swedish architect Stephan Gip is credited with the 1962 design for the all-wood, no-tray, trapezoidal stacking high chair that we wipe off a little every day...
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Matali Crasset Is A One-Woman Ikea Kids Department

That desk Matali Crasset did for Balouga turns out to be the tip of her kid-friendly design iceberg. At the Stedelijk in Amsterdam Hertogenbosch [?] there's a whole museumful of playful, sherbet-colored furniture and architecture in an exhibition called...
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Vids4Tots

Dutch has taken a stab at it by assembling a rather long and esoteric list of video clips. Daddy Types has gone about it piecemeal, just throwing a NatGeo African watering hole cam up here, a Patt Smith there, a...
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To The Jews, The Gays, The Dads, Mazeltov!

During Hannukah, DT reader Marjorie became an aunt when her brother and his partner adopted a baby girl. [Namewatch Alert: Shirley, family name]. She wrote about the naming ceremony, known as Simchat Bat, that Shirley's dads and family crafted for...
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February 12, 2007

Knit Tits A Hit With Brits

Lactation consultants in Liverpool are deploying handknit model breasts to teach new mothers proper latching and milk expressing techniques. The idea started when one consultant brought a pair in from home and got a favorable response. More were needed, though,...
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Greg Ball's X-Crib Design Matches Skateboard, Probably Legal In Canada

Designer/MocoLoco contributor/Canadian Greg Ball has one more '/' to add to his resume: dad-to-be. You could also say he's not yet satisfied with all the crib options out there [shoulda been here three years ago, Mac], so he designed...
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Sweet Britax Promotion - 20% Off Through 2/16

EliteCarSeats.com is a former DT advertiser who's got a sweet deal going on Britax car seats. Through Friday, 2/16, all infant carrier and car seat models except the Regent are 20% off. The deal goes for accessories like bases and...
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Crema Neige Di Santa Maria Novella

This morning as my wife is hydrating in advance of her flight to Amsterdam [quick over&back for a conference; the kid and I are staying put], she took town this little pot of Crema Neige emmollient by Santa Maria...
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Re-Produkte: Rocking Products For Reproducers

I swear, it feels like I've written about the Re-Babe before, but I can't find it in the archives anywhere. Berlin-based design group e27 has created a series of inventive rocking solutions, beginning with Re-Tire, a simple, stackable rocking...
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London Preschool Admission Antics In Place For >100 Years

So supposedly, London's private preschools are a madhouse to get into, but not like New York's. It's not based on the parents, or some gnomic playdate/audition; it's first-come-first-served from the moment of birth. Only now that the numbers are so...
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Jot: Praise The Lord & Pass The YouTube

"The Lutherans had Davey & Goliath and I wondered what we Baptists could do for children's television," said Dr. Paul Stevens, President of the Southern Baptist Radio & Television Commission. He was talking about Jot, a series of mod,...
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The Wood Bead Game: Octopus By Gonzalo Arbutti At MoMA

MoMA's Design Store recently launched a special, limited-time collection of objects from up-and-coming designers in Argentina. The collection, dubbed Destination: Buenos Aires, includes at least one of the sweet-looking wooden toy designs by Gonzalo Arbutti's company, Laboratori. With inspirations...
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February 11, 2007

I Try To Feed The Kid A McNugget Now And Then, And THIS Is The Thanks I Get??

I gotta say, I don't know where to start with this McDonald's commercial. First off, they got rid of the damn pies in several key European countries, so no French, Dutch, or German dad in his right mind would...
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"You Light Up My Life," By Patti Smith

Wow. When she appeared on Kids Are People, Too! [!!] in 1980, punk powerhouse Patti Smith namechecked Maria Callas and Mick Jagger as her favorite singers, and then she took a run at Debbie Boone's "You Light Up My...
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Dutch Design Icon Stamps Piss Off Vegetarians, Commies

So the privatized Dutch postal service, TNT, issued a 2007 series of stamps commemmorating nine modern icons of Dutch design [plus tulips]. Silhouettes of both the Bugaboo and the Heineken longneck were included in the set, which was designed...
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February 10, 2007

