Daddy Types: February 2008 Archives

February 2008 Archives

February 29, 2008

So Let It Be Written

Baby names can come at you in the most unlikely places:Nina Foch married James Lipton, eesh, and also long ago played the woman who found baby Moses in "The Ten Commandments." The kid, Taliesin Jaffe (!!!), went on to be...
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Mini-Eames Made By Eames, Shot By Eames

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } DSC08026.JPG, originally uploaded by eamesd. Andy just posted this photo from Eames Demetrios' flickr stream....
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Do You Know Who Makes This Molded Ply, Fold-Down Changing Table?

Someone emailed me recently asking if there were any cool fold-down changing tables. The Man On The Television says you should just make one yourself. [Frankly, after seeing the results, I'm not convinced. "Wasted Spaces"?? You could dock an aircraft...
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February 28, 2008

Tattfoo Tan's Nature Matching System Placemat, Mural

Tattfoo Tan's Nature Matching System mural has been getting a lot of attention lately. He made it in collaboration with elementary school children in Brooklyn [it's installed Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass], based on his first incarnation of...
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CPSC: We're Still Ignoring The #1 Safety Threat: Car Seat/Infant Carriers

Here's something that was mentioned but not discussed in the CPSC's new, bed&bath-centric, staff analysis report, "Nursery Product-Related Injuries and Deaths Among Children under Age Five": Car seats and infant carriers were the #1 cause of emergency department-treated infant...
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I'd Like To Thank The Crib Bumper Industrial Complex: CPSC Warns Of Crib Threat From 'Soft Bedding'

Is there someone at the JPMA who gets a bonus every time crib bumpers aren't mentioned in a CPSC alert about the dangers of "soft bedding" in cribs? From the AP: Parents are putting their babies at risk when they...
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February 27, 2008

The New York Times Is The New Urban Baby

Five months ago, Keith Dixon and his wife lost their dining room to the new baby, and now he's struggling to figure out how to cook dinner in silence so the toppling towers of pans don't wake up the just-asleep...
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PR Idiots Will Name Baby Brooklyn For Food

Look, I've got nothing against the name Brooklyn, not at all. Some of my best friends have named their kids Brooklyn. I'm just saying if you trade the kid's birth certificate for a freakin' Domino's Pizza, you're a gigantic chump:ANN...
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Never Mind The Maddox: Cleveland Kindergartner Suspended For Freshening Up His Mohawk

First, they protested the product, so he didn't spike it up. Then they told his mom that mohawks weren't allowed, even though they're not mentioned in the dress code. Now some charter school in Cleveland sent some six-year-old home after...
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Curriculumachine: Drunken 70's Japanese TV Show For Kids

Ho-ly smokes. Take hidden footage from The Electric Company's off-the-hook Christmas parties, where Rita Moreno turns her skirt-shaking Anita from West Side Story into a streetwalker. Combine it with bits from Laugh-in, and intersperse animation copied straight off the...
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February 26, 2008

Baby Leo Blankets 2: Electric Boogaloo

I can't find the link right now, but I'm pretty sure it's a violation of Daddy Types' charter for me to endorse "minkee chenille" under any circumstances and satin for anything but tracksuits, and only then for breakdance contests...
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Playtex Bottles: If You're Not Part Of The Solution, You're Part Of The Problem

While trying to find any mention or pictures of the non-pastel bottles Playtex finally got around to making, I went to the company's website, PlaytexBaby.com. I thought I was long past the stage where cared enough to point out...
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DT Followups: Outsized Efforts Edition

Here are some follow-ups to recent posts on DT: From the NYT report that after spending several years and millions of dollars, Korean scientists have developed space kimchi:Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation....
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Handknit Sackboy From LittleBigPlanet

To those PlayStation 3 people who have been waiting like a year for LittleBigPlanet to be released, you'll be relieved to know the delay is not due to a sudden breakout of knitting circles in the Media Molecule offices;...
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February 25, 2008

Which Enzo Mari 16 Animals Puzzle You Talking About?

