Oh man, back in early July? It really looked like I picked the wrong week to give up crib blogging. The weird thing about being in Japan when WTF? Williamsburg Parents Drove Crib To Restaurant happened, was that I'd...
[read the full post...]
July 2013 Archives
July 31, 2013
Hey Hipsters! Ubaguruma Is A Japanese Crib On Wheels
Chinese Parents Prefer Foreign, Non-Poisonous Formula
If only Big Formula could sell two cans of formula to everyone in China... China's Search for Infant Formula Goes Global [nyt]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 30, 2013
Hafu Kawaiiii!
Japan is a wonderful country known for many things, but sophisticated handling of racial identity and difference is not one of them. I've noticed less use of "gaijin," or outsider, over the years, as more people ask if I'm America-jin...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 29, 2013
Circumcisions, Going Down
It didn't make any more sense, but it really felt like a breakthrough when, in the course of the circumcision debate, we were able to see that "a boy soiled look like his dad" really meant, at some unspoken level,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 26, 2013
From The Desk Of Adolf Hitler
Richard Helms was an OSS agent who went on to lead the CIA during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. [He was fired by Nixon for refusing to have the CIA intervene on national security grounds in the early days...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 25, 2013
Something From The Comments
Just spotted this LOLZ story in the comments on an older post:Today, I went to the beach front with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 24, 2013
Area Man Installs Car Seat Incorrectly
So every thing these people do is going to be picked apart my everyone in the entire world? Count me out. [via publicists for Purveyors of Infant Car Seats to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, apparently] Related: The Queen...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Creative Vocational Educational Playthings
Learning how to tie shoelaces is just one way you can give your kid an edge over his Velcro-dependent playmates. It's important to help your kid prepare for a career, ideally through fun, inspiring, roleplaying toys. And given the way...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Nissan Van Avoided The Crusher, Ends Up On Craigslist
In the thick of minivan-mania, Nissan brought its most Darth Vaderish offering, the 2nd generation Vanette to the US, and outfitted it with food warmers, fridges and icemakers and such. Because that's how we rolled in 1987, living in...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Stop Whatever You're Doing And Teach Your Kid How To Tie A Shoe
Too often we succumb to Velcro's siren song, and we forget that if we don't teach our kids to tie their shoes, we're basically dooming them to a life of loafers and flip-flops. Which is why our entire household...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 23, 2013
Bozart Boom: Three Kaleidoscope Dollhouses For Sale Out There
Dust off your credit scores and fire up the pre-approved mortgages, because the Bozart Kaleidoscope dollhouse market is ROARING BACK, people. Not that anything's reaching the crazy speculative heights of the pre-2008 doll real estate bubble, of course. But there...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 22, 2013
Don't Think About C-Sections When You Cut That Gender Reveal Cake
Heard from a member of the DT Executive Committee that the post with the crowning baby cake is gross. Yes, dear, you are right, I am sorry. So in order to push it farther down the page and out of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
There Will Always Be An English Retrograde Midwifery Cake Topper
Did someone mention childbirthing in England? The Royal College of Midwives sponsored a Great Midwifery Cake-off to celebrate the International Day of Midwifery, which was in May sometime. Adrian Searle's marzipan cake topper is hilarious in that, "Why did I...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
British Area Couple Throws World's Largest Sponsored Twitter Gender Reveal Party
@thisisTomRiley @emirrelevant crowning cake pic.twitter.com/o8EPDoUU9K— Jackson (@SwanseaJackson) July 22, 2013...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 19, 2013
Mountain-Dwelling Japanese Have One Word For Kids Sled. And Box.
