Daddy Types: December 2007 Archives

December 2007 Archives

December 31, 2007

Did You Know The Juno Bed?

During a regular check of the website for Danish auction house Bruun-Rasmussen, I came across this old hyper-convertible bed called the Juno Bed [ends 8 Jan., est EUR405]. Ever heard of it? I hadn't, though the creators of Denmark's...
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I'm One Cadillac Station Wagon Closer To Desperately Wanting One

You know, when it was the Jackson 5ive's 1971 Cadillac station wagon that I didn't buy, I was fine. But now that it's this suh-weet 1979 or so Fleetwood Brougham wagon which the Jalopnik guys spotted at Thunderhill, some...
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Hmm, I Love The Smell Of Dutch Mahogany Modular Kid's Furniture In The Morning

Hmm, the subtly carved chair legs in beautiful mahogany; the matching mahogany connector system on the stool corners; the seemingly interchangeable chair seat and stool top; the four bolt holes on the side that could be for attaching another...
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Is It Just Me, Or Does This All Look, Sound Familiar?

So after Choire's tip about Tom's baby-in-Beijing article, the next email I opened was from Amazon, something about a baby sale. And I swear, that's the same kid in the stock photos. Am I right? I say, am I...
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Parenting Advice Is Different In China, The Old Days, Every Damn Book On The Market

In an excellent Boston Globe article, writer Tom Scocca lays out what you already kind of suspected: the burgeoning crop of parenting advice books is designed to lock you in with a combination of authoritativeness and anxiety. Also, yes, the...
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December 30, 2007

Awesome Ndebele Cardboard House From Driade

The men of the south Ndebele tribe of South Africa are responsible for building dried mud house compounds for their families, while the women are charged with decorating it with the tribe's distinctive, bold geometric patterns. Inspired by this...
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December 29, 2007

Club Libby Lu-zah! 6-yo, Mom Say Dad Died In Iraq To Win Hannah Montana Tickets

Hannah Rocks! You rock! I rock! I rock? Hmmm.... In order to win the Club Libby Lu Hannah Montana Rock Your Holidays Essay Contest and get a free trip to Albany to attend a Hannah Montana concert, a 6-year-old...
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NYT Critic Announces 2007 Car Of The Year For New Dads

Are you thinking what I'm thinking when you read NY Times car guy Lawrence Ulrich's intro to his year-end top ten list?My year in cars was colored — or juice-splattered, more accurately — by my becoming a father. While I’ve...
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December 28, 2007

This Week In Stump Book News

After discovering these cool-shaped Stump Books series published by Anthony Treherne two turns of the century ago, I thought, wouldn't it be awesome to buy one? If only it didn't cost $750 and/or wasn't full of wildly offensive racist stereotypes......
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Jacob Lawrence's The Migration Of The Negro

The kid is familiar with the work of Jacob Lawrence. He's the rectangle guy, duh. And Ellsworth Kelly is the square guy, and Jenny Holzer is the diamond girl... One of the 60 paintings in Jacob Lawrence's masterpiece, The...
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Words Of Wisdom, Rugs From Mark Mothersbaugh

Archinect did a pretty fanboyish interview with Mark Mothersbaugh on the occasion of his rug exhibition at the Scion Gallery, and though there's no mention his Yo Gabba Gabba! appearances, Mothersbaugh shared this profound insight on the preference for subversion...
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December 27, 2007

If I Were Tron, Could I Drive CWW's Virtual Wagons?