I imagine collectors of Enzo Mari's rather awesome puzzle, "16 Animali," already know this, but it seems like the kind of reference data that's worth filing away. Now when you find an old 16 Animali in a thrift shop,...
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"Don't Talk Back To Darth Vader. He'll Getcha!"

A dad from fistofblog taped his daughter's retelling of Star Wars. Obviously, he did the right thing by showing her Episode IV first. 850,000 views in two days? wow: Star Wars according to a 3 year old. [fistofblog's youtube...
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What, Me Worry? Plastic Bozart Dollhouse Market Is Meltdown-Proof!

I don't care if they're New In Box. If you buy these two Bozart Kaleidoscope dollhouses for $3200 or more, we need to talk. Well, let me qualify that: we need to talk if you have some unique and...
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February 24, 2008

Stephen Malkmus On Reintroducing The Breast

In a podcast interview, Stephen Malkmus talks new music and the difficulties of breastfeeding the second kid [mazel tov!] with some dude from the Times of London. And to his credit, he's not the one who mentions "hairy man nipples"...
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For Sale This Second: 1986 Rolls Royce Station Wagon, Bugaboo Not Included

Alright, for some inexplicable reason, it's Rolls Royce Station Wagon season around here. No sooner do I post a random photo from the streets of London, than DT reader JJ Daddy-o turns up a 1986 Silver Spirit, custom converted...
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DIY Dad-To-Be Loses Study, Gains Sweet Oeuf-like Built-in Crib

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes someone losing his home office to the new baby. This time, it's a dad-to-be and hardcore DIY'er named Jason, who is filling flickr with updates on the transformation of a narrow...
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February 23, 2008

This Is How They Rolls: Silver Shadow Station Wagon + Bugaboo Gecko

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } I was slow to pick up on its minimalistic charms, but I miss the Bugaboo...
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That Would Explain The Laugh: Spongebob Musical Rectal Thermometer

At least it's not shaped like a pineapple. Musical SpongeBob™ Digital Thermometer [bd.com via cartoonbrew]...
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February 22, 2008

Security Theater Of The Absurd: Scan-It Toy Security Checkpoint

I know it looks like just a cardboard box with a jacked up Homeland Security Threat Level sticker on the side, but the Operation Checkpoint Scan-It toy security X-ray machine is much more. It has some little beeping thing...
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Fun, New SWINXS Encourages Fitness, Robotic Subservience

When I first saw SWINXS on Engadget the other day, I thought it was just another of those RFID-enabled, programmable gaming platforms that purports to encourage physically active play while secretly conditioning children to the idea of taking orders...
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Toyetic?? If Yo Gabba Gabba! Is Star Wars, Then I'm Steven Spielberg

Gosh, how much I love Kidscreen, the trade magazine of the children's television industry [tagline: "About reaching children through entertainment"]? I'd love it even if my boys from Yo Gabba Gabba! weren't on the cover [:)] of the big, fat...
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FOUND! That Sweet Plexi Hospital Bassinet UNFORTUNATELY SMALL!

In his burgeoning collection of dad-and-newborn-related Playmobil pieces, Mr. Stinkhead features this tableau: a new dad videotaping a baby in one of those sweet, plexiglass and steel bassinets from the hospital. It's like Playmobil is jacked into my head,...
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Hieroglyphic Peter Rabbit At The British Museum

As if Peter Rabbit weren't anachronistic enough, what with all the "presentlys" and cucumber frames and fortnights and whatwhat, a couple of Egyptologists at the British Museum have translated the text faithfully [sic] into hieroglyphics. The sign for "whom"...
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XCountry Dad Heartily Endorses This Event And Product

The word from Hemmings blog guru--and DT's man in the backcountry--David Travers Adolphus on the Tough Traveler Stallion backpack carrier: "Finally." The white thing seen dangling below, the all-weather hood, is a must--for a city kid. The word on...
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February 21, 2008

Whoa, Bold Move: Kid-Sized "Mini Eames" Chairs From Park Life

Now there is a bold, trademarky move. Anyone can make a scaled-down kid's version of classic Eames designs like the molded ply DCM chair and the fiberglass shell rockers; in fact, I'd argue that it's a crime no one--*cough...
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Kid O Products: Kid O Goes Public With Sweet-Looking Toy Line

