Daddy Types: January 2010 Archives

January 2010 Archives

January 31, 2010

Crazy People Are People

It spent something like eight months on our DVR, dodging deletion, but this weekend, with the wife and kid out of town, and USA's Jason Bourne-a-Thon behind me, I finally watched Toddlers and Tiaras, the TLC docurealitywhatever about baby beauty...
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Yow, Boarding House By Roger Ballen

Roger Ballen is an American-born artist working in Johannesburg. I missed "Boarding House," his show at Gagosian last fall, and after reading my friend Brian's review for Artforum, I can't tell if I'm bummed or relieved:The images were made...
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DT Friday Freakout: Weekend WTF Edition

What's the hype from the worlds of science, medicine, safety, and parenting this week? British newspapers totally make up scientific stories and then try to pass them off as the research findings of whatever hapless scientist is unlucky enough to...
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January 29, 2010

Just Some Princess And Some Frog Necklaces Recalled For Toxic Cadmium

FAF Inc. of Greenville, RI has charmed generations of children with their magical animated storytelling, their pioneering theme parks, and their unparalleled merchandise. In just a few short years, they created one of the most powerful little girl brands,...
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Cybex Strollers Recalled For Maclaren-Style Fingermunching

While it took Maclaren ten years and a million finger-munching strollers to earn a CPSC recall, Feisty upstart Cybex got theirs in less than six months. Cybex was introduced to the US market last fall by Regal Lager, the...
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Oh Now I Get It. Jackpot. Jack Potty.

Wow, a toilet that teaches a kid to piss and to piss away his retirement savings at the same time? Who could have thought of such innovation? A Dorel Company: Safety 1st Jack Potty, $34 [amazon] Or at least...
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'Maybe naming him Rimbaud wasn't such a good idea.'

If you haven't checked out Unhappy Hipsters, just get over there right now. And if you have, go back, because the supply of depressingly awesome captions for Dwell Magazine photos is apparently endless....
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January 28, 2010

Wherein We Try To Figure Out Why Dorel Calls JPMA Certification 'Redundant'

OK, getting some clarification on why Dorel, one of the biggest crib makers in the country, and probably the most prominent member of the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, doesn't JPMA-Certify their cribs, and what that means about the safety...
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January 27, 2010

Brown Bear Vs Board Of Education

Yesterday I learned from Dadwagon that members of the Texas State Board of Education recommended banning the work of Bill Martin Jr, who authored Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, from being used in the state's public education...
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Awesome New Economy Seat-Beds Have Just One Catch:

When you wake up, you're in New Zealand. The "Skycouches" were designed by Air New Zealand for the first 11 economy rows on their new 777-300 planes, which will fly from Los Angeles [been there!] and London [been there!]...
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January 26, 2010

Wow Wow, Onesie! Warhol Warhol Onesie

Holy smokes, but Japan has the best Warhol Estate licensed merchandise. Andy [Beach, that is] has a great suggestion for a second print. I'd add a third, 200 One Dollar Bills. Which would not, alas, be enough to buy...
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British Kidswear Company Uses Education To Tackle Sexting Problem

Last fall Britons were shocked by the findings of a new study that showed British children don't start sexting until 13, almost 2 years later than their US counterparts. Rather than just cry into their tea, independent children's fashion...
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Obamababies! Teen Pregnancy Rates Rise For The First Time In 20 Years

Look at that, Obama's the president for one year, and already there's a spike in teen pregnancy:The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that...
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So Why Weren't Dorel Asia's Recalled Cribs JPMA-Certified?

[Note: see the update at the bottom of the post.] Last week's crib recall was 635,000 fixed and dropside cribs made by Dorel Asia SRL, and were sold at "K-Mart, Sears and Wal-Mart stores nationwide from January 2005 through...
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January 25, 2010

Highlights From The US House Hearing On Crib Safety

You know what the US House Committee On Energy And Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations needs? Publicists. The Committee held a hearing last Thursday titled, "Crib Safety: Assessing the Need for Better Oversight," and so far, I've only found...
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Swiss-Style Stroller License Plates

The problem I've found with stroller accessorizing: it just doesn't work. I'd wanted to do little stroller-sized bumper stickers at one point, but only the fugliest car seat carriers had enough surface area. I'd wanted to do stroller license...
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M-I-C D-D-T

