Poking around British Pathe's archives this morning (taking some badly needed downtime after the huge avalanche of work finally ended yesterday*) I came across this really funny clip from the 1960s - the first half is about fashionable London women who are allegedly running around knocking over men and stealing their "manly goods" in the name of fashion (see the lady above, shoving men aside to get into a scooter shop and steal their touch-up paint for her nails)! The second half features some cool Mary Quant outfits being modelled down at the river. Silly fun for a Saturday!
*We barely, and I mean barely, made the deadline yesterday, but we did it! Yay! No-one wants to be responsible for screwing up the Treehouse of Horror. I thought I was going to go blind working on that strip....but hopefully it does actually look good. We'll all see in October!
um, I had to look it up. Alderaan! Starting to clear out my collection of girl character stuff and this booklet was in the box with the Leia doll. It cracks me up -- according to Kenner her basic hairstyle is called "star puffs"? Sure!! Anyone care to try these out in real life? I think I'll pass...but I'd love to see someone try it. (Actually, I bet someone has by now!)
You can go see them all in closeup right here. (and whew, now that tuna fish wiggle is not at the top of my blog anymore!)
Today is CPSIA blogging day -- but I'm not going to say much because Evan is busy posting a whole load of information I gathered back in December. Why is he posting about it? Because we realized weeks ago that come February 10th practically every comic shop retailer is going to be a felon. What are comic shops full of? Toys. Comics. Things that look they they are for kids (even if they are not). And comics, along with toys and everything else on the planet, are regulated by the CPSIA rules in less than two weeks. ALL ILLEGAL, GANG! Back issues? Definitely illegal. Everything I've worked on, from Supergirl, to manga, to my own stuff and collaborations with Evan? Hazardous material. I'm glad we sold off virtually all of our inventory in the last two years at various conventions, because we can't even sell it ourselves. Anyway, I gathered a ton of links and he is writing it all up now. If you are so inclined, check in at his blog shortly.
They're starting to roll out the Halloween stuff at Target, and this year they're using Domo-kun as their mascot. No idea why, but since Emily loves Domo it was fun to find him there! Not much was out yet, but we did get a pencil case that had cute little candy bracelets in it; as well as a nasty mockolate candy game (I did not notice until we got home that it wasn't actually chocolate, merely "chocolaty". Grrr.)
Everyone I know thought of it, but someone finally did it -- figured out a way to make a kid-friendly version of YouTube, that is. YouTube is great for entertaining kids with endless clips of kittens, puppies and the Aquabats. But as Evan has noted, on YouTube you always just a few clicks away from the porno. (Okay, not real porn, but I have seen a spanking fetish video come up as a recommended video after a nice little kittens-set-to-music clip with my own eyes.) Totlol is a site with parent-screened YouTube content that you can, in theory, let your kids safely watch. And the skin they apply to the video prevents any "suggestions" you might not agree with. So far, I am for it. I've let Emily roam around on the site while I was cooking and didn't feel the need to constantly peek over her shoulder. It's only just gone into beta so there are still some bugs to work out and features to rejigger*, but the biggest problem is the lack of screened content, simply because not enough people have joined up. So here is my call to arms -- parents! aunts! uncles! everyone! sign up and start adding cool content to Totlol and make it a fun place for all the little ones in our life to go to! (Missy, you know I'm talking to YOU!)
* My main peeve -- there needs to be a parent-managed kid account option so kids can create their own "favorites" list. Not only the the "add to favorite" link tiny and right next to the visually identical "add to blocked" link, you can only add favorites if you have an unlocked account -- which allows the user to access all of youtube (via scout mode), totally defeating the whole point of the site. But if you lock the account...then no adding to favorites. This irks me. And I really should probably drop them a note instead of complaining here, right?
For some reason I didn't see any Face Your Manga icons until just the other day, but of course I had to try it when I did. My "manga" avatar is not terribly off:
But Evan's is dead-on...too funny!
Emily demanded one too, even though there is no "small child" option, so here's a probably inaccurate representation of a 10-year-old-or-do Emily. It made her happy though.
Like all such things, it seems to be luck whether or not you can make it look like someone (I had zero luck getting anything even close to my brother!) But still, a fun way to waste a few minutes if you're bored....(and the site is working!)
