image: via seo blog thomasthetankenginefriends Speaking of selling out babies, the announcement that, as anticipated, senior executives of HIT Entertainment will be leaving the company when its acquisition by Mattel is completed, led me to this awesomely written article...
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Category archive: news
January 30, 2012
HIT Job
January 19, 2012
Beauty, Mate! Now Get Lost! Greg Wiggle Is Back, Other Yellow Wiggle Is Toast
Oh, man, I seriously haven't given two synapses worth of attention to The Wiggles in years until just a few minutes ago, when I was reminded of them by the four blockhead toy dudes in that Antonio Vitali car....
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[read the full post...]
January 18, 2012
It's A Girl! A Documentary About Killing Infant Girls In India & China & Such
"Today, India and China eliminate more girls than the number of girls born in the United States every year." That's the opening line in the trailer for It's A Girl!, Christian filmmaker Evan Grae Davis's upcoming documentary on the widespread...
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[read the full post...]
January 17, 2012
The Wonderful World Of SOPA & PIPA
On Wednesday the 18th, many people, organizations, websites and companies will stage one-day Internet strike, shutting their sites down in protest of two pieces of legislation currently before the US Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act [SOPA] and the Protect...
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[read the full post...]
January 13, 2012
DT Friday Freakout: Disaster Edition
Well, I just had my calendar cleared, and ended up spending ten hours out with the kids. At one point, we just sat in the car. For like an hour. Just chilling when napping wouldn't do. And then there were...
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[read the full post...]
January 9, 2012
Pennsylvania 6-Brony Thousand!
Here is a thoughtful report from the latest BroNYCon, which was held at the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City on Saturday. At least one con attendee was married, which I think means that the possibilities that a brony might...
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[read the full post...]
January 6, 2012
DT Friday Freakout: Boing Boing Edition
It's the weekend! Which will now be ruined by freaking out over these news stories from the worlds of parenting, health, science, and whatever: Fetal cells basically stay floating in the mother's bloodstream forever. It's called microchimerism. [boingboing, which, hmm,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 29, 2011
BREAKING: Other Half The Population Also Buys Groceries
Maybe it's the MBA geek in me, but man, I love it when industry consultants talk shop, like in this Chicago Tribune article about supermarkets and consumer product conglomerates finally noticing that men do half the grocery shopping:"The mindset has...
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December 23, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Bears & Bees Edition
It's the DT Friday Freakout! A roundup of headlines from the worlds of health, science, and parenting to ruin your holiday weekend: The CPSC announced a recall of 7,260 Bugaboo Bees, all manufactured in 2011, to replace front swivel...
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December 22, 2011
And They Shall Call His Name Emanuel. And His Jesus.
Let's put this story from the northern Brazilian state of Para into chronological order:Claudioner Assis de Vasconcelos, director of the hospital in Anajas where she gave birth, told Brazil's O Povo newspaper that the mother came in because she was...
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December 21, 2011
Lego Occupy Wall Street Riot Brigade Set
"Gear up! Roll out! And put an end to dissent!" Try sayin' Lego's evil now, hippie! Occupy Wall Street Riot Brigade Lego Set [slate v via laughingsquid]...
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[read the full post...]
December 20, 2011
There's A Breastfeeding Flashmob in Brighton Tonight
After a mum was "victimised" by being told that her breastfeeding made some other people in the vegetarian restaurant feel "unpleasant," a "flashmob" of 40 or so lactivists swooped into wherever Brighton and just breastfed the hell out of the...
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December 19, 2011
There Are Underground Preschools On The East Coast, Too
I knew I should wait to post about this. There are now over 350 comments on Soni Sangha's NYT story of the stresses of operating an underground co-op nursery school in Brooklyn, so I'm pretty sure that everything that can...
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[read the full post...]
December 15, 2011
Wait, Have We Really Reached Peak Ava?
No, Avas did not cause the housing bubble. As this graph clearly shows, people with large home equity lines of credit were just three times as likely to nae their kid Ava. Way to look through the wrong end...
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[read the full post...]
December 13, 2011
WTF Angry Birds Playground?
I'm sorry, but unless I'm at a theme park where I pay cash money for my kid to be brainwashed by branded entertainment properties and character-licensed merchandise, I don't want it. Seriously, what school board or city council would...
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[read the full post...]
December 11, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Nutcracker Edition
Whew, we've had family and Nutcracker up to ^^^ here this weekend, so here, just in time to ruin your Sunday night, are some freakout stories from the worlds of science, health, parenting, politics: But first, an open letter to...
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December 8, 2011
This Is Your Brain On Girls. Any Questions?
Oh, you dare, Fast Company, you dare. That's why you're the out-of-the-box thinkpiece trend story content generator!Most would-be parents prefer boys, not girls. Is part of the trouble, dare we say, a branding problem--one that advertising could solve?Unfortunately, the ad...
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[read the full post...]
December 5, 2011
Cup O' Noodles? Cup O' Scalding Toddler Torture!
We interrupt this unobtainable German minivan caroling special to bring you a special DT Monday Freakout: NPR has blown the lid on a nationwide epidemic of toddler terror: apparently, cups of instant soup are designed so that they can tip...
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December 1, 2011
Happy Meals, Now With LOLZ
Does SF Weekly cover anything besides the Happy Meal Toy Ban? I guess I don't know, but columnist Joe Eskenazi sure does get worked up over it. What a smug crank. Anyway, today's the first day of the San Francisco...
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[read the full post...]
November 28, 2011
'Block Consultants' Teach The Test
Oh, brother, what to make of the NY Times' "Back To Blocks" trend story that leads off with a "self-described 'block consultant'" leading a class for parents in block play?As in fashion, old things often come back in style...
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[read the full post...]
November 21, 2011
HolySmokes, Who Acquires Who? I Mean Whom? I Mean Orbit Baby??
Good thing I'm sitting down. Because Rachel from DaintyBaby.com just hit me upside the head with a frying pan of news, that ERGObaby, the baby wearing company, has acquired Orbit Baby, the off-the-hook, advanced stroller/car seat transport system company. I...
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November 14, 2011
Jiminy Cricket, Disney Bought Babble!
It's really pretty hard to top the AllThingsD headline announcing the expiration of the press release embargo: "Exclusive: Disney Acquires Hipster Mommy Blog Platform Babble Media." As someone who once did M&A for Disney and helped buy their first...
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[read the full post...]
November 4, 2011
RECALL NOTICE: Stupid-Dangerousest Disney Trikes Ever Made
Sometimes a toy is so obviously, stupidly dangerous, you hope it inspires extra attention and caution on the part of the adults around it. Take, for example, one of my favorite old Creative Playthings toys, the Inquarium In-Crib Aquarium. It...
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[read the full post...]
November 1, 2011
Holy Crap, It's Contagion-Meets-12-Monkeys In Waldorf Schools
I'm no wingnut, and I don't like to be put in a position of agreeing with one, but day-um, Bay Area Waldorf people! Look me straight in the eye and expl--well, never mind. Just why the hell are 77%...
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[read the full post...]
October 31, 2011
No More Babies, Please, We Have A Winner
Thanks to all the folks who entered last spring's the United Nation's 7 Billionth Baby! Contest. Because she was born close to midnight and within arm's length of this large UN-prepared photo-op backdrop,Danica May Camacho of Manilla, Philippines turns...
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[read the full post...]
October 29, 2011
Bro Earns $100 The Hard Way, Gets Ass Stuck In A Swing
Dude lubed himself up with dish soap and slid into a bucket-style kid swing on a bet last Friday night. Then he got stuck and his friends abandoned him. Had to get cut down by the fire department the next...
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[read the full post...]
October 27, 2011
More Of The 99 Percent Are Kids
The New York Times has a nice article on the increasing numbers of kids visiting and participating in the Occupy Wall Street protests. Its presence in the Fashion & Style section, however, means this is just a trend story, and...
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[read the full post...]
October 25, 2011
Parentlode Hits The Fan
How unlike the Huffington Post to knock off another media outlet's content! In her inaugural post on her new HuffPo gig, Lisa Belkin made it sound like her new blog, Parentlode, was going to be a more gender-enlightened continuation of...
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[read the full post...]
October 21, 2011
DT Friday Freakout
Instead of following the publicists' plan to schedule science, health, and research-related news releases one a day, thereby freaking you out all week, Daddy Types saves them all until Friday, so you can freakout over them all at once. All...
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[read the full post...]
October 20, 2011
B.O.B. Bought By Britax
Now that all their previous merchandise has been recalled for minor embroidery issues, B.O.B. was free to sell itself to over-upholstered car seat juggernaut Britax. And that's just what they did. "The parties have agreed to not disclose the purchase...
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[read the full post...]
October 14, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Occupy Sesame Street Edition
Personally, my weekend's already ruined, full of regret for not doing more with the Occupy Sesame Street concept. Or maybe I'll just work in my Photoshop skills. [tauntr] As for the rest of you, here are a few headlines from...
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October 10, 2011
So Take A Kid And A Kids Book To Occupy Wall Street
Alright, here's what we do. I just got an email from Betsy, who's helping to organize the People's Library at Occupy Wall Street. [The Library's getting great coverage, btw, and GalleyCat reports they just posted their OWSLibrary catalog online.]...
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[read the full post...]
October 7, 2011
And Now For My Next Performance Art Piece...
I'm sorry, did I say the previous post about Marni Kotak was the culmination of everything Daddy Types has been working towards since 2004? I meant THIS post. Surfing through Bushwick performance artist Marni Kotak's website, I learned that immediately...
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DT Friday Freakout: I Like To Be Told Edition
Some of these things have been quietly freaking me out for weeks now. Let me get them off my chest/browser tabs, so they can ruin your weekend, too: "PBS Mister Rodgers [sic] Spin-Off", says the Entertainment Week URL. I guess...
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Kings Of The Hill: Putin & Medvedev Coloring Book
Supporters of Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have published one of those crappy-looking propaganda coloring books which are intended to get media attention from press release-suckered wire service photographers, not actually be any good at all for a kid...
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[read the full post...]
October 2, 2011
WTF Cosmo Noah Tsunami Shelter/Playhouse
Oh, man, Shoji Tanaka, the CEO of Cosmo Power, says his company's latest invention, the floatable, fiberglass Noah tsunami shelter [JPY200-300,000], can "also be used as a toy house for children." It says it seats four adults, but I'm...
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[read the full post...]
September 17, 2011
There's Something About Ginger
European sperm banks: it's the little differences! So many things in this Telegraph story about Cryos, "the world's largest sperm bank," just seem odd. The ostensible news here: "Sperm bank turns down redheads." Which, whatever, it's Denmark, so fine....
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[read the full post...]
September 15, 2011
Crib Bumpers Banned In The City Where They Were Born
The Chicago City Council last week voted to ban the sale of crib bumpers because they are pose a suffocation risk to infants who get their faces lodged against them. The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association released a statement urging the...
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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Big Gulp Edition
Some news from the worlds of science, education, health, politics and parenting, designed to freak you out and ruin your long weekend. I confess, I watched Wall-E with K2 this week, so I've already got a head start on the...
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August 31, 2011
Kid Fills It, ABC News Shills It
How does this even become a news story? How does this exist? It is a giant landfill's worth of PR nonsense. According to ABC News--NEWS, PEOPLE!--"Designer Diapers Big Hit With Moms". What's the hook? What's the story? Patterned diapers exist?...
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[read the full post...]
August 26, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: I Got Nothin' Edition
Seriously? What freakouts could the worlds of science, education, or parenting propose to ruin your weekend that earthquakes and hurricanes haven't already got beat? As luck would have it, we checked our "go bag," which we call our 72-hour bag,...
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August 23, 2011
Help, Mom! There Are Communist Environmentalists Under My Bed!
Leftist subversives are using their "stranglehold" on the Liberal Children's Media to unleash their ungodly "political indoctrination" of sharing, cooperation, and environmentalism on your vulnerable children! If only the Liberals didn't control the rest of the media, too, maybe someone...
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August 22, 2011
Depressing Caption, Meet Awesome Chairs
The photo blog on The Atlantic has been running extended looks back at images from World War II. Today's theme: Japanese-Americans forcibly removed from their homes and businesses and shipped to internment camps in the middle of the freakin'...
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August 12, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Hot Dog Edition
Has it been far too long since inflammatory stories from the worlds of science, health, education, and parenting filled your weekend with Freakout? Well, clear the picnic table: Your bologna has a middle name, it's D-I-A-B-E-T-E-S. A daily serving of...
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August 10, 2011
Now That's A Fire!
Hot enough to fry an egg or a dog's brain? Sure. But hot enough to rain shards of melted plastic playground canopy down on your innocent child's head? Hmm. Even though this photo turns out to not be the...
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August 1, 2011
Huggies Slip-Ons: Pull-Up Technology And Pricing, Now In Diaper Format
I am not really sure that slip-on diapers are really as "game-changing" as Huggies VP Eric Seidel wants them to be. I mean, they are just up-crystalled, downsized Pull-Ups capable of "handling multiple insults." But I am always glad...
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July 15, 2011
Harvard Study Shows You Can Be Too Smart For Your Own, Country's Good
Oh, where to start? How about right where we're supposed to, with the headline: Harvard Says July 4th Parades Make Kids Republicans Which, LOLOL, is this the most ridiculous example ever of the media sensationalistically misrepresenting the findings of an...
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DT Friday Freakout: Best Buy Edition
Holy crap, who needs science to freakout over, when there are crazies on the loose? First the 8yo kid murdered by some random stranger in Brooklyn, and now some dude who says he was high on PCP started freaking out...
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July 13, 2011
Computer Could Start By Removing All The Extraneous Bedding
Computer system designed to prevent SIDS deaths [gizmag via dt reader dt, who also wrote the unimprovable headline]...
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[read the full post...]
July 11, 2011
The Sun Never Sets On Rupert Murdoch's Vast Criminal Empire
The phone hacking scandal and subsequent investigation coverup involving Rupert Murdoch's News International and British police targeted not just celebrities, and the families of murder and terrorism victims, but the royal family, and now, it turns out, former prime minister...
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What To Expect When You've Got Gestational Diabetes In Texas
Large birth weight is a typical complication of gestational diabetes [GDM], a condition which affects around 200,000 pregnancies annually in the US. According to the NIH, physicians generally screen for GDM at around 24-28 weeks, earlier if there are more...
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[read the full post...]
