Daddy Types: June 2007 Archives

June 2007 Archives

June 30, 2007

Daddy Types Advertisers Make It Easy To Be A Baby

Thanks to the Daddy Types advertisers who ply us with sweet products, services, and messages that never go out of style. If you'd like to advertise to Daddy Types' community of discerning, non-exploitative dads and their posses, check here. Thanks...
[read the full post...]

Dur Dur d'Etre Bebe Whose Parents Totally Exploited The Hell Out Of You

I guess I wasn't hanging out in the right eurotrash discos in 1992, because I missed the Macarena-grade phenomenon that was Jordy. The four-year-old French kid put out the brainless dance track, Dur Dur d'Etre Bebe ["It's Hard To...
[read the full post...]

June 29, 2007

Uma, Chupacabra. Chupacabra, Uma

Congratulations to Ugly Dolls creators David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim on the delivery, safe and sound, of little UMA. Horvath writes on his blog that UMA only became a reality for them when they saw that first sonogram, a feeling...
[read the full post...]

LOLOL Eero Aarnio Puppy: Three For $98 At DWR

Unbelievable. DWR is having their summer sale. Among the deals on offer: three--yes, three--Eero Aarnio Puppies, originally $99 each, for just $98. WITH FREE SHIPPING. Ridiculously cheap, and yet $22 MORE than the Netto crib & changing table. I...
[read the full post...]

Whoa. Netto Crib & Changing Table On eBay - Mint Cond, Man W/Van Not Included

I'll say it again. Whoa. There is a David Netto Loft Collection crib and changing table--the high-end modern nursery furniture that started it all--with an organic cotton mattress, even, for sale on eBay right now, with no reserve, barely...
[read the full post...]

Cadillac To Offer First Station Wagon Since The Jackson 5ive

When GM announced that the mid-sized Cadillac BLS wagon and sedan will be unveiled at the Frankfurt Auto Show, they made the sweeping claim that the car "marks a new milestone for the brand" as "the first station wagon...
[read the full post...]

Q: Buying Plush Toy Sushi While Pregnant?

That soft travel puzzle map of the United States set me to poking around, especially after AJ mentioned the lameness of another soft travel book, a puzzle-looking solar system where the planets are sewed in place, by the same...
[read the full post...]

Vintage Brio Pulltoys On Swedish eBay

train ends july 1, currently 120SEK [$US18], 4 bids Getting a little weary of posts about vintage Creative Playthings toys on eBay? How about something completely different: vintage Brio toys on Swedish eBay! You might think of Brio as...
[read the full post...]

Check Out The Vintage Baby Scale In This Japanese Bathhouse

Asahi-yu, somewhere in Shin-Nakano, on the Marunouchi line. I can't believe this sento is only a few minutes west of Shinjuku. It looks like the ones we used to go to in the mountains 20 years ago. Though I...
[read the full post...]

June 28, 2007

Freeway-Shaped Miles Carpet By Big-Game

In their interview with MocoLoco, members of the Swiss design firm Big-Game explain that each object in their new Plus Is More collection is created using a simple strategy: "We never use shapes as a starting point, always ideas."...
[read the full post...]

Total Veggie Booty Recall Issued After Salmonella Reports

The FDA and Robert's American Gourmet have issued a recall for Veggie Booty after 51 cases of salmonella in 17 states were possibly linked to the snack food DIETARY FOUNDATION AND SOLE SOURCE OF POWDERED KALE FOR 99% OF AMERICAN...
[read the full post...]

Renault Espace F1 Concept: French For "All You Got's A Hemi?"

Just like the Edison/Lumiere debate about who invented movies, Americans and the French each think they invented minivans. The Renault Espace came to market in 1984, a year after the Dodge Caravan, but the design predates the US Chrysler...
[read the full post...]

Stuffed US Map Travel Puzzle

When I was little, I learned the states from the hand-painted map on the neighbor's camping trailer, which they filled in every summer: "All Lower 48!" it said. Also, I had a beat jigsaw puzzle, where Rhode Island was...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Types Not Too Fat For PC World Magazine

Thanks to the folks who've emailed, and thanks to the demonstrably virile editors of PC World. Seems Daddy Types has some fans in ol' cubefarm; it was the only parenting- or kid-related title on their list of "100 Blogs...
[read the full post...]

Your Kid's Nursery Needs A "Dope 5-Headed Star Wars Themed Mural" ASAP

iPhones are yesterday's news; the drop you really want to make tomorrow is the Plasticgod Ningyo at SURU, the indie toy temple of dope on Melrose. In advance of the release party, reports Vinylpulse, Pgod "spent four days transforming...
[read the full post...]

Pearl Retires After Getting Will Ferrell To Confess

to confess to three murders, that is. The perpetrator of this worn out joke that was funny for like five seconds in the first place, meanwhile, remains at large. Good Cop, Baby Cop [funnyordie.com via dt reader mark] previously:...
[read the full post...]

June 27, 2007

Any Car As Long As It's Venetian Green

On the way to dinner last night, the kid and I saw a VW Touareg coming out of a parking garage that was so deep-dark green it was almost black. I decided we had to wait and ask the...
[read the full post...]