Some of you may have seen the Yo Gabba Gabba toys popping up at Target and Toys R us (and ebay, if you want to pay 10x the real cost...). There's some pretty cute stuff! We ran across them last week and let Emily pick out two -- she went for the talking Brobee and the musical Muno guitar. (I think the guitar was her number one pick!)
Unfortunately, when we got it home and unpacked it, it turned out to be just too heavy for her to hold it and "play" at the same time. She loved it, but she could only play with it on her lap, which was just not fun enough...especially when Cornelius came on and she wanted to rock out 3-year-old style.
I was afraid I was going to have to take the whole thing apart to add a strap that would stay on! But when I started looking at it, I realized that two of the slots in the back that the horrible packaging twisty wire went through were in the perfect spots to improvise a guitar strap! So, I took two short lengths of 3/8" elastic, one length of 1" wide cheetah print ribbon (picked out of my ribbon box by Emily) and a hot glue gun....and ta-da! Guitar strap!
It works perfectly - she can already sling it on and off by herself. Here's a closeup of where it's attached -- basically, I just ran the 3/8" stuff through the little holes, hot glued the ends to the ribbon, and then used lots of hot glue and rolled the ribbon up.
I could have used a narrow ribbon instead of the elastic, it really has no function -- I just had it handy. You can't take it off, but if it gets too short I'll just cut it off and make a new one. And now she can go crazy during the Super Music Friends Show and play along!
A few bits of news -- as those of you who read Evan's blog already know, we are working on season 2 of Yo Gabba Gabba! Yay!!! Not sure what our contributions will amount to yet, but we are at least doing some writing. So that is fun.
Speaking of which, the Aquabats/DJ Lance show back in February was awesome, and Emily had a fantastic time! See loads of photos (not mine) right here.
We finally had an actual snow day (at last! a real pile of snow!), it was lots of fun. I think it was the first snow man ever for all three of us, Emily being just 3, I having grown up in Florida, and Evan...well, I don't know what his excuse is! Here are our snow creatures - a snow man, snow puppy, and two snow bunnies. The snow puppy and small snow bunny are Emily's (with help).
The day after we made those, we headed into Manhattan for a meeting (rescheduled because of the snow), amazingly got free parking on Park Ave and on the way back to the car stumbled into fun! Evan said to me, "Hey, look, Scandinavia House" and I said "they have a kid's playroom! It's supposed to be cool!" We went and it turned out we were they on the one day they allow non-members into the kid's playrooms. $5 per kid, parents free. And totally worth it! Emily was in heaven going crazy for the Pippi and Moomin stuff, as well as the Icelandic fairytale landscape in the main room. (The kid's center got written up just a few weeks later in the New Yorker.) Emily wanted to eat at the cafe so we'll probably be heading back soon!
TCAF was great and Toronto was fantastic, I'm only sorry we had so little free time and didn't get to see much. I think a family vacation may be in order sometime soon!
And now, because I MUST PIMP YO GABBA GABBA -- While we were gone, we missed the first showings of Yo Gabba Gabba but we caught up yesterday and Emily is in love. For us it was weird to see something we'd seen bits and pieces of for so long become real! Very cool though. We have airdates for the first two weeks (less than a week and a half now) so if you want to see what we worked on check out our schedule.
One last day of semi-vacation (we actually have a meeting but it's a fun one) and then it'll be back to business as usual. Hope you're enjoying YGG if you're watching!
One of our very longest-running projects has been this set of vinyl figures of Evan's Milk and Cheese...seriously, it's been years, but I won't bore you with the saga. Suffice it to say that after much work and agony on everyone's part, the figures are really truly done at last! We have a set from the first casefull and they came out even better than I had hoped. And I'm very happy with the printing on the box, which was worrying me a bit. The rest of the figures are just about to start wending their way over and will be shipping from SLG at the end of September. Preorders are being accepted now right here, and US orders get free shipping from SLG. On your whole order, so you can throw in a book or two while you're at it.
Now where we're going to put a load of these giant boxes when we get the rest of ours, I do not know!