July 4, 2011
Phil & Teds & The Recall Down Under
It looks like the Phil & Teds recall of two models that began its home country of New Zealand a couple of weeks ago has spread to neighboring Australia. Kind of. Actually, no, not at all. Not even close. The...
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[read the full post...]
July 1, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Neuroscience Edition
A couple of stories from the world of neuroscience to freak you out over the weekend: [image: newscientist.com/Michael Crabtree] They know when they've been sleeping; they know when they're awake. A study at Kings College London using MRI scans of...
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[read the full post...]
June 26, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: CDC WTF Measles! Edition
Congratulations, vacctivists, for ruining your kids' weekends by causing them to get the measles! The Centers for Disease Control has issued an official health warning as the number of measles outbreaks in the US has reached its highest level since...
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June 20, 2011
ClubPenguin Dot WTF
I used to work for Disney, and I wish they'd bought my random kid-related, recurring billing startup for $700 million. With those points out of the way, let me say it's hilariously awesome and ridiculous that Club Penguin went down...
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June 14, 2011
Waterproof Sunblock Is A Lie, Says FDA
What does it take for the New York Times to actually call something "false"? The FDA has approved new sunscreen marketing regulations for the first time in 33 years:The rules, which go into effect in a year, will also ban...
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[read the full post...]
June 6, 2011
Circumcision Ban Campaign Not Quite Ready For Its Closeup
So the campaign to enact laws banning circumcision in California without religious exemptions is "gaining momentum," reports the New York Times. At least it was until the Times also asked the folks at the Anti-Defamation League what they thought about...
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May 27, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Measles Edition
Some headlines from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to freakout over this weekend: Can't install them right so you can't get Zipcar, or take them on a trip. Holy smokes, Alexandra Lange asks, why are car seats so...
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[read the full post...]
May 20, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Apocalyptical Distance Edition
A passel of parenting and pediatric press to freakout your Friday, fellows. It's no Danny Stiles, but it'll have to do: So THIS is why the Tylenol PRs have been emailing me all this time. Big Acetaminophen is getting on...
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[read the full post...]
May 15, 2011
Putting The Dwarf- And Stripper-Filled Yachts Behind You
Never let it be said that the SEC is anti-family. With the yacht, the fleet of jets to the Delano, the strippers and the dwarf at his weekend-long 2003 bachelor party all paid for by his sell-side clients, Fidelity trader...
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[read the full post...]
May 14, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Just One Word...Plastics
Woo-hoo, first they came for the BPA, but I was not BPA, so I did nothing. Then they came for the crapload of other Estrogenic Activity-triggering chemicals in basically every plastic everything in the world, but my manboobs were too...
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[read the full post...]
May 12, 2011
Maclarens Keep Chopping Fingers, CPSC Keeps Recalling Maclarens
18 months ago, in an extraordinary recall event we've come to call Macopalypse 2009, Maclaren and the CPSC recalled basically all the Maclaren umbrella-style strollers sold in the US through 2009, after the company received multiple reports of the exposed...
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[read the full post...]
May 10, 2011
They Go Together Like Childhood Cancer And Parental PTSD
So this Boston Herald story is not one of those, "Oh no, nothing worse than finding out the baby has cancer" stories after all. Its' about the inevitably worse stuff that happens because the kid has cancer, and the parents...
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[read the full post...]
Global Automakers Lobbying For Pool Noodles
The industry association. What a racket. Earn millions of dollars a year saying things about politics your corporate members are too embarrassed to have come out of their own PR flacks' mouths. And so we come to "Global Automakers"...
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[read the full post...]
May 7, 2011
Phil&Teds: Metoo High Chair? I Don't Recall. CPSC: And That's Gonna Be A Problem
From the Department of Whoa That's Never Happened Before, So I got a personal email request from the CPSC yesterday. Not some mailing list alert, or even a "Dear Momblogger," pitch. A straight up, "Hi Greg, I know that you...
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[read the full post...]
May 4, 2011
So Did You Know About This Toddlers & Toothpaste Thing?
Because any time I hear someone warning me about the evils of fluoride, I check my wallet. I mean, my wallet-sized map of southern Utah, because I wonder if I'm in one of those towns where people keep watch nights,...
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[read the full post...]
May 2, 2011
Vas A Deferens A Day Makes
First Jason from Dadcentric, now Matt Haughey, I guess this is fair warning that if you are a web hero of mine, you will eventually livetweet your vasectomy. @mathowie [twitter]...
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[read the full post...]
April 24, 2011
DT Friday Freakout
I love it when a Freakout comes together. Parent/gadfly/media savant Tom Scocca flags Newsweek's "sneaky selection" of an excerpt from Priscilla Gilman's new memoir which turns the story of one mother's grappling with her son's complex and rare developmental disorder...
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You've Come A Little Way, Baby Daddy
Some interesting work-life links from the professional world this week. First up, an invigorating discussion from the VC/startup world, which used to be a total boys' club. Founder Jessica Jackley took to Business Insider to reply to one of her...
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[read the full post...]
April 19, 2011
Life Imitates The Onion Replaced By Life Imitates Wonkette
Basically, I don't have anything to add to Wonkette's coverage except the word Texas:The great thing about writing over-the-top joke exaggerations about America is that often they come true! For example, just this morning we were sarcastically criticizing Jan Brewer...
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[read the full post...]
April 18, 2011
Boy In The Plastic Bubble Not A Toy
As winter turns to spring, and Americans start venturing out of doors and out of their SUVs again, the CPSC has found it necessary to warn parents not to seal their children in plastic and throw them in the water...
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[read the full post...]
April 15, 2011
If You Give A Baker An Ultrasound
"Little girl socks or blue building blocks?" The pink ruffle hegemony, 600,000 aborted girls/year in India, cake-based gender reveal parties... Oh, ultrasound, is there any prenatal cultural disaster you're not responsible for? Seriously, people. Gender cake parties. Where you...
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[read the full post...]
April 13, 2011
Today In Kids And Food News
Maybe this should be a Wednesday WTF? I don't know, but I seem to have accumulated a lot of WTF-grade stories about food in my browser tabs: I am still trying to figure out what actually happened in the Detroit...
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[read the full post...]
April 12, 2011
Easter A Season Of Terror For Photo Prop Bunnies
As the cherry blossoms and green shoots of the tulips remind us of the miracle of renewal that is Spring, let's take a moment to realize that for some of the less free among us, Easter is really a...
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[read the full post...]
April 8, 2011
Ganja Man From Another Planet
Good grief. How many times has Marijuana Man been invented, in all the years of weekends, in millions of dorm rooms and on millions of kind of ratty sofas, in millions of bedrooms after the kids are finally asleep,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
April 4, 2011
Ruler-Wielding Scientists: Taint Too Far From Phthalate Exposure To Low Sperm Count
In news that brings a sigh of relief from the Iritable Bowel Syndrome folks, who are all too happy to relinquish their Unhelpfully Euphemistic Acronym Award, a group of researchers at the University of Rochester have announced the results of...
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[read the full post...]
Don't Bring A Tennis Racket To A Baby Crying Fight
March 24, 2011
Sounds Like Fun Times In The Playgroup
Sometimes, blog posts are like a half-drunk sippy cup of milk. Sure, you could finish them right away, but if you tuck them away in the folds of your stroller canopy and just let them sit for a couple of...
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[read the full post...]
March 16, 2011
The Family Of An Unidentifiable Man
Reuters photographer Damir Sagolj has a knack for photographing photographs. Lucaites writes very thoughtfully on the universal power of this photo, for example, of family photo albums buried amidst the rubble of the Japanese tsunami. But I have to...
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[read the full post...]
March 15, 2011
Hahaha, They Put 'The Ivy League' In Quotes
Holy Moses, I've been writing this blog post a thousand times in my head since yesterday. From the NY Daily News comes news that an Over-Upper East Side mother is suing the ["$19,000-a-year"] York Avenue Preschool for "damaging [her] 4-year-old...
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[read the full post...]
March 8, 2011
Vaccines Come In On Little Ninja Feet
See, it's the little differences. Whereas for us in the West it's the fabricated threats of autism, in Japan, it's the sudden spate of infant deaths that sets the vaccine panics off. Prevenar, or Prevnar, manufactured by Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 21, 2011
Mazeltov, Facebook!
To honor the website which recently liberated his country an Egyptian dad has named his baby daughter Facebook. I suspect setting up Facebook's Facebook page will be only slightly easier than toppling the Mubarak regime. To Celebrate The #Jan25 Revolution,...
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[read the full post...]
February 14, 2011
A Liberal Bugaboo?
Wait, when Rep. Michele Bachmann [R-Crazytown, Minn.] says a government shutdown is a liberal "Bugaboo," does she mean it's awesome and a moneysaver, or expensive and crazy? Or is the other way around in reverse? Is it still liberal...
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[read the full post...]
February 13, 2011
Your365? Has Disney Baby's Bedside Partner Our365 Visited You In The Hospital?
Alright, after a weekend off, I am ready to take a more level-headed look at this Disney Baby thing. The world's obviously not going to end when Disney characters start appearing on newborn gear and clothing or nursery walls or...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 11, 2011
DT Friday Freakout
it's been a while since we've had a good, old-fashioned round-up of freakouts from the worlds of safety, science, and parenting to ruin your weekend, so here goes: You might as well let the kid drink Coke, because diet soda...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Disney Is Finally Making Baby Gear
And it won't stop until it sucks up $5 billion of parents' money each year, or until it falls on its face. Do I start with the disclosures? No, I'll start with a blogger's whine. I haven't wanted to...
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[read the full post...]
February 2, 2011
'Wee Felix' Got His Finger Whacked By A Dash
A 2-yo in New Zealand got his fingertip near chopped off by a Phil & Teds Dash, which is not one of the models that have been recalled [again] recently for fingerchopping.:"The tip of his finger was 90 per cent...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
February 1, 2011
Dear FDA, I Think I Just Opened An Email Meant For You
I don't want my FDA rolling over for Monsanto any more than I want my kid inadvertently eating Frankenfalfa, but I'm not sure that calling your entire email list a jerk is the best way to rally the troops here:...
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[read the full post...]
January 22, 2011
Trendy Canada Has Own Breastfeeding Laws, Haters
This just in from Canada's City of The Future: an op-ed writer for the Vancouver Sun has had it up to HERE with self-absorbed lactivists who go around jiggling their "human rights" in innocent furniture store owners' faces by breastfeeding...
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[read the full post...]
January 19, 2011
Wednesday WTF
In the immortal words of the philosopher, "Sometimes you just gotta say, WTF?" For alliterative purposes, this is one of those times: One day, and you can't swing a Russian baby on the Internet without hitting a fevered reaction to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 18, 2011
Dadwagon Babyswings For The Fences
Duck, there's another babyswinging video coming out of the Inscrutable East! And this time Dadwagon's there to catch it. A couple of years ago, a vaguely Russian-seeming babyswinging video made a splash onto YouTube--and got the guy who uploaded it...
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January 17, 2011
'Sperm banking was--and in many ways, is--the Wild West'
Wow, from Maud Newton's interview with Misha Angrist, a geneticist whose new book, This Is A Human Being, addresses the personal, social and political issues of the current & coming genomic inforevolution:MN: Speaking of using DNA to determine ancestry, I...
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Bobos In Utero
David Brooks has a fascinating article book pitch in the New Yorker where he distills all the amazing research in neuroscience to help explain our ice cream choices. Sorry, I meant gelato:To give a sense of how this inner story...
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January 14, 2011
DT Friday Freakout: Medical Clown Edition
Whew, it has been a long week at DTHQ, and frankly, I was looking forward to a freakout-free weekend. But then, well, wow:researchers who studied 219 women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) discovered that women were more likely to become...
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January 5, 2011
DT Wednesday WTF
You know what, sometimes there are just too many WTF's in a day to post them all separately: So minivan marketers say sales are up and minivans are supposedly cool now, because what, the Swagger Wagon ads? The redesigned Odyssey?...
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December 20, 2010
DT Friday [sic] Freakout: Golden Helicopter Awards
Ready for a little Monday Freakout? Good. Then go read Leonore Skenazy's Golden Helicopter Awards, which conveniently rounds up a year's worth of stupid and/or inspired overparenting stories in one big, eyerolling article. If this were on Huffington Post, it'd...
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December 13, 2010
Hidden Hazard? Hidden From Whom? CPSC Finally Launching A Crib Bumper Investigation
Crib bumpers were invented by ace salesman Leo Koltun because after selling every returning GI's knocked up wife a playpen pad made from WWII surplus padding, he still had a shitload of padding left over. The company he founded, Kolcraft,...
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December 11, 2010
Another Day, Another Kid In A Claw Machine
Gawker calls it a trend. Frankly, it's been a couple of years since I've heard of a kid climbing into one of those ripoff toy claw game machines, so technically, it's a revival. What I can't quite figure out...
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November 28, 2010
Breast Milk Of Mass Distraction
Look, I'm as outraged as the next guy who has to have his nuts groped during the TSA's Master Security Theater, but 11 minutes? Couldn't someone boil down the hour of ridiculous harrassment of this "known mom" who opts...
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November 22, 2010
We're All Black Men Now, Honey
I recently happened to have dinner with a senior federal law enforcement official who happens to be acquainted with the head of the TSA. It was right before the TSA's aggressive, invasive new genital-grabbing or naked photography search protocols were...
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November 18, 2010
On The Bright Side, Maybe Trig Didn't Notice They Were Gone
It seems that immediately after their 2.5yo son Trig had an operation, Todd and Sarah Palin left Alaska for five days of campaigning and speechmaking on the East Coast. As a parent, I cannot imagine ever doing that. But if...
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November 15, 2010
Monday Male Mutilation Mailbag
It's remarkable how quickly circumcision rates have been plummeting in the US in the last couple of years. I figure it's people stepping stepping back and actually thinking through the logic and implications of "I want him to look like...
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October 29, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: 4yo Can Be Sued From The Grave Edition
Holy crap, I don't know what's more freakout-able: that two 4-year-olds riding their training wheel bikes on an East Side sidewalk, knocked over an 87-year-old neighbor, who died three weeks months later from complications related to hip fracture surgery. Or...
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DT Friday Freakout: Whooping Cough Edition
You ever have one of those weeks where the news from science, health, parenting, and everything else is just too diverse to freak out over in one post? Well, this is one of those weeks. So for the first in...
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October 19, 2010
Wingnutsac
God Bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her, while ignorant authoritarian religious zealots and their Alaska Birther husbands treat her as a high school cafeteria, and make taunts about the president's balls, which prompts the...
