Daddy Types: September 2008 Archives

September 2008 Archives

September 30, 2008

Eighty Bucks For The Ur-Big Wheel?

The company that made the original Big Wheel, Louis Marx, sold out to his competitor in the early 1970's. That company, Empire Plastics, went bankrupt in 2001. Some other company reconstituted Empire and now makes the Original Big Wheel...
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Happy New Year, Jews! Now Why Are You Reading This Today?

I wish I could tell you more about where Haifa-based designer and Star of David otaku Hayim Shtayer got this super-Israeli bottle and pacifier. Unfortunately, I only hung out at the JCC long enough to learn how to swim,...
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That's Not Dennis The Menace, So That Can't Be His Go-Kart

Now I know what Beano Comic Magazine is, and I know that it was all a crazy coincidence, the appearance of two Dennises the Menaces within days of each other in 1951. But the first Dennis the Menace, or...
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They Reissued Kristian Vedel's Kid's Chair! Wait, Who's They?

Sure enough, there it is, staring right up at me from the front page of Modern Child [a shop which has advertised on Daddy Types before, btw]. Kristian Vedel's 1952 plywood chair/table/desk/stool has always been a tough buy; the...
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September 29, 2008

Eames Elephants So Nice They Editioned Them Twice

Ahh, 2007. The good old days, when we thought that a thousand euros was a bit steep for a limited edition Eames molded plywood elephant, but hey, we'll manage. After all, we've been waiting since 1945 for the thing...
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Poetry About William Blake, By Nancy Willard

I just stumbled onto Nancy Willard's interesting-sounding book of poems for children by a kind of circuitous route, while researching the illustrators, Alice and Martin Provensen. See, they'd done a sweet and simple version of Robert Louis Stevenson's A...
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All We Like Sheep

Wow. Just, wow. Look what was caught in the glare of the spotlight on this Metafilter thread about the 1980's Christian ska band Sonseed and their jawdropping music video, "Jesus is a friend of mine." Besides the John & Yoko...
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Cubi-Q: German Play Furniture Is Awesome, Cubic

Looking at the traditional-to-slightly-boring children's furniture designs on the German wood furniture firm Zwergraum, I would never have imagined they'd come up with something as awesome as the Cubi-Q. With four boxes, two table-like pieces, cutouts, and optional wheels,...
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The Okbaby No Shock: Finally, A Crawling Helmet That Doesn't Make Your Kid Look Like An Overprotected Dork!

Haha, just kidding, it totally does! On the plus side, he looks like an overprotected, dorky equestrian. Okbaby is, of course, the Italian firm that brought us the Colibri, the largest portable [sic] changing pad in the world--for moms....
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Tessell: I, For One, Welcome Our Korean Tessellation Play Mat Overlords

OK, so in the US, we're making foam playmats with alphabets on them. And in Denmark, they're making Bobles, ride-on, climb-on animals made from computer-cut foam. All well and good. Until you find out that in Korea, they're making foam...
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September 28, 2008

Honda Fit? Car Seat Fits

Because the Cars.com team has at least one dad-minded member, you can car shop easy knowing that the redesigned Honda Fit handles a big old car seat with surprising comfort and ease, even in the middle seat. Great news, unless...
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Took The Kid To Crafty Bastards, Er, "The Craft Fair"

So the kid and I went to Crafty Bastards after church today. We were overdressed and underinked. Still, we got to meet Spooky Daddy in person, which was awesome. He was working the puppetmaster thing pretty spectacularly, and it...
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September 27, 2008

Delta County Fair, 1940, By Russell Lee

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Delta County Fair, Colorado (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress. There's something about...
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Well, She WAS Born In Washington...

To our surprise, the kid said she wanted to skip story time last night to watch a few minutes of the presidential debate with us. She ended up watching intently for almost an hour on our bed before she finally...
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Yet Another Rietveld Kids Chair [And Table!]

