Secondhand Rose found lots of amusing little Rieslings, among them this long little doggie. You might find the pinup wine varieties sweeter drinking companions.
Category: Amusement Park
Going Where Boys Dare To Go
Around here, we joke that I’m only allowed upstairs— which is a euphemism for the fact that maybe I shouldn’t go out in public much. Mainly because I get emotional. If I’m not easily amused (or even more easily confused), I’m infuriated. And pretty much all the emotions in between. Case in point, last weekend’s trip to the Mall Of America where I was amused by several of the displays at The Boys Adventure Store.
Perhaps mannequins with heads would be better used to sell camping — especially with the large bear looming behind them. I’m a mom. I worry about these things.
I did learn something though: rabbits can survive in black holes.
As far as the shop itself goes, The Boys Adventure Store is a JMCremps creation, which means it has religious tones. Meh. Maybe that’s why they insist on marketing this as “for boys”. But, yeah, why can’t this outdoorsy fun adventure stuff be for girls too?
In terms of shopping, the items are either for real little boys (toys to push, toys to ride on, and the like) or stuff that seems to leap light-years into adulthood. Teaching kids how to throw knives and tomahawks? (When I held that up in the store, my mom read it as “Kite Throwing” — that makes far more sense, I think.) If you have older kids, and kids you can trust and will supervise, then check out the shop and the official blog. (Admittedly, the blog is far more sane sounding.)
Bowling In Bakelite – But Still With Wooden Pins
What a trophy! Swirled butterscotch catalin Bakelite, with a golden bowling girl and wooden bowling pins. For sale here.
Bring On The Peeps!
Some past works made with marshmallow Peeps entered in a 2012 contest held at the Thorson Memorial Library in Elbow Lake, MN. Even diabetics can’t resist little dioramas made with Peeps!
Mayor Wagner, Your Horoscope For March 30, 1954
Chart for the mayor of New York City denotes that he will do a good job, despite his lack of support.
From Underpants & Lederhosen To Kilts
I still yearn to see Sir Oliver T. Puddington in lederhosen — but that doesn’t mean I am also not enthralled by the idea of seeing our Basset Hound in a kilt. Bonus points for being able to also get the other pets into the action, or portrait, as the case may be. Custom pet portraits by Fotos 2 Art.
Dog Laundry
Ah, the cutthroat world of dog launderers. From what I can tell, this “Billy and Betty Adventure” from the April 1940 issue of True Story magazine involved a pint-sized mob extortion, probably laundering dogs used during cocaine transactions. You know, you sell a bunch of coke, get a truckload of dogs, but you can’t just spend those dogs, otherwise people will be able to track the dope back to you. So, you blackmail Billy and Betty into laundering your dogs, which clears the trail and keeps the DEA off your back. Sounds legit? Yeah, I should’ve just read the story.
Maintaining A Charge Is Key
Hurray, CableOrganizer.com sent me a BlueLounge® Kii™ Portable iPhone/iPad Charger to review! Kiis get their name from their neatest feature — the ability to carry the charger on your keyring! This super-slim portability means that I can always have my charger with me, whether I’m on a barn pick, American Pickers‘ style, yacking on the phone while on the road, or just draining my device’s battery playing games at home.
Kiis are dual-sided. At one end is an Apple connector to connect to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod; the other is a USB to plug directly in to your laptop or solar charger for charging.
The Kii connector comes in in 30-pin and Lightning versions; 30-pin is for older devices, Lightning is for iPhone 5, iPod Touch (5th gen), iPod Nano (7th gen), iPad (4th gen), and iPad Mini. This review is of the 30-pin version; but other than a few design aesthetics (which you can see in this photo from Bluelounge), and the adaptation for newer Apple devices, the products are the same.
My main worry about this portable charger was how well it would stay attached to the “cap” when on the keychain, after all, that’s the cool feature of this portable charger. But it snaps securely in place and remains on the charger until you remove it — aces!
It looks like the Lightning chargers are even more secure, so you should have no worries there.
The uber-portable BlueLounge® Kii™ chargers come in black and white. If you need several of these chargers in your house, say one for each of your kids, you can personalize the plastic “fob” — or you can always add different keyrings, etc. for easy identification.
Stairway To Stardom
Starting in the late Seventies, public access cable television in New York experienced Stairway to Stardom, a reality-TV program at its finest. People wishing to make a stab at television stardom could write in, schedule themselves to appear, pay an appearance fee, and then show up in living rooms all across Staten Island.
It’s as if American Idol auditions left out all the super-talented people and the mentally ill hopefuls, and only accepted people with moderate talent and extreme enthusiasm. (Via.)
The Seeburg 1000
Seeburg was a jukebox maker who hit upon a novel idea: let’s build a jukebox that plays special albums, 45min on a side, and make it peppy, instrumental music to play in stores and offices. The Seeburg 1000 was born! You can listen to this proto-Muzak now, as a constant online stream, plenty of music to make you feel like cleaning your whole house RIGHT NOW.