Well, there's one thing I regret about not going to the Toy Fair: I missed the public debut of Kid O's new toy collection. Since first catching wind of it last summer, I've been stoked, waiting to see these...
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Offecct Playhouse: Toys For The Office

Kidsmodern has a report from the Stockholm Furniture Fair that's worth checking out. It includes some new pieces from the Danish folks at Collect Furniture, but the idea that caught my attention is the Playhouse set by Andres Breitholtz...
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30 Years Of Studies: Tell That Kid To Grow A Brain!

I think we all know by now that praising a kid for being smart or talented instead of for working hard will doom them to failure--or even worse, a state school--when they're older. [And by "we," I mean people who...
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What Does Daddy Do With All His Playmobil?

Finally, Mr. Stinkhead has figured out what to do with his massive Playmobil collection while his son is still in the Serious Choke Hazard Stage. he set up little dioramas, took some pictures, and made a little book called,...
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The Diaper Champ Does No One Any Good In The Basement

Youngblood's an architect who recently moved his family of four into the house they just built in Maine. He blogged about the construction and challenges of the modern project, which was inspired by the traditional form of a Native...
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Signs Of The Merchalypse: Yo Gabba Gabba! At The NY Toy Fair

I didn't make the NY Toy Fair this year, and it's probably just as well; the sheer volume of plastic, beeping, exploitative crap would likely send me into a new baby funk, and then I'd only be posting angry takedowns...
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February 20, 2008

The Lagondawagon @ Jalopnik's Maximum Wagon Day

In high school, I would have sold my family--or at least my siblings--for an Aston Martin Lagonda. [Yeah, I was screwed up; fortunately, I never had the chance to make such a dumb deal. Not only did my siblings...
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A Long Time Ago In A Star Wars Tie-In Pitch To Pepsi Far, Far Away

I think we can all agree that, in retrospect, a Jabba the Hutt beanbag chair would have sold far more Pepsi than a life-size mannequin of Jar Jar Binks, even though Jabba wasn't even in Episode One [d'oh, I've...
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Indiana Jones And The Out-Of-Control Toy Licensee

It's Toy Fair Week, and there's a new movie coming out. So I have to assume these are real, and that Hasbro expects preschool-age children actually will play with a Nazi dressed up as a Jewish priest; and an...
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February 19, 2008

Swedish Scientists On Eczema Cause: Smells Like Floras

A study at Sweden's Lund University shows that infants who have an imbalanced intestinal bacterial flora a week after birth are more likely to develop eczema.The composition of a child’s bacterial flora is dependent on the mother’s microflora, since...
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Chicago Tribune Wins Award For Doing CPSC's Job

Congratulations to the journalists of the Chicago Tribune, who just won the 2007 George Polk Award for Consumer Reporting: "The newspaper's accounts of children suffering injury and death from exposure to dangerously designed magnetic building sets, lead-tainted toys and defective...
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Dr Harvey Karp: "You say, ‘Cookie, now. Cookie now.’"

Dr. Karp, the sultan of swaddle, soothe and swing, has a new book out an August pub date for the revised edition of his 2005 book [huh? -ed.] The Happiest Toddler On The Block. Because apparently, "Logic and persuasion, common...
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Uma's Choice: Milk Bank Can Either Save Preemies Or Cure Cancer

It's devastating, but simple: Fort Worth has so many teen pregnancies with so many premature births, the Mothers' Milk Bank has to turn away throat cancer patients who would otherwise be cured by the liquid gold. Fortunately, the solution is...
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All The IVF Twins News That's Fit To Print, And Then Some

Last week, the Trouble With Twins was all about getting into preschools on the Upper West Side and double stroller gridlock at Fairway. This week, it's all oocytes and comparative genomic hybridization. From the NY Times' apparently weekly series of...
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February 18, 2008

King & Queen Of Detroit Give Birth To Crown Prince Of Metric System

High five to Jim and Wood. Their new kid arrived [finally!] to convert the narrow-minded holdouts of our nation to the miracle of the metric system. His name: Gram Woodward Griffoen. Right now, they're glad they didn't take my suggestion...
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Ruby's First Diatribe: "EWW!!!!!!!!!!"