Sure, I know DDT-soaked Disney wallpaper sounds like a hilariously bad idea now. But back in 1947, the massive spraying of DDT had just wiped out malaria and typhus and saved millions of people, including Our Boys Fighting In...
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Punch'n Cuddle Emotional Furniture Sounds Kind Of Conflicted

Some things, you hear them, and you can tell they are just meant to go together: Cookies'n Cream. Shock'n Awe. Duck'n Cover. Hookers'n Blow. Punch'n Cuddle:Punch'n Cuddle Emotional Furniture for Kids and Kidults Punch'n'Cuddle is what you get when...
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January 24, 2010

Whimsical Wonesie Watch: Shape Caterpillar At Tate London

Anyone else notice a severe shortage of fantastical or funny Onesies around here lately? I don't want to say I'm over it, but whether they're humorous, raunchy, ironic, whimsical, hipsterish, or design-y, I've definitely come to see the decorated...
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ShapeMaker Blocks By Miller Goodman

Zoe Miller and David Goodman design a fine-looking collection of kids products for the Tate's gift shop, but they pulled out all the stops for their own debut toy: ShapeMaker blocks. These rock. The graphic simplicity, flexibility, and creative...
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DT Friday Freakout: Sunday Science Edition

A selection of headlines from the worlds of science, medicine, education and parenting designed to freak you out: Sperm in promiscuous mice are able to identify and cooperate with their "brethren" to outmaneuver other males' sperm and reach the egg....
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January 21, 2010

Mini Daddy Types

Sure, it's exciting to see a 6-year-old like Adriansito possess such noble, crotch-thrusting Reggaeton dreams. But what I'm most glad for, is the hope he provides my daughter, who now won't have to wait until she has some to...
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Babies In Bars? Take The Dadwagon Poll

In case you haven't been following it, Dadwagon is totally owning the WTF? Babies In Brooklyn Bars? story. Today there's a poll. And tomorrow, I hope, a drinking game, to help the kidded and the kidless come back together. The...
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The Granddaughter Of A Millworker

Congratulations to former North Carolina senator, VP nominee, and 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards for acknowledging the birth of his now-2yo daughter. Only a year after the National Enquirer totally busted him on it. And right before the political aide...
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Andy Warhol's 'A Is An Alphabet'

When he was trying to drum up work as an illustrator in the 1950s, Andy Warhol made little gifts for his clients and friends--mostly painted Ukrainian Easter eggs and little portfolios of drawings and poems wrapped in tissue. A...
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January 20, 2010

Hello Diego-San

So. Diego-san. A 130cm tall research android built by UCSD's Machine Perception Lab in conjunction with Kokoro LTD. in order to study infant cognitive and interaction development. I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how creepocalyptically bad...
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Uh-Oh, Better Recall Graco! For Their 1.5 Million, Non-Umbrella, Finger-Chopping Strollers

Shows what I know. Ever since the Million Maclaren Recall, I've been waiting for the CPSC to point out [sic] the fingertip amputation risk posed by the folding hinges on any/every other umbrella stroller, too. And yet, the next 1.5...
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January 19, 2010

Another Day, Another 635,000 Dorel Cribs Recalled

The CPSC and Dorel Asia--they're based in Barbados!--announced the recall of over 600,000 cribs sold at Wal-mart, K-mart, and Sears between January 2005 and December 2009, last month. The cribs pose a strangulation and suffocation hazard because of faulty dropside...
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An Incomplete List Of Things That Are Not A Toy

Plastic bag The stove Silverware drawer The toaster The microwave The toilet My phone My iPod My computer Your mother's phone Your mother's computer Your mother's purse The car door lock That window button All the stuff in your dresser...
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Lipstick On A Headless Pig: El Ultimo Grito Mico

High-design Italian or not, I've spent my years as a dad trying to avoid giant hunks of kid-targeted plastic. So even though it's from 2006, it's in MoMA's collection now, and it's in an upcoming exhibit of seating for...
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January 18, 2010

Das Gutenkinderauktionblogposten

The German auction house Quittenbaum has a design sale coming up in a couple of weeks, February 9th, which includes some classic pieces of vintage kids design and a couple of oddities: Lot 90: First up, the classic Schaukelwagen convertible...
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Curious George, Wrath Of God

"But is it really George's fault? Or is it the Man in The Yellow Hat's fault for taking an agent of chaos out of the wilderness, and trying against all hope to civilize him?" I've given it some serious...
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You Can't Always Get Watchawant