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October 18, 2010
Pennsylvania Maternity Wards On The Frontlines In The War Against 'Poppy Seed Use'
Thanks to Pennsylvania's mandatory drug testing of mothers about to give birth, state officials took custody of a newborn after her mother tested positive for poppy seed bagels. In lieu of any information about what other states might require drug...
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October 14, 2010
Canada Declares BPA Toxic/Toxique In Two Languages
The Gouvernement Canadian Government had proposé adding BPA to the list liste of toxic substances toxique in 2008 deux mille huit. And yesterday they made it official officielle. BPA will now be subject sujet to regulations and restrictions under CEPA...
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October 12, 2010
It Appears That Chicken McNuggets Are Not Exactly Hot Dogs. But Neither Are Hot Dogs.
So in attempting to "report the controversy" over whether the pink chicken Silly Putty photo that's all over the net actually represents the contents of Chicken McNuggets, Daddy Types has been accused of "spreading false information" by no less an...
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October 7, 2010
Those Pregnant Women'll Getcha Every Time
Here in America, we don't think twice when our highest elected officials conceal their pregnancies, and then jet all over the continent without telling anyone that their water's broken because they want to have their high-risk, special needs baby born...
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October 1, 2010
FAO Schwarz Coming Soon To A Toys R Us Near Your Downmarket Neighborhood
So 18 months after buying the crumbling premium brand, and 18 months before the lease expires on its only remaining retail location, Toys R Us is readying a Christmas plan to roll out F.A.O. Schwarz products into its 595 big...
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DT Friday Freakout: Duct Tape Edition
Just in case the rain isn't enough to ruin your weekend, here's a special Foto edition of the Freakout: Apparently, there is an uproar sweeping across the British Isles after an editor in some baby magazine said she didn't breastfeed...
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September 30, 2010
I'm Loving It!
So here's what's going through my head as I'm watching this mystery-PSA [via]: 1) This is your brain on Uggs. 2) Richard Pryor on Sesame Street: 3) 3, maybe 4, and the kid can't even freebase on his own...
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Genital Bleeding! Does The CPSC Have Your Attention For The Fisher-Price Mega-Recall Now?
In its great, revitalized mission to rid the world below our knees of potentially injurious protrusions, the CPSC has recalled more than 10 million Fisher-Price trikes, playsets, and high chairs. The biggest news is the 7 million kids' trikes--sold...
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September 28, 2010
Original Sunshine Clubhouse, Bagram
How much better is the new Parwan detention center than the nearby Bagram torture and abuse center it replaces? Well, for one thing, it's got a visitor center with an awesome Rainbow Play Systems Original Sunshine Clubhouse almost as...
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September 27, 2010
But What Does The Constitution Say About Car Seats?
Let's just look at the FACTS, shall we? FACT: Big Governmentocrats claim that the use of car seats and booster seats caused the 3% drop in 2009 of traffic accident fatalities for kids under 14. BUT overall traffic fatalities dropped...
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September 24, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Got Milk? Edition
What, you worry? Here are some stories from the worlds of parenting and pregnancy and what not to freakout over this weekend: In case you're having a hard time telling breastmilk and formula apart, just remember: they don't recall 5...
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September 21, 2010
Finally, Something A Canadian Can Get Upset About
So polite, so self-deprecating, so peacekeepy, so neighborly, our Neighbors To The North. Until they find out an American mom was improperly arrested for indecency because she was breastfeeding in public. Two years ago. Hmm, looks like the outrage is...
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September 17, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Pedo Edition
I missed last weekend, so maybe you've already freaked out over some of these headlines from the worlds of science, education, health, and parenting? Let's rip that scab off and freak out all over again! You walk out that door,...
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September 3, 2010
DT Friday Freakout
With a long weekend, a hurricane, a roadtrip, and kids waking up at 6:30 when they're supposed to wake up at 8, you'd think nothing could ruin one's weekend any more. Well, the reporters of science, health, parenting, and education...
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August 30, 2010
Vacctivatic Immunity!
Haha, wow, whatever you've ever said about vaccines and thimerosal and mercury and autism and herd immunity and government cover-ups and Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey and the Lancet and fabricating data to serve your litigious overlords, you're absolutely...
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August 29, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Depressing Edition
I know the weekend's almost over, but I think freaking out over these stories from the worlds of parenting, science, health, and education can still ruin it retroactively: You thought "anchor babies" were gonna getchya? A politician in Rhode Island...
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August 24, 2010
Yesterday In Baby Carrier History
So yesterday archaeo-anthropologist Timothy Taylor explained to Gizmodo that the discovery of 2.5 million-year-old chipped stone tools that are at least 300,000 years older than the oldest known homo fossils suggests that not only did humans not invent tools, tools...
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August 20, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Summer Vacation Edition
Some parenting, kid, pregnancy, science, and education headlines from all over to freak you out and ruin your weekend: Despite August not being a good month for launching a new product recall, the CPSC recalled 3,700 Zooper Tango double...
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August 17, 2010
NY Times Writes The Hell Out Of Park Slope Ghost Stroller
Whatever the white-painted stroller chained to the Park Slope street corner mystery turns out to be, it gave Susan Dominus a chance to pause. And to reflect:Many other mothers, possibly used to the sight by now, pushed their own full...
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August 12, 2010
Anchor Babies, Terror Babies, All These Brown American Babies Look Alike
First the good news! American OB/GYN's are winning the War On Terror! Turns out there aren't waves of jihadi women sneaking across the border to have their Terror Babies in the US, so they can take them home to Jihadistan,...
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July 19, 2010
Blame Canada Mary Tyler Moore
A three-year study of 234 families of kindergarteners published in Child Development found that behavior problems in school are linked to two types of families: Emeshed, like "the emotionally messy Barone family in the family sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond," and...
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July 16, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Jobs Edition
I'll apologize in advance for this week's Friday Freakout. I've been trying hard to muster a freakout over anything, anything at all related to kids, parenting, safety, whatever, that can match the freaking out I've been doing since reading that...
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July 15, 2010
Alright, We Get It. The CPSC's Gonna Ban Dropside Cribs.
Big news from the CPSC today: they are making a couple of procedural changes to the safety testing protocols for both full-size and compact cribs! Actually, I think this huge announcement--accompanied as it is by statements from each of the...
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July 12, 2010
DT Mommy Mailbag: Mommy Breath Edition
Good morning, Ladies! Do you ever wake up with that, you know, "not so fresh feeling"--in your mouth? As a Mom you have plenty of things to worry about; bad breath should not be one of those things. Moms should...
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July 11, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Chemicals Edition
I've been freaking out over it all weekend, and there's just no way around it: it's hard to top Z-Recommends for Freakout News: "This made the purchase of synthetic urine feel a bit spendy, but can you blame me?...
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July 4, 2010
Introducing Benetton Diapers, The World's First 'Designed' Diaper
In 2000, the Italian personal hygiene products manufacturer Ledysan obtained a license from Benetton to introduce the world's first designed diaper. "More than just a diaper....It's an Italian designer garment," said a Ledysan promo. Benetton diapers were distributed to...
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June 30, 2010
Now With 100% Less Mongolian BBQing!
Brooklyn has lost its most famous, Mongolian BBQ dome playground. Once a neighborhood hot spot, the NY Times reports the giant steel climbing domes have been replaced by run-of-the-mill playground equipment:Beneath the house and climbing gym, the circles of newly...
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United We Etsy! Handmade Toy Alliance
The Handmade Toy Alliance is getting a boost from Etsy, which makes sense, because Etsy gets such a boost from the army of craftspeople and small business owners whose livelihoods are still set to be snuffed out by the industrial-scale...
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June 27, 2010
'Elsewhere In Manhattan On Saturday'
I'm a little freaked out to read that while I was typing up the Freakout post, a 6-mo baby was killed and her mother was critically injured by a falling tree branch at the Central Park Zoo. It happened as...
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June 26, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Wows! Edition
If the heat doesn't getcha, maybe some sensationalistic news reports from the worlds of science, medicine, safety, and parenting will freak out your weekend: Kellogg's has recalled 28 million boxes of cereal in white foil bags, because of "an off...
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June 24, 2010
Cribocalypse Now Redux: CPSC Recalls TWO MILLION Cheap Cribs
Wow, does this mean the CPSC has finally cleared their Bush-era Cribs Of Death cold case file? The CPSC issued recalls for over two million cribs, mostly dropside but also fixed-side models, from seven manufacturers. The recalls are based on...
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June 23, 2010
Procter & Gamble Totally Crumble In The Face Of Rebel Dad's Pampers Boycott
It's been several weeks since Rebel Dad announced his boycott of Pampers for their four-years-and-counting insistence on calling him a mom in all their mailings and marketing campaigns. And guess what, P&G has utterly caved in the face of this...
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June 11, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: iPhone Edition
Here are some headlines of late, all primed to ruin your weekend with freakoutery: The quantity of new parents' sleep is more important to their relationship satisfaction than how well they thought they slept. Of course, the study was conducted...
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June 4, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Helicopter Parent Edition
Personally, my own weekends have been full of comment spam-related freakouts. But just in case you haven't hand Ukrainian spambots take down your server lately, here are some recent, overwrought headlines from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to...
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June 3, 2010
Your Moment Of WTF: Tauntin' Ain't Just A Town In Massachusetts
Whatever the results of the trial, Luke Kishpaugh, 33, has been banned from public parks in Salem, Oregon:The children started to cry and [Luke] Kishpaugh called the dog off, then once again told the dog "get it." This time, the...
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June 2, 2010
NY Nannies May Get Basic Benefits
Never underestimate the New York State government's ability to completely screw up even the most obvious things, but it looks like the hapless Senate, Assembly, and governor are going to get it together and pass a law giving nannies the...
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May 31, 2010
Mountain Buggy, Kid, Survive Australia's Second Favorite Contact Sport
When they're not watching footie [i.e., rugby with less gentility and tinier pants], Australians pass the time either rolling strollers down sloped platforms into the path of oncoming trains, or watching CCTV footage of same. Last week, it was...
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May 24, 2010
Andrew Wakefield Saga Now In Comic Book Form
Didn't think it'd be Dr. Andrew Wakefield Day around here, but, you gotta blog about Darryl Cunningham's 15-page vacctivist saga comic book when you find it: Also, the publisher of an autism treatment-related book with a foreword by Jenny McCarthy...
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Andrew Wakefield Has Given 4,000 Brits The Measles
Dr. Andrew Wakefield has been deregistered in the UK, the medical equivalent of being disbarred, in part for the spurious and manipulated research paper he published in 1998 claiming that the MMR vaccine was linked to autism. The decade-plus long...
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May 23, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Lost Edition
I don't know if this means anything to anybody, but my 2-yo just woke up from a nap asking if she could keep playing with her giant Playmobil island with the hairplane crashed on it. And in other freakout news...
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May 20, 2010
Raising Arizona
Huh. Who'da thought that the Kids Love Spanish pre-school summer camp in Scottsdale AZ wouldn't have filled up immediately this year?...
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May 3, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Tylenocalypse Edition
We left town early, and so we at least saved our own weekend from the gigantic )#($%ing freakout that is the massive recall of liquid infant's and children's Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec, and Benadryl products issued Saturday. Wait, Saturday? What the...
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April 20, 2010
Celebrate Earth Day By Buying Your Kid's Way Into A Gap Ad
Not really sure what is going on here, but near as I can tell, you can pay cash money to get your kid into a Gap ad. Is this a valid value proposition in our parenting society? If you...
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Got Breastmilk? Billboards
It really is too bad that the Ohio Department of Health didn't go with the most obvious slogan for their breastfeeding public awareness campaign. If those cowhugging shysters at Big Milk so much as hinted at suing, the case...
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April 15, 2010
Last One Out
So weird to think that because they can't build a bunch of condos, the hospital's bankrupt and closing. Anyway, the NYT has the story on the last baby born at St. Vincent's in the West Village. If only the reporter...
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April 12, 2010
Get In The Habit Of Checking Whether Your Kid Is In The Back Seat
It's spring, not too hot yet. And the Gene Weingarten's March 2009 story for the Washington Post just won the Pulitzer Prize. Which makes it an excellent time for every parent to get in the habit of checking, every single...
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April 9, 2010
Wait, How Many Free Diapers Do British Kids Get Every Day?
The NY Times has caught onto the supposed Mumsnet Election Fever that's sweeping British politics at the moment. Both the Labour PM Gordon Brown and his conservative Tory challenger David Cameron and their wives are working the family-friendly angle. Cameron,...
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April 7, 2010
But It's Too Darn Hot
Look, I am truly sorry for all the kids who are getting seared on the giant Mongolian BBQ-themed playground equipment installed in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. But seriously, is there anything more laughable than the warning sign, saying...
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April 1, 2010
White House Notices Dads, Announces Actual Policy At Work-Family Forum
Haha, April Fools! The wife and I had some serious conversations in advance of the White House's forum on Workplace Flexibility. For one thing, she has worked at the White House and organized a deeply substantive yet highly photogenic presidential...
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March 30, 2010
Flimsy Slats Not Just For Cribs Anymore! Evenflo Recalls 180,000 Stair Gates
We have no stairs, so unlike, say, the global pandemic of umbrella stroller finger amputations, the recall Friday of 180,000 Evenflo wooden Top-of-Stair gates feels a little far from my own parenting experience. But 142 reports of broken or...
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What To Expect: Being Mistaken For The Messiah
Not quite sure which is freakier: a food activist/author/dad-to-be getting mistaken for the Messiah after going on The Colbert Report, or being in a religion that has you looking for your Messiah on Comedy Central:Because he matched the profile, hundreds...
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March 26, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: The Nanny Edition
It's been a busy week here in DTHQ, but fortunately, there's still time to ruin your weekend with breaking news from the worlds of science and parenting: The folks at Princeton have published a study showing that high fructose corn...
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March 24, 2010
Brown Stoner Gets Results On Bed Stuy 'Jail' Playground
The timeline on the story of this ill-advised "Jail" playground structure in the middle of a Bed-Stuy housing project is complicated, so please try to hold your weary cynicism and/or jawdropping outrage until everything's settled, m'kay? On Sunday, Monifa...
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After Reports Of 3 Deaths, Infantino Recalls 1 Million Fugly Slings
Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the slings and--uh, no. It is not. The CPSC, Health Canada and Infantino just announced the recall of one million slings in the US and 15,000 in Canada [so few!] after reports of three...