For those of you interested in YGG, especially if you have little ones in the house, Nick Jr already has their Yo Gabba Gabba! web section up! There are clips, a Brobee game, coloring pages and...if you have a color printer WHICH I DO NOT you can print out t-shirt transfers and masks of all five monsters! (I do think it's lame that you can't download them, just print them...I'm sure there's a workaround for that though). See supposedly home-made Brobee tee above.
This is actually something I have been wanting to touch on for a while, and the article "Blogging Your Baby" on CNET this weekend finally pushed me into actually starting this post. Now, I'm not talking about all blogging about parenthood and kids, I'm talking about the specific type of blogging they discuss in the article - the public blogs with intimate details of children's lives, written by their parents for whatever reason. In the article, they basically seem to be saying "well, maybe it'll bother them but we'll wait and see". I am here to tell you, you don't have to wait. It has happened, and it can be absolutely devastating.
You don't need the internet to "mommy blog" your way into nearly ruining your child's school years. Let's go in the wayback machine to my middle-school years (which do, in fact, predate blogging). My brother and I were good friends with a classmate of our who lived in our neighborhood. He was a nice kid, if a little on the geeky/awkward side at times. (Let's call him..."Bobby".) Bobby was in that middle ground at school - not bad-looking, but not a guy the girls swooned over. His parents had money, so he had the right clothes and stuff, but his goofiness made him a little uncool. You know the type...not really popular but definitely not unpopular.
As you may recall, middle school can be the worst....everyone is breaking down into dating and non-dating groups, most kids are just starting to really be interested in the opposite sex...things are very uncomfortable, and it doesn't take much to make you everyone's scapegoat. Right as all this was going on, someone discovered that Bobby's mom wrote a column every Sunday for our local paper. About her family. Mainly, about her kids. And in this column, our entire school learned (and this is just what I remember):
That Bobby had had a skating rink "date" with an easily identified classmate who hadn't told anyone about it (and the date didn't go well although his mom thought she was "cute" and called her hair "fluffy")
That when he had his first boy-girl party (which I attended with my best friend) his mom bought him cans of soda and he had a tantrum because he wanted bottles to play spin-the-bottle with (as we girls all said, AS IF!!)
That he had gotten really upset at another boy-girl party and called home (supposedly crying) to be picked up because the action was, well, out of hand (my brother and I were at this party, and the action was in fact out of hand because parental supervision vanished. I don't remember Bobby crying, but he did freak out a bit.)
Can you imagine the seventh-grade mortification that ensued? His mom had to pledge to never mention him again; and everyone scoured their parent's old papers for any more dirt. He did live it down, and although he left our school a year later I am pretty sure it was to go to a private school or something. He did have this air of being uncool until he left, though.
I can't even imagine what would have happened if it had been a blog that was discovered. No way was anyone motivated enough to go to the library and look through the microfilm for old columns, but online? We'd have all sat and read them for a week until we knew every horrifyingly embarrassing detail of his life. And even if he'd gone home and flipped out, it would have be very hard for his mom to erase all the things she said...they'd have been quoted in other blogs and articles, and depending on the type of blog she did, probably archived forever in the Internet Wayback Machine! If Bobby's mom had written even 10% of the things I have seen people reveal about their kids online...he'd have left our school that week.
Now, he was a little on the over-sensitive side, and like I said, not one of the "coolest" kids to begin with. But I think a lot of kids are in that position. So...what's my point? While we do mention Emily (and heck, take her to appearances with us) I plan to do my best to protect her from suffering even the smallest version of Bobby's fate. And I sometimes shudder at what other mothers post about their (identifiable) kids, when I think of what happened to him. Maybe he should have been "stronger"...but I think that's a bit to expect of kids at that age. Yes, he did get over it...but it really shouldn't have happened at all. And yeah, maybe if he'd had a MySpace page he'd have written about all these things himself...but having a parent be the one who screws you up at school is very different from being a blabbermouth yourself.
I don't think every most parenting blogs go into this territory. And I'm sure that plenty of kids are going to be fine with the world knowing all the mortifying things they did and do. And I'm sure the parents that do write these things about their kids could care less what I think! But I'm just saying....you don't need to wait and find out what might happen if you may be invading your child's privacy. Because one spring long ago, it did. And it wasn't very pretty.
I'd just like to add, I meant to save this in draft mode, not publish it, when I had some immediate toddler demands on my time. I won't tell you what she did, though ^_^. I think I could have written some of this better but...it went up so a few quick edits and I'm just going to leave it as is.