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } , originally uploaded by timothy b. buckwalter. Though the headline pretty much says it all,...
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"Fabricators' Kids Have The NICEST Bikes."

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Vanilla Cycles 001, originally uploaded by brianwickman. The North American Handmade Bicycle Show was held...
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February 17, 2008

DTQ: What To Do About The Plastic Bottle Crisis?

It figures that just as we get back into the swing of the baby bottle phase, and we break out a new pack of the Playtex Ventaire bottles--in mix-and-match pastel colors--a new study comes oot of Canada showing that all...
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February 16, 2008

NYT: The Boynton Industrial Complex Is Our Own Damn Fault

Holy Moley. The woman who runs the whimsical world from her 100-acre Connecticut farm, Sandra Boynton, has just one assistant, that's it. She has sold a half billion copies of over 4,000 greeting cards. If they were stacked on...
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Flora You Didn't Miss Yet: Primer For Prophets Alphabet

While poking around the Jim Flora Store on eBay, I found another interesting, new release that's worth a mention in these here nursery-friendly parts: modern silkscreen editions of a rare promotional booklet that Flora did in 1954 for CBS...
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D'oh, I Missed Manhattan: Suh-Weet Reissued Jim Flora Print

Gotta figure out a way to break into the cabal of illustrators who got early word on this incredible print by the late, great Jim Flora. It's an archival reissue of an original multicolor woodblock print of Manhattan from...
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Kid Frost & Kid

Here is a quaint dittie from back in the day, an ambitious Mexican fellow by the name of Arturo Molino, Jr., from Los Angeles sings about the responsibility and pride of being a father, and how he does everything...
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In NYC? Go See Guy Ben-Ner's Videos At Postmasters TODAY

We'll talk about it later, but today, Saturday, is the last day to see Guy Ben-Ner's show at Postmasters Gallery, 459 West 19th Street [near 10th Ave.] So hustle. Ben-Ner's an at-home dad who makes his art with his...
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February 15, 2008

Abercrombie & Fists: Pregnant Drunk Attacks Unhelpful Barmaid

It was last call, 1:30 AM Saturday morning, when Keisharra Larae Abercrombie, 30, of Rochester, NY PA flew into a rage and started throwing stuff at the bartender who refused to serve her another drink because she was too drunk--and...
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Kirsten Stoltmann And Amanda Ross-Ho's Artwork Would Indeed Make Quite A Poster

This Kirsten Stoltmann collage, "I'm Pregnant," was shown a couple of years ago at Wallspace Gallery in Chelsea. It is not the Kirsten Stoltmann pregnant image that NY Times critic Roberta Smith wants to see turned into a poster...
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Wow, Toy Quinny Zapp, Complete With Mini-Cosi

DT reader Kim just linked to this in the Miniboo post below. It's an honest-to-goodness toy version of the Quinny Zapp. To make up for the fact that it doesn't have the same folding mechanism as the full-size Zapp,...
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LAT: BREAKING People Buy House, Boon High Chair, In California

The LA Times has a nice article about a mini-renaissance of interest in the architecture of William Krisel. His butterfly-roofed, open-plan tract homes brought affordable modernism to Palm Springs in the 50's. Now his work is being reissued, so...
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February 14, 2008

Zappa Plays With Zappa At Zappa Plays Zappa

Haven't been keeping up on what Dweezil Zappa's doing these days, but here's a short clip from a Stockholm gig of his show, Zappa Plays Zappa. At the opening, he introduces his daughter Zola to the crowd. Zola Frank...
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Ay Caramba! Behold, El Miniboo

Though I've blocked the pain from my mind, longtime readers of DT may be familiar with the trials of the original Mini-boo, the toy-sized Bugaboo I tried to make one Christmas from one of those Riesenthel picnic baskets at...
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NYT: BREAKING Having A Kid Changes Glass Coffee Tables, Things