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March 23, 2010
The Dad Presides: Once-Uninsurable Dadcentric Clan Goes National
Wait, so you're telling me that Jason of Dadcentric's 6-year-old kid can't get insurance because of a common pre-existing condition when he was two? That's an outrage! Someone oughta do something about that! And not someday, but this year! Get...
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March 22, 2010
The Mothering Magazine Babywearing Agenda Is The CPSC's Babywearing Agenda
I haven't mentioned the CPSC's recent baby sling advisory notice, partly because I figure the hippieparentblogs have it well in hand. But then DT reader Sara forwarded the official response from Mothering Magazine, a longtime supporter of the babywearing and...
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March 19, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: Glow-In-The-Dark Edition
Wow, Spring is springing on the East Coast, about damn time, too. What alarming/depressing/overdetermined/freakout-y parenting news could possibly ruin this weekend? The study that showed that good, involved dads hurt working moms' self-confidence, for one. It's because of some outdated,...
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March 17, 2010
Quirky Canada Has Own Laws, Stroller Theft Ring-Bustin' Dads
Toronto really IS New York, only cleaned up. If you lived in New York in the 90s, and you had a bike, it would get stolen regularly, and so you'd have to go down to Alphabet City and "buy" it...
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March 12, 2010
I'm A Flu Zombie Today
Barely made it in the door yesterday, now I'm a quivering, aching blob of pain. And just when I think I couldn't possibly feel worse, here is a headline from the Daily Telegraph Korean couple let baby starve to death...
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March 11, 2010
Majority Of 2010 Births To Be Minorities
Unless you've been wearing your white, pointy hood backwards, there's no new news to see here. I just wanted to write that headline. Minority births on track to outnumber white births [washingtonpost.com]...
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Game Changer: CPSC Chairwoman Gives JPMA 'One Chance'
"Let's be frank - your seal of approval was on many of the recalled cribs in recent years." Wow, have you read the speech CPSC Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum made Wednesday at the Juvenile Product Manufacturers Association "Washington Summit"? It's nothing...
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March 5, 2010
DT Friday Freakout: It's What's For Dinner Edition
Lots of scary food news to freak out over this week, enough to make the idea of eliminating every scrap of food in coach sound downright safe. If only there weren't 5-year-olds flying all the planes: Our American Toddlers are...
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There's A Party In Las Vegas! Yo Gabba Gabba Movie In The Works
So Entertainment Weekly gets the leak that Juno director Jason Reitman is involved in a Yo Gabba Gabba! movie. Considering that truly awful kids' TV shows like Dora The Explorer and Rugrats are shoveling out long-format TV specials and even...
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March 3, 2010
Tykes On A Plane!
Someone get these mother#$%in tykes off the air traffic control mic directing these mother(*#$%ing planes! Eh, er, actually, it sounds more like a classic work/school scheduling mess meant an ATC controller at JFK had to bring his 5-year-old kid to...
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March 2, 2010
Drinkin' & Drivin' The Dadwagon
So awesome, and yet so reasonable! CNN has a great story about Dadwagon's own Matt Gross, whose adorable 1-yo daughter is apparently harshing buzzes in bars all over Brooklyn. I'd clicked the article open and was going to read it...
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February 24, 2010
Knocked Up Spokesmodel Can't Fix Canned Food Industry's BPA Marriage
BPA, I sure wish the canned food industry knew how to quit you. Alternatives to BPA containers not easy for U.S. foodmakers to find [washpost] Previously: WTD BPA Spokesmodel: Nice Cans, Pregnant A Plus, Some Travel Req....
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February 16, 2010
Massachusetts: Pummeling The Crap Out Of Restaurantgoers Since 2002
You know, it's funny--and by funny, I mean the exact opposite of funny--I thought today's Massachusetts criminal justice system story was going to be how this 2-year-old post about Stone Cold Derek Lindsay, the arresting-est dad in Taunton, MA, has...
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Lead Bear, Lead Bear What Do You See?
Alright, I'm back! Did I miss anything?The products, which were made in China for Target's in-house brand, were identified as the retailer's two "Message Bears" - one a pink stuffed bear with "XOXO" across the chest and the other...
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February 9, 2010
CPSC Goes Through The Archives, Recalls 500,000 More Dropside Cribs
Just when you thought you'd heard every possible CPSC recall of 500,000 cheap dropside cribs, they spring a new one on us. Today the agency recalled all dropside cribs made by Generation 2 Kids and branded either Generation 2...
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January 31, 2010
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
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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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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January 26, 2010
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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[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 24, 2010
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....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 21, 2010
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 15, 2010
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....
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
January 8, 2010
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
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...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 21, 2009
Surprisingly, This Didn't Happen In Taunton, Mass.
Please WTVC-TV, how should I feel about this story?A 4-year-old boy, beer in hand, is accused of stealing Christmas presents from his neighbors. It's a strange story, but also a sad one. Ah, thanks. On the other hand, if Lufthansa...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 16, 2009
2nd Grade Kid On A Cross, People! What's Going On In Christmas City?
Though we know here as America's Capital Of WTF Dad Stories, the official unofficial nickname for Taunton, Massachusetts is "The Christmas City." Which makes it all the more ironic [read OUTRAGEOUS ATTACK ON FREEDOM] that an 8-year-old boy was suspended...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 15, 2009
50 Million Roman Shades Recalled In A Day
Wow, and I thought the crib recall was epic. The CPSC has issued the biggest recall ever. Basically every Roman and roll-up blind and shade on the market, 50 million units at least, are being recalled because they pose a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Thomas The Tory
Just heard this on the CBC, but the incredulous tone of the UK's Daily Telegraph is a bit more entertaining: Prof. Shauna Wilton, a Canadian political scientist, recently presented an analysis of Thomas The Tank Engine, at a conference. Did...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 11, 2009
Time Out Of It
I'm a little slow to this, but my grandmother only saw the article at her doctor's office this week. Time Magazine has one of those big trend-calling pieces, "Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting," about how This Generation of Parents...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Baby Is Mentioned In The Caption
"Gunshots shattered the windows of a store called Broadway Baby." photo by John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times Look, I'll be straight with you: the fact is, this is an awesome photo, which accompanies an awesome piece...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 10, 2009
Kermithacktivism
This is awesome, so of course, it's not official, just what happens when you sell millions of puppets of your puppets. It's Not Easy Being (a) Green (Revolutionary), by Jeff Horwich, for MPR's "In The Loop" podcast show [youtube...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 9, 2009
FLASH! Dadslapping At Brooklyn Starbucks!
War? Depression? Global warming conferences? Serial, cross-country exploitation of a special needs child to sell a fact-challenged book? If ever there were a time this country needed fewer objects of righteous outrage, this is it. And yet here we are:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 8, 2009
9.000 Rucksäcke By Ai Weiwei
For his exhibit at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, the China's most famous contemporary artist Ai Weiwei ordered 9,000 custom-colored children's backpacks. When installed on the facade of the museum, they spell out the phrase, "She lived happily...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 7, 2009
IDGI
This makes less sense than all the Family Circus comics combined. Does anyone know what it means? Baby Blues [arcamax via jeremy of daddy dialectic]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
December 4, 2009
ASTM? I Barely Knew'em!
As the massive baby furniture and gear recalls keep coming, and the voluntary ASTM safety standards regime the Baby Industrial Complex has fought long and hard to maintain is proving to be useless and even dangerous, the Juvenile Products Manufacturing...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
DT Friday Freakout: Mall Santa Edition
Even though a trip to any mall is enough to ruin your weekend, we'll expand the reach of the Freakout a bit, just to make sure: While the terrorist elf who threatened to blow up Mall Santa in Georgia has...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 30, 2009
First, The Good Autism Treatment News
Even though it's small, a new autism study from the University of Washington published in Pediatrics is being hailed as a "landmark." It finds that early diagnosis--as young as 18 mos--and intensive socialization therapy can "vastly improve" key ASD-related symptoms...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Locking Kids In Trunk Is The Least Confounding Part Of This Story
From Boston's local station, WTF-TV:Fall River police said Michael Monahan, 35, put his kids, ages 3 and 6, in the trunk of his Pontiac Trans Am for several minutes Tuesday morning while he went inside a sailing shop.Seriously, what...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 28, 2009
'We Can Give Him To Grandma Now If You Want To'
From the back cover of the fur-covered Tiny Bear's BibleTiny Bear's Bible is a warm, fuzzy reminder of how God loves his children--in a format that kids can cuddle. Together with their friend Tiny Bear, children discover eleven Bible...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Sleepin' With The Grizzlies
Not only do bears drive our cars and come into our kitchens to make themselves a sandwich, now they are officially certified by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association as an infant sleeping device! Z Recs has the scoop:The Juvenile...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 24, 2009
It's Just A Childhood Autism Treatment
A family in Sacramento is seeing great results treating their son's autism with a teeny, tiny kid-sized daily dose of medical marijuana. This seems like an autism story even Jenny McCarthy could love. [via andrewsullivan] Could do without the Ooh,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
You Put Melamine In Chinese Formula, And'll Kill Ya
Wow, it was a bad week for convicted Chinese baby formula tainters. China executes two over tainted milk powder scandal [bbc via dt reader dt]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 23, 2009
Stork-Craft Recalls 2.1 Million Drop-Side Cribs Of Doom In US & Canada
DT's favorite crib guru Scott said it would be big, and now we know just how big the biggest crib recall in history really is: it's as big as the whole freakin' North America, that's how big. The CPSC and...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
DT Friday Freakout, Meet DT Monday Meltdown
Yeah, the weekend slipped by with nary a Freakout to be had. Fortunately, these crazy stories from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting can still ruin your Thanksgiving holiday: By now it's [week-]old news that in addition to all...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 19, 2009
ЯIP: Gunther Kilsheimer, Creator Of Toys R Us Logo
No way, did you know Toys R Us started in Washington DC? It began as a baby furniture retailer in Adams Morgan [in fact, the original store is now a blues bar called Madam's Organ. All the Baby Boomers raised...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 18, 2009
Working Mother Fans Sexist Hysteria Over Child Custody
Wow. I am just blown away by the incredibly sexist premise and alarming tone of Sally Abrahms' article in Working Mother magazine about supposed changes in divorce and family law. The magazine considers dads' increased involvement in parenting to be...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 14, 2009
Heh, Baby Weinstein
I was just building bookcases, listening to WNYC's weekly radio show, On The Media, minding my own business. Then this bit on Disney's Baby Einstein refund story came on, and I laughed so much, I could no longer operate...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 13, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Home Alone Edition
While the whole family's scattered to various grandparents for the week/night, I'm freaking out about how well the lacquer on the new radiator cover will take the heat. For you, how about some hyperbolic science and parenting headlines to freak...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Uh, No. Playdate By John Waters
Look, it's not that I don't think John Waters is a great artist. It's just that I think his best work is in the medium of film, not art world art. But as a filmmaker who also hangs out...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 12, 2009
Oy, Macopalypse 2009 Now Park Slopalypse 2009
Wow, I miss one day of blogging, and suddenly Park Slope has turned into the hyperventilating headquarters for Maclaren's Rahm Emanuel Appreciation Society:"There's swine flu and Maclaren strollers," said Dara Kass, a mother of two, as she prepared to order...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Macopalypse 2009 2004! Or, How Not To Sell A Stroller
So we're starting to fill in some of the dates on the timeline for Maclaren's Global War On Future Concert Pianists. When I spoke to Maclaren USA chairman Bahman Kia, he said the amputating hinge issue came to the company's...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 10, 2009
Health Care Reform Prop Baby
Well change my mind and open my health care savings account! Now that 7-month-old Maddie has successfully channeled her opposition to health care reform through her zombie symbiant Rep. John Shadegg, I am thoroughly opposed to upsetting the insurance...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 9, 2009
Macopalypse 2009: Recalled Maclaren Hinges An 'Industry-Wide Issue'
So clearly, the biggest stroller recall in history, of one of the most popular brands, for amputating children's fingers is a big deal. But then you realize that the actual threat posed to your kid's future as a concert...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Macopalypse 2009: The CPSC Version
So here's the official CPSC recall announcement for the Maclaren Everythings, for your headline-comparing entertainment:Maclaren USA Recalls to Repair Strollers Following Fingertip Amputations WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Macopalypse 2009: The Maclaren Recall Press Release
Just got a press release from Maclaren's publicists reaffirming the company's "unwavering commitment to child safety," their "Zero Tolerance policy of safety issues," and that their "umbrella strollers meet all U.S. ASTM & JPMA compliance standards." Oh, also, they're recalling...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 6, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Shocked, Shocked Edition
Calm, relaxing autumn weekend with the kid? Not if the publicizers of these stories from the worlds of science, medicine, education, safety, and parenting have anything to do with it: What better way to start the Friday Freakout than...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 5, 2009
Must Credit Dadcentric!! Ford Announces Inflatable Seat Belts
Jason Avant of Dadcentric is representin' for the dadblogging community at a lavish Ford Safety press event in the US Virgin Islands this weekend. Now that he's livetweeted the big news--inflatable rear seat belts!!--he has the entire weekend free...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
November 3, 2009
Ill. Dad Files Class-Action Lawsuit Over Crossed Baby Monitor Signal
So while an Illinois mom breastfeeds in the nursery at all hours of the night and day, the dad chats with the new dad neighbor about how they must have the same brand of baby monitor, because they can...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 31, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Halloween Edition
Because you can only worry about razor blades in apples for a few more hours, here are some headlines from the worlds of science and parenting to freakout over the rest of the weekend: 610,000 cheap-ass Halloween flashlights sold at...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
BRIO? Indies? Toy Casualties Mount In CPSIA Trainwreck
It's been a while since the CPSIA has been in the news, or at least since anyone's sent me anything about it. The CPSC's new lead and phthalates restrictions and testing requirements for childrens' products kicked in earlier this year,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
UK Combats Paedophile Plague By Banning Parents From Playgrounds
As everyone knows, the United Kingdom was founded as a prison island for criminals exiled from Camelot. Given the population's well-established propensity for child abuse, a national paedophile database is being set up, and everyone who gets within 100 rods...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 23, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Nuclear Edition
Here are some stories from the science, safety, and parenting worlds designed to help give your confidence a little extra push--over the cliff. Have a great weekend! Actually, these first two are just funny-sad: Do you remember going outside to...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 22, 2009
Parental Yelling Experts Declare Parental Yelling Crisis
I know this should be in the Friday Freakout, but hey. The New York Times reports that this generation of parents is yelling at their kids in unprecedented numbers. This, according to authors of books on parental yelling, actresses starring...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Splash Flash Not Included: Bernie Madoff's E320 Wagon Gets Auctioned Tomorrow!