Cuddle Me Condos: Residential Starchitecture Plush Toys

What becomes a legendary building in an overheated Manhattan real estate market most? Lesser breeds of developers have been known to hire fashion designers to decorate the lobby. To commission Jade Jagger to put her name on the galley kitchen....
[read the full post...]

Babblepedia, Little Girl, Is An Advice Site That Babble Wants Parents To Write On. To Write On

The new Babblepedia is a wiki-style advice site for parents--or at least the cool, urban sub-demo--that aims to be an "encyclopedia of parenting knowledge that anyone can edit!" [Or add your two cents to, anyway. Make your contribution funny...
[read the full post...]

Kickass Geekdad Ikeahack Problemsolves Topbunk Smackdown

What a great feeling it must be to take a hacksaw to a piece of Ikea furniture. Wired's Geekdad needed an efficient reconfigure for their two sons' room, so they chopped up the bunkbed and bolted it to the...
[read the full post...]

DT Retail Scoutabout: Bugaboos At Babies R Us Edition!

A few random retail links that came across my--HOLY SMOKES, THEY'RE SELLING BUGABOOS AT BABIES R US???!! They showed up on the BRU website a few days ago, and in Union Square. I asked a Bugaboo source what's up: 22...
[read the full post...]

Will The Other Owner Of The M-B R63 Please Raise Your Hand? Your Car Is Being Discontinued.

It appears Seal's efforts to shore up sales of high-performance Mercedes not-a-minivans have failed. The company announced they are discontinuing the most ridiculous car they've ever offered, the AMG-tuned, twin turbo 503hp V8 version of the R-Class, the R63,...
[read the full post...]

June 26, 2007

Skip*Hop Playspot Challenges Red-Yellow-Blue Playmat Hegemony

It's such an obvious question, it's like it's been staring us in the face. Right under our noses. Or our feet. In fact, I'm looking at one right now. It's the perpetually in-your-face reminder of the Baby Industrial Complex's...
[read the full post...]

For Fifty Bucks, Baby Name Consultants Manage To Find Name More "Original" Than "John Jr."

From the Wall Street Journal: What's in a name? Stress. Sociologists and name researchers say they are seeing unprecedented levels of angst among parents trying to choose names for their children. One Las Vegas couple felt "enormous pressure," pressure to...
[read the full post...]

Vintage Creative Playthings Blocks, Mint Next To Box

Though it appears to be missing a block, and the original box has some wear, the eBay seller says this set of Creative Playthings Small Hardwood Blocks is in "perfect condition." Like new, you might say, except for this:...
[read the full post...]

Commonwealth Baby Naming News From Yahoo, Seriously

Focusing on the little ultrasound rather than the big picture, a couple in New Zealand is negotiating with the official agency that registers births over their desire to name their son 4Real. Sorry, 4real. [ap video/yahoo] Maria Brown of...
[read the full post...]

Ceci N'est Pas Un $100,000 Sock Monkey

So you have a teaching aid for helping the kid understand why Joseph Beuys whispered to a dead rabbit's ear. If only there was some cuddly way of explaining Mike Kelley's equally iconic 1989 sculpture, Estral Star [above], which...
[read the full post...]

Abolish The Multiracial Family Doll Tax NOW

While shopping for a doll family recently, AJ of Thingamababy discovered that sets are only available in single shades, such as "Modern", "Ethnic", and "Asian". Matching the skin tones of a multiracial family means buying each doll separately, a...
[read the full post...]

Genius Jones-ing for Friends With You T-Shirts

It looks a bit like the early Mr. TTT Burger, but probably not. If I had my Friends With You monograph handy, I'd be able to tell you who that mouselike character on the front of Genius Jones' exclusive...
[read the full post...]

Jalopnikers Discuss The Ideal $16k Babymobile

Subaru: new Impreza or a slightly used Forrester? VW: Rabbit or Jetta? Mazda: M3 or slightly used M6? Volvo: used V50? V70? '02 Saab 9-2, Scion xB, '02-04 Audi A4, '98-00 Mercedes E-Class wagon, an Impala, and a smattering of...
[read the full post...]

NYT Reporter Detained At Thomas The Tank Engine Factory

Not a lot of lead hazard-related updates in the acccount of NY Times business reporter David Barboza's recent visit to the Thomas & Friends factory in China. Just the usual stuff about how it's run by a gang of...
[read the full post...]

June 25, 2007

Beuys & Art Bunnies, Bunnies Dell'Arte

I've got so many tabs open in my browser it's dragging my whole [ancient backup] computer down. But I'm glad I waited a couple of days to post these sweet, Venetian crafty plush bunnies from Imegadito. Their stuff is...
[read the full post...]

Bewildered Brits Stare At Park Slope Parents

All the editors at BritLit journal Spiked Online asked for was a Those Crazy Americans! article on these so-called Park Slope Parents they'd just read about three weeks ago in the Telegraph. Is that so hard? Instead, Nancy McDermott's critique...
[read the full post...]

Geckos At Glastonbury

Keep this scenario in mind before you a la carte your Bugaboo. Because it totally could happen!: You decide to take your four-month-old kid to the Glastonbury Music Festival. Though you planned ahead and got his little ear-protecting headphones, a...
[read the full post...]