So I read in the newspaper tha having both a kid and nice furniture can be a challenge. Has anyone else heard of this? For example, these new-fangled Noguchi coffee tables have glass tops, and "Barcelona chairs" are like "razor...
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Victoria's Secrets To Successful Parenting

The NYT's critical shopper column this week takes on the giant Victoria's Secret across from Macy's, "a slick, two-story mega-sexopolis, catering mainly to the boudoir needs of angry tourists." It's pretty damn funny [though I'm crying for America on...
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A Message For Those Who Choose To Babywear: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

You sick of the gear-heavy, alienating inconvenience of the stroller/swing/playpen combo that 150+ years of Anglocentric parenting culture foists on us all, and you want to try some of that practical, bonding-friendly, elemental goodness of wearing your baby instead? Fine,...
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February 13, 2008

"One Pink And One Purple!"

The kid stayed home from preschool today with a fever [Sorry, playdate buddy! We didn't take her temperature until you were here!]. Now she woke up from a nap with a higher fever, and as I went to get her...
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Speaking Of Disconnects From Reality: "My Fake Baby," A C4 Documentary

I'm sure these extra-lifelike infant dolls--which are all over eBay--have been mentioned on DT before; I'm just too creeped and/or bummed out by the whole concept to look them up. Didn't stop the UK's Channel 4 from doing a...
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Don't Wait Up For Those Chevy Traverse Mileage Numbers

GM's vice-chairman and chief car design guy Bob Lutz recently told a roomful of lunch-mooching Texas journalists that global warming is "total crock of shit." [sorry, mom, it's a quote!]. And if that's not crazy enough for you, he also...
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4-yo Rokke Stingray Rocking Chair Wins Innovation Award

Thomas Pedersen's Stingray rocking chair was designed in 2004, and has been for sale for at least two years. So when I saw it described on Dwell.com as "NEW" and a winner of the Interior Innovation Award at this...
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Helen Levitt's Photos Of Kids And Their Street Art

Lifelong New Yorker Helen Levitt is one of the masters of street photography, the kind of candid, revelatory imagemaking that, as a NYT reviewer once wrote, "combine[s] intuition and intellect to forge sophisticated, lyrical compositions from commonplace events." If...
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February 12, 2008

Johnny Cash And The Good Ol' Muppets

Times sure have changed since the good old days, when the Disney Channel didn't get uptight about rerunning the Muppets and Johnny Cash rallying 'round the Confederate Flag and singing a song about running off to Jackson when the...
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Movietone Presents The Prams Of The Future Of The Past--Also, Wonderbaby

Andy Baio found the Movietone Digital Archives, a collection of over 48,000 newsreel stories dating from before the 1930s to the mid 1970's. With a free, instant log-in, you can see all the clips in Quicktime; ordering broadcast quality video...
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It's Fun To Crochet A Muno Amigurumi, And That's How You Do It

I'm no expert, but I think if you have the Brother NC-7340 printer/scanner/fax/crocheter set up on your network, you just load whatever color of yarn you need--in this case, red-- and cut & paste this crocheting code from Craftster,...
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February 11, 2008

DT Headline Browser Tab Roundup

Some interesting things that, given nannies enough and time, might have been full-blown posts [Also things which reveal that I'm probably in a rut, source-wise, extra reading feels like an unaffordable luxury at the moment]: Famous Industrial Designer Tucker Viemeister...
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Shotgun! A Postphenomenological Exegesis On Gendered Motors' Launch Of The Chevy Traverse

I'm so stoked that DT regular GFR took a break from preparing his presentation for the College Art Association, to do some investigative blogging at the Chicago Auto Show. As you will see from his first dispatch, which he titled,...
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Make Joints, Not Jihadis: The "I Don't Want To Blow You Up!" Coloring Book

Global war on terror harshing your buzz? Ever thought what it'd be like if, like, all the jihadi Muslims were actually just the figment of some galactic giant's imagination? Or maybe they're, like, atoms on the fingertip of some...
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I Think I Know Where One Of Those Sumi Ink Club Mobiles Is