How weird am I? I'll give you a hint. After getting stuck with two family cars in succession at 16--a 1977 powderblue & woodgrain decal Chevy Caprice Classic wagon and a 1983 Honda Civic, I swore off both wagons...
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Babyhome Aluminum Baby Gear From Barthelona

Via the blog of minor details, a newish "children's interior consulting firm" and "imagination agent" based in Brooklyn, comes word of Babyhome, a slick, euro-looking line of aluminum and tech fabric baby gear. Babyhome is the creation of Barcelona-based...
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My Mom Made The New Kid Some Hand-Crocheted Receiving Blankets

One of my mom's things is to embroider crochet receiving blankets and matching burp cloths for baby gifts. They're 36-in square, double sided flannel that she gets hem-stitched at the flannel and quilting megastore in Bountiful, Utah, then she...
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Christmas Cards From Socialites, Also Joan Collins

It's no "children afraid of Santa" photo album, but David Patrick Columbia's collection of Christmas Cards from his subjects at New York Social Diary has a delight all its own. Obviously, for the rich, socially aspirant, and merely affluent alike,...
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It's The Circle Squared Of Life By Todd St. John

I was a little wary about showing the kid Circle Squared, Todd St. John's stop-action animated short commissioned by The New York Times Style Magazine. When is a kid ready for the whole life-and-death, food-chain, circle of life thing,...
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December 26, 2007

Wait, What's Wrong With The CPSC Reauthorization Act??

Somehow I missed this in my pre-Christmas inbox: "Dec. 21, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JPMA SUPPORTS PASSAGE OF CPSC REAUTHORIZATION ACT" If the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association is trumpeting their support for a piece of safety regulation-related legislation, something must...
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JeongMee Yoon's Blue & Pink Projects

Somewhere along the way, South Korean photographer JeongMee Yoon noticed that her 8-year-old daughter refused to play with or wear anything that wasn't pink [ya think?!], and so she began the Pink Project and the Blue Project, in which...
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Little S0f1a Loves Her Not Neutral Alphabet Blocks!

The era of the art blocks may be upon us. Not Neutral has introduced their own graphically sweetened set of ABC blocks that include apple and tree patterns on three faces, and letters and numbers in a groovy Sister...
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December 25, 2007

Iremonya Faiver Box Storage & Awesome, Elmer-ish Nappy Chair

I held the door for the FedEx guy when he delivered our 200+ pounds of Via Toy Box, which, he knew, meant he couldn't get away with leaving them in our building office. The two Korean brothers who brought our...
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Are The Stores In The Soft City Open Or Closed On Boxing Day?

The Soft City is a Toronto-based artists' collective who have charged themselves with creating and managing a cuddly plush city in miniature. Sort of a Sim City with sewing machines instead of computers:We recognize the mutually defining relationship between the...
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December 24, 2007

Minivan Madness Roundup: And A Flying Reindeer Edition

Christmas Eve, and all the Playmobil world is asleep under the tree. Meanwhile, minivans are on the rampage. And flying reindeer, too: A Mazda MPV crashed through the wall of the studio just as Chicago's ABC7 10 o'clock news began....
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This Is Serious, You Have To Help Me, What Is The Kid Talking About?

A few weeks ago, the kid turned to me and goes, "Daddy, dogs are hunters by nature." I'm like, "wha wha wha??" Turns out she heard it on Zooboomafoo. So as we grapple with this idea that the kid's learning...
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December 22, 2007

How Much To Go To The Trees?

The blurb on the NY Times blog calls it Fargo-meets-Miracle on 34th Street, but to me it looks more like A Charlie Brown Christmas-meets-Cassavetes' Shadows by way of Ezra Jack Keats. And starring Forrest Whitaker as Tyler Brule'. If...
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Via Toy Box Unboxing, Building, Stacking, Stuffing

So the Via Toy Box cubes came Thursday, about 200 pounds worth. They look great in person and went together very nicely. They're not quite slick or deluxe, which may explain the differences in price for otherwise identical-looking cube...
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December 21, 2007

The Stump Books For Children, By 'The Pilgrims'

Last week, while following some links from Things Magazine ["the spectre of roaming, near-feral children" ring a bell?], I came across a 2005 Japanese university library exhibition of the Opie Collection of Children's Literature, over 20,000 titles, works of art,...
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This Week In Airline Coming To Their Senses News

Can someone please explain what's going on here? Are airlines actually paying attention to what their passengers and potential customers are saying? Are they actually updating their policies even as we type--and wait on hold for the next available agent...
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Saks Children's Book: Happiness Comes From Clothes, Nose Jobs