Okay, seriously, how cute is that? We came across some photos of this new "Tezuka Moderno" line yesterday -- 6 Tezuka characters so far (Astro Boy, Unico, Leo, Pheoniz, Pinoco, and "Sharaku" who I'm not familiar with) have gotten the Cutie treatment from a company called playset procuts. There seems to have been a big art show to launch the line, and a set of capsule toys rolling out this month. Hopefully these will be easy to get, because they are seriously sugar-drenched cuteness! And I, I mean, Emily needs them!
And here's the kid's show that should go on the air right now, Yo! Gabba Gabba!. The site has a trailer and two songs for downloading -- we showed Emily the trailer a couple days ago when she was sick and it perked her right up. She now insists on seeing the trailer as many times as we can stand and has added the phrase "gabba gabba" to her repertoire. (Her favorite character is Brobee, the green stripey guy.)
The show isn't acually real yet, but with the minds of the Aquabats behind it you know it'll be fantastic. Hopefully someone will pick it up and Emily can enjoy Yo! Gabba Gabba! for real someday! (And in the meantime, where's the merch, guys? Do I have to make her a Brobee shirt myself?)
In other news, my hosting problems continue, and between work, upcoming Mocca and Emily's having been sick (and the bad Mr. Jinx news) I can't attend to it right now. Sorry to those of you who have had trouble commenting or who's emails to me haven't gotten through!
I can't believe I keep forgetting to post about this! I got an email last week scouting me to appear on that show Wife Swap; apparently they're looking for some families/wives who are collectors of some sort and came across my old guide to female action figures. So they contacted me to see if I'd be interested -- how freaky! I can't imagine actually doing a show like that -- even if I was willing to look like an idiot on tv for money, I don't really like the idea of putting small kids on tv since they can't make that decision for themselves. But still, a fast $20K? Good thing Emily isn't old enough or I might have been tempted! That's a lot of college fund...and I guess that's how people talk themselves into doing things like that. You can guess at the jokes Evan made when I told him about the email.
We have a lot of Little Golden Books we've collected over the years, including both "collectible" (i.e. very expensive to replace and Emily can't have them) and junky reading copies. But one of our favorites is a tatty copy of "A Year In The City", which is dear to our hearts because someone -- a parent or teacher -- went nuts and started crossing out everything they obviously didn't think should be read aloud to children! Mostly the edits are completely inexplicable to me. See the best ones here.
The [adult swim] special (a.k.a. failed pilot) "Welcome To Eltingville" is up on You Tube now, for all those who never got a chance to see it. I'm posting it here because it can't be put on Evan's LJ...if you want to watch it, click below!
Warning absolutely no cuteness ahead. At all. Also, it's about 23 minutes, and kind of LOUD.
I think we've dicovered one of the goofiest comics-related things ever...this video clip for Serge Gainsbourg & Brigitte Bardot's 60s song, Comic Strip. Yup, that's Brigitte up there, in a brunette wig and superhero costume (which I find creepy, but Evan says is pretty accurate for French 60s comics most likely). Not to be missed!!
Forgot to say - while you're there, check out the playlist that it comes from, there's some really interesting clips of 60s French pop! I mainly know the Serge Gainsbourg stuff but there's lots more I've never heard of.
Mm, don't those french fries look good? But wait - that's actually dessert! These are deep fried custard sticks, disguised as fries by the new and trendy Mamido Burger stand in Toyko, which styles all its sweets and cakes as fast food. The signature sweet, the "Mamido Burger" is a sponge cake bun, with a chocolate cream "hamburger" and kiwi slice "pickles". Clever, clever!! And of course I want to eat there right now. [From Trends in Japan as seen on Treehugger.]
Timely news: the huge tribute to Ghibli studios going on at TMC this month to celebrate Hayao Miyazaki's 60th birthday starts tomorrow! Every Thursday, a set of films will be shown in both their official (Disney) English dub, and in the original (subtitled) versions. Of special note are the films that haven't been released here yet: My Neighbor Totoro, Whisper of the Heart and Only Yesterday. (Totoro and Whisper of the Heart are scheduled for a March release, and my guess would be that Only Yesterday comes out in the fall.)