Just got my copy of the 2001 edition of Peter Drijver and Johannes Niemeijer's How to construct Rietveld Furniture; it's pretty sweet. There are designs and plans for 38 pieces, including four kid-specific designs: two high chairs and two toys,...
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Or Is It High-Margin Quackery 1st? "Safety 1st Babyplus Prenatal Education System"

If you will recall, after seeing one too many "Ooh, look! New gadget!" blog posts about the BabyPlus Prenatal Education System last year, I decided to investigate. At first, I was satisfied to find that not only was the...
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September 26, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: $700 Billion Dollars Worth Edition

Obviously, any freaking out you want to do over parenting and kid-related research pales in comparison to the seemingly thrown-together bailout of the global financial system. So let's cover that first, since our kids will still be paying for it...
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Who Is Pankuro's Dancing Hamburger [?] Friend

When the kid wakes up with a dry bed, she gets to watch some of her favorite Japanese Underpants Videos, aka, Pantsu Pankuro, an animated short on NHK every morning about the big kid joys of using the toilet....
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Where All The Wooden Pacifiers At?

K2 is having a great time sucking on the wooden doorknobs on the kids' Via Toy Box doors. [Remember to glue, not just screw, those bad boys on, btw.] And one of the puzzles she loves [un]doing has these...
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September 25, 2008

School's Out?

We're in the middle of a "don't want to go to preschool today" standoff this morning, so posting might be a little light. has this ever happened to anyone in the history of preschool? [update: aha, maybe she can't go...
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DTQ: Is It The Powdered Formula That's Stinkin' Up Our Fridge?

Because we've cleaned that fridge like three times, it still smells funky. And that's after we put them squirrels Ma shot into double freezer bags, and even after we threw out the rest of that brie wheel I snagged...
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September 24, 2008

OG Detailed Dosage Info At Dr. Sears

You new dads coming up now will get a kick out of this. Back before the FDA miraculously cured all colds, coughs, and flu in kids under 2 years old, we used to actually give'em medicine when they were sick....
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Iran So Far Away

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } lotfollah mosque, isfahan oct. 2007, originally uploaded by seier+seier+seier. Two Danish architects took their daughter...
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Vincent Vegan Thinks That'd Be A Pretty F-ing Good Milkshake

Thanks to everyone who sent in the news story about the nakedly ridiculous announcement by the publicity-addicted animal rights group that Ben & Jerry's should use breast milk in their ice cream instead of cow's milk, just like that...
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I'll Take "Things I'd Never Expect To Hear From Tom Wolfe's Mouth" For $1,000, Alek

Hell of a guy:Tom Wolfe: Did I mention to you I'm pimping out my cars? NY Observer: Don't think so. This is my third childhood. I had my second childhood when rock 'n' roll came along--Martha and the Vandellas. Now...
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September 23, 2008

DT Plush Toy Nerddown: Sluggy Freelance Bun-Bun Vs. Higgs Boson Particle?

Alright, Maybe I should be scouring flickr for photos of dads taking their infant children to the Yankees-Orioles game. And maybe I will. But for now, I'm too confounded by the nerdiness of these plush toys to do anything else....
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Pier 11 Ferry Terminal, Gouverneur Ln & South St - Close Enough

The mens room has no changing table, but the terminal building is full of wide, flat benches suitable for changing. If you must wait, take the ferry to the changing table/family restroom paradise of Ikea....
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Il Ritorno!! Corraini Reissues Enzo Mari's Play Wall

In 1967 Danese debuted Enzo Mari's Il Posto dei Giochi, The Place of Games, otherwise known as "Wall." Kids could use the ten-panel corrugated cardboard play structure printed and perforated with Mari's designs to create various kid-sized spaces. The...
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Guantanamo Bay Bouncy Cell, By Phillip Toledano

It's been a while since we've checked in with artist/photographer/awesome BabySuit maker Phillip Toledano around these parts, but he's been busy. Busy creating merchandise for his latest retail-esque project: America: The Gift Shop. While some might say the products...
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Animal Families By Abbatt Toys

Abbatt Toys were sort of the Creative Playthings of England. Paul & Marjorie Abbatt founded their toy company in the 1930's with a focus on education and design. Their friend, the British modernist architect Erno Goldfinger, designed their innovative...
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September 22, 2008

Kid O Toys Arrive, Are Awesome

You know, I was just wondering to myself the last few weeks, "Where are those Kid O toys I was promised would be hitting the market soon?" And here they are. Wow. Educational clarity and simplicity of design that...
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DTQ: Anyone Know This Wooden Dollhouse?