Swedish design duo Charlotte Ryberg and Johanna Strand have created this, the Watchawant, a prototype of a two-kid, ride-on furniture-toy. The body is elegantly curved modern ply--and the ears, handles, and tail is a continuous bullwhip of leather-wrapped rope,...
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January 17, 2010

NYT Reporter Shocked, SHOCKED To Find Toddling Going On In Park Slope Bar

This just in from NY Times investigative reporter Risa Chubinsky: some parents in Park Slope are reportedly bringing their kids to bars, where alcohol is consumed by the kidded and kid-free alike. The story is illustrated by a shocking picture...
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DTQ: So The Kid Wants To Boogie

Alright, I realize I haven't yet explained how and why the kid ended up with an iPod Nano, so I'll get back to that. Right now, she just wants to boogie, and I'm a bit conflicted about which funky disco...
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Exposition Playmobil Au Musée Des Arts Décoratifs

Last month, the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris opened an exhibition of the history of Playmobil. The show is timed to commemorate Playmobil's 33rd, 34th, or 35th anniversary, depending on who's counting. Or the death in 2009 of...
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DT Friday Freakout: Sunday S*(%storm Edition

If your house is anything like ours, it's hard to carve out even a couple of hours on Sunday in which to completely freak out over the week's health, science, safety, and parenting news: First up, Virginia is for Ass-Scratchers:...
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January 15, 2010

IKEA Train Track Configurator Calculator

John Graham-Cumming took a break from calculating the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop to write a quick program that calculates the number of possible loop configurations for the 16-pieces of...
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The Hub Discovery Brand Network Kids Hasbro Dynamic DNA Concept Fail

My first The Hub was the expensive, preppie men's clothing store in Raleigh when I was growing up. I got no beef with them. In fact, I still have my first three-figure handknit sweater, which I purchased there in 1984....
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Awesome Triple Throne For Emperor Haile Selassie

Wow, Joey from Anonymous Works just snagged this beat-but-incredible little painting on eBay. It's apparently from an unrealized 1944 US Government proposal to build a "triple throne" for His Freshly Re-installed Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Signed...
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It's My Turn-Of-The-Century Baby In A Box!

Dr. Martin Couney pioneered the treatment of premature infants in the US. He exhibited babies he was treating in incubators at a succession of expos and world's fairs around the turn of the last century. Then he settled into...
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January 14, 2010

Bauhausgezeichnet! Alma Siedhoff-Buscher Blocks On eBay

An original Bauhaus children's toy by the Bauhaus designer, Alma Siedhoff-Buscher. It is a Bauhaus Building Block Set, circa 1923. The set consists of 48 rectangular blocks in different colors in their original presentation box. The box size is...
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January 13, 2010

Wednesday WTF: Texas Preschooler Suspended For "Beatles Hair"

From The NY Times story on why 4-year-old Taylor Pugh's long hair means must continue to "be separated from other children" in his public preschool class:The boy, Taylor Pugh, says he likes his hair long and curly. But on Monday...
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Dammit! I Was Going To Blog Geoffrey Hoyle's 2010!

Well, there goes my big 2010 Daddy Types Breakout Web Traffic 3.0 Strategy out the window. Someone else has already started overblogging 2010: Living In The Future, a goofy, purple children's book written by Geoffrey Hoyle, with illustrations by...
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Spiral Staircase Slide

I love it when a plan comes together. A friend had emailed just the other day, asking if I knew of any more awesome slides built into houses besides that underground eco-dreamhouse deal Alex Michaelis built in London. And...
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January 12, 2010

Pop Goes The Weasel

She was literally begging for it while wearing her swimsuit around the house all day, so last week, K2 and I started swimming lessons. We go to the brand new city pool near us in DC, which--hey-ho!--is utterly fantastic. And...
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Who Killed Cock Robin? Who Put It In My First Nursery Book?

The first thing to know is that My First Nursery Book, with illustrations by the Polish/British avant-garde artist and publisher Franciszka Themerson, has just been reissued in its original 1947 form, and you and I and everyone should buy...
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The Soviet Union Died So That This Children's Book Might Live

Wow. The Miracle of Life is a 1992 elementary school book from Russia, which just the year before had been the Soviet Union. I'd say it was a fair trade. As far as basic explanations of life, birth, and...
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January 11, 2010

Barefoot & Pregnant: Time's 1960 Women Of The Year

This was the cover of Time Magazine fifty years ago today, January 11, 1960. That's when Our American Way Of Life was under siege from "That Population Explosion," which was apparently the fault of "Those Constantly Pregnant Women And...
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January 10, 2010