Muhammad, Pampers Be Upon Him

When all spelling variations are taken into account, the second most popular boy's name in the UK in 2006 was Muhammad. A mufti in a British mosque explains the name's global Islamic popularity as the equivalent of Jason for 30-somethings...
[read the full post...]

What're The Odds? Brit Parents Sign 2yo Daughter Up For MENSA

PROBABILITY QUESTION MENSA is for people who score above the 98th percentile on accredited IQ tests. 98% of people who are eligible don't join. 98% of MENSA members don't join until the're older and have exhausted every other means of...
[read the full post...]

Buying A Bugaboo From Parts A La Carte? What's The Catch?

Just when I think I've heard every $900 stroller angle there is, a DT reader who asked to remain anonymous emailed--maybe "e-gloated" is the better word--about how much money he saved buying a Bugaboo a la carte. Is this...
[read the full post...]

June 24, 2007

Going, Going, Gone: Kids Eames, Japanese Dump Trucks, Community Playthings On eBay

Here are a few interesting-looking kid-related finds on eBay at the moment: Charles Eames Childs Arm Shell Herman Miller CHAIR, ends Jun 29, currently $10+18 s/h When we last saw our mysterious child-sized, Eames-looking fiberglass shell chairs, their mod-savvy eBay...
[read the full post...]

June 23, 2007

Sweet, Green Gotham Rocker By Peter Danko

I spotted this greatlooking rocker at the National Building Museum today; it was on the porch of their Green House exhibit. Peter Danko designed the Gotham Rocker for J. Persing to use as little material as possible. It's made...
[read the full post...]

Bassinet Ackwards: Culla Belly Cradle/Co-Sleeper Concept Wins Big, Clueless Design Competition

I don't know about you, but it can get pretty damn frustrating when a sleek, beautiful innovative product wins a high-profile children's design competition, but then they never make it to market so I can buy it. Take the...
[read the full post...]

June 22, 2007

THWAK! This Comic Book Store Poster Belongs Over A Crib

This is spectacular. Chicago designer and photoblogger Nick Campbell took this picture last year in a comic book store. Whether you're DC or Marvel, X-Men or Avengers, Stan Lee or Jack Kirby, Lichtenstein or Warhol, Gursky or Hofer, this...
[read the full post...]

Gov't Tips For Leaving Your Baby Nightmare-Free

Silly mums with their Munch-like Screamfaces. This nightmare would never happen to dads. We don't have purses to drape over the stroller handles, so when we leave the kid on the street, there wouldn't be anything to grab for....
[read the full post...]

The Night Max Wore His Wolf Suit And Made Movies Of One Kind

Yes, movie publicists, I will eagerly publish even just one "leaked" still--as long as it's from an adaptation of a classic children's book by a director whose involvement offers at leaset the possibility that it might not be automatically...
[read the full post...]

Scandinavian Pram Antics

So a few months back, this guy from Holland emails and is all, in Denmark and Sweden they put their kids out on the terrace in their strollers to sleep until they're like 13 or whatever. And I was...
[read the full post...]

Whoa. The Man Pram Concept By Mamas & Papas

How It Starts: "In a recent poll by Yellow Pages relating to 'pram envy,' Mamas & Papas was voted the most popular type of pram at 26.6%. To publicise the survey Yellow Pages would like to illustrate the story with...
[read the full post...]

June 21, 2007

Whatever Happened To Rosemary's Bugaboo?

So the Bugaboo roaming the streets on its own picks up the other stroller, they start humping, and then it starts getting weird. For what it's worth, the Bugaboo appears to be the active partner. Bug-a-boo by Jacco Musper...
[read the full post...]

Not The Only Gay Babies In The Village Voice

First off, I think I have to call BS on the Village Voice's cover story on gay toddlers: it's horribly written, full of unnecessarily incendiary mock-shock that is an insult to the paper's supposedly progressive and aware heritage. You'd almost...
[read the full post...]

Hand-Crocheted Tool Belt: Il Golfini Per Il Lavoratori

Except for the whole propagandistic profiteering by making dangerously inaccurate War On Terror Finger Puppets for an Administration-friendly design demagogue thing, Il Golfini della Nonna can do no wrong in my eyes. They're wonderful people--artists, all--who support entire communities...
[read the full post...]

I Be Dazzled By Silver Cross's New Strollers

It's too early to say it's a renaissance, but Silver Cross is definitely in some kind of turnaround. When we were entering the stroller market, the anachronistic, governess-centric brand was trying to sell middling umbrella strollers by giving prams...
[read the full post...]

Getting Dead

The kid's been on a kick about dying [or as she puts it, "getting dead"] lately. It started with balloons and flowers, then animals, roadkill, the disappearing creatures at the National Zoo, old people, then wanting to know why people...
[read the full post...]

June 20, 2007

Sean Preston Earns $288.37 The Hard Way

All's I'm saying is, someone besides Sean Preston better damn well have gotten a free car out of this shameless product placement stunt. Your Turn To Judge: Whose kid is driving a Cadillac Escalade? [x17/jezebel via metrodad] Previously: Metrodad...
[read the full post...]

Chewbacca Drives A Maclaren!!

By 1979, Star Wars was in its third theatrical release in LA, and theater owners were cooking up promotions for luring people in. Like offering free admission to anyone who showed up in costume, even if it was the...
[read the full post...]