Maya from Covetable doesn't covet this wooden dollhouse, at least not anymore. She just got it from another parent who can't remember where it originally came from. Does anyone recognize it? There's apparently a partially worn off logo "with...
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Finally, JPMA Gets A/The Dads' Point Of View

I'm kind of slammed today with an offline work project, but I don't want to let this milestone in baby product innovation history go by unremarked. For the first time in the history of the JPMA Innovations Awards, which were...
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Starting to Build the Crib

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Starting to Build the Crib, originally uploaded by BenSpark. Prolific photographer Ben Spark would not...
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Tommy Lee And Family

This photograph by noted crazyman David Lachapelle titled, Tommy Lee and Family, Los Angeles, 1999, is 36.5 x 57 inches. This edition, signed and numbered, 4/12, was printed in 2002. It will be auctioned at Christie's in New York...
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September 19, 2008

Orange You Glad It's Not Pink Or Blue?

One of the biggest losses of my recent hard drive crash was the interview I did a while back with Pamela Paul about Parenting, Inc., her awesome and revealing book on the Baby Industrial Complex. See, rather than try to...
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Just Shoot Me Now: A Dad Walks Into A Target...

I needed a gallon of mixed paint, and we were running low on diapers, so after I dropped the kid off at pre-school, K2 and I did a combined Home Depot/Target run to the Virginia suburbs. Holy smokes, nothing knocks...
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And So Comfortable! Dad Builds Awesome, Kid-Sized Rietveld Chair

First, let me apologize to all the people who love nothing more than curling up in their Rietveld chairs; they apparently only look unsittable. As little Hugo above demonstrates, they are the height of seated comfort. After mulling it...
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If My Dad Was Voting For Obama, I'd Be Happy, Too

My Dad's Pick, Barack Obama by some happy kid in Michigan [image chris carlson/ap via daylife]...
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Exclusive! Scientist, Lackey Discover Solution To 100% Of Picky Eater Cases

Good news for parents who want their kids to eat vegetables: you won't have to plagiarize beet cake recipes anymore! In a study that, barring any nap disruptions, will be published in a couple of minutes, a NASA scientist and...
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DT Friday Freakout: Coming Soon Edition

I'm sure this week's Freakout will involve the ever-expanding poisoned Chinese formula crisis; BPA--especially in liquid formula cans, not that you can realistically avoid it completely anyway--the asthma risk associated with kids taking paracetamol--fortunately, we use acetominophen in this country,...
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September 18, 2008

Babar And The French Colonialist Hermeneutics Of Blah Blah Blah

Has is been four years already? Then it must be time for a long, brainy-seeming thinkpiece on the deeper cultural significance of Babar. In 2004 it was Alison Lurie in the New York Review of Books with the supposed evils...
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Good Morning, West Hollywood Craigslist! Nurseryworks Nursery Workin' It At 80% Off

Wow, a $3,000 Nurseryworks bedroom set, with a twin bed, nightstand [note: image not to scale] and a 6-drawer dresser are on Craiglist LA for just $600? I know there are like twenty hundred different wood finish and panel...
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Too Much Pressure

We really like Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's Touchpoints books; they present research findings and what Brazelton looks for in child development in a very approachable, useful way. Now it turns out Brazelton ["and his colleague Dr. Josh Sparrow," gotta plan...
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Fleurville Calla: Still Coming Soon, Now With Pricing!

Wait, the Fleurville Calla by Yves Behar still exists? The Audi S8 Avant, the Bugaboo two-seater, the eight weeks paid paternity leave of high chairs is not a myth? Or even a one-off prototype that popped up at ICFF...
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Needs More Blobwall: Greg Lynn's Recycled Toy Furniture Somehow Wins Venice Biennale

Huh? CAD monkey/architect Greg Lynn's Recycled Toy Furniture won an award at the Venice Biennale [not the real Biennale, the architecture one, but still], despite the fact that the only "furniture" aspect is the tacked on tabletops; giant plastic...
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September 17, 2008

Thanks For Noticing My Ferrari Wagon, XOXO, The Sultan Of Brunei['s Brother]

Pininfarina: And how big shall we make Your Majesty's Ferrari station wagons, then? HM SoB: Big enough to bring a pickled shark home from Sotheby's, at least. Pininfarina: We'll see what we can do, Your Majesty. SPOTTED: THE INCREDIBLY...
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Maclaren Wheel Covers: Are We Really A Nation Of Stroller Whiners?