I don't know why, I guess it's because I didn't watch enough [any] Grizzly Adams when I was a boy, but I just assumed that in the olden times in the mountains of Japan, when the snow fell thick...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 18, 2013
'The Gap Between Raffi And Rap Has Been Filled'
That's the subject line of the publicist email I just deleted. Unless it's been filled with all the existing recordings of Raffi, plus any and everything related to the Fresh Beat Band World Tour, I don't want to hear about...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 17, 2013
WTFLOL: The Real Tooth Fairy©
ZOMG, The Real Tooth Fairy© "With a target audience of 10 million US girls ages 6-10, who lose 20 teeth, that translates to 200 million Tooth Fairy Moments! And Biology guarantees that will never stop." I love that when the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
This American Life
"Dad says you're spying on us online." Real limits needed for US surveillance before this dialogue becomes real. twitpic.com/d319u8— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) July 16, 2013...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 15, 2013
Congratulations, Babble, Disney & ABC, Measles, Mumps & Rubella
Wow, ABC, which, like Babble, is owned by Disney, has big news for fans of measles, mumps, rubella, and pertussis! Jenny McCarthy, one of America's most prominent vaccine skeptics, will join The View as a co-host. [Disclosure: I used to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Hida Takayama Kids Chairs
Hida Takayama is known for its history of woodworking, and apparently supplied carpenters to Kyoto when it was still the imperial capital. That history must weigh on people's minds, or give them the hook for operating their tourist-oriented business,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Irezumi Kewpie Doll Supercollection
We got back from Japan Sunday safe and exhausted--and up at 3AM, which gives me a chance to get caught up on some finds from the trip. First up, obviously, is the rather amazing assortment of tattooed Kewpie dolls in...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 12, 2013
B-Side Label Sticker Desk, Also Rampant Japanese Sexism
The dancing baby sticker i posted from Tokyo was from B-side Label. We came across an entire store in downtown Kyoto, which had this awesome little school desk and chair in front. As K2 pointed out, the double d-cup...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Philosopher's Playground
Much like life itself, the Tetsugakusha no Michi, or Philosopher's Walk, in Kyoto, was longer, hotter, and less interesting than one was led to believe. So I guess it works. It does have this nice throwback truncated icosahedral jungle...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 11, 2013
Sanjuusangen-do Changing Table
Built in 1164 by order of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the Rengeō-in, or Hall of the Lotus King, is more commonly known as the Sanjūsangen-dō, or Hall of Thirty-Three Bays. It contains one thousand statues of Kannon, each unique, carved from...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Worst Daddy
I thought that even by Japlish standards, Worst Daddy was the world's strangest name for a water purifier company. But looking it up online, it turns out to be one of the newest teams in the Hida Takayama amateur...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 8, 2013
Baby Norinori
Saw this car window sticker at Tokyu Hands at Shinjuku. It's hilarious because it says Baby Norinori desu, which sounds like "baby riding," but actually means, "Baby dancin' like crazy." Maybe it's slightly hilarious. Amusing. It'd be funnier if...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 7, 2013
Tokyo Stroller Check
Stopped by the Tokyo American Club yesterday so the kids could swim, and the stroller parking was a beautiful melting pot of brands. Front to back: Maclaren Bugaboo Micralite Toro, sort of a darkhorse Uppababy Phil & Teds Which...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 6, 2013
Japanese Wagons We Don't Get, Vol. 334:
From a torturous ongoing series of photos of sweet station wagons and family cars you can't get in the US: A Mercedes CLS Estate pulling out onto Omote-sando from in front of Kiddyland, the insane 5-story character goods emporium....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 5, 2013
Kouenji Rocking Skull
So we were wandering through Kouenji, just outside Shinjuku, when we came across a strip of American vintage and antique stores. I can't tell if this human skull painted with what look like someone's drag racing livery was attached...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
July 3, 2013
Muji Baby Room
One of our first stops in Tokyo yesterday: the Muji mother ship in Ginza. Here is the front half of the baby room, with changing tables for three. There was also a sink and bottle warming station, and a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
The Tooth Fairy Came To Japan
The kid lost a tooth on the plane, eating a starburst. I don't know what the going rate for tooth fairies is in Japan, so we want with 500 yen. Which she found under her pillow when she woke up...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