But even bigger news - if you are a Miyazaki/Ghibli fan you probably know all about the amazing Studio Ghibli museum in Mitaka, Japan. But did you know that they worked on an exhibit that is currently touring children's museums here in the US? The exhibit Jump to Japan(now in St. Paul) includes lots of Totoro goodness, including a Catbus kids can play in, statues and more (and, unlike the official museum, photo-taking is allowed), along with loads of other neat non-Miyazaki stuff and hands-on activies. Kids (and parents) can try out a tea ceremony, go to a "manga store", try their hand at drawing manga and doing animation, and lots more. It's touring through mid-2008 (we are planning to take Emily after her 2nd birthday!) and is a must-see. It's part of "Go East", a whole group of exhibits exploring various Asian cultures, most of which unfortunately won't be coming to a museum we can get to. Check out the tour schedule for all 7 exhibits here (pdf file!)
Even though it's absolute junk food, I do love me some cup noodle sometimes (although what I really love is Mug, which is apparently now discontinued everywhere but Indonesia, from what I can find out!). Anyway, trying to find out more about the fate of my beloved Mug, I discovered this crazy flash Cupnoodle site! Go to "Play and download" for lots of ridiculous (and short) Cup Noodle videogames!
Looking for something watch for 10 or 15 minutes the other day, I discovered that new channels have been added to our lineup again. So far I've found Logo and Current, and who knows what else they've added. Anyway, I sat and watched Current, which I found pretty interesting and about 10 minutes into having it on a "gig" segment started about illustrator Tara McPherson. I didn't recognize her name, but I realized who she was when they showed a few of the covers she's done for DC Comics (although the segment doesn't mention that she works in comics at all, just that she's a poster artist) -- Evan is a big fan of her stuff and had shown me her work a while back. Her work is really fantastic and while I wish it had covered more of her process, the segment is really interesting and well-produced, and heck, how often are illustrators or cartoonists featured like that? Especially in a non-genre context. Very cool. Anyway, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to find out when something's airing next on the channel other than scrolling through the current schedule (they appear to be involved with Google but their site has no search function...huh?!) but if you happen to have gotten the channel, look for the Gigs segment called "Siren of Art". And check out the channel in general, I'm not too keen on the hosts but so far a lot of the content I've seen is really worthwhile.
A friend of mine has tickets to the Studio Ghibli Museum today, and I am soooooo jealous! I hope we get to go there someday (and take Emily!) But hey, you have fun without me, A!! ::sob sob::
I just have to comment on the cover of the book I'm reading right now: Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve; I first found out about it in a British book about cover design, and I have to ask, what on earth were they thinking when they put the US edition out? The original cover (see left) is so nice, a great illustration in a classic children's book style -- and they replaced it with this boring, murky, pedestrian cover that from more than about 2 feet away looks like a whole lot of nothing. Honestly, I just don't get it. I guess some editor just had to put their "stamp" on it. Anyway, so far I'm enjoying the book enough that I will probably want to actually add a copy to our library (and get the sequels). So, amazon.uk, here I come!
Seriously. I was all excited to find out that Kodocha was being released here, since I never managed to get fansubs (that whole baby thing having kept me pretty busy). Evan was going to get it for me until we realized: It's $30 per 3 episode DVD. And there's 102 episodes. That's $1,020. Even at Amazon prices, or with discounts....that's a ton of money. But obviously they think there's a bunch of people out there that have it! When we realized how much these series are costing people we just couldn't believe it. I know DVDs aren't cheap but...the Emma Peel Avengers megaset cost us $99 for 51 episodes, for example. The recent Pee-Wee release? $80 at Amazon for, I think, 48 episodes. How are the anime companies getting $10 per episode? And do "the kids" really have that much allowance to spend? Holy wow.
FYI -- the CBS coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade absolutely blows. Stick with NBC, no matter how annoying it can get. CBS skipped tons of stuff -- they obviously didn't have the rights to show any performances, but they kept promising that (I guess in exchange) they would show "every float and and every balloon" which they most certainly did not. They even skipped one of the paid floats (Mr. Moneybags, a.k.a. Mr Monopoly), don't know how they got away with that! Anyway, our experiment with DVRing a different broadcast of the parade is over, over, over.