As most Maclaren press releases are careful to remind us, Owen Maclaren, a former fighter plane engineer, changed the parenting world over 40 years ago when he invented the folding umbrella stroller. Which means that for at least the...
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Say Hello To The Schaukelwagen's Little Friend

Kinderstoele this, Kinderspiele that. A few days of poking around the kinderweb has turned more stuff I thought I would've known by now, but there you go. For example, I totally missed "Zappel, Philipp! - Die Welt der Kindermöbel," an...
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Two High Chairs, Both Alike In Uncomfortableness: Piet Klaarhamer's Rietveldian High Chair

In fair Utrecht where we lay our scene... I'm trying to clear the deck of reproductions of painful-looking De Stijl high chairs here. In 2005, Treadway-Toomey sold this high chair for $1,200. It's by Piet Klaarhamer, a "later production of...
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The Awesomely Unsittable High Chairs Of Gerrit Rietveld

The world--if I may speak for the world for a moment--may have Gerrit Rietveld all backwards. The world sees Rietveld as a leading furniture designer and architect of the geometric purity-obsessed De Stijl movement who just happened to make...
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September 16, 2008

You Say Football Net, I Say Soccer Net, CPSC Finally Says It's A Freakin' Deathtrap, Get Rid Of It

Almost 200,000 MacGregor and Mitre toy soccer goals of death have been sold in the US since 2002. But now the CPSC has issued a recall, following news that a 21-month-old boy died while trying to climb one. I should...
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John Lennon, Househusband

I'll have to find the credit for this photo of John Lennon and Yoko Ono with their newborn son Sean, though the date is probably fall/winter 1975, and the place is the family apartment in the Dakota. [update 30...
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September 15, 2008

Crate Chair Junior By Gerrit Rietveld, Reissued By Other Rietvelds

In 1934, the Dutch architect and furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld sought to combine the utopian geometric elementalism of de Stijl with an economics and authenticity of material by--look, everyone was broke, so he made furniture out of wood from...
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Beh Is For Bazooka: OG Iranian Coloring Book

Remember the 1980's, when Iran and Iraq were fighting a bloody, nearly decade-long war? Yeah, neither does anyone else, now that the two countries are all curled up in bed together with the Shi'ites tucked under their chins. [sorry,...
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2009 Honda WTFit

So I popped into a Honda dealer yesterday afternoon to see how the new 2009 Honda Fit looked in person: $2,000 in mandatory dealer options, plus $2,085 "additional markup" is how it looks, on a $16,000 car. If I'm...
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What Happens In Vegas &c., &c.

Uhhh, needs more Stravinskian angst? Snugaboo dress-up snugglies at ABC Kids Expo, Las Vegas [mommieswithstyle's flickr stream]...
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Wait, I Didn't Even Know There Was A Jens Risom High Chair

Made in 1941 as part of Knoll's introductory collection, with Risom's trademark woven web seat? And it sold yesterday for just $275?? My only consolation is that it caught Andy off guard, too. Seriously, people, there oughta be a...
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Seriously, Do NOT Give The Kid Chinese Formula

The Friday Freakout continues. At least two deaths, 1,253 hospitalized kids, and parental complaints dating back to as early as March. The Chinese Health Ministry has finally ordered a recall of Sanlu baby formula after the additive melamine was found...
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What Happens In Cologne Does Not Stay In Cologne, People

Non baby industry types may wonder why have two giant trade shows, ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas and Kind+Jugend in Cologne, back to back? Aren't they pretty much the same thing? As David, our man in Cologne, shows,...
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September 14, 2008

In 1970, Arthur Espenet Carpenter Created The Coolest Rocker In The Entire Alpha Quadrant

Fascinating. Arthur Espenet Carpenter was like the fifth Beatle of American woodworking. In 1972, he was in "Woodenworks," the genre-defining show at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, along with George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Wharton Esherick, and Wendell Castle. By that...
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September 13, 2008

Hey Internet! Günter Beltzig Made This Molded Fiberglass Slide In 1966!