Sick kids, White House stargazing, work, family, I know that I've been letting a lot get past me the last couple of weeks, and for the most part, I don't mind. But finding out that I have less than...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 19, 2009
LIFE Magazine Not Just For Photos Anymore
Sweet digitized Xanadu, Google has released the entire archive of LIFE Magazine--through 1972, anyway--online. It begins in 1936, and the fifth issue, Dec. 21, has this awesome pram photo with the surprisingly creepy caption, "Lord Beaverbrook's granddaughter and friend."...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
FTC Investigating Babies R Us For Widespread Baby Gear Pricefixing
From a report in the Baby Industrial Complex section of the Wall Street Journal--yes, it has its own section now, thanks, Rupert!--we learn that the Federal Trade Commission has opened an anti-trust investigation into price-fixing at Babies R Us. The...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 16, 2009
Was That Kid Riding In A Love'N'Care Pram When He Got Run Over By That Train?
So you've probably already seen this video from a CCTV camera in Melbourne, Australia of a stroller with a 6-month-old kid in it, heading right over the edge of the platform just as the train comes. So you know...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 15, 2009
Dads Across America Tonight Are Hugging Their Kids, Checking The Moorings On Their Experimental Helium Balloon Projects
I don't know about your cockamamie, gigantic, mylar balloon project, but mine is not in our backyard; it'll be in the Pantheon or the Grand Palais. Or outer space. Still, I made the kid promise me she wouldn't climb...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 13, 2009
Don't Throw Rama From The Train
A 30-year old woman suddenly gave birth in the toilet on a train in northeast India, and the baby fell down the chute, out the trapdoor, and onto the tracks. So the mother raced out of the bathroom and jumped...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 9, 2009
DT Friday Freakout
The moon is still here, and you didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but surely, there are still reports from the worlds of science and parenting to freak out about this weekend? Yes, and don't call me Shirley:...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
That'd Be The Wong-Baker FACES Pain Scale, Colbert
"His show is like the dramatization of a pain chart on a pediatrician's wall."- Stephen Colbert not giving Dr Donna Wong or Dr Carol Beck the credit they deserve while talking about Glenn Beck [who once advertised his special...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 8, 2009
Inflatable Solar System Just Like The White House
So for the last few months, the wife has been working on a big astronomy event at the White House, which just went down tonight. [High five, baby, you pulled it off!] She had 150 middle school kids, a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 5, 2009
DT Monday Mommy Mailbag
Hey Ladies, I know you're all broken up over the loss of Cookie, but don't worry, there are still plenty of fabulous must-have blah blah blahs for you to buy!Hi Greg, Being pregnant doesn't have to mean putting your fitness...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
WHOA, That's The Way The Gourmet, Cookie Crumble
When you pay McKinsey to tell you to jump, you also pay to tell you how high. And by jump, I actually mean, push someone off the cliff. In the face of an advertising depression Conde Nast just announced they...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 2, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Unfit Mothers Edition
Sometimes it can be really hard to sit on some of these newly released studies all week and not freak out about them. But this way, it only ruins the weekend: The BBC's headline which took a new Institute of...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
October 1, 2009
Huge Private Dicks Offer 'Covert Pregnancy Testing'
TPM Muckraker has some wacked out story about a freaky private army run by an ex-con in the OC which got a 10-year contract to run an empty prison in some podunk Montana town. Among the company, American Police...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 30, 2009
Fire Trucks And Marauding Pirate Ships: New Cambridge Playground The Awesomest EVER
Thank you, Cambridge! Finally, the days of boring, namby-pamby playgrounds designed by product liability lawyers is are [oy. should never have laid off my Harvard-trained copy editor. -ed.] OVER! They build them like they used to in Cambridge, Mass.,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 25, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Snakes Edition
Some reports from the worlds of science and parenting to freak out over this weekend: Some survey found that, because of money worries during the recession, "many women" are delaying pregnancy and skimping on birth control. "Many men" who are...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
It's Just A Plan Colombia: Awesome Activist Art By Beehive Design Collective
I was just surfing through some images of the protests at the G20 in Pittsburgh when I was stopped and stunned by the absolutely incredible banners of art-activists of the Beehive Design Collective. the Beehive Collective translates in-depth socio-political...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 22, 2009
UK Autism Study: Same As It Ever Was, Same As It Ever Was
I know I should probably save it for the Freakout, but I couldn't resist. A new NHS study of autism in adults finds that they're just as autistic as all the kids these days. In other words, the supposed spike...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Mima + Alma Win K+J 2009 Innovation Awards
Well, the huge Kind + Jugend kid gear expo is finished in Cologne [stay tuned for a quick photo roundup]. A couple of the Innovation Award winners stood out--actually, Maxi Cosi's Innovation Award for its line of car seats...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 18, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Back To School Edition
Just some news and science to freak out over this weekend: School officials summoned police to confront a family who rode their bikes to school together. They were told they were "out of compliance." [streetsblog via dt sr wtf correspondent...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 16, 2009
D'oh!
Classic. They teach Phillies fans early not to get too caught up in the thrill of victory. Young Phillies fan reject's dad's foul ball gift [yahoo sports via ponch] A nice interview with the dad, Steve Monforto [nbcphiladelphia.com]...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 10, 2009
Strolle(RED): Bugaboo Joins Onto Project (RED)
Bugaboo announced yesterday that the company is joining Project (RED), the big save-a-life-through-shopping program whereby companies create campaigns and products to raise money and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS and other global health crises. To their credit, Bugaboo is...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Target Saturation Licensing: Skelanimals Are The New Domo-kun
It's that time of year again, when a Target publicist's heart turns to thoughts of announcing which cutesy Japanese character property set will fulfill its 2.5 year business plan destiny and graduate from faux-niche Comic-con nerd fandom to having mountains...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 7, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Labor Day Edition
Rather than ruin your whole weekend, here are a few stories to freakout over on your last day of summer vacation: This Wal-Mart ain't big enough for the three of us: At one of the five Wal-Marts in Stone Mountain,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 4, 2009
Swedish-Male Nipple Engorgers: This Sort Of Thing Is My Bag, Baby
Ragnar Bengtsson is the Mjölkmannen, the Milkman. He's a 26-year-old dad and grad student who just began trying to produce breast milk for some Swedish TV show. He'll be pumping every three hours all Fall. You can follow his...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
It's Just A Brownie
At first I thought this findings published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report would go into the Friday Freakout, but I think it deserves its own post. Emphasis added for humorous/dramatic effect:On the morning of April 7, 2009,...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
September 2, 2009
Wednesday WTF: Don't Bring A Knife To A Homework Fight
After punching his 7-yo daughter a couple of times because she just started guessing the answers on her homework, a Delaware dad pressed one of his knives against her cheek to show that he was serious about the guessing. How...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 31, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Monday Makeup Edition
Did your weekend feel kind of empty, devoid of excessive freakouts over the latest hyperbolic news reports from the worlds of science, health, safety, and parenting? Sorry, my bad. Here we go: Is ICE really trying to take the US-born...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 28, 2009
Marketers Turning To Dadblogs, Says Dadblogging Marketer
I love it when a marketing plan falls together. A couple of days ago, DT reader George heard a public radio news report about how dadblogs are the new marketing hotness: Sony markets to fathers with 'DigiDads' Sony has launched...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 26, 2009
CPSC Does Windows: 5.4 Million Blinds & Shades Recalled For Strangulation Danger
Whoa, now that's a recall. Six of them, actually. The CPSC has issued a sweeping set of recalls of window blinds, Roman shades, and roller shades sold at a whole bunch of major retailers and manufacturers, including Target, Ikea, Pottery...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 25, 2009
First Time As Farce, Second As Tragedy, Or Vice Versa
I swear I was kidding when I wrote just yesterday that circumcision was All-American enough to get the wingnuts to squeal the Pledge of Allegiance. Now some liberal knucklehead's gone and proved me wrong/right by dredging up some birther theories...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 24, 2009
DT Monday Mommy Mailbag
It's been a while since I've dumped a mess of mommy marketing material on here. At first, I thought I was in trouble because I wasn't getting as many tone-deaf, gender-ridiculous press releases; what would I mock on the blog?...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Government Foreskin Panels Want To Africanize All American Baby Boys
How's my headline? Does it sound teabag militia wingnutty enough to get some cranky, gun-toting mobs to wave their "Don't Tread On My American Forskin!" signs outside the CDC? Because the NY Times reports that HIV/AIDS epidemiology officials at the...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 22, 2009
'Don't Tase My Mom!'
Here's that awesome dashboard video of a policeman in Syracuse, NY tasing and arresting a mom in front of her minivanful of kids. She'd just turned onto the family's street when the police officer pulled her over for talking...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 21, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Fish Edition
I've got a vacationful of stucco wall-inflicted bruises and unsupervised children to freak out over this weekend. But in case that's not enough, here are a few headlines from the worlds of scary science and safety: Blow out the candles...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Phil & Teds Moves Mountain Buggy To China Right On Schedule
It's as simple as 3+6=9. March + 6 months = September. March was when Phil & Teds announced it was buying Mountain Buggy, its New Zealand competitor, out of bankruptcy. Six months was the timeline floated then for making a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 19, 2009
The Ice Cream Menace
The NY Times article on the annoyances of the ice cream man cracks me up like five different ways: First there's the whole premise of the predatory ice cream man, whether he's an unlicensed immigrant sneaking into the playground, a...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
Advice For When The White House Asks You To Read A Book To Children
Alright, Melody and Rahm, you are the fifth and sixth White House-related celebrities to read books to large groups of children [the other four being former Utah governor and HHS secretary Mike Leavitt and his wife, and two guys...
[read the full post...]
[read the full post...]
August 14, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Neo-Liberal Risk Culture Edition
What does the world of overhyped science and overly alarming and/or underpublicized safety news want you to freak out over this weekend? Researchers in Boston have found the cure to obesity: brown fat, which burns calories instead of storing them....
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August 7, 2009
DT Friday Freakout
Man, my browser tabs are ready to *POP* with all kinds of research and recalls ready to freak. you out: The next time you have to pay for your own C-section, go ahead and treat yourself. A news study shows...
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August 6, 2009
Funny As A Heart Attack: Mister Mom Writer John Hughes Is Dead
Wow. Considering how many of my neurons are devoted to remembering and reciting nearly every line from the rest of his movies--Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, National Lampoon Vacation, Uncle Buck, Home Alone 1-3,...
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DTQ: How Much Did Your Kid Cost?
Ever since reading Sarah Wildman's article about getting blindsided by a $22,000 hospital bill for the birth of their child, after they'd been paying $126/month for a carefully researched maternity care rider on their high-deductible, high-copay insurance policy, I've wondered...
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August 3, 2009
Welcoming Your Little Bundle Of Joy And Hospital Bills, Holy CRAP!
Wow, last time we heard from Sarah Wildman, she was writing an incredibly insightful article for the New York Times stuffed with the wisdom of hard-found parenting experts on how parents in these New Depressionary times really might not need...
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Words You Definitely Don't Want To Hear, Ch. MCXXI
When you're hittin' on a hot Swedish broad at your wife's funeral: "Daddy, it's me --Tatum!" Beautiful People, Ugly Choices [vanityfair.com]...
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July 31, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: No Toms, Dustins Or Leos Edition
Have we got a pile of overhyped science and alarming news stories to ruin your parenting weekend! "Does Breastfeeding Cause Autism?" This insane headline is the reason the Freakout was created. It is also practically a quote from the UCSF...
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July 27, 2009
DT Monday Mommy Mailbag: Post-Partum Boutique Edition
Evening, ladies! It's only been a few weeks since it was born, but it looks like the Mommy Mailbag is already back into its skinny jeans, no pressure! "HadleyStilwell, a Designer of Clothes for Breastfeeding Mothers Returning to Work, Now...
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Judge, Joovy: Baby Trend Angles For Bankruptcy After Court Smackdowns
One post about The Guiding Light and suddenly it's wall-to-wall soap opera around here. In today's episode of As The Stroller World Turns: A court in Orange County The O.C. has awarded $8.4 million to Rob Gardner, formerly the head...
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July 24, 2009
Red Hookalypse Is Nigh! IKEA Banishes Breastfeeding Mom To Bathroom
Pull up a POÄNG chair, folks, and have a seat. It's gonna be nothing but breast milk and meatballs for the rest of the summer. Of all the furniture joints in all the towns in all the world, a security...
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DT Friday Freakout: Early Start Edition
Usually, I don't get these science, news, and political stories designed to ruin your parenting weekend together until much later in the day. But given today's freakout roundup, I figured it's never too early to start: "A 16-year-old mother who...
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July 23, 2009
Daddy Talks--With The New CEO Of The New The Right Start
I admit, I was caught off guard by Liberty Media's purchase of the assets of The Right Start and babystyle at a court-supervised bankruptcy auction a couple of months ago. What interest could John Malone, aka the Infobahn Warrior, have...
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July 22, 2009
Dads: There're Just Too Damn Many Of Them
If you leave something open in your browser tab long enough, it becomes irrelevant or a bona fide trend. Right now, the trend is, there are just dads everywhere. Dads dads dads. Dads in Manhattan, dads in Brooklyn. They're like...
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July 20, 2009
DT Monday Mommy Mailbag: Rack After Rack Edition
Wondering what Smart, Haute Moms are being sold this week? Just check out these marketing messages meant for the Mammary Set from the Daddy Types Monday Mommy Mailbag: First up, Sea Goddess contouring swimsuits:Hi There - Every summer, women agonize...
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Circumcision Is The New African HIV-Fighting Hotness
The NY Times reports on the latest trend in southern African penises: circumcision. After several international studies found that adult male circumcision reduced female-to-male HIV transmission by up to 60%, hundreds of thousands of men are lining up to chop...
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Bend Over Obama Bib [???]
I didn't have kids in the 90's, so I never needed to answer awkward questions about why Ken Starr, Newt Gingrich and Lindsey Graham were talking about oral sex, blue dresses, and cigars on every TV channel, every day...
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July 18, 2009
Dude, Where's My Oscar Mayer Wienermobile?