What have I ever done to Saks, hmm? I mean until their Club Libby Lu started shaking their Baby Paris moneymakers in my face, I never had a bad word in my life for them. And I've been a...
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DT Window Shopping Roundup: Wooden Bikes, Euro Magazines, Baby Daddy Edition

Some things spotted around the web: Even though they're tacky and kind of insipid--well, the World Wildlife Federation was, the one for bigger kids, from National Geographic, is not that bad--the kid absolutely loves getting her magazines. It's mail! For...
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Checkin' Out The Family Joolz

It's been too long since we had a good, old-fashioned stroller gawking around here. As it turns out, a new Joolz Bloom was recently delivered to a dad-to-be in the midwest, who we'll call G Dawg. Because that's what...
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Bugaboo Bee Nest For Christmas, Graco Adapters For St. Patrick's Day

I swear, I was going to do a Bugaboo Bee unboxing post, but the reality is, opening the Bee is the diametric opposite experience of unlocking the mysteries of the Frog, et al.: you just open the box, pop the...
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Unboxing: One Laptop Per Child

Surprising absolutely no one, the One Laptop Per Child folks' Give One, Get One program was extended through Dec. 31. Which means you can still get a powerful, amazing-looking, kid-oriented computer for about $400 and give one to a...
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Hail To Skelter! Sweet, Sweet Pedal Cars By Piet Hein Eek

Holy. Moley. Henk Vos asked fellow Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek to make some pedal cars for his grandkids to race. After a year, they came up with the Skelter: three speeds plus reverse, aluminum and leather and rubber...
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December 20, 2007

Great To Be Us: Sweet Handcarved Cars From Milano

To be Us cars and such are designed by Matteo Ragni and handcarved by Master Giovanni out of a single block of Lebanese cedar. Then they're outfitted with mahogany wheels. The windshield on Il Pick Up, which looks like...
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Saks To Be You: Club Libby Lu Exec Discovers Joys Of Online Sock Puppetry

Well, if a "concerned" mom who was interested in the tween skankover mall chain Club Libby Lu because her daughter "was considering working there," and who had "read some horrible things online" took time during the busy holiday season to...
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The Dad In The Yuppie Bubble

He did not have me at "Mies van der Rohe townhouse," but I must admit, I am falling in love with JD's Detroit. If I were a young artist I'd bail on NYC and make a beeline for that place,...
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La La La La Lenin: Kevin Skinner's Artwork On eBay

Michigan illustrator Kevin Skinner has been selling original artwork on eBay to help out his brother Michael, a father of seven [!] who recently had a heart attack. 35 years old [!!]. There's none up right now, but keep...
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December 19, 2007

Brit Crit Makes Your Kid's Artwork Into His Artwork, Sells It Back To You For $260

There's a populist sentiment afoot in Great Britain that considers the entire contemporary art world to be a giant joke perpetrated on culture generally and rich people with more money than sense in particular. Without that setting, artist/writer Dan Crowe's...
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In The Garden Of Playmobil, Baby, Don't You Know That I Lo-ove You?

Seriously, why did I ever doubt that, when it came to plastic play gardens, no one could beat Playmobil? The suggestions for different Playmobil garden options took over my inbox yesterday like kudzu engulfing a Georgia Tech co-ed's parked car...
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Who CARES? The FAA's Car-Seats-On-Planes Policy Is A Total Train Wreck

This is getting ridiculous. Though the FAA approved the CARES safety harness for use on planes more than two years ago, a quick look at eight major US carriers' stated policies on flying with kids found seven different, contradictory treatments....
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Mo Gabba Gabba! Mo Gabba Gabba!