Warning: convoluted, punk hipster ramble, combined with 80's and 90's flashbacks, ending with very slightly relevant payoff but realistically, probably none at all ahead: So there was an outlaw outdoor concert on the banks of the LA River last November...
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February 9, 2008

Come To Papa: The Only Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 Wagon

Wow. The Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 was the stealth supercar predecessor to the better known muscle car from the late seventies, the 450SE 6.9. From a single prototype in 1967, about 6,500 cars were sold over the four year...
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DT's Our Dad In Chicago Checks Out The Auto Show

Publicists from a couple of auto makers had been eager to get the daddy types to come to the Chicago Auto Show for some reason. But I don't get the kid out of bed for less than a payola-mazing Audi...
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February 8, 2008

Pictures Of The New Kid, Approximately

Except that she may end up looking like Jon Lovitz in a couple of weeks, the new kid's doing great. Here is a photo approximation of her growth and development the last couple of weeks....
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Dia De Los Muertos Skull Shirt By Fooey

This cool skull t-shirt is on sale for a seemingly ridiculous $10-12, for infants and toddlers, assuming I didn't just buy the last one. Fooey has some other interesting designs, too; and they seem worth watching to see what...
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StrollAway Giant Stroller Hook Fits "Most Models"

[Now about that stroller of yours:] It's huge, it cost you a fortune, and it's a neccessity. But where do you put it? The neighbors scowl if you leave it in the hallway (illegal they say, as it's a fire...
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February 7, 2008

Great Moments In Marketing: The Story of Hushamok

The boardbook comes down from the Hushamok tribe, In the big game I call, "Pitch it to me." The PRs, it's said, try to get in my head, And since I find the press kits quite gloomy... I was gonna...
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Ur-Hipster Parents Revealed! Silver Lake Playhouse, Neutra-Inspired, Circa 2001!

While surfing around for some kitchen cabinets last night, I inadvertently stumbled upon one of the earliest Landmarks [wait, too early to use that word? No, it is not.] of the Golden Age Of Hipster Parenting: a playhouse dating...
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From The DT Dept. Of Corrections: Stone Cold Derek Lindsay Is A Kick-Ass Dad

I want to clear up any misconceptions that might have arisen from that report last May about Massachusetts martial arts expert and dad Derek Lindsay getting arrested for disorderly conduct at McDonald's after telling his kid to push some...
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They Sure Don't Make'em Like They Used To: c1946 Cardboard Bassinet

It's my kid in a box, baby! From the 1946 advice book, Mother and Baby Care In Pictures, comes this cardboard box done up as a crib:An improvised bed made from a corrugated carton by an ingenious father. Not...
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February 6, 2008

Breast Is Best?

So an unidentified local new mom who appears to be a strong advocate of breasfeeding walks into a Best Buy--which is decorated with giant posters of herself... If you can actually manage to look at her face for a...
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Buckminster Fuller's Kiddie Koop Crib Revealed! Or, Uh, Someone's

Yeah, so I bought the book the Buckminster Fuller Master Index credits Bucky's crib design to: the all-new 1946 edition of Louise Zabriskie's parenting handbook, Mother & Baby Care in Pictures. Sure enough, there's the Kiddie Koop in all...
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So Much For That Whole Wii Exercise Thing

Kottke links to a collection of timelapse videos of people playing Wii, including this one of a guy golfing while holding a baby the whole time: Time Lapse Wii Videos [oobject.com, which is related to yokiddo.com]...
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DT Headline Roundup: A Good Meal, A Little Massage, & A Minivan Edition

Or, what's in my browswer tabs: If You Give A Baby A Protein Shake... Thirty years ago, researchers in Guatemala wanted to test the impact of high nutrition and protein intake on preschool growth and development, so they gave fortified...
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High-End Auction Therapy, Maybe: Renate Mueller's Therapeutic Toys

Around 1969 and into the 70's Renate Mueller [that Müller, with an umlaut, btw] designed a collection of therapeutic toys with a former instructor, Helene Haeusler, for the venerable German teddy bear manufacturer, H. Josef Leven. Based in the...
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Alright, I'll Take The Nestt Plunge