Yesterday, a wayward Oscar Mayer Wienermobile slammed into the lakefront house Nick Krupp, 23, rents from his mother in Racine, Wisconsin. The Wienermobile [codename: WEENR] got lost on the way to a public appearance Friday, ended up on a...
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July 17, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Neighborly Edition
The lead time on overexcited science study press releases must be around two weeks, and so the 4th of July gives us time to freak out over some other news this weekend: Lord knows I've seen a few, but Barack...
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July 16, 2009
Mama Bear
O forgive me, for I am a weak and imperfect man who is unable to resist temptation--especially when it is placed right before me on AKGovSarahPalin's Quitter Twitter:Great day w/bear management wildlife biologists; much to see in wild territory incl...
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Special Delivery! DT Mommy Mailbag
It's not Monday, I know, but this seemed like such an important message to get out there right away. Dads, won't you help? Take a few minutes on the golf course this weekend and see if you can think of...
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July 15, 2009
One Backwards R To Rule Them All
Wow, so last we heard from Toys R Us & Babies R Us, they were buying up F.A.O. Schwarz, or whatever's left of it--a soon-to-be-evicted, toy store-themed amusement park on Fifth Avenue, and parents' vague, vestigial fondness for Tom Hanks...
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July 13, 2009
Spring Break Wasilla 2009!!
Nothing like waking up to a giant photo on the front of the NY Times of Sarah Palin signing some snowbilly kid's rack. She's never going to have bathtime again. Palin's Route to Resignation: Missteps and Ignored Advice, photo:...
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July 12, 2009
Oilily Be Right Back
At this rate, I'll need to start a "back in business" tag to go with the "out of business." The bankrupt Dutch psychedelic hippie/moppet clothing company Oilily was recently liquidated; the intellectual property and trademarks for the firm were reportedly...
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July 10, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Beach Edition
How about some alarming studies and news reports to fill your sunny parenting weekend with freakout and doom? Fat and lazy, true, but not dumb: child obesity researchers in East London found out some of their lazier test subjects were...
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July 8, 2009
Right Start Restart: Liberty Media Gets Into The Baby Business
This weekend in Pennsylvania, we passed a mall that had a big Right Start sign on the street, and I thought, huh. Are they actually still open? [They were not.] And then tonight I get an email from DT...
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Ahh, You Never Forget The First Time--Your Dad Asks You To Help Ditch The Hooker's Body
Wow. In a cage match for Father of The Freakin' Year against Alan John Jett of BF Florida, Stone Cold Derek Lindsay just won with a knockout in the first round. Jett took his 5th grade son out with him...
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Brits Say They Created Sperm From Stem Cells
Soon the only thing left for you to do will be taking the pictures. AP: British scientists claim to create human sperm [ap/google] OTOH, this same stem cell researcher's been crying "Sperm!" since 2006 [telegraph.co.uk]...
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July 7, 2009
DT Monday Mommy Mailbag Meets Tuesday Turf War: Our365
The publicists were off for the holiday, because I didn't get any seriously biased mommy marketing pitches until today. And the one I got bears looking into:Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), the leading Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service, today...
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July 6, 2009
4 Million Aqua Leisure Baby Floats Recalled For Drowning Risk [!]
If you thought reaching a live customer service rep at Aqua Leisure was hard before... The CPSC just issued a recall for over 4 million baby floats made by Aqua Leisure between 2002 and 2008 and sold until June...
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Tintori Time! Trendy Toddler-Terrorizing Auteur Talks Turkey
We Love You So has a nice little interview with Ray Tintori, who directed the sadistic 80's horror-themed music video for MGMT's hit "Kids" [and whose name, I just realized, I'd mistyped as Ryan.] Tintori's young, and clearly a...
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July 4, 2009
Build-A-Heroin-Filled-Bear
On Independence Day, let's take a moment to celebrate what makes America great: like a network of drug dealers in the Bronx moving their heroin around the tri-state area inside Build-A-Bears. And the free press who keep referring to...
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July 3, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: The British Are Coming! Edition
A short list of hyperbolic parenting, safety, and science news to freak you out over the weekend: If pollution caused premature births, it would be enough. If preeclampsia occurred more frequently in Long Beach, it would be enough. But holy...
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July 2, 2009
Uh, Yes I HAVE Heard About The Boyfriend's Python Strangling The 2-Year-Old
What I hadn't heard was that the lid on Jason Darnell's pen for his 8.5-ft Burmese python was "a quilt and some rope." Un. freaking. believable. Also, Shaiunna? Or is it too soon to ask? OXFORD, FLORIDA -- Charges Possible...
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July 1, 2009
Snopp! You Must Not Hop On Pop!
A young Swedish couple has decided to raise their kid gender-neutral, and is not revealing whether the two-year-old is a boy or a girl. The paper Svenska Dagbladet interviewed them in March [google translation]. They used the aliases Jonas, Nora...
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June 28, 2009
Taunton's Fightinest Gets Out Of Jail Long Enough To Get Arrested For 143rd Time
So I start seeing a burst of comments about Stone Cold Derek Lindsay, the fightinest dad in Taunton, Massachusetts, and I'm like, "No way could he get arrested, he's in jail!" Way! Even though Lindsay's 142nd arrest--for attempted murder [!]--was...
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June 26, 2009
DT Friday Freakout
Here are some overwrought headlines from the worlds of science and health and such to ruin your parenting weekend: Smacking your kid will give him cancer. In Canada. "Childhood physical abuse is associated with elevated rates of cancer in adulthood,...
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DT Replays Michael Jackson's Greatest Hits
What more could be said about Michael Jackson that hasn't already been said here on Daddy Types? Really, I got nothing. So without further ado, here is the complete anthology of MJ-related DT posts. Summer 2007 was clearly a peak:...
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June 25, 2009
DadCentric On NuPoppa
Damn you sports camp carpool lane gridlock! I missed Jason from DadCentric's interview on NuPoppa, the, uh, dad-centric podcast for, uh, new poppas, hosted each week by Doug and Ted. The wife's out of town this week, so I'm soloing...
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Last Call For Token Father's Day Stories
Have you come across a token Father's Day story from a TV station, magazine, or newspaper? Have you put a link to it in the DT Token Father's Day Contest so you can have a chance to win a Nintendo...
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Gerber, Hanna Andersson Spun Off To Pay The Bills
Whoops, looks like I missed this story from the New Depression. Which I guess was the entire point of the company releasing the news on November 25, two days before Thanksgiving. Kellwood, a women's apparel manufacturer which bought Gerber Childrenswear...
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June 20, 2009
The DT Token Father's Day Story Contest!
Alright, this one will be quick. DT's minivan correspondent JJ Daddy-O has challenged us to a contest, and I think we can't back down. So get out there and find the most ridiculously patronizing Father's Day story you can find,...
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Educational & Entertaining: Why, They're As Different As Colored And White
Did you know that when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created in 1967, a Republican congressman from Texas proposed an amendment forbidding the "educational stations" from offering "entertainment"? These were the two opposing ends of the media spectrum back...
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June 19, 2009
DT Friday Freakout Jersey Girl Edition
Father's Day notwithstanding, here are some news reports from the worlds of science, government, and parenting to ruin your weekend: In two separate incidents this week, Continental Airlines sent two unaccompanied minors to the wrong cities, and USA Today says...
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June 18, 2009
And The Winner Of The 2009 Token Father's Day Involved Dad Feature Story Is...
Ah yes, Father's Day. That time of year when a thick-headed morning news producer's heart turns to Mr. Mom stories that weren't relevant 20 years ago, either, and newspaper editors momentarily acknowledge the existence of entire generations of involved...
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June 17, 2009
Endless Summer Of Luvs
Looks like the NY Times' advertising columnist Stuart Elliott recently caught the Broadway revival of Hair:The moon may not be in the seventh house. And only an astrologer knows for sure if Jupiter has aligned with Mars. But it...
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And In Other Annoying, Talentless, Manipulative Hack News...
Jill Greenberg made babies cry, and then took their picture. Glenn Beck makes himself--and anyone with two neurons to rub together--cry on his flame-fanning, wingnut TV show. Greenberg's 2004 exhibit of her crybaby photos was called "End Times." Glenn...
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June 14, 2009
Secret Asian Man
Studies of data from the 2000 US census and 2004 births show that Asians in the US are increasingly turning to "family balancing," either through sex selection or abortion, to ensure they have a boy. The chances of a second...
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June 13, 2009
MacNetto! Maclaren Bought Netto Collection
I think that's called a scoop. I'm hearing from multiple parties that the deal for Maclaren to acquire Netto Collection was finalized Friday, and it will be announced publicly on Monday. After dabbling a bit with portable cribs, and high...
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June 12, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Playgrounds, Pregnant BPA & Asian Co-Sleeping Edition
Some over-reaching conclusions and alarming news stories from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to ruin your weekend, especially if you were planning to go to a playground, or drink from a plastic bottle when you're pregnant: "Safety Questions...
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June 8, 2009
This Week In Bankrupt Dutch Moppetwear Company News
So what's up with Oilily since the Dutch bankruptcy trustee shuttered the high-end kid clothing company's local stores and then sold off/handed back the trademarks to the Olsthoorn family, who founded the company, and who retained a significant minority stake...
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June 6, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Russian Mice Breast Pump Edition
The Freakout's roundup of overwrought science, safety, and parenting news ruineth your weekend--and it unruineth [?] it with a little dose of Uma: The California Senate passed a ban on BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups this week, one...
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June 2, 2009
American Dude Delivered By Midwife Suddenly Can't Get A Passport
I was just filling out the application for K2's passport--and renewing the kid's--when I caught this crazy passport thread and started pulling. Apparently, the State Department has flagged people who were delivered by at least 200 midwives around the country...
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June 1, 2009
MacNetto?
How many people on how many sides of a rumor do you have to know personally before it becomes awkward to post about it? If what I'm hearing about Maclaren buying Netto Collection is true, then I guess I'm about...
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WTD BPA Spokesmodel: Nice Cans, Pregnant A Plus, Some Travel Req.
Someone leaked the minutes of last Thursday's North American Metal Packaging Alliance BPA Joint Trade Association Meeting on Communications Strategy, or NAMPA BPA PR/BS HQ OMG WTF for short. It's like Treadstone for baby formula cans! Who is Jason Bourne??...
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May 30, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Exercise Edition
Did someone say hidden health hazards? Yes, yes they did. After the terrible death of Mike Tyson's 4-year-old daughter this week, how could we freak out about anything other than the hidden health hazards around your house? This single CNN...
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May 28, 2009
F.A.O. R Us
Toys R Us is owned by Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts. TRU has announced it is acquiring F.A.O. Schwarz, a company whose primary assets consist of two retail leases [NYC, which expires in 2012 and is being...
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There's A Fete In My Tummy! Yo Gabba Gabba Producer Is Obama's New Ambassador To France
Ho. Ly. Smokes. Avec une cerise on top. Charlie Rivkin, the CEO of Wildbrain, which executive produces Yo Gabba Gabba!, was just named as President Obama's ambassador to France. In other world-shaking news, YGG! got picked up for another season....
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May 27, 2009
Yanmama: Japan's Having It's Own Jamie Lynn & Bristol Moment
According to neojaponisme, my favorite source for gaijin analysis, Japan is having a yanmama boom. Whether the yan in yanmama is from "young" or from yankii, the Japanese equivalent of white trash, a few young celebrities are having kids really...
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May 26, 2009
Tanzanian Maternity Ward
Wow, I couldn't bring myself to read this weekend's New York Times article yet about the crazy-high mortality rate for mothers and babies alike in Tanzania. But I just scrolled through Beatrice de Gea's photo essay of the Tanzanian...
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May 15, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Viagra Edition
Just a little list of headlines, recalls, and over-interpreted science and medical news to ruin your parenting weekend: The Northbridge, Mass. bus driver who left a 3-yo on the bus all day had dropped a 5-yo at the wrong day...
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On The Return Of ______ Drives A _______!
You know what I was thinking we haven't had enough of lately? Those fun, inspiring "______ drives a ______!" where we get to identify with a celebrity dad and [possibly!] validate our own stroller purchase a little. Yeah, maybe...
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May 11, 2009
DT Freakout Friday: Vaccine Autism Celebrities Edition
Close readers of the Daddy Types will notice that there was no Friday Freakout over the weekend. Sorry. Things got a little busy, I didn't want to ruin Mother's Day, or when it comes to dishonest and dangerous pseudo-scientific quackery...
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May 8, 2009
Insane Argington Bamboofest At BKLYN DESIGNS This Weekend
Alright, this is like five kinds of freakin' bamboo awesome all in one. Argington is one of the half dozen kid-related design outfits participating in the BKLYN DESIGNS festival this weekend in DUMBO. [The others are Boo-Coup, Casa Kids, Hugh...
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May 7, 2009
Simplicity/SFCA Out Of Business, Into Trouble
First things first: IF YOU HAVE ANY SIMPLICITY CRIBS, CO-SLEEPERS, OR PLAYARDS, CHECK THE CPSC RECALL NOTICES. THEN STOP USING THEM NO MATTER WHAT. THEN DESTROY THEM. DON'T PUT THEM ON CRAIGSLIST OR WHATEVER. AND REPORT ANY SAFETY INCIDENTS...
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May 3, 2009
Leave The Stores, Take The Oilily: Founding Family Buys Back The Brand
Well that's interesting and a little complicated. The government-appointed trustee overseeing the sale of the bankrupt Dutch luxo-moppet fashion chain Oilily has announced a deal, of sorts. Turns out it's the family of Willem Olsthoorn, the hippiepreneur who founded the...
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May 2, 2009
DT Friday Freakout Followup
We had the in-laws in town for a 4-day playdate, so if the Freakout list is late and lazy, I hope you'll understand. Besides, isn't swine flu enough of a freakout this week already? Obligatory swine flu freakout: a charter...
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May 1, 2009
Where's The Outrage??
So a Wisconsin grandma and volunteer crisis counselor makes a coloring book in 2003 to help kids in her town deal with a tornado strike, and five years and 100 days [...] later Fox News throws a FEMA hissy fit...
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Justice Dept. Turns Illegal Hardwood Crib Smuggler Every Which Way But Loose
So I had a call into the press office at the Department of Justice today--more on that later, definitely stay tuned--and their crib guy called me back. Only it wasn't the crib guy I was looking for; it was...