Sweet Haba Play Cooker Simulates Tiny Apartment Living

This was so cool. I saw this at Kid-o yesterday, and it was immediately obvious that this Play Cooker from Haba is the perfect toy kitchen for city living or for cultivating brilliant, possibly misunderstood, writers. No bigger than...
[read the full post...]

Star Wars Baby Fun From Celebration IV

The AT-AT stroller mod was apparently just the tip of the Star Wars baby iceberg at Celebration IV a couple of weeks ago. Here's a quick compilation of other photos from various flickr groups: Not surprisingly, there were lots...
[read the full post...]

DIY AT-AT Stroller: Who's Luke's Father?

AJ's the Jedi Master of stroller detective work. He tracked down the origins of the awesome AT-AT Walker stroller mod that's been making the rounds on the net recently, and he's deduced quite a bit of the DIY that...
[read the full post...]

Your Spear And Magic Helmet? Knitting Needles And Magic Helmet, Actually

Knit the helmet! Knit the helmet! Oh mighty warrior t'will be quite a task How will you do it, might I enquire to ask? I will do it with this kit from Bella Knitting! This kit from Bella Knitting?...
[read the full post...]

June 18, 2007

That Silence You Hear Is The Non-Spinning Of My Hard Drive

Grrr, I'm on the computer at the gym at the moment, and will be for another day or so until my hard drive gets replaced. It stopped suddenly, with a series of clicks, yesterday afternoon. BRB....
[read the full post...]

Single Dose Bubbles From Germany

These are awesome. Bubbles without the bottle. Three packs and a wand are $9 in SoHo at Kiosk, the incredible concept store by the same folks who brought us Salvor Fauna. Kiosk scours a particular country for beautiful, unusual,...
[read the full post...]

Starry, Starry Nursery By Aguirre, Rath Of 15th St

Thank heaven New York still has a few flatout crazy people left. And that they don't live on our block. I clicked on the NYT slideshow hoping to see more pictures of the cuh-razy fun real estate battle brewing...
[read the full post...]

June 17, 2007

The Station Wagons Of Rolls Royce Not Exactly The Rolls Royces Of Station Wagons

They sure don't make them like they used to. Some customizer outfit in Wisconsin named VGD is offering to transform a Bentley Arnage into a Shooting Break for an extra $170,000 over sticker. What a travesty. You know you're...
[read the full post...]

Art Bee-Powered Pregalyzer

Regine's in the throes of art-meets-technology sensory overload at the Royal College of Art graduate exhibition in London. That's where she saw Susana Soares' project, Bee's, which explores "how we might co-habit with natural biological systems and use their...
[read the full post...]

Did Anyone Get A Handknit Golly Jumper For Father's Day?

Unbelievable. And an interesting discussion in the Threadbared comments, too. Maybe you could tweak them to be a Mr. T sweater instead, you know, to match the kid's doll. There are vintage patterns for Golly Jumpers coming up on...
[read the full post...]

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

thanks, congratulations, good luck, let's keep on. there'll be time for more crazy racist toy hunting stories later....
[read the full post...]

June 16, 2007

Daddy Surfs 6: Golliwogs

Turns out the inky black Rufty Tufty was just the tip of the golliwog iceberg [Oh wait.] Golliwoggs, as they were originally spelled, became a wildly popular staple of British kid life for most of the 20th century. In...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Surfs 5: Rufty Tufty Is Dorothy Craigie's Second Most Racially Insensitive Children's Book

So while trying to find out what the HELL is up with a series of kid's books from as late as 1960 about characters called Nicky and Nigger, I did a Google image search for Dorothy Craigie and found...
[read the full post...]

June 15, 2007

Daddy Surfs 4: Dorothy Craigie

Graham Greene was a prolific lover, primarily of prostitutes and other men's wives. In the 1940's, Graham had an affair with Dorothy Glover, a costume designer, who later began a career as a children's book illustrator under the name...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Surfs 3: Wha?? Children's Books By Graham Greene??

In addition to his own titles, Edward Ardizzone illustrated children's books for other writers, folks like James Kenward; Ardizzone's cousin Christianna Brand, whose Nurse Mathilda series told the stories their grandfather had told them; and Graham Greene. Huh? If...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Surfs 2: Yachts On The Window Sill? Edward Ardizzone?

So the Domestic Interiors Database is nearly impenetrable, with pull down menus offering searches by "Dwelling - Specified Social Level" and such. Randomly trying to recreate Andy's search, I stumble across this excerpt from James Kenward's 1955 autobiographical children's book,...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Surfs 1: 1933 Bertha Sander Baby Furniture

You just never know. You go along for a while, thinking you've got the hang of things, got it figured out. And then from one moment to the next, you slowly realize you are in wild, uncharted territory, and you...
[read the full post...]

The Morrinho Project: My First Favela Playset

Spectacular. Morrinho ['little hill' in Portuguese] began in 1997 as the plaything of a 14-year-old boy in Pereirão, a hillside favela of Rio de Janiero. It's a toy model of the favela itself, constructed on an abandoned hill out...
[read the full post...]

Let's Go Riding In My Munny Mobile

I was going to ask for some suggestions on how the kid and I should pimp out the Mini Munny Mobile that Kidrobot sent us to try out, but then I saw that they launched a Munny Mobile Custom...
[read the full post...]