Insane Clown Posse Rides The Fisher-Price Smart Cycle

There used to be a macrobiotic clown who'd panhandle on the 1/9 train. He was tall, with a cursory bit of make-up and a weathered clown suit on; normal shoes, though. And he had a weird, kind of weary, high-pitched,...
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C&C Custom-Painted Eames Shells

Cynthia & Chris are husband & wife designers who salvaged a store of vintage Eames shells from an auditorium fire and set to refinish them by hand. Rather than just return them to an impractical and ultimately inauthentic "vintage"...
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Danielynn Has Three Daddies

Obviously, in these difficult times, with so much media frenzy flying to and fro, I felt it was best to wait for the authoritative Banterist Playmobil Re-enactment before broaching the subject of the paternity claims for the 5-month-old Danielynn...
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February 9, 2007

Mysterio Onsie* Predicts Your Child's Future

When the red string is pulled and the Mysterio Onsie [tricky!] is unfurled at your baby shower, crowds will be astounded at the accuracy of the 1-in-12 prediction of the kid's future. Unless you already are a mafia accountant,...
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Isamu Noguchi Slide Mantra Sculptures

Reading through the timeline of sculptor Isamu Noguchi's projects is like a smack on the back of the head; there are so many playgrounds that never made it out of the maquette stage. They range back over fifty years...
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That Smell? It's Not A Diaper; It's Pheremones.

If you have Jane Jacobs on your babyname shortlist, you'll love reading Steven Johnson's take on urban parenting in Babble. Johnson's been writing thoughtfully on urban, connective living for a while, but now that he's got a few years of...
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After Successfully Conquering $2,300 Crib Market, Ooba Lowers Prices

Flush with celebration of its near-total domination of the $2,300 segment of the awesome modernist crib market, Ooba is now boldly pursuing the highly competitive $1,500-give-or-take market by dropping the price of their Nest Crib to $1,650. I imagine...
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$25? For Pampers? Meh. gDiapers Is Giving Away $4,500

Sheesh, February is officially Diaper Deal Month now. Turns out gDiapers, the amazing, flushable diapers that come with their own toilet bowl swizzle stick, is throwing a Happy Baby, Happy Planet Giveaway in conjunction with Wild Oats, the other organic...
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JPMA Dumps Trade Show, Cites Other Reasons For Continued Existence

Insider T-ball, anyone? After years in the Dallas Expomart or whatever that thing is alongside the highway into town, and a moribund stint in Orlando, the Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association is disbanding their trade show, conceding defeat to the organizers...
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WTH?? Once-Skeptical Dad Pens Love Letter To Disney Cruises

Look, I went on a cruise against my better judgment, now I'm done. End of story. But I guess if you HAVE to take a cruise WITH four boys, a Disney Cruise MIGHT be the way to go. Boat's gorgeous....
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February 8, 2007

Scion & Camry Sittin' In A Tree: They Mucked Up The New xB

Grr. Last week I finally went to a Toyota dealer to give the Scion xB a lookover you just can't do when it's someone else's car parked on the street. [Quick take: The interior is plenty big, but super...
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Mom Babbles On About The Problem [sic] With Perfect Dads

So I read Jessica Francis Kane's somewhat agonized [not a rant, she gets full credit for that] rumination on Babble about the new set of complications that arise from having a perfect, involved dad for a husband. And I come...
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Diapers In The News Or, Our Tax Dollars At Work

A lot of Ivy League brain power being expended on the crazy-astronaut-in-a-diaper story this week: the Yale Daily News waxes philosophical about the MAG [Maximum Absorbency Garment], wondering if all the publicity'll create a, uh, trickle-down effect in the...
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Waterford Crystal Baby Bottle Now Makes Perfect Sense

This Waterford cut crystal baby bottle seems nice enough, but what're the odds that it'll match your other Waterford crystal? Exactly, slim to none. Fortunately, it's for sale at Bed Bath & Beyond, so if you get one at...
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Apartment Therapy: Now For The Nursery