DT Friday Freakout: Weekend Washout Edition

It's 10 o'clock. Is it too late to ruin your weekend with alarming news from the worlds of science, medicine, safety, and parenting advice? The BBC reports that a parental survey of some kind finds that "'One in six' children...
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January 9, 2010

Actually, His Dad Was Gumby, Dammit

Art Clokey, who, with his first wife Ruth, created Gumby, died Friday at the age of 89. Clokey's parents divorced when he was 9, and he stayed with his father. For a year or so--but not two--when his father was...
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January 8, 2010

I'd Totally Keep That Picasso Toy Guitar, Too

Paloma Picasso was born in 1949, which means Pablo probably made this little toy guitar for her in the early 1950s. Picasso was in the sculpting zone at the time, creating playful, iconic works like his mother baboon with...
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Belgian Waffling: Breastfeeding Cafes Will Open Twice A Month

So I think I'm reading this right.Yesterday was the first day for the Mamma Cafe in Brussels, a 20-location, breastfeeding-friendly cafe designed to support breastfeeding moms and families, and to help overcome womens' reservations about breastfeeding in public Feedings...
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Snow!!

Grups, schmups. Nothing crystallizes the vast difference of perspective between parent and kid like waking up to a snow day....
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January 7, 2010

International Discourse Coloring Book By Ian James

I've posted a picture of the Karl Marx page before, but the International Discourse Coloring Book by artist Ian James deserves special attention. The book, such as it exists, is really only an instantiation of a larger project, The...
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Cake Cups!

Pumpkin = pumpkin patch, pumpkin pie Cupcake = cake cup Snow = snowflake, snowball Airport = airplaneport, but Airplane = hairplane [my wife reminded me of these two] After I'd been working in France a while, a French colleague asked...
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January 6, 2010

Margaret Wise Brown Was As Wack As She Was Prolific

Munro Leaf's always a classic, but seriously, Margaret Wise Brown, what is up? I can't decide which ten books from Curious Pages' massive bloglist of "Recommended inappropriate books for kids" to post about next. Buy a collectible copy of...
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Club Libby Lu Now Black Folks' Problem

Part of me doesn't even want to go there, but yesterday this BMW flipped a U turn right in front of me, from the far right lane. Fortunately, I was stopped dead by the horrifying adwrapping, and disaster was...
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Wrong, Wrong, Wrong 'By' Andy Warhol

Let's be clear that Andy Warhol did not write any books between 1994 and 1997, because he was 7-10 years dead. In a fit of stocking-stuffing genius, however, starting in Holiday '94, The Warhol Foundation executed several keyword searches...
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January 5, 2010

Heinz Coloring Book

Photo and ephemera collector Jim Linderman suggests--or jokes, I can't tell--that the 1927 promotiocational classic, Heinz Kindergarten Book: Pictures To Trace might have provided early source material for Andy Warhol. Who knows? Warhol was certainly a voracious a collector...
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Daniel Guzman, Not A Coloring Book

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Reina del Narco (2009) by Daniel Guzman, originally uploaded by C-Monster. C-Monster snapped this photo...
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Four Colors Four Words

I didn't anticipate the sheer, bemused pleasure I feel watching the kid laugh out loud every time she sees her most recent favorite artwork, a major, early Joseph Kosuth at the Hirshhorn Museum whose title is as obvious as...
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January 4, 2010

All Amby Baby Hammocks Recalled After Two Suffocation Deaths

As a designer/owner/parent of an atypical crib, I have always wondered what safety tests standards or tests are used for baby hammocks. They all seem so squishy soft and slingy, not qualities I'd associate with lowered suffocation or SIDS...
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While A Party, This Ain't, In Fact, No Disco

Congratulations to the Wary Meyerses whose kid finally arrived--11 pounds! While they were waiting, the DIY design gurubloggers whipped up a little outfit for him out of leftover hospital gowns, and they turned the standard-issue plexi hospital bassinet into...
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January 3, 2010

DONE: The DT Instaproject Doll Cradle

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Well, it's done, and just in time, but don't look for me to be opening...
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January 1, 2010

DT Friday Freakout: Out With The Old Freakouts Edition

Part of me thought I should do a Top 10,000 Freakouts of 2009 List, but I realized there are really only three Freakouts, and they don't ever change: Your kid's gear is dangerous and/or deadly. Your kid's world is full...
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