June 14, 2007

Male Physiological Changes: What You Didn't Expect When You're Expecting

In Slate, Emily Anthes has a very interesting round-up of research into the physiological, chemical, hormonal, and neuronal changes men undergo during pregnancy and fatherhood. It's interesting, but also short; one of Anthes' main points is how little interest scientists...
[read the full post...]

It's Already Too Late For The Rabbits: Creative Playthings Noah's Ark Of Death

This Creative Playthings wooden Noah's Ark looks fantastic--unless you're a small, chewing-prone child or a rabbit. The pieces are all in great shape, but they're smaller than modern safety standards require [as the description says, "...WAY to many 'choking...
[read the full post...]

Eindhoven Graduate Gear Lifts, Separates, Carries

A bit of advice: if it's really that cold, maybe the kid should have some socks on. Just saying. Eindhoven Academy Graduation Exhibition 2007, designer unknown [reluct.com]...
[read the full post...]

Baby On Board For Now Sign

This seems to be either a Romanian product, or strictly a DIY project. Have at it, send pictures. [pcnet.ro via core77]...
[read the full post...]

Are You OK? Rubbernecking The Thomas Train Wreck

Feast your eyes on all the Thomas & Friends™ Wooden Railway Toys models that were recalled because their paint contains levels of toxic lead, aka the element voted Most Likely To Keep Your Kid Out of Harvard. The recall...
[read the full post...]

No Word On X-Ray Glasses, But Comic Book Ad Submarine Didnt' Suck

Like everyone else, I wanted sea monkeys and x-ray goggles. Unlike one guy, though, I was never able to convince my parents to pony up for the crap advertised in comic books. Now it turns out, the $6.98 Polaris...
[read the full post...]

Think Of The Children's Furniture! Wright20 June 23 Auction Roundup

The Chicago auction house Wright20 has been a major force in the modern design world since Frank Lloyd's market started picking up. When Andy sent a link to their upcoming modernism sale, I thought there are some interesting vintage pieces...
[read the full post...]

Dad Headline Roundup: Don't Hold The Train! Edition

Brand recall: Holy smokes, 1.5 million Thomas The Tank Engine toys are being recalled for lead paint. Wooden railway stuff sold over the last two years. See the CPSC for details [cpsc.gov, via dt reader john] And the Salary.com...
[read the full post...]

June 13, 2007

Design For Kids Smorgasbord At H&G

When I see the glitzy, glamorously-produced kids' design features in the latest edition of House & Garden--and on the H&G website--I feel like a flea market shlub who has a bougainvillea-filled urban entertainment center open across the street. DT's...
[read the full post...]

Madre De Dios! Is There Really Only ONE Photo Of The Dancing Sperm Children Of San Juan?

Puerto Rico - Gay rights commotion Set the sperm dance kids in motion. Always the leotards showing, Always the civil unions no-ing, And the sermons flowing. Daddy Yankee streaming, And the natives screaming, "This ain't no island Manhattan, Don't...
[read the full post...]

Damien Hirst's Caesarean Birth Paintings

Lost in the wilfully delusional hype over the 1,100 carat diamond-and-platinum skull sculpture that Damien Hirst is purporting to sell for $100 million is the rest of his exhibition at White Cube, his longtime gallery in London. The show,...
[read the full post...]

June 12, 2007

Can't Look: Bruno Munari Card Game/Book Things On eBay

D'oh I can't watch. Never mind that they've been in my browser window for three days. Someone is selling some incredible, scarce game/book things that Bruno Munari did for Danese back in the early 1970's, on eBay, and they're...
[read the full post...]

Porter x Aprica UN Colabo: Dad-Friendly Baby Gear

Aprica is really on a roll. They've got the Italy thing, and they actually did a colabo [Japlish for cross-brand collaboration, see] with the venerable Yoshida Kaban to create a line of infant carriers, diaper bags, and other gear...
[read the full post...]

Be Of Use: Buy Baby, Be Of Use Books

Personally, I think any time's a good time to buy Lisa Brown's Baby, Be Of Use boardbooks. Why waste your baby's precious time teaching him to sit up, when you could be focusing on far more beneficial skills like...
[read the full post...]

Urologists Talking Shop, Or, The NY Times Sperm FAQ

Maybe if we didn't have the Yankees-Red Sox playoffs of 2004, men might ramble on about the minutiae of sperm instead. And the result would have been pretty much the same as the NY Times' article. Is that hard to...
[read the full post...]

Can't Blog Now; Playdate

All type and no play makes daddy a loser. I'll be back this afternoon...
[read the full post...]

Vik Muniz' Picture of Ink Looks Suspiciously Like Mr Rogers

The artist Vik Muniz is known for exploring the nature and techniques of photography and the way society reads and consumes photographic images. He does this by creating photography-inspired images using fleeting, unorthodox materials: chocolate syrup, dirt, paint chips,...
[read the full post...]

June 11, 2007

Baby Beauty Pageants Ain't Got NOTHIN' On Tensai Electone Shoujo

First off, let me just say what this is: Johnny Depp appeared on a Japanese TV show, where he was serenaded--no, ambushed and stunned into submission--by four little stage-managed girls, ages 4-8, dressed in Pirates of the Caribbean 3...
[read the full post...]