Checking for a lamp I thought I had seen, I stumbled across these adorable ghost nightlights! If they really are rechargable, I'm so going to have to get some (maybe blue and red...but then I'll feel bad for the green one...). I had my eyes on these Candeloos but I think the ghosts have them beat hands down! (Not to mention, there's a huge difference between $50 and $9.99!)
I was going to list a couple bands we've been listening to and then I thought, hey, I can be all dopey and do another top 5 for the end of the year! So here you go, totally subjective and of-the-moment, and not in any particular order:
1. Electric 6. One of our absolute favorite bands of 2003, which we still are listening to regularly. I will always regret that we couldn't see them at the Bowery Ballroom (with Junior Senior opening!) because of our stupid schedule + life. I don't think there's a song I dislike on the album, and "Synthesizer" is for some reason my current fave.
2. Basement Jaxx, "Cish Cash". I can't buy that this is one of the best albums of the year (then again, what do I know? I hardly hear anything these days) but the single "Cish Cash" (feat. Siouxsie Sioux) is a must-have.
3. Fantastic Plastic Machine. This is the year I really got into FPM, whose works are too varied and numerous to get into. Funny, we were actually put off by the video for "Beautiful Days" and so I didn't check them out for a while. But now in heavy rotation.
4. Tricky. Tricky, Tricky, it's always Tricky. I don't think I'm capable of burning a CD without putting Tricky on it (keep in mind, these are CDs for an MP3 player, so there are 100-150 songs on each, I'm not completely insane)
5. Chemical Brothers. I've just been reminded by their singles collection that you can't go wrong with these guys. And the video for "Hey Boy Hey Girl" remains one of my all-time favorites.
Funny, I thought I'd never think of 5...and now I can't stop thinking. Special mentions for 2003 will have to go to Groove Armada (does "Superstylin'" ever get old?), OutKast, Loudbomb, and to all the guys and gals over at get your bootleg on for all the amazing/silly/fun/impressive work that they do. And I could name 100s more now that I'm thinking about it...but it's time to stop.
A few weeks ago we picked up some cheap old comics, and among my selections was the September 1962 issue of Nurse Betsy Crane, which I thought would be interesting—I've gotten romance comics before, but never a classic nurse comic. And the comic itself was about as entertaining as I expected. What I didn't expect was the essay in the center of the book. Now, girls' comics of the era often have little text pieces on history, society, or maybe "things you can do for fun". And true, the text pieces in Charlton comics are usually extra-dumb. But I've never seen anything like the essay "Weep No More" in a comic, for girls or not! Now, from the title and quote, perhaps you have an inkling of what this little instructional guide is about. If you don't, here's the topic: "how to be a widow and what to do about it". Yes, a guide for your impending widowhood, all you young ladies out there. And since they do have a point there—this part of a young girl's education is in fact, often neglected—I bring you the salient points. (And anything in quotes is, really, a quote. Could I make those things up?)
Why you should think about this: Because the happy young bride never gives any thought to the possibility of her husband's death until it's too late. "It may come through an accident. A skidding car on a rainy day goes through a rail. Or a customary checkup by the family doctor gives shocking news. And so a young bride of not more than one year finds herself wearing black." And it's true, she undoubtably doesn't. So maybe it is a good idea to put this guide into a girls' comic, because this is the sort of thing girls of, oh, 12-14 really should be thinking about.
Here are the important things you will need to know:
First: The most important thing to keep in mind, apparently, is that "the man you loved so much is dead. Nothing can bring him back." (A nice and tactful way to approach the subject, don't you think?) "You must accept the fact that he is no longer here and make plans for a new life."
Second: Basically, it wasn't your fault.
Third: All your husband's stuff? Get rid of it, no matter what anyone says, because they are "the constant reminder of his existence, and he no longer exists." Just in case you forgot about the part where he died already.
Fourth: Whatever he left you wasn't enough. Go get a job. Maybe now you should go to college. And, "if you have sufficient funds and mental ability it might not be a bad idea to prepare for a profession." If you don't, they suggest learning to type.
Fifth: Consider your current friendships. "Act cheerful and pleasant" all the time if you want to keep any friends. But realize that you will apparently lose all friendships based on your husband's work, hobbies or associations, and all your married friends as well, because everyone knows that married women hate and fear divorcées.