It turns out not to be so easy to identify the maker of a random piece of play equipment using just a captionless photo from a 1968 craft magazine, and not just because I didn't know how to say...
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September 12, 2008

DT Friday Freakout: Reading Edition

Whoops, only 15 minutes to midnight. I hope I haven't upset your freakout schedule too much this weekend: Take the sushi, leave the mercury. A Harvard Medical School study of 25,000 Danish women and their kids found that moderate fish...
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Behold, The Ur-Leather High Chair

After seeing Monte Design's new Tavo, I thought I'd research the vast, untold history of leather high chairs, and here it is: one chair. One, Masterpiece Theatre-ready, wingback leather high chair/low chair/potty chair submitted to some author's website by...
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DT Reads ModernDayDad's Babble Reports From ABC Kids Expo

I was too far behind on my feedreader to notice, and MDD was too modest: his ABC Kids Expo reports for Babble's Droolicious gearblog are rockin'. Here's a quick take on some highlights: The Zigo Leader converts from a front-load,...
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DTQ: How Many Diapers Does It Take Before You Realize The Whole Pack Is Bad?

So you're going along, changing the kid's diaper, and she's covered in sodium polyacrylate crumbs, so much it looks like someone sprinkled parmesan cheese all over her butt. But you just wipe it all off, and put the new one...
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Welcome Back To School, Children! Our First Lesson: The Baby Box

Apparently, the annoyances of blogs in the 2000's--hyperbole, lack of context, not linking back, acting like you're the first to discover everything--is merely a speeded up re-enactment of magazine stories in the 1940's. Take, for example, this March 1947...
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September 11, 2008

Hello, Crazy Folding Robot Stroller!

Welcome to Earth, self-folding stroller! What planet are you from? Do you really need to be propped up on that giant electric plug-looking thing to work? Did your creators run out of R&D money before they got to the...
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Little Tikes Demolition Derby, By Adam Haynes

While the awesomeness of Adam Haynes' imagined Little Tikes demolition derby is clear to see, many other things about the artwork, titled Kiddie Cars, are not clear to me. I don't see how it's printed, for one thing. Offset?...
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Breaking, Literally: Phil & Teds Dash Going Back To Starting Line?

9/12 UPDATE: I just got off the phone with a spokesman from Regal Lager, confirming that they are "asking consumers" not to use the Dash and to return it to the retailer. Details below. Just got an email from...
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I'm Blogging, Thanks for Asking

Dads are blogging, Tots are spotting Grandparents caring what moms are sharing, tiny baby details; hey, the kids are Twittering, too [Well, just pretending the baby's sending; it's really mom, but whatryagonnado?] Times reporting on babybook hoarding. A trend's afoot,...
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Lipstick On A Deadly Pig: 200,000 Graco Bassinets Are Actually Simplicity

WTF CPSC?? The Chicago Tribune's Patricia Callahan is reporting that even as it was expanding a consumer warning last week about 300,000 deadly Simplicity bassinets, the Consumer Products Safety Commission and Graco stayed quiet about 200,000 more bassinets of the...
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September 10, 2008

It's A Small Maoist World: Communist Children's Songs

Ho-ly Smokes. The cover of "I am a Sunflower - Children's Songs" is like Mao's Little Red Book of Verses illustrated by Comrade Mary Blair. Even if it didn't have the most incredible track list of any communist propaganda...
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Two Things I Did Not Know About Maurice Sendak

The second is that he's had a lifelong fascination with the Lindbergh Baby kidnapping, so much so that he's spent years searching for one of the miniature souvenir ladders that were sold outside the New Jersey courtroom where Bruno...
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Monte Tavo High Chair Debuts At ABC Kids Expo

I'm not seeing a lot of reporting or imagery coming out of the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas, but even if I did, this sweet high chair would stand out. It's called the Tavo, and it's by Monte...
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Real Estate Market Sinks, Mint Netto Nursery Floats To Surface