Dad's '67 Camaro Not Just Family Car, It's Family

Since he got it at age 14, Ryan Bell's has shared some of the most important milestones of his life with his 1967 Camaro. It was with him as he dragraced his way through high school. He dropped the...
[read the full post...]

You Should Buy This Citroen Station Wagon

And then let me live vicariously through you. And then when I can convince the wife of the wisdom of buying yet another Citroen, you should sell it to me. 1971 Citroen Safari wagon - $15000 [losangeles.craigslist.org via jalopnik,...
[read the full post...]

Parts Is Parts: Piles Of Creative Playthings Vehicles On eBay

Yeah, the purist in me cries a little to see fragments from so many broken up Creative Playthings Playtown sets: there's the boat from a Marina; there's the helicopters from the Air Field. The luggage haulers, too [hey, weren't...
[read the full post...]

My First Pride Parade

Jeff writes in,Chloe marched in her 1st parade at the New Paltz Pride Festival last week. She was a stand-out in a splashy kimono, orange pants, and white beaded necklace. She actually didn't march, she rode on Dad &...
[read the full post...]

Heil, Struwwelhitler!

It's funny how your day can take a turn. You go to bed thinking you'll be posting about the coverage of the new Louis Vuitton kid's clothing line in the new Japanese edition of Milk Magazine. And instead, you...
[read the full post...]

Let's Stitch Frank! Sew-It-Yourself Toys From Egg Press

Egg Press has released Let's Stitch Frank!, a hand-screened canvas dog kit that's the first in a promised series of sew-it-yourself toys. [Well, the first if you don't count Hoot and Scoot, the other DIY stuffed animals Egg does.]...
[read the full post...]

Aprica UN Perpapa: Neoprene Carrier Clothing For Dads

You know what I was thinking just the other day? We don't see enough neoprene in the baby world. Especially functional pieces of gear for guys. [I know, I know, the guys at BuiltNY make neoprene bottle carriers and...
[read the full post...]

Family Portrait By Google's Second Most Popular Phil Collins

A friend once wrote of artist Phil Collins' photographs, "his subjects speak volumes without giving too much away." He likes to use his camera as a pretext or catalyst for some kind of social micro-phenomenon. He has filmed auditions...
[read the full post...]

June 10, 2007

Papa Mia, Thatsa Spacy Fiat Multipla

image: philseed When I lived in Monaco [long story, remind me not to tell you], I would sometimes luck out, and the Hotel de Paris would park my 2CV with the bamboo sunroof right in front, next to the...
[read the full post...]

Post-Zaharan Ethiopian Adoption: Fast, Cheap, And Somewhat Under Control

I've had the NY Times article on the increase in adoptions from Ethiopia all week. Apparently, the process is so much easier, and the country has an existing infrastructure of internationally supported orphanages [or transitional homes, as the article calls...
[read the full post...]

June 9, 2007

I've Never Seen This Photo

It's by AP photographer Jean-Marc Bouju, who was embedded with the 101st Airborne Didvision. From the AP's press release: The photo was made during a rare moment of humanity in a war zone, Bouju said, when a father who...
[read the full post...]

Sweet, Comfy-looking Danish Rocker From Surfing Cowboys

Not much to say about this sweet, simple, vintage Danish rocker that the folks at Surfing Cowboys upholstered in blue, cream, and green-flecked fabric. It looks comfortable, and the absence of a big designer name means it's not outrageously...
[read the full post...]

L'Etat, C'est This Keith Haring Rocking Baby

image: haring.com I generally like my Keith Haring on a wall, preferably loadbearing. [Did you know the Boy's Club of NY building which had that Keith Haring mural, the one in that Sesame Street segment, was just torn down?...
[read the full post...]

Gen. Mills Thinks My Fruity Cheerios Love Is Unnatural

I've been meaning to tell you about my Fruity Cheerios love for a while now. At first, I fought it. "Fruity Cheerios? Bah! Real men feed their kids Froot Loops." But then when I was drunk one morning--DUDE, I...
[read the full post...]

June 8, 2007

Uhh, The Volvo Rap??

Sheesh, it's been a rough week for Volvo, PR-wise. First, a crackmom in a 740 station wagon mows down 40 people at a Washington DC streetfair, then someone leaks a full ten seconds of Sven & Whitey McMagnusson's Volvo...
[read the full post...]

Abba To Zappa: Awesome Pop Star Alphabet By Craig Robinson

In 2004, the London ad agency Mother created "Abba to Zappa", a campaign for the Observer Music Magazine that featured a glorious, flashcard-style collection of pop star portraits. The images were made by the pixel-happy artist and illustrator Craig...
[read the full post...]

Whoa, Stokke Xplory Complete, $450 This Weekend AmEx Wishlist

I've never quite gotten into American Express's My Wishlist program, partly because I'm not a big random impulse shopper. And also, I kind of assumed that offering a small number of products at a HUGE discount was just a...
[read the full post...]

It Takes Huge Balls To Write About Infertility

It was a combination of smug self-satifaction and cluelessness that kept me thinking, "Gee, why aren't more people applauding my hilarious LOLSperm Test post the other day? That stuff was FUNNY." The truth, of course, is that dealing with infertility...
[read the full post...]