Apartment Therapy, the site for people with neurotic apartments whose apartments just have a few issues just like what they like, you gotta problem with that? The door's right over there, the chartreuse one--I know, but we thought it might...
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February 7, 2007

Dad Uses Stun Gun To Repel 3-Week-Long Assault By 18-mo Son

A 23-year-old dad in Albany, Oregon [it's not as far inland as I would've thought] was apparently being terrorized for weeks by his 18-month-old son. Weak and powerless and cowed with fear, left with no one to turn to, and...
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The Rice Daddies Blogaversary Book Contest

They grow up so fast. To celebrate the Rice Daddies' first blogging anniversary, RD is throwing a book review contest. [nice, I like that idea] They're looking for your review of "your favorite book from your own childhood that you...
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Method Kickback Madness At Amazon

At $57 a case, the Triple Concentrated Baby Laundry Detergent alone is enough to qualify for Amazon's $10 instant checkout kickback on Method Products. Personally, I would stare at six bottles of baby laundry detergent and wonder what happened to...
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Burglar: Please Use Boon Animal Bags

So you've just stuffed your money into one of the kid's plush toys for safekeeping. If you'd now kindly stuff all the animals into one of these Boon Animal Bags, the burglar won't have to slice open all the...
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Burglar: Hide Your Money In The Kid's Room

A reformed burglar gave PFAdvice some tips on where to hide your money and valuables at home. The first tip: have a plausible-looking decoy stash with some stuff in it [in NYC, they used to call this your 'mugger...
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Elvis Costello Drives An Orbit! Has Orbits Driven

The Orbit: it's not just for unidentified woodsmen anymore. [via gawker stalker] Previously: Unidentified Local Object Actually First Orbit Baby Car Seat Spotted In The Wild...
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Awesome Felt Book By Esther Schuivens

Esther Schuivens was one of the actual designers tapped by Habitat for their first VIP For Kids collection last winter. Her company Esthex made a crafty little Eskimo [1] doll, since replaced by Harry Potter's couch or something. This...
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When A Man And A Woman Love Each Other Very Much, But They Only Want A Boy...

The NY Times has a primer on fetal sex selection technology so basic, it actually includes a definition of in vitro fertilization and the phrase, "because it is the sperm and not the egg that determines a baby’s sex." But...
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February 6, 2007

"We've had people die here, but we've never had people born here."

So says Steve Callendar, Vice President of Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, while on his way to double down on his company's Bus&Breakfast! Nursing Home promotional budget. Seems a penny slots customer, one Nyree Thompson, gave birth in the casino...
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Park Slope Barnes & Noble Bans Strollers

Something had to give, people. The strollers were getting in the way of the smelly old geezers sleeping in the armchairs and the cafe-ful of magazine-thumbing freelancers. Park Slopers fight for the right to shop and race Maclarens [curbed]...
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Gender Mainstreaming Campaign In Vienna: 1916 Going On 1917

As part of their 2007 Gender Mainstreaming Kampagne, the Vienna City Council has put up signs and icons all over the city to highlight the importance of gender equality. There are emergency exit signs with a female stick figure...
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Road Warrior, Come Out And Play-ay

I've really got nothing to add to this photo. [mehretube's flickr stream via hustler of culture]...
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Que Lindo! Bunnies From Portugal By Rosa Pomar

So I see these flower-eyed bunnies staring up off the sidebar of design*sponge, and I'm like, "Damn, what? Do I know you? Have I seen you bunnies before? You're from freakin' Portugal!" And it's kind of scaring me, and...
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Springbuck Riding Toy

The kid's got a rocking chicken from Playsam, so if anyone's ever gonna mouth off about a rocking springbuck, it won't be me. Joom is a new South African design firm whose first product was a life-sized, cow-shaped bookcase....
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Punk Love: Photos Of The Early Hardcore Scene By Susie Horgan

Susie Horgan needed subjects for her photography class at American University, so she took a job at the Haagen-Dazs store in Georgetown, and started photographing a couple of punks who worked there: Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye. Here's a picture...
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Chinese Character Plush Toys By Studio Ditte