Wow. A real estate staging company in Las Vegas is liquidating and just put a brand new, never been opened, $4000 Cabine crib and dresser/changing table by David Netto on eBay with no reserve. Opening bid is just $499....
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With New RumbleSeat, Uppababy Makes Room For Lowababy

Though the details are still shrouded in flash glare--or cropped out of the photo entirely, Pish Posh Baby has the scoop from ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas, where Uppababy debuted a poster of a removable underseat seat for...
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Sami Rintala's Luoto Changing Table I Could've Believed In

Mister Jalopy guest-blogging on BoingBoing? That's a combination we can believe in. Featureless computer renderings of sleek modular furniture by Finnish architect Sami Rintala that looks like it'd make a sweet changing table and dimensions given in the ever-mysterious...
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Laughing Babies Not Just For YouTube Anymore Last Year

9/17 update: Whoops, not so funny anymore, is it, AIG? Yeah, I lost count of laughing baby videos on YouTube, to the point that I didn't know AIG had licensed a few of them to use for an ad campaign....
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September 9, 2008

Blowout Pedal Car Auction Coming To Hershey, PA Oct. 8

Now this is odd: apparently, some people gather in person, in a single place and on a fixed date, and even require the purchase of tickets in advance, all to auction off items of some rarity and value. No...
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Domo-Kun Shilling For Target? Or Vice Versa?

DT reader Caitlin wonders "how I feel about Domo shilling for Target." I feel it's all going perfectly according to the merchandising and TV plan that Big Tent Entertainment crafted 2.5 years ago when they licensed the character from...
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Ha, In Your FACE, High Fructose Corn Syrup Hater!

Come to my Corn Refiners Association party and get all snotty with me about the fruit punch, and I will shut you down. I assume the scene where another parent walks up and says the issue with HCFS is...
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September 8, 2008

Alexander Girard Carpet Tiles By Flor

Some day, you and the kid will be sitting on the Alexander Girard La Fonda del Sol carpet, building a fort out of his Alexander Girard blocks for the reissued Alexander Girard folk dolls. Your elbow will be propped...
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The Modfather's Naming Strategy

DT reader Naomi's comment below about the new album from The Jam founder Paul Weller led me to a nice Weller profile in the Times of London last week, which contains this baby naming strategy:[Weller] remembers saving for a year...
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More Anniversaries To Commemorate: The Maclaren Grand Tour LX

Are there such things as stroller news embargoes? Or is its appearance at ABC Kids Expo all the excuse I need to mention the new 2009 Maclaren Grand Tour LX? How about the fact that some other blogger already...
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We Are The Mods! Spitfire Buggy Takes Off In Las Vegas

I'd planned to go to the ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas for one day, yesterday, and then red eye it home in time for the kid's first full day of pre-school this morning. Instead, I spent Saturday with...
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You've Come A Long Way, Retarded Baby

Was 1992 really so long, long ago? That's when Ellen O'Shaughnessy, a teacher of retarded special ed mentally disabled special needs kids wrote her PC heart-bearingly titled children's book, Somebody Called Me a Retard Today ... and My Heart Felt...
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September 7, 2008

Swedish Makonde: Ebony & Vinyl Toy Industry Were Together In Perfect Harmony

In 2006, when most of us were just discovering the indie vinyl toy world, Tanzania-born Swedish designer Peter Thuvander was already tired of it. In a collaboration with the Stockholm-based retailer Beneath, Thuvander and his design collective Muungano decided...
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September 6, 2008

This Is Neil Fraser's Brain On Blocks. Any Questions?

Neil Fraser had an MRI, then he laminated his various cross-sectional scans onto a stack of 1" wooden blocks. Now he can do nifty tricks like cut away 3D models of the inside of his head. Wooden Brain [neil.fraser.name...
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Toys R Us Imports Sweet Crib Safety Standards, Demands Its Cribmakers Share Them

What else can I say? The CPSC's investigative function has been replaced by the Chicago Tribune, and now the agency's safety standard-setting responsibilities are apparently being taken over by freakin' big box retailers. The Chicago Tribune reports that Toys R...
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LL Bean Booties