Mike Schneider, a self-proclaimed dadblogging media whore [he writes for Variety] and huge Yo Gabba Gabba! fan, reports that the show has been picked up for a second, full season. The 20 new episodes are already in pre-production.For season two,...
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One Canvas Flap Short Of A Halo 3 Diaper Bag

If only United Nations Space Command had added a canvas changing pad to this multi-pocket satchel ["This is neither purse nor 'man-bag.' It's a satchel big enough for your stuff." Yessir, Master Chief.], it would be a sweet diaper...
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Dad Beats Son Black & Blue Over Pink Nail Polish

Does anything say "conflicted about one's sense of masculinity" quite like beating the crap out of your seven-year-old son when you find him wearing pink nail polish? Then again, does anything say "likely to get taunted as a kid for...
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Santa Maria Novella Lucia: Italian Court Orders Renames Kid Because Of Robinson Crusoe??

In fourteen hundred ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue not because he was so lazy, because judges in Genoa are freakin' crazy. Five months after a Genovese family named their son Friday, after the day he was born, a...
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December 18, 2007

Hotlanta! Now With Shopping Outdoors, "Stroller Parades"!

ceci n'est pas un posed photo of a stroller parade. image: ajc.com When some company from Atlanta was trying came to business school for their recruiting visit, they spoke excitedly of how much "Hotlanta" was like New York. The only...
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Huh? So The Kid Wants A Plastic Garden?

I haven't gotten all holiday this and gift list that this year; a lot of blogs are cranking out a lot of shopping lists, and I hope they make a lot of money doing it. The kid, though, is...
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December 17, 2007

Achtung, Baby! Sweet Bauhaussy High Chair

Note to self: add "hochstuhl" to my list of saved eBay searches. Andy sent along this rather awesome-looking vintage high chair from Germany. It's made of painted bent wood and some kind of thigh boots-and-riding crop-friendly pleather. Sehr Gut....
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Finally, I Understand The Reason For Mercedes' Fugly New Look

Jalopnik has some clean spyshots of the new Mercedes GLK CUV, the mid-sized CUV based on the C-Class platform. The shots are from the set of the Sex and the City movie; the prop car is white, in Beverly...
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Pissy 'USAir Flight Attendant' Has Own CARES Flying Harness Laws

Well, we all knew it would happen. On the bright side, it didn't happen to you! Rather than schlep a car seat around on the trains of Europe this holiday season, DT regular Darren is field-testing a CARES flying harness,...
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Picky 'Canada' Has Own Government, Laws About When A Kid Can Use A Volvo Integrated Booster Seat

New Yorkers know that a new trend is officially over as soon as it's mentioned in the NY Times. Clearly, I've forgotten this, because I actually believed they were new when the car reviewer said Volvo's integrated booster seats were...
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December 16, 2007

Volvo Integrated Booster Seats, $495/pr

A car seat built right into the car? It's an idea that makes almost as much sense as airlines providing your ticket-holding kid with a planeseat. Which is obviously why it hasn't happened before--until now. Volvo's new stations wagons,...
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O'Neals' 49 West 64th St [Broadway & CPW] - NO

kid-friendly, though, at least at brunch....
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December 14, 2007

DT Advertisers Will Let You Gatecheck Any Size Stroller You Want

A shoutout in this holiday season to the fine advertisers over >> >> here, on the right, and their no-weight-limit approach to checked baggage: The Cradle, a new resource and online community for expectant parents. [yes, by definition, they rock.]...
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Teaching The Heir The White Man's Burden

I bought that 1944 Toni Frissell edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1885 classic, A Child's Garden of Verses I wrote about recently. It's pretty good, but not headsmackingly great; Frissell's photos are a nice change from cutesy pastel drawings, but...
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Ilo Modular Kid Furniture System Still Vaporware At This Point

Now I love me some modernist, modular, flexible kids furniture. But I also love me some info, such as when I should be putting a hold on my ducduc order and checking the Swiss franc conversion rate and when...
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Little Red Stuga, Baby You're Much Too Cute

I guess I shoulda known by the way you propped your flower two ways that it would last. Swedes: they're not all the kinda person that believes in makin' furniture cheap, love 'em and leave 'em fast. I guess...
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What Chair Is This Bubkin-Wearing Kid Sitting On?