I've been to Utrecht. Struck me as kind of a sleepy, lace-curtains-in-the-window kind of town. But it does have an edgy design streak in it somewhere, I guess. Studio Ditte is a design agency in Utrecht that created a...
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Matali Crasset Kids Desk For Balouga

Don't talk to me about Philippe Starck right now. I don't know why, but I just don't have the patience for him. I'm happy with the kid's toilet, though, so I'll leave it at that. Matali Crasset, on the...
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February 5, 2007

Troglodytes And Manuellas: Squishy Soft Toys

It's been literally several minutes since we've seen some hipsterish plush toys around here, sorry for dropping the ball. Troglodytes are created by artist Jill Penney out of fleece; they have hand painted horns and sculpey eyes. Perfect for the...
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"I Hog The Ground" Video By Steve & Steven: Great Ideas From, For Noggin

Welcome to the Hotel Nickelodeon. You can check out any time you want, but you can. never. le-e-eave. After making a mad and credible--hey, it had me fooled--break with children's television in order to launch his indie rock career,...
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Celebrity Buys Mid-Century Rocker By Ib Kofod-Larsen!

Add the awesomely named Ib Kofod-Larsen to my list of Danish Designers I Should Have But Never Have Heard Of. [I know who Ub Iwerks is, though; do I get half credit?] Alls I know is, design guru Grace...
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The Princess And The Pseudoephedrine

Everyone knows that kids can react to drugs differently; it's why you test the Benadryl before the flight to see if your kid's one of goes-to-sleep kind or the bounces-off-the-wall kind. As we found out last night at 01:55, there...
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Jazzy Kids Book By Jim Flora: The Day The Cow Sneezed

Jim Flora was a prolific artist and illustrator whose trippy post-war modernist album covers for RCA/Victor and Columbia jazz recordings have gained renewed appreciation in the eBay era. His style bridges early American modernists like Stuart Davis and Marie-Therese-era...
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February 4, 2007

Not The Image I Had Of BMW Bikers

via DT reader zach [daddytypes flickr photopool]...
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"Pre-Natal Pretties Pageant" From Mr. Show

"They have such high self-esteem, they can't wait to be born!" Mr. Show - Prenatal Pageant [youtube via mefi]...
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The Wooden Citroen 2CV: So Close And Yet...

The first car I ever bought was a Citroen 2CV. It's sitting with a restorer in Holland right now [I think... note to self: check on car], waiting for the opportune moment to ship it over to the US....
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Running The Numbers On At-Home Parenting

Pitt fan Caleb has been at-home dadding for going on six years now, and when they started thinking of him going back to work, he ran some numbers. Factored in: the cost of childcare for two kids the marginal...
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Gula: Spoon-Shaped Stool By Shigeki Fujishiro

Wow, the Swiss kid design blog Kidsmodern is gone, replaced by a Swiss kids design site of awesomeness, Kidsmodern. They're adding shopping functionality any day now, taking it beyond just the traditional surf-n-drool. Meanwhile, Kidsmodernist Suzanne spotted this chair at...
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Prouve-lookin' Doll House Chairs From US [Via Japan]

Landscape Products is a sweet modern design shop in Tokyo; it's affiliated with one of the most incredible-looking kid stores there, too, a place near Ebisu & Hiro-o called Chigo. [The Tokyo ex-pat grandparents got the kid a gorgeous...
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February 3, 2007

The Pampers Porsche & The Pampers Box

Set aside for a moment the glaringly obvious suggestion that Pampers should've sponsored a Porsche Boxster, not a Carrera, to promote their new diaper caddy, the Porsche Box. No one in the fast-paced worlds of diaper marketing and motorsports...
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Yes, Basil Lavender & Tea Tree Oil, Nice Rack.