SeeSaw Bookshelf By BCXSY, Eindhoven

I can't believe great discoveries are still turning up online from the Milan furniture fair; I mean, it's been like, what? A month? Two? But Mocoloco just posted about the Play! collection of playground- and toy-inspired furniture designs from Eindhoven,...
[read the full post...]

Q: What Is The Pontiac TransAm Type-K Wagon By Pininfarina, Alek?

And the answer is, "What The Bandit and Snowman would drive if they ever came out, settled down, and adopted an adorable, little Guatemalan baby." I'll take Alternate Endings To Burt Reynolds Movies for $600. Gromit was right, the ultimate...
[read the full post...]

June 7, 2007

Auction Oddities From A Car Collector

On Sunday, RM Auctions is selling the car collection of longtime Detroit Pontiac dealer John McMullen. There are over 80 vintage cars, most of which hold little appeal to me; or I guess I just need to learn to...
[read the full post...]

Uhh, Shalom?

What the hell is going on in this Israeli Honda Civic commercial? I mean seriously, who's a guy gotta pick up on a decrepit waterfront to get a 5-door Civic in this country?...
[read the full post...]

Sean Hannity's Robin Givens Quivers Wrote A Children's Book

In the Kid Brand Whore post below, DT reader Dan found a single search result for Sean Hannity. How can you not be interested to see what it is? The book is Freddie The Free-Range Chicken, which is actually...
[read the full post...]

New York, New York A Helluva Town For A Frank Gehry Playground

As everyone now knows, modernist playgrounds are the new hotness. And as everyone who knows modernist playgrounds knows, during the Robert Moses era, the New York Parks Department suffocated many a sweet modern playground proposal in its crib. Creative...
[read the full post...]

Rookie, The World's Slowest Rocking Horse, By Hidetaka Nakahara

It's always interesting how things can look different from the opposite side of the world. For example, if I had designed a rocking horse with hinged hindquarters that could actually move forward as you rock it, I might look...
[read the full post...]

Daddy Types Salutes Ms. Ruth Smithers Of New Canaan, Connecticut

Neighbors, friends, and acquaintances of the architect Philip Johnson, whose masterpiece, Glass House, has recently opened to the public for tours, reminisce in The New York Times. Among them, "longtime New Canaan resident" Ms. Ruth Smithers, who took her...
[read the full post...]

Parents.com Servers Not [Yet] Overwhelmed With Demand For Podcast Interview With Daddy Types Blogger

Investigators are still, uh, investigating the cause of last night's server crash that knocked Daddy Types, the weblog for new dads, offline for nearly 13 hours. Initial speculation focused on whether publisher Greg Allen overloaded the server with his extraordinary...
[read the full post...]

June 6, 2007

DTQ: Who's The Biggest Kids Brand Whore?

A reader called me out for harshing on Maisy, and she's right; though the particular book the kid and I read was lame, it's far from the worst example of brand-brainwashing crap that the Baby Industrial Complex foists on our...
[read the full post...]

Library Card Tales: Leo Lionni & Truckers

The kid and I left the crappy Maisy book at the library the other day, but we brought home two books, one decent and one great. To choose them, I made a stack of six books we read or flipped...
[read the full post...]

June 5, 2007

37 Things A Bloke Should Know About Daddying

A couple of weeks ago, the British NHS [no, I don't know what it stands for; probably some raging communist thing] published an 8-page magazine supplement titled, 37 Things Every Man Should Know Before He Becomes A Dad which,...
[read the full post...]

And The Most Expensive Was Madeline

At the auction house on York, they were feeling just fine. Two hedge fund managers buzzing on some free wine. The estimate was just a bit over nine, but they both had daughters named Madeline. AMERICAN PAINTINGS, Sale No....
[read the full post...]

Come Along, Children, You Can Shake Your Booties Down On The Creative Playthings Dock.

If you've been looking for just the right Flying Wasp for your kid to christen, hie thee ho, on down to this vintage Playtown Marina from Creative Playthings. Sure, it's a marina, not a yacht club, so there's not...
[read the full post...]

Stunning Wood Toys By Take-G

These spectacular figures are Fujin and Raijin, Wind Guy and Rain Guy. They're by Nakagawa Takeji, a 32-year-old toymaker in Nagano, Japan. Nakagawa's Take-g Toys [though it's a spin on his first name, it's pronounced like English] specializes in...
[read the full post...]

June 4, 2007

TMN: Baby Drop-Off For Readers?

Jessica Francis Kane has an idea to help readers-turned-parents get back their reading time: IKEA-style, supervised kidcheck playrooms at bookstores or libraries. Little does JFK know that for every parent scheming for more reading opportunities, there are a hundred freelance...
[read the full post...]

Pre-School TV's For Marketing, Or D'Oh!, I'm Nodding Along To An Amy Sohn Column

You ever have one of those parenting moments that stops you dead in your tracks, and you break out in a cold sweat? Like when you find yourself agreeing with New York Magazine sex-makes-babies columnist Amy Sohn about something? Sohn...
[read the full post...]