A Bubkin? What is it? It's a napkin with buttons that a kid can wear as a bigger bib, made by an Australian outfit named Third Drawer Down, but that's not important now. Tell me more about these plastic...
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December 13, 2007

Crunchy Types: BPA WTF?

Unsettling stories about Bisphenol-A are accumulating in my browser even faster than BPA itself is piling up in my blood. Or wherever it works its terrible, epidemiologically studied magic. First up, Mark Schapiro, of the Center for Investigative Reporting, was...
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Q: Can A Dog Have Helicopter Parents? NYT: Yes

"My dog's name is Diego del Mar de la Joya Montoya, he ruined my mother's white carpet, prepare to die laughing. [Also, my kid's name is Jack, but whatever.]" Who Invited The Dog? [nyt]...
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"The Spectre Of Roaming, Near-Feral Children"

Colin Ward? Graham Greene? Adventure playgrounds? creeped out West Village parents? There are like five things I want to link to in it, so instead, I'll just say click over right now to Things Magazine's thoughtful essaypost about how...
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Nanny Rockers Not Just In Wicker Anymore, Before

Master craftsman Scott Morrison describes his awesome Rocker Cradle this way: Here I updated a 1700's stlye Windsor Nanny Rocker using Sam Maloof's Classic Rocking Chair design as a basis. I wanted to add interest by creating different shapes...
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This Is One Of The Houses That The Hungry Caterpillar Built

And this is the Audi TT Roadster that Eric drove from Miami to extensively remodel the house that The Hungry Caterpillar built. And these are the abstract acrylic collages which replaced the white paper on the Ingo Maurer chandelier...
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December 12, 2007

Wait, So Did He Build The Plexiglass Playhouse?

From a photo tour of a Massachusetts family's loft, which is in a converted elementary school, Apartment Therapy, March 2005:That huge cardboard tube is going to be an access route through which the kids will crawl to reach a...
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Ted Sears' Awesome Homemade Christmas Cards

Wow. Ted Sears was an animator and the first head of the story department at Walt Disney Studios. According to his IMDb bio, he was very influential in the adoption by the film industry of storyboards. He wrote the...
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I Count Only Ten Naked Folks In eBoy's Awesome New Tokyo-Themed Nursery Poster

Actually, it'd probably be the couple of lewds rather than the run-of-the-mill nudes that'd make the Tokyo eCity poster NSFN [Not Suitable For Nursery], even though they're less than an inch high. It adds an air of realism that...
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Quirky 'Air Canada' Has Own Umbrella Stroller-Only Gatecheck Policy, Laws

Wow, if you're flying on Air Canada anytime soon, heads up. It's apparently not enough to have two separate official languages; in order to make clear that they're an airline from an entirely other country, Air Canada has its...
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But Why Does Baby Jesus Need A Double Stroller?

Just as graphic design is the art of fitting everything on one page, stroller design is the science of stuffing as many features and as much functionality as possible into one rig. And so it is that the wise...
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Parents Treated Best Children's Book Store In Nation, Now Closed, Like Fair-To-Middlin' Library

Oops, I didn't know that "the most outstanding children's bookstore in the nation" was in Washington DC. Old Town Alexandria, actually, where a book-passionate couple with no business sense threw popular events, gave away books at storytime, had Harry Potter...
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December 11, 2007

eBay Scoutabout: Bug Bags, Netto, Some Sand Thing

Some of the finer kid-related things on eBay at the moment: Some knucklehead's selling a Bugaboo Frog travel bag in perfect, unused condition? Why the heck did he get it in the first place? Funny ad, though. Totally cracks me...
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British MDs Debate Infant Male Circumcision & Kids' Rights

The British Medical Journal has published a pro & con debate on whether infant male circumcision is neutral, harmful, or beneficial, and if there are demonstrable medical benefits should operation be put off until the guy can decide for himself....
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DT Checklist: What Do You Mean, "Contractions??"