Several people have sent in tips from all over for the Nestt car seat concept by Chicago-based industrial design firm think/thing. In fact, one of the architect designers emailed me a couple of weeks ago, interested in my thoughts...
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February 5, 2008

Please Tell Me This Lucha Catman Puzzle Will Go Into Production

I've been waiting for this Lucha Catman puzzle ever since I saw the chunky MDF prototype last spring at the Bubbly NY trade show. It's from the always-awesome Our Children's Gorilla [and yes, they were awesome even before they...
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Transnational Migration & Parenting Style

A bit random, sourcewise, but interesting. It's from a project by a neighbor of ours in DC, an online journal called Migration Information Source, which just got a glowing writeup in the NY Times yesterday. Wellesley sociology professor Peggy Levitt...
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Dad Van Or Rad Van? The Dodge/Mercedes Sprinter CDi

You know what's been lost in the whole minivan era? A suitable appreciation of the maxivan. Back in the day, when the customized Dodge van was a-rockin', you knew not to come knockin'. Ahh, good times. Now it turns...
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Nerds Reproducing IV: A New Hope

Congrats to b3ta.com member Afinkawan, who announced the birth--and the conception and gestation, for that matter--of his son daughter [d'oh -ed.] with a lovely piece of Star Wars Photoshoppery [excerpt above]. It sure beats bullseyein' womp rats back home....
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February 4, 2008

Bring Out Your Bed! Bring Out Your Bed! Argington & ODA Launch Mod, Wheeled Bassinet

The first thing I thought when I saw the renderings for the new bassinet and easel from Argington and ODA, the Office for Design & Architecture: a pushcart. This thing would be perfect for a family moving into one of...
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From The Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time Dept: First Year Take & Toss Sippy Cups

Now we're satisfied customers of the low-key, no-frills functionality of First Years' Take & Toss lids and cups. We prefer to think of them as "losable," not "disposable," and until the Great Toxic Plastic Scare of '07, we used...
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Lolita Midsleeper Combi Kid's Bed Light Of A Fire, Fire Of Online

What could you write about at your Lolita bed/desk? In the United Kingdom of the aliterate, the Wikipedia reader is king. Woolworth's has pulled the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a writing desk/loft bed for young girls, after a heated, if...
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Nice Work, Other Kid

slept 12:30 - 6:30, then back to sleep by 7:10. I feel nervous even mentioning it, though, as if bragging will come back to bite me in the ass. Better to just talk about her first trip to Ikea. Turns...
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February 3, 2008

All Hail Poesy, Crown Princess Of The Internet

High five to Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing and Alice Taylor of Wonderland, who have demonstrated that sci-fi nerdery and video game-blogging are not only able to reproduce, they know how to name the bejeebies out of a baby:I am ecstatic...
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Boys And Their Station Wagon-Shaped Toys: Peugeot 407 SW Commercials

Just came across these commercials for the great-looking, full-sized Peugeot 407 SW [Station Wagon?], which I've never driven, but I'm predisposed to like because it looks sort of like one of my favorite cars, the Mercedes A-Class, all growed up....
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February 1, 2008

Other Graffiti Coloring Book, Er, Colouring Book

The Graffiti Coloring Book featured here last fall, which was put out by the Fakeproject Corporation of America, has its strengths. It provides eager young taggers with truck- and mailbox-shaped tabulae rasae on which to practice their craft. But...
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Female Infant Circumcision? Oh, You Mean The Indonesian Bris?

I've been too unsettled about the New York Times' recent article on female infant genital cutting ceremonies in Indonesia to write about it. Though there's the obligatory quotes from human rights and womens' health advocates, for the most part, the...
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Sometimes A Camry Station Wagon Is Not A Camry Station Wagon

Despite the impossibly desperate spinning of the Toyota marketing people, this is not one of those times. Seriously, does Toyota's credibility take any kind of hit for pretending that the Venza wagon is not, in fact, a wagon? Or...
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