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Cheap Crib Recalls R Us: Dorel x BRU Cribocalypse Tally Climbs To 472,450
The CPSC added another 96,000 Jardine cribs to its existing recall yesterday, bringing the total to at least 472,450. Jardine is a brand name used exclusively at Babies R Us and Toys R Us to sell low-end cribs [mostly...
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Huggies Pure & Natural Hypoallergenic Latex-Free Organic Cotton Huggies Brand Initial Steps Toward Environmental Improvements!
I was one of two finalists to give the student address for my business school commencement. My speech was a hilarious [obviously] reminder that we'd be more effective business leaders if we learn to avoid knuckleheaded jargon and "speak...
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April 25, 2009
DT Freakout Friday: Was, Uh, Yesterday Edition
Sorry I'm late. I hope these alarmist, hyperbolic, or way-too-early-to-say stories from the news will still be able to ruin at least half your parenting weekend: Can't really top the headline: "Pregnant woman hit by car while running from bear"...
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April 24, 2009
Change Volvo Can Believe In? DOT Calls For Side Impact Standards, Mfr Car Seat Recommendations
Whoa, the Secretary of Transportation just posted the findings of NHTSA's wide-ranging review of US car seat safety standards policy [!] to his blog [!!], Welcome To The Fast Lane. The bullet points: "[N]ew side-impact standards as well as increased...
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April 23, 2009
Did You Know It Is Or Will Be Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week Or Month?
So maybe the Baby Shaker iPhone app was released Monday to drum up publicity for Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week--in which case, our society is doomed, because apparently the media only freaks out over a problem with the App Store,...
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Apple Strangles Baby Shaker App In Crib
Apple just wanted the screaming to stop, is that so wrong? The iPhone review site Krapps.com set off a media tweetstorm yesterday when it publicized Baby Shaker, an iPhone app where a baby cries until you shake it real...
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April 18, 2009
Score One For The Little Bunny: Bankruptcy Court Orders Oilily To Remove & Destroy Rosa Pomar Knockoff Bunnies
Wow. If I'm reading my Google Translator right, Rosa Pomar has won. Fearing that publicity and criticism of Oilily's knocking off of Pomar's stuffed bunnies could derail the sale of the bankrupt company, the Dutch court trustee appointed to oversee...
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April 17, 2009
Things I'd Rather Not Be Recorded Saying, Vol XII
Especially if there's a chance they release the 911 call to the media:"I didn't know my wife was pregnant," Ryan said of his 27-year-old wife, already a mother of three.Couple unaware of pregnancy gives birth at home with help of...
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DT Friday Freakout: Spawning Season Edition
Sun's out, it's getting warmer, it looks like a great weekend--for random and preliminary medical research news to undermine your confidence in the way you're parenting! Since April is Autism Awareness Month, we'll start there: Were you aware autism is...
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April 15, 2009
DT WTF Wednesday: Strollers & Syrup
Some quick, headscratching news stories from around the strollerverse: The Albany Times-Union reports that Miguel Angel Rodriguez, 20, was arrested on attempted [!] grand larceny after an employee at Hollywood Video saw him pack "more than $1,000 worth of...
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April 14, 2009
Wasilla Area Man Is At-Home Dad
Luke Dittrich did a Hangout With Todd Palin article for Esquire. It stars piles of laundry, car seat bases, kid handoffs, trips to Target, snowmobiles, splitting childcare with your pregnant eldest daughter, Google Alerts set up for media mentions of...
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April 13, 2009
Diaper Changing Stations We Can Believe In
Sorry for the radio silence today; our timeslot for the White House Easter Egg Roll was smack in the middle of the day, and it threw everything else off. Still, it was pretty awesome. The Obama kids' playground which...
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April 9, 2009
Let's See, What Rhymes With Citi?
Now that they have their fancypants corporate stadium, The Mets are giving their little league fans the shaft. I'll be sure to work this into the conversation the next time the kid asks me why we're Yankees fans. Why do...
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April 8, 2009
UCLA Study: Parents Cutting Costs, Not Foreskins
Actually, the study says that hospital circumcision rates are 24% lower in the 16 states where the procedure isn't covered by Medicaid. But not in Missouri, right? "'We whack 'em all,' says Dr. Renee Stein, whose clinic at St. John's...
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For Sale: One Slightly Used, Knockoff-Prone, Dutch Moppetwear Company,
Oilily's having a sale! Of itself. The Dutch children's clothing chain has apparently not sold enough Rosa Pomar knockoff bunnies to cover its nut, because bankruptcy administrators in Amsterdam Monday ordered the company to be sold. Which is funny [and,...
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April 7, 2009
"Nathan Needs Some Huggies" Still Not Working
Kudos to Southtown Star reporter Kim Janssen for making the connection, but I doubt the 21-year-old Jeremy Humphrey got the idea for stealing diaper money from the 22-year-old Coen Brothers classic, Raising Arizona: As you can clearly see from the...
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April 3, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Smoking Edition
Some quick 'n dirty scientific studies from which to draw way-too-hasty parenting lessons: Remember that Freakout where the breastfeeding, organic treehugger mom was all worried that perchlorates might be in her kid's drinking water? Well, that's the newly discovered benefit...
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March 31, 2009
The Dozen Or So Unhappily Circumcised Man March
If your head's not too desensitized to appreciate it, the Washington Post's story on the 50 or so intactivists who marched from the White House to Capitol Hill yesterday is entertaining. Also a little sad. Two foreskin-mourning college kids were...
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Stokke, Chicco, Chicco, Stokke?
One of the many things I learned from Pamela Paul's book, Parenting, Inc.: Chicco's pronounced KEE-koh. Because it's Italian, obviously. Also, they're huge. The parent company Artsana has like EUR 1.6 billion in sales for three business lines, only one...
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Will Oilily's New Private Owners Address Their Rosa Pomar Problem?
It turns out that while they were launching their new Spring line of knockoff Rosa Pomar bunnies, the Dutch moppet clothing company Oilily was itself being sold. The announcement appeared in the Dutch press two wekes ago that Lea Ward,...
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March 27, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Short Tips Edition
We just rolled into NYC after just seven hours on the road. Thanks for nothing, Delaware. So though it should still ruin your weekend with alarmist interpretations of scientific research results, the Freakout will be cut short today: A new...
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March 25, 2009
Doubling Down: Phil & Teds Buys Mountain Buggy Out Of Bankruptcy
Rachel at Dainty Baby just emailed with the scoop: The National Business Review reports that Phil & Teds is acquiring the other offroad double stroller company in New Zealand, Mountain Buggy. Mountain Buggy's parent company Tritec went into receivership in...
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[read the full post...]
March 19, 2009
DT Xingqi-wu Xitstorm
I know today's only xingqi-su, but it's xingqi-wu in Asia, isn't it? Here are a couple of stories that make you say Wu Tang Fung, if you know what I mean: After that consumer activist group announced they had "found"...
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March 18, 2009
Remember, Son, Don't Take A Knife To A Tattoo Parlor Gun Fight
Judging from the number of people who emailed this tip to me, a lot of dads are wondering what is up with Taunton, Massachusetts' most misunderstood parenting philosopher/mixed martial arts aficionado, Stone Cold Derek Lindsay. Last we heard, Lindsay...
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March 13, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: Lots More Tears Edition
Yes, in case you're keeping score at home, you've already noticed there was no Friday Freakout last week; because we freakin' went out of town for the weekend. So refreshing. But enough of that, let's get on with the overly...
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[read the full post...]
March 12, 2009
Grover, Can You Spare A Dime? Sesame Workshop Lays Off 20% Of Employees
Sesame Workshop announced layoffs of 67 employees today, roughly 20 percent of the non-profit company's workforce. In a statement to the Financial Times, the Workshop said it was "not immune to the unprecedented challenges of today's economic environment," and that...
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[read the full post...]
March 11, 2009
Plush Your Mother: Grass Mud Horse Dolls In China
Long Duck Dong, freedom fighter! The NY Times has a report about a fascinating protest movement that's sweeping the Chinese internet. In response to a massive political crackdown by government censors, ostensibly targeting vulgarity and porn, millions of net...
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Hey Kids, Can You Say Pendejo?
For one brief, shining, hilarious moment at the end of this Jon Stewart clip about his feud with Jim Cramer and the CNBC/NBC/MSNBC conglomernaut, I felt a swelling of synergistic gratitude in my heart for Viacom. Unfortunately, that was...
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March 10, 2009
Thank You, Greatest Generation!
I don't read Thomas Friedman's column regularly, but if he promises to quote The Onion and make me think of Wonder Showzen from now on, I'll give him a chance. The Onion quote you can read for yourself. But...
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March 5, 2009
All The Names In The Times' Last-Bohemians-In-The-Apthorp Story
For everyone who thought the only possible baby names to come out of the Apthorp were Wendy [Wasserstein], Cyndi [Lauper] and Apthorp, the NY Times has a story that will warm your heart. Or jab it like a knife, since...
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March 2, 2009
Some Phony Survey: Dads Flake Out On Books, Should Watch More TV
"A mere 3% of fathers read to their children, compared with 89% of mothers." Somehow, even aunts and uncles read to kids twice as frequently [6%] as their own dads. At least that's the lead finding of a pointless online...
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February 27, 2009
Jenny From The Docket: J.Lo Sues Silver Cross For Unauthorized Promo
God bless Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. The couple and their company, Nuyorican Productions, Inc. have filed a $30 million copyright infringement suit against fusty prammaker Silver Cross for using a photograph of them pushing some prams to, well, push...
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February 20, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: K2 Edition
You know, because K2 chose this week to basically challenge Death at every turn, I've had a hard time freaking out over anything the hyperbolic science reporting industry can come up with, but I'll try: The NY Times reports that...
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February 17, 2009
Brio Bork Bork Bork Bork! What's Swedish For "Bankruptcy"?
Actually, the word that matters most to the venerable Swedish wooden train maker right now is likviditeten. Liquidity. As in, cash. As in, after disappointing sales, extended operating losses, and extraordinary expenses, Brio is facing what its board of...
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In Your Face, England! We Have A Mom Of 14!
Haha, England's all excited now because they have a guy who's a dad of only 13. Wait, what?? [thesun.co.uk] six other baby daddies update: wait, what what?? [dailymail.co.uk]...
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February 10, 2009
Hello, It's February 10th. Is The Phthalate Baby Product Industry Still With Us?
Any shuttered stores? Stopped assembly lines? Quarantined shipping containers? Empty shelves in the teething ring aisle? Tumbleweeds on etsy.com? Wire service photos of despairing phthalate futures traders clapping their foreheads? Though they're not being enforced officially, today is the...
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February 7, 2009
Running Out: DT Runs The Numbers On The End Of Right Start
OK, this is almost literally kicking a dead horse, but I did a little digging into the bankruptcy filing for Right Start and babystyle. At first, I was trying to figure out if I needed to correct the suggestions made...
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February 6, 2009
DT Friday Freakout: "I Was Devastated." Edition
OK, Science may actually have some preliminary research findings for you to freak out over this weekend: Actually, we've been quietly freaking out over this one for nearly five years, since we first got our place in DC, where the...
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February 5, 2009
Wait, Is Right Start Not Honoring Gift Cards And Store Credit?
With the news that Right Start and babystyle have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy [yet again], I made the slightly offhand, slightly serious suggestion that anyone with a gift card should hustle over to a store and use it up...
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Everything Must Not Go! Court Spanks CPSC, Upholds CPSIA Phthalate Ban
Short story: If you make or sell plastic or vinyl children's products, you can forget whatever plans you made for the weekend. Slightly longer story: The Natural Resources Defense Council and Public Citizen sued the CPSC over exceptions the Commission...
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February 4, 2009
8 Is Enough For The Pilot, Anyway
You know, I prefer not to discuss octuplets unless they're named Nahasapeemapetilon. So I've kept the whole, single, baby-obsessed mom living at home with her 14 IVF kids story off Daddy Types. Because seriously, what Then someone forwarded me an...
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February 3, 2009
Use Up Your Gift Cards Right Quick: Right Start Files For Chapter 11
Well, it seems to be official: the blog Strollerinfo is reporting that Right Start, the baby retailer who bought babystyle out of its own bankruptcy last Spring, has filed for chapter 11 protection itself. Sure enough, I just saw the...
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January 24, 2009
Wondertime's Up
AdAge reports that Disney has smothered its adorable 3-year-old parenting magazine Wondertime in its crib. Ad revenues grew 20% in 2008, and circulation was around 400,000--very advanced for its age. But apparently, the company doesn't believe in happy endings anymore--or...
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January 23, 2009
Full Stop? Right Start To Close, Taking BabyStyle & Tiny Ride With It
I have to give babystyle credit, they were a trendsetter, even when it came to going out of business. The blog StrollerInfo.com has posted a suspiciously detailed "anonymous tip" reporting that this morning the baby gear retailer Right Start--which bought...
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DT Freakout Friday: Belgium Edition
Sorry, there's nothing to freak out about here this weekend. Unless you're the one having to deal with my blog server. Or unless you drop the kid off at Belgian daycare. YYYYOOOOWWWW....
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January 22, 2009
So What Are Congress And The JPMA Saying About CPSIA?
We're just three weeks away from the CPSIA-induced small business apocalypse. Will Obama save us? Will Congress? Will the JPMA? The short answer to each of those questions is easy: nobody knows! The longer answers: On Tuesday, within hours of...
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January 15, 2009
Family Services Assures Us There Are Worse Things Than Naming Your Kid Adolf Hitler
And I'm pretty sure they don't mean giving your kid an unpersonalized birthday cake. Still, New Jersey's Youth and Family Services agency is not giving the reasons for removing recently discriminated-against birthday boy Adolf Hitler Campbell and his two slightly...
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January 9, 2009
DTGIFriday Freakout
What alarming, preliminary research are we supposed to use to revamp our failed parenting this week, you ask? Your kid doesn't have a peanut allergy. No one does. They just have over-sensitive yuppie parents. That's the result of a study...
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January 8, 2009
CPSC Tells Junksellers: CPSIA Is Not The Big One, We're Not Coming For You
The CPSC says the "clarification" issued today about the new CPSIA lead-testing regulations which go into effect Feb. 10. is "Intended for Resellers of Children's Products, Thrift and Consignment Stores." But it's also great news for thrifters, eBay sellers, craigslisters,...
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BBC Reports That Pink Princess Thing Does Not Change Girls' DNA
So apparently, girls only like pink, and so that's all the "marketeers" give them. How did this come about? No one knows, but the BBC says it has something to do with Hitler and the gays. There's nothing to be...