So over the weekend, my wife has these phantom contractions or practice contractions or whatever it is that suddenly turns her belly into a cannonball, and they're so persistent, she comes home and says, "I think we should get the...
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In The Battle Of Thermopollack, The Spartans Are The Swarthy Ones

I'm so behind. While I'm all, "use your words, honey," Neal Pollack's in the backyard teaching Elijah proper swordfighting technique and recreating his favorite scenes from 300. Though it's pretty sunny, not dark and ominous. And there's no bottomless...
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December 10, 2007

Saul Bass's Kid's Book: Henri's Walk To Paris

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Saul Bass - Henri's walk to paris c1962, originally uploaded by Grain Edit. Nice. Word...
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Monster Dice By Geoff McFetridge

This is awesome. I love the idea of telling stories with something other than a book. Los Angeles-based artist Geoff McFetridge and his daughter made up a story about a boy who draws monsters which start making other monsters....
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Rad Kid-Style Mural By Someone Named Matthew Austin

A couple of dads in a Philadelphia suburb had artist Matthew Austin do some murals in their 17th-19th century house. For the kid's room, he did a bunch of classic kid stories--plus robots [they're everywhere!!], all kid-style: "To get...
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That Kid Named 5 From Peanuts

The "If 4 is the new 3, can 5 be the new 4?" baby naming discussion reminded me of a character in Peanuts, 5. I always thought it was just 5, according to his Wikipedia page, his full name is...
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December 9, 2007

Like A Like-A-Bike For Grownups, By Camper

Tina's mention of her wish for a grown-up sized Like-a-Bike reminded me of this photo I snapped a couple of weeks ago in SoHo. It's a regular bike, modded or skinned with plywood to look like a Like-A-Bike. Camper,...
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Microdorm 2: Ken Isaacs' Living Structure For Kids

In 1963, Isaacs was contacted by a University of Chicago child psychiatrist, who wanted to provide individual work/play/living/storage spaces for handicapped and disabled children in state institutions. The resulting design was two 35 5/8" plywood cubes with storage spaces...
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December 8, 2007

DTQ: Is Four The New Three For Baby Names? How About Five?

Not only are we still undecided on the other kid's name, our short list is twice as long as it was at this stage the first time around. It's got some great names on it [1], but I wonder if...
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December 7, 2007

DT Q&A: "A Million Little Diapers," By Actor/Playwright/Dad John Mooney

It's Daddy Types editorial policy that there's no quid pro quo for advertising on the site. So when I saw the ad appear on Daddy Types for John F. Mooney's play, "A Million Little Diapers," my interest was piqued. So...
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Cookies & Blow

Gawker took special note of the juxtaposition of these two features on the front page of Cookie Magazine's website today. When taken in conjunction with the ad Cookie is running on DT right now--"Help Us Reward an Amazing MOM!"--one...
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Crazalert Dec. 10-12: Yoya To Fill Someone's Loft With Merch, Sell It For "Insane" Discounts

Yoya's having a sample/warehouse/clearance/blowout sale next week, and you and your cash are invited. Not sure what they have planned, whether it's just books, clothes and toys, or whether there are Netto and ducduc nursery setups for immediate delivery,...
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Napfnapf: Double-Sided Suction Cups Hold The Kid's Plate Down

Not content to just watch the kid's design world and report as it goes by, the folks at Kidsmodern have begun designing products. First up: the Napfnapf, a set of double-sided silicone suction cups you can carry in your...
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December 6, 2007

Someone At The Times Style Section Just Learned About Push Presents

It's ok, I'd never heard of a push present until about six months after the kid was born, and I'd been working on one. A Bundle of Joy Isn't Enough? [nyt]...
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Q: The Ghost Towel From Lazybone Looks:

A) Freakin' expensive at £24 B) Like nothing you couldn't make with $2, a trip to Ikea, and a pair of scissors C) Unfortunately, too much like Abu Ghraib Guy D) Freakin' awesome, if you can overlook C, which,...
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Are You Not Mark Mothersbaugh? You Are The Rug Artist From Yo Gabba Gabba.