So You Don't Have To Read About Kids Flying Private To Camp In The Post

In a dead-on targeting of that Impressionable Losers With More Money Than Brains demographic so coveted by its advertisers, the NY Post helpfully reports about a growing "trend": kids flying to summer camp on private jets. The story idea's likely...
[read the full post...]

Silicon Valley Nerdsery Includes Cray Supercomputer

It's nice when a plan comes together. Paul & Pam Costa of Silicon Valley somewhere were having a boy and thought they'd name him Edison, so they cooked up an Edison theme for his nursery. Though some even bigger...
[read the full post...]

Kid In Tow, Crackhead Mom Plows Volvo Wagon Through DC Streetfair

YOW. A cracked up mom, with a 7-yo kid in the back, plowed a Volvo 740 station wagon through a giant Washington DC street fair Saturday night, injuring up to 40 people, including at least seven kids. The rampage...
[read the full post...]

It's My Sperm In A Box! Male At-Home Fertility Test Goes On Sale In US

The Fertell male fertility test popped up around here last year when it was introduced in the UK. While its innovative adaptation of clinically proven sperm motility testing to a self-administered, at-home setting is laudable, especially because men are...
[read the full post...]

June 3, 2007

Rockin' Blocks Graffiti Alphabet Blocks By Beebles

I can't believe no one's bought a set of these sweet-looking graffiti alphabet blocks yet, even though they've been on etsy for a couple of months now. It says right there, they're "not just for the hipster baby mind...
[read the full post...]

"You Oobi, Huh? I Design Your Eyes."

Except that his creation hasn't come back to slaughter him--yet--Hobey Ford is Dr. Hannibal Chew to Oobi's Roy. The North Carolina puppeteer was issued a design patent in 1996 for Finger Puppets, the bulging eyes-on-ring device that turns a...
[read the full post...]

Power Up Knit Hats For Your Little Mario, Luigi, Or Princess

What with the heat and humidity the last few days, the idea of a cashmere baby cap seems kind of crazy. But then, the kid is sitting in front of me right now, cutting out balloons with her hat...
[read the full post...]

Dad-Tuned '92 Passat Wagon Hauls Groceries, [Not] Ass

Charlotte, NC dad Rodney Huss needed to tune a new daily driver, something “'Euro' with the 'Bad Boy' attitude with a mix of the old school and racecar technology...and the clean, simple styling that makes the German cars stand,...
[read the full post...]

Zewi Fix Decke: We Are The Sheet; We Are The Children.

Yeow, the last time I saw someone as obsessed over a sheet as I am about the Zewi Fix Decke, it was Jason Patric in Neil LaBute's Your Friends & Neighbors. [If you don't know what I'm talking about,...
[read the full post...]

June 2, 2007

Words Are Like A Certain Parent Who Can't Say What They Mean

Don't mean what they say. Fortunately, there's MetroDad, The Tina Weymouth of our parenting generation, to keep making sense of it all. His Parentionary provides the "True Meaning" of the phrases parents hear and use everyday, whether it's the meaning...
[read the full post...]

This Zid Zid Airplane Backpack Is Just Awesome.

Even at my road warrioringest worst, when I was flying somewhere literally every 36-48 hours for months, I refused to get a wheelie suitcase. None of the luggage companies I liked made them, and they just seemed like a sign...
[read the full post...]

Good Babynaming Help So Hard To Find In The Hamptons

As I'm sure you already know from previous seasons in Aspen and the Hamptons, Plum TV is like the free, glossy real estate ad magazines they leave in Upper East Side lobbies, like Avenue or Quest, but on TV....
[read the full post...]

So I'm Weak. Japan-Only Little Bony Plush Toys At Giant Robot

What month was it that I said the kid watches Japanese TV shows so that we can break the TV character - licensed merchandise - store aisle feedback loop? Way back in February? Yeah, well. I just ordered a...
[read the full post...]

June 1, 2007

Rocking Dinosaurs, Both DIY And Thrifted

Sarah With An H thrifted out this sweet rocking dinosaur last fall for just five bucks. While I was trying to identify it {note: which I never did. Anyone recognize it?], I found plans to make a different rocking...
[read the full post...]

DIY Kid-sized Robot Rickshaw

So the kid's Miniboo is sitting in the corner of her room for a year-plus with one of the wheels broken off, meanwhile, a Mr. Wu of Somewhere Outside Beijing has made not one, but two robot-powered rickshaws, a...
[read the full post...]

Unfortunately, This Is Not My Father's Oldsmobile

Are people finally catching on/up? Jalopnik posts a link to VistaCruiser.com, and suddenly it's like the annual meeting of the North American Man-Station Wagon Love Association. There are so many wagonfans popping out of the faux woodwork, you wonder...
[read the full post...]

Twin Cradles From The New Chinky Workshop

The New Chinky Workshop began when Crazy Asian Uncle Dude decided he could make a better table cheaper for his nephew's Thomas The Tank Engine set. Then his sister had twins, so CAUD whipped up a pair of pine-and-mahogany...
[read the full post...]

They're Baaack! Walter Papst Rocking Sculpture

I like my beer cold, my homosexuals flaming, my kid's ride-on rocking toys modernistically abstract and free of deterministic names or "concrete paragons" so as "not to restrict one's childlike fantasy" and imaginative play, and my pioneering children's furniture...
[read the full post...]