Sixth: Don't let yourself be taken. "You will have to be alert and constantly on guard for a type of male known as THE WIDOW'S WOLF." This guy is basically looking for cheap sex and your savings account. Don't make false moves that will encourage these kind of men!
Seventh: Don't try to act like a teenager again, just because you're single. "The woman of 25 is mature, with different and outlooks than the girl of eighteen she was when she got married." Although, the woman of 25 has been married seven years instead of the single year they say they're addressing, so presumably she doesn't actually need this stupid guide. They also suggest that you "accept your matured self and study it carefully." What exactly that means I'm not entirely sure.
Eighth: Yes, you guessed it! "Your world of men has not ended!" Whew! Thank goodness for that, right? You can go out again, and even get married! But keep an open mind. "Your first husband was a salesman. The second might be a teacher, a taxi driver, or even a bricklayer." Keep shootin' high, girls!
And finally: Please remember that "you aren't the teen-ager any longer. You're a little wiser and perhaps bit sadder but love can come a second time." Keep in mind that "once again you have to be attractive, interesting, and appealing to a single man." But most importantly, believe that you are "morally entitled to your happiness as a married woman." And..."weep no more"!
What can I say that everyone isn't already saying? Mr. Rogers was a second father to almost every North American under about 40, and in some cases he was the only substitute for a father some kids ever had. We were talking just last week about how hard it would be on people when someday he passed away, and we were right, it's as upsetting as we thought it would be, apparently to the whole country. But instead of reading any more people's thoughts on his death, I'd like it if everyone went and celebrated his life instead, by visiting his own non-profit company, Family Communications, where you can read tons of info, and even buy excellently made toys and puppets (yes, puppets!) of the Neighborhood characters; or PBS' own Mr. Roger's site, which has a fantastic gallery of moments from Fred Roger's life, including video clips.
We haven't had a full-size tree since we moved two years ago. For about 6-7 years we had a nice big, artificial white tree which I loved. But after we moved we had a little cat destruction and…no more tree. Right now I've got two tabletop trees (one pink, one silver) but I was hoping to get a full-size again this year, so I've been looking around. Because our house is decorated in a sort of—cartoony interpretation of mid-century modern is probably the best way to describe it—a couple of people have suggested the classic aluminum tree to go with the 50s-ish look. Now, while I think they're pretty, I'm not a big fan of any tree without lights. But I thought I'd look at a few. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, contrary to popular opinion (and most eBay sellers), the aluminum tree is a 1960s icon, and didn't even exist in the 1950s! There's a great history of the tree at Bill's Antique Christmas Light Site, which even includes a copy of the patent, and as it turns out, the very first Evergleam aluminum tree went on sale in December of 1959. So, you learn something new every day. A little research through my own 50s magazine collection shows that for the 50s look, artificial trees came in white and green…but both live and artificial trees were often heavily flocked in any and every color you can imagine. For me personally, finding out that even the modern aluminum trees still can't have lights on them makes me think that white is once again the way to go. Oh, but one last silver tree link: the Aluminum Tree and Ornament Museum is actually only one of many museums I came across devoted to the silver tree, but this is the only one with pictures online. Check out the "growing process"!
In comic book news, I found this really interesting interview with Toshio Maeda, most famous (or infamous) here for creating the Urotsuki Doji (Legend of the Overfiend) stuff. It's part one of a series, which I will be checking back for. This one was particularly interesting because he makes several comments about the American comic industry, some perceptive and some showing that it's not just the American public that thinks adults don't read comic books.
I just have to comment on the cover of the book I'm reading right now: 
We haven't had a full-size tree since we moved two years ago. For about 6-7 years we had a nice big, artificial white tree which I loved. But after we moved we had a little cat destruction and…no more tree. Right now I've got two tabletop trees (one pink, one silver) but I was hoping to get a full-size again this year, so I've been looking around. Because our house is decorated in a sort of—cartoony interpretation of mid-century modern is probably the best way to describe it—a couple of people have suggested the classic aluminum tree to go with the 50s-ish look. Now, while I think they're pretty, I'm not a big fan of any tree without lights. But I thought I'd look at 