Wow, LA Weekly's got a 150,000-word [give or take] article about Mark Mothersbaugh, one of the members of Devo, who has continued his creative pursuits by 1) opening a music studio that composes like every song on TV, film,...
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Merry Krishna! Ghee Happy T-Shirts Make The Perfect Holiday Gift

I've been a fan of animation artist Sanjay Patel's take on Hindu's greatest deities and heroes since he first published his book, Little India, in 2005. [The book was greatly expanded last year and published by Penguin as The...
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Pee Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special, Plus Grace Jones

Except for the theatrical release of The Last Emperor and the Iran-Contra hearings, I didn't think I missed anything culture-wise while I was a missionary in Japan in 1988. I didn't realize how wrong I was. The intro to Pee...
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The Casalino Chair Is Back In Production

Susanne is reporting at Kidsmodern that Alexander Begge's awesome 1970 design for a plastic non-Panton kid's chair, the Casalino, is back in production. The Dutch manufacturer Casala is introducing it in two sizes, for kids and toddlers. Apparently, Casala...
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When Was Sesame Street Cool Enough To Have Philip Glass Animations?

Seriously, Philip Glass? And all this time I thought his first project for children's television was the South Park Christmas Special. Now it turns out he did at a trippy composition for a set of animated color wheels. Did anyone...
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Mr. McFeelgood? Sesame Street/How They Make Pills Mashup

So the kid's sitting on the floor, breaking all her crayons, and I'm all, "Dude." And she's all, "I want to see what's inside." And I'm all, "Do you remember how they make crayons? Has YouTube taught you nothing?" [OK,...
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December 5, 2007

Waldi The Munich 1972 Olympic Wunderhund

Apparently the pinnacle of mod Olympic graphic design was reached in 1972 for the Munich summer games. The logos, signs, marketing, and mascots--everything down to and including the souvenirs--represented a triumph of the will, so to speak, of Otl...
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Awesome 2004 Over The Rhine Song Named To 2007 Top 10 List

I don't know much about kid's music, but I do know that Over The Rhine's awesome song, The Poopsmith, was awesome when I first heard it--in 2004. So congratulations to the overnight success of this Ohioan music phenomenon for being...
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In The Here And Now: Moons, Mush, Photographs, Lucy Sprague Mitchell

Worlds converge, and now maybe I can close some of the twenty-odd browser tabs that I've accumulated. The topics: children's books with photographs instead of illustrations, why our current parenting environment is the way it is, and how different it...
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Study: Honey Works Better Than Cough Syrup

A Penn State study found that honey was more effective than dextromathorphan for treating nighttime coughs in kids ages 2-11. The dosages used in the test were equivalent to the cough syrup: half a teaspoon for kids 2-5, a full...
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Also, A Vibrating Cup Holder

All of Kiaohsung, Taiwan-based Je Mey Corp's R&D investment in simulation technology has really paid off. The sex toy manufacturer's new Bugaboo knock-offs look amazingly similar to the real thing, you might even say life-like. I haven't seen this...
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December 4, 2007

The Boyms Put The Babel Blocks New Yorker Dolls On The MySpace, The YouTube

Babel Blocks are New Yorkers, each unique in his or her religious and cultural affiliations, but underneath, they're all the same: i.e., made from wooden blocks. Get it? Just like we're all the-- Also, they all have a MySpace,...
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Swanky Ikea See-Saw Breaks Kid's, My Heart

Martin Rosquist's Vippig see-saw, made of molded and shaped birch ply for Ikea is absolutely beautiful to look at. Unless your kid is trying to ride it all by herself, and there are no other kids around the store,...
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DT Checklist: Stuck On Some Juddy Wall Shelves

So the other kid's crib, which was originally going to be the kid's toddler bed, is inching toward conversion, and you must admit, it is rather Juddish. Given the crib and the overall minimalist [as in art] vibe, I...
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Wait, What? The Kid's 18. Why Should The Sperm Donor Have To Pay Anything?