What's that, you say? You thought gynecomastia only affected readers of the back pages of New York Magazine? Think again, my testosteronal friend. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine links topically applied tea tree...
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Kickback With Amazon, Bro: Pampers $25/99 Instant Rebate In February

Amazon SO wants you to be their friend, they'll give you $25 just to hang out with them this month. Hang out and buy $99 worth of Pampers, Bibsters, Luvs or Kandoo products in one shot, that is. Qualifying...
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February 2, 2007

Telly Has Four Mamas, Four Hot Mamas

I wasn't going to post this 1975 video of Telly Savalas--it outcreeps anything from William Shatner's spoken word song oeuvre--but then a BoingBoing reader named Jon added the following explanation of the weird beer goggles camera effect, and well,...
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Hey, My Kid Could Do That

The kid and the wife built MoMA this morning out of blocks. As she gave us the tour, she pointed out that it has a tower, an atrium, some sculptures, and a garden--with trees and a bridge. And some...
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21st Century Family Modernism By Richard Hutten

Well this is five kinds of cool right here. Designer Richard Hutten gave Dutch TV station KRO a tour of his house in Rotterdam, where he lives with his two sons. The creator of such kid-friendly classics as the...
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Itzbeen Baby Timer: Good. Couldabeen Great

Who knew we were living in the midst of an at-home-dad-driven renaissance in baby tracking technology? While the Baby Industrial Complex was introducing such literally archaic devices as the Mom Abacus as recently as 2004, dadovators like Ben MacNeil and...
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DT Group Huggie: Who Buys Diapers From A Blog?

Sometimes I mourn for the wild and carefree pre-kid life, back in the day where we'd make farcical spreadsheets and PowerPoint for fun. The consulting world equivalent of writing a game theory analysis of leaving the toilet seat up....
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February 1, 2007

Big Pork Says Blogger's Breastmilk T-Shirt Isn't Kosher

Lactivist/blogger The Lactivist got a cease & desist order from The National Pork Board, demanding that she destroy her trademark-infringing, pro-breastfeeding t-shirts that say "The Other White Milk." [Cafepress pulled the shirts before The Lactivist even knew what was...
[read the full post...]

Unidentified Local Dad Now Identified. As The Guy Pushing The Gold Lame Stroller.

Uh, this is exactly the kind of unnecessary dad stroll-pas Daddy Types was founded to prevent. Reportedly, there were ten of these things made, and they cost 500 pounds, 330 pounds more than the non-gold-lame' version. I'd like to...
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Airlines Eliminating Infant Fares

This oughta help the kids stay quiet on the plane. American Airlines discontinued its discounted fare for kids under 2-yo on Jan. 13. Their spokesman said, presumably with a straight face, "We found out that this was very rarely used,...
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FOR RENT: Repurposed Tanker Truck Pod/Crib By LO/TEK

It's what the blogosphere was built for, people. A few years back, the industrial detritus-loving architecture firm LO/TEK remodelled a typical loft apartment in the West Village, replacing the sleeping mezzanine with a factory-style catwalk--and king-sized sleeping pods set into...
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Moms Rising, Presumably To Get Dads A Beer

Not quite sure what the hook is, but the advocacy organization Moms Rising got a nice profile on CNN Money a little while ago. Moms Rising was started by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and MoveOn co-founder Joan Blades as part of the...
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Call It Piet Hein Eekian: Work Table Made From Road Signs

Slot-together, modern, minimalist design: check Marine-grade plywood: check Came from Portland: check Lots of orange: check The only thing wrong with this awesome work table made from reclaimed road signs is that it's not a crib. Does anyone know of...
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I Can't Get Enough Of That Piet Hein Eek

Seriously. Haven't seen it for a while, even though it was one of the first things I ever found for Daddy Types [alas, a few months too late for our own crib-buying]. But the more I think about it,...
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Who Is Ferrari's Licensing Guy? Day-um!

There's a Ferrari F430 in the garage down the street in NYC. It has the sexiest damn car cover I've ever seen. I mean, it was the Ferrari of car covers. Which means it's not impossible for Ferrari to make...
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Who Is Baby Loves Disco's Publicist? Day-um!

We all know that when graphic designers have a kid, they start cute little Onesie companies. And guys who didn't like their pre-kid jobs start My Big Invention product companies. But what kind of parent company do dancer/DJ's start? Baby...
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