During the hard drive debacle last week, K2 and I were stuck at the mall in Tyson's Corner mall for several hours, waiting for my repair. After watching little kids run full tilt into the full length glass walls...
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September 5, 2008

Granddaddy Of Type: Lawrence Weiner's Children's Book

If there's a daddy who knows his way around type, it's conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. Since the late 1960's, he's been using text--and language and actions and instructions, even punctuation--as a medium. He's best known for his wall installations,...
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DT Friday Freakout: The Vacctivists Aren't Gonna Like This Edition

Somehow in the din of CPSC recall and safety warnings last week, I missed a formal Friday Freakout. But don't worry, here's some news from the worlds of preliminary studies you can freak out over this weekend: The connection between...
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September 4, 2008

Ausgezeichnet! Concord Neo Carbon, Deutschland's Schwarziest Stroller

Labor Day's over, there's all this politickin' in the air, the kids' heads aren't getting any rounder. You know what this place needs? A good, old-fashioned dad-friendly strollerlusting! So wilkommen to the Concord Neo Carbon, the jaw-dropping, all carbon...
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Little Riggin': UK Dad Makes A Mini Foden Just Like His

After 150 years of British lorrymaking, Foden ceased production in 2006. Which, coincidentally? is when a truck driving dad in Herefordshire named Paul started making a kid-sized replica of his own Foden rig. Now it's done, and it looks...
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September 3, 2008

Baby Moov Lovenest: Is French For Head All 'Round

Leave it to the French to name a kid's first source of good head the Lovenest. Produced by Baby Moov, this sculpted foam headrest is designed by a pediatrician to safely produce "une tête bien ronde!" literally, a well-rounded...
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Celebrities Are Cheap Bastards, And Vice Versa

Damn, I have a whole bagful of shhht! with all these names on it, and it still ain't enough:A source [!] close to the Beverly Hills baby store Petit Tresor [!!] tells CelebTV.com [?] exclusively that a gift from Plain...
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DTQ: How Flat Was Your Kid's Head Before You Did Anything About It?

Because K2's got this flat spot on the back of her head, and it's kind of bugging me out. It started early; she'd almost always turn her head to the right when we'd lay her down; and while we'd always...
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September 2, 2008

Timkid Mio: Giant German Crib Bumper Comes With Wooden Frame, Converts To Desk

It's probably easier to list what the German-made Timkid Mio crib doesn't convert to. The simple canvas-sided crib designed by Tim Schinkel begins its useful life as a bassinet, thanks to the popout center that turns the mattress into...
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Heh, West Xylophone

An awesome little alphabet song by They Might Be Giants [youtube via swiss-miss] Buy TMBG's Here Come The ABC's CD/DVD combo [amazon]...
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Heckuva Job, SFCA! Simplicity Bassinets Of Death Still On Sale--From The "New" Simplicity

The scale of the danger posed by Simplicity's 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 bassinets is becoming clearer: over 900,000 bassinets have been sold with a dangerous design flaw that has led to at least two strangulation deaths in the last year. And...
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Aprica For Fendi Bib, 4,416 Rupees

Vogue India did a photoshoot using average--or as the World Bank likes to call them, "destitute and living on $1.25/day"--Indians to model luxury brands, including this $100 Fendi logo bib, part of the Aprica X Fendi collaboration collection posted...
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But Of Course. Kozmo The Arizona Anti-Smoking Alien Doll

In 1994, Arizona voters approved Prop. 200, a cigarette tax which would fund anti-tobacco use educational programs. After a couple of years of ramp-up AzTEPP, the Arizona Tobacco Education and Prevention Program hit its fully funded stride in 1998....
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Sweet Modded Japanese Wagon Like No Nissan Stagea I've Ever Seen

Add the Nissan Stagea to the long list of awesome-looking wagons that never leave the Japanese domestic market. The Stagea began as the wagon variant of the Skyline GT-R, or in its later incarnation, the Infiniti G35. This example...
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September 1, 2008

The Demonization Of The Foreskin In Victorian Britain, By The Student Of The Foreskin In Victorian England

I don't know what the Journal of Social History has been working on for the last three years, but they're finally getting around to reviewing Robert Darby's groundbreaking historical book, A Surgical Temptation: The Demonization of the Foreskin and the...
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