I remember a Canadian telling me once that in his country, parents often didn't pay for college because when kids turn 18, they take responsibility for themselves and start paying their own way. The actual existence of such a magical...
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WTF Coloring Books

Posse Comi-WHAT-us? I can hear you! The kid's been coloring her way through the assembly instructions for Ikea furniture and our new kitchen shelves, so when my dad brought the kid an NSA CryptoKids coloring book a couple of...
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Read The Whole Book Online With Lookybook

Obviously, it's no substitute for an actual sitdown with a real book, but it might be a nice way to watch the computer together. And it though it doesn't have the selection of an airport bookstore yet, much less ye...
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Discontinuation Of Dodge Magnum Somehow Signals End Of Station Wagon Era

With the discontinuation of the family pimp's whip of choice, the Dodge Magnum, MSNBC has declared the death of the station wagon:Car makers rushed to meet the anticipated demand with a flood of new models like the Dodge Magnum, the...
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TchotchkeWatch: Alessi Modern Nativity Set

One of my earliest memories of visiting my grandparents' house was the veritable army of porcelain figurines that filled the tables and shelves. [The Hummels were behind glass.] There were these French poodles, where the puppies' collars were chained to...
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Make Me Some Tortillas, Mujer!

Chris and his wife Carey feel it's important for their kid to learn Spanish. The lessons of wife-subjugating and child-beating that come with the traditional Mexican nursery rhymes in her little bilingual book are just an added bonus. Lost...
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December 3, 2007

It's My Hippie Kid In A Box! Ken Isaacs' Living Structures

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Where are all the hippie visionaries when you need'em? In the 50's and 60's, designer...
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Aww, Playmobil Child Soldiers, &c.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } unicef_playmobil_child_soldiers, originally uploaded by daddytypes. It's not clear if these print ads for Unicef Canada...
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Can You ID This Vintage Eskimo Playset?

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Vintage Eskimo Playset from the 70's, originally uploaded by daddytypes. In the off chance that...
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Takashi Shinozaki's Rebis Rocker And Plant's Kasten Shelves

During the Tokyo Design Week festivities, Takashi Shinozaki of Asterisk Studio debuted his Rebis Rocker, along with his 270-Degree Series of wraparound shelf and table units, at a joint exhibition called Prototypes in Minami Aoyama. The show included works...
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Your JPMA At Work: Are Boomers To Blame For Crib Bumpers?

In her ongoing exploration of The Problem with Parents These Days, Judith Warner wrote about the deadly new trend of Helicopter Parenting. Uh-huh. If there's a crisis in modern parenting, maybe it's that we lack context and historical perspective. I've...
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Baby Gear Swapping Start-Up Attempts To Skip Brand Recognition Phase, Head Straight For Brand Dilution

Instead of eBaying or Craigslisting the baby stuff you don't need anymore, a couple of Bay Area start-up guys want you to Zwaggle it:Privately funded Zwaggle, based in San Francisco, was founded last year by two guys who don't have...
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December 2, 2007

O Holy Moley, The Playmobil Nativity Set

I don't know why Playmobil can still surprise me with the exhaustiveness of their playsets. The Playmobil Nativity Set's not even new; it's been around since at least 2003 [that's the date of the first Amazon review, anyway.] Though...
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Is That A Cardboard Doll House I See Before Me?

I've had this 1969 Form Magazine photo of cardboard kid's furniture on my desktop all week, but I just noticed the dollhouse to the right. Ilse-Werke KG, the German company behind the furniture, leaves no trace that I can...
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December 1, 2007

Ellinor Rocking Sofa Has Heirloom Right In The Name

The Ellinor rocker is made in Sweden by Heirloom, and from the sound of it, it lives up to its name and its $1500-2000 price tag. The spare, Scandinavian modern styling is built to last for generations using dovetailed...
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