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January 6, 2009
She's A Children's Product! Burn Her!
I want to fix the CPSIA, the CPSC's new lead testing law, and save all the various children's product industries from regulation-induced bankruptcy and collapse on February 10th as much as the next guy. But I would like to do...
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January 5, 2009
Allied Troops Did Not Pull Out Of Rouen In Time
Nearly two months after D-Day, Allied troops entered Rouen, France on August 30th, 1944 to little German resistance and, apparently, to the jubilant embraces of the grateful crowds. At least it was apparent to Ralph Morse who, in the...
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January 2, 2009
Turns Out Babies Are Born Inflight All The Time
It's only on slow news days that they get worldwide media attention. Here is a roundup of news, background, and data about babies born on airplanes: In 2007, a British woman gave birth at 25 weeks on a flight from...
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Waitaminnit, That Baby Born On The Northwest Flight Is NOT Canadian
OK, so on New Years Eve, an 8.5 mos pregnant Ugandan woman--and US resident--was on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Boston. By the time flight attendants called for any doctors traveling onboard to help with a medical emergency,...
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Oddly, Plummeting Milk Prices Doesn't Result In Plummeting Formula Prices
There's apparently a milk glut on, thanks to the depression, and growing stockpiles of powdered milk:The price of powdered skim milk, used in infant formula, dairy products and processed foods, has fallen to roughly 80 cents a pound today from...
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December 28, 2008
A. "Just Give'em Benadryl."
So you're a pharmaceutical industry executive. And not only has the FDA muscled you into a "voluntary" withdrawal from the lucrative children's over-the-counter cold & flu medicine market. But your leading antihistamine brand is also the default, one-word punchline for...
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December 26, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Robots Edition
It's an abbreviated Freakout Friday, which focuses only on the most pressing ways we're ruining our kids, as extrapolated from preliminary research: Should we let robots take care of our children? Because, uh, hello, they already are. That's the ethical...
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[read the full post...]
December 23, 2008
Day Care Joins List Of Things No One Can Afford Anymore
We interrupt this stream of over-elaborate, handmade doll house posts to bring you this important breaking news: half the parents in the Washington DC area are pulling their kids out of daycare and dropping them at grandma's or the neighbor's...
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December 19, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Wasilla Edition
No, I didn't backdate this list of alarming parenting conclusions drawn from preliminary or narrow scientific research; it was just freaking you out so bad last night, you blocked it from your mind: Unmarried fathers who were involved in prenatal...
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Science: Dinosaurs Were Claws-On Baby Daddies
A team of paleontologists have used an innovative statistical analysis comparing fossil leg bone characteristics to living, primitive birds like emus and rheas to show that male dinosaurs helped incubate eggs and care for their young. The study is published...
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December 18, 2008
CPSIAm So Screwed! Update: What Can Be Done NOW To Fix The New CPSC Lead Testing Law?
Good news for the small children's manufacturers, handmade toy and clothing makers, etsy crafters, and everyone else about to be driven out of business by the exorbitant cost of the CPSC's expansive lead testing regulations that go into effect next...
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December 15, 2008
And Now It's Springform For Hitler In Germantown
Let the record show that no one puts a kid's full name on a grocery store birthday cake. And you also know that when little Adolf Hitler Campbell's parents' cake order at the ShopRite was refused, there was no...
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December 12, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Watch Your Head! Edition
Let's see what too quickly drawn parenting conclusions the scientists and sociologists and such have to ruin this weekend with, shall we? First up, etsy.com sellers have finally gotten the news of the CPSC's new lead testing bomb that's set...
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December 10, 2008
Is CPSC's New Lead Regulation Going To Wipe Out The Baby Non-Industrial Complex Next February?
It figures, doesn't it? You wait decades for the Consumer Products Safety Commission to finally get some legislative spine, and what happens? Their brand new lead testing regulations drive every maker of children's products--except for Mattel and Dorel--out of business...
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December 9, 2008
Chuck E. Cheese: "Something Out Of A Quentin Tarantino Film..."
At the kid's preschool's winter fair over the weekend, I was talking to another parent who had been disturbed by all the shooting games at Chuck E. Cheese. "Well, maybe if they aim at Chuck E. Cheese," I said, just...
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December 7, 2008
WTF? WTFstralia Arrests Guy For Uploading WTFistani Babyswinging Video
Yeah, so that insane video of that random foreigner guy swinging that baby like a rag doll that was posted to YouTube for a couple of hours? The guy who originally posted it, a liveleak.com user with the name biggles9,...
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December 5, 2008
DT WTF Friday: Texas Edition
From East Texas, the four top ways not to quiet a 13-month old baby who cries like she's possessed, presented in the wrong, wrong wrong order: 1. Exorcism, amateur 2. Biting the kid back 20 times 3. Smashing the kid's...
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DT Freakout Friday: No Strollers, No Peace Edition
What's the baby and parenting world coming to? Well for one thing, if you joke about the Obama inauguration's stroller ban to a Washington Post reporter, a hundred irate strangers will email you, calling you a shallow, self-centered parent so...
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December 4, 2008
It's Hard Out There For A Bratz
You know, people bitch and moan about the out-of-control litigiousness of the American corporate landscape, and particularly intellectual property laws and the stranglehold rabid trial lawyers pursuing frivolous copyright infringement cases have on good old-fashioned creativity. But then you read...
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November 28, 2008
DT Freakout Friday: Thanks A Lot Edition
Some alarming news and way-too-preliminary research to be thankful for this week: Thanks a lot, FDA, for the giant hit to your credibility about this whole melanine-in-baby-formula thing. I was all prepared to be all, "Bah, melamine-tainted formula is a...
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November 26, 2008
Bear Claws Cat Fight
Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher is being taken to court by his baby mama because the 3-year-old boy comes home with Cinderella pull-ups and Bears Blue toenail polish on. Frankly, I think the woman's crazy; the kid wore nighttime pullups...
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November 20, 2008
Morigeauing, Geauing, Gone. Canadian Baby Industrial Complex Just Got Smaller
Morigeau Lepine is--whoops, make that was. Morigeau Lepine was an old-line baby furniture manufacturer in Quebec, which had been in business for over sixty years. The family-owned company suddenly closed its factory doors last Friday and laid off its...
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November 19, 2008
JFK: President Elect, New Dad
I never realized that JFK Jr. was born a few weeks after JFK won the election. Life photographer Al Fenn had a series of crowded candids with the president-elect and new dad in the hallways of Georgetown Hospital in...
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November 18, 2008
Fake Circumciser's Ad In Turkey
Now I'm sure that WPP/Grey didn't get to be largest ad agency in the world by turning away work. But you cannot convince me that the Grey Healthcare office in Istanbul actually got paid cash money to produce a...
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[read the full post...]
November 17, 2008
Twitstorm Erupts After Motrin Ad Mocks Babywearing
So you leave the office Friday from your job as the account exec of the Motrin online account, and you think things are going fine. Then you get in Monday to find out that a mob of Twittering mombloggers has...
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At-Home MacGyver Helps Fire-Stricken Strangers In OC
A minivan, some scrap wood, some zip ties, a Sharpie, a desire to help, and an at-home parent's keep-it-together-through-the-day expertise is all [sic] Paul Prunty needed to help out a whole neighborhood of people chased from their homes by fire...
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November 15, 2008
Fort Bragg Has A Surge Of Its Own
I know what you did starting last fall, 82nd Airborne. The entire division of the US Army was deployed to Iraq for The Surge last summer, and now it seems that births are up 50 percent at the on-base medical...
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November 12, 2008
Hey, Neighbor! We Heard You Had A Baby!
The NY Times' Julie Scelfo reports that thanks to Ricki Lake's documentary about having her baby in her bathtub in the West Village, home births are all cool now in the city. And not just among "hippie freaks or religious...
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November 9, 2008
Obamadorable Photos From The Night Before In Manassas, Virginia
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } P1040550, originally uploaded by nvidutis. The time will probably come when I'll lose interest in...
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November 7, 2008
HAHAHAHAnnah Montana THAT, Baby! Club Libby Lu Is Closing!
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } 20080823-DSC_9401, originally uploaded by JimSneddon So awesome. Club Libby Lu is closing all its stores....
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November 4, 2008
With Kumar Nowhere In Sight, Harold Heads To The Delivery Room
Really? John Cho had a kid? There seems to have been a couple of mentions that they were expecting in April, but then nothing. Mazel tov to him, his wife, and their new son, who Cho cites as the reason...
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[read the full post...]
October 31, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Spooked Edition
Happy Halloween! Just in case there wasn't enough to be scared about besides gay people getting married on the beach; Communist Muslim Terrorist Presidents winning in a landslide; lamp post-shimmying Phillies fans dropping from the sky; and the paralytic spasms...
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October 30, 2008
Quirky International Adoption Countries Have Own Complications, Laws
International adoption has been booming of late, and it turns out to be a complex, ever-changing landscape fraught with cultural differences, legal and ethical dilemmas, and emotional trials. So naturally, the best way to understand this phenomenon is through the...
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October 25, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Uh, Better Late Than Never? Edition
You know, these days it just seems like there's no shortage of things to freakout over--but here are a few more kid- and parenting-related bits of news and research to ruin your weekend quicker'n a rainstorm at the World Series:...
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October 22, 2008
WHOA, Is Sarah Palin's Stylist Also Paris Hilton's Stylist?
UPDATE: Lisa Kline says not. Or at least Lisa Kline's publicist does. I spoke with Lisa Kline of Beverly Hills' publicist, who said that, while she wishes she could take the publicity, it's not her Lisa Kline. In fact,...
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Here's The Tiny, Adorable Scoop On Trig Palin's GOP Shopping Spree
"I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes." - Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854 So as part of their report on Sarah Palin's $150,000 Neiman Marcus makeover funded by the...
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October 21, 2008
Palin Comparison
A couple of news stories about Sarah Palin and her family get me thinking a bit about how differently our culture--or at least the media and the people who parrot it--treat men and women in the same job. Politico reports...
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Chest-Painted Dads For Palin
Sure, Sarah Palin's totally unqualified to be president, but to the meatheads at her rallies, she's still a TUTBPILF. The NYT reports on another surefire place to go to avoid hipster baby names [two words: Maverick Maverick]: "Katie Couric...
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[read the full post...]
October 17, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: WTFormula Edition
Here, let me ruin your parenting weekend with worry and annoyances torn from the headlines and the annals of way-too-preliminary research: "HEY MOMS!" Holy crap, Similac's new pack could be the greatest thing since Nabisco Double Stuff Oreo-flavored formula, but...
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[read the full post...]
October 10, 2008
DT Freakout Of Town Edition
We're traveling this weekend, landed in Las Vegas late last night, drive-thru In 'n Out, and on to St George, Utah for a little volcano hiking and grandparent time. Posting will be a little light, or at least a little...
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[read the full post...]
October 4, 2008
DT Friday Freakout [On Saturday]: One Of Those Days Edition
Yeah yeah, you don't need to tell me that the Friday Freakout is late; it was one of those Fridays. On the bright side, the kid is as giddy as a schoolgirl about going to preschool now. And on 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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[read the full post...]
September 19, 2008
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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[read the full post...]
September 18, 2008
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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[read the full post...]
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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[read the full post...]
September 5, 2008
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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[read the full post...]
September 3, 2008
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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[read the full post...]
September 2, 2008
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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[read the full post...]
August 29, 2008
Those Don't Sound Like Working Class Names To Me
First off as an Obama man myself, and not knowing anything at all about her before today, I must say Sarah Palin seems like an excellent VP pick for John McCain. Were they to win the election, I would hope...
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[read the full post...]
Big Phil & Teds Recall: Better Get That Folding Joint Fixed Chop-Chop!
Hey, is the CPSC muscling in on my Friday Freakout action? Regal Lager, the US distributor of Phil & Teds strollers, has issued a voluntary recall in conjunction with the CPSC covering a whopping 44,000 strollers. They're not a threat...
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[read the full post...]
August 28, 2008
After Two Strangulations And Corporate Shrugging, CPSC Orders Retailers Pull Simplicity Co-Sleepers Off Market
Normally when a product is found to cause injury or death, the Consumer Product Safety Commission works with the manufacturer to issue a recall and provide either a fix or a replacement product. But when two kids in the...
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[read the full post...]
August 22, 2008
DT Friday Freakout's A Freakout, Except They Call It Le Freakout Edition
I had so much fun poring through the months-long buildup to the recent decision by the French government to ban television channels and programming that targets 0-3 year-olds--or as they're adorably called in French officialdom, "les tous petits." I mean,...
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[read the full post...]
August 21, 2008
Liberte! Egalite! Pas De Bebe Tele!
The High Audiovisual Council of France has banned television programs targeting kids under 3 years of age because of the developmental risks posed by exposure of babies to screen media. The ban was precipitated by the 24-hr baby TV networks,...
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[read the full post...]
August 20, 2008
Corporal Punishment Study Finds A Large, Reddish Welt On America's Freshly Whooped Ass
And all this time, I've been putting the accent on Bible, when I should've been putting it on Belt. Still, it answers a question that's had me stumped since elementary school in North Carolina. Whipping was every week, right...
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[read the full post...]
August 16, 2008
Visionary Obama, Protector Of American Children, Threatens To Ban All Chinese-Made Toys
Finally, a leader who refuses to pander to the giant corporations and foreign demons who threaten the greatness of this Nation! On December 19th, at a campaign appearance in Concord, NH, Senator Barack Obama boldly answered a citizen's question--a question...
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[read the full post...]
August 13, 2008
Dear Marketers, Please Keep Ignoring Dads. Please, Please, Please.
So Adweek has a rather lengthy, in-depth article on how consumer products and food companies are totally ignoring men, even though data shows significant increases in the number of men who do things like cook, clean, and shop. I happen...
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[read the full post...]
August 8, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Or Do You Prefer McFreakout Edition?
Here's a host of alarming research and news stories to shake you out of your parenting habits. After all, I'd hate for you to go the whole weekend only worrying about how you can fit a Chinese-style, 500-foot long LED...
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August 5, 2008
Kung Fu Pander: McCain Threatens To Ban All Chinese-Made Toys
Don't know how I missed this, from an April 2008 Bloomberg report of a John McCain townhall meeting in Youngstown, Ohio:"I have to tell you, if I were president of the United States, the next toy that came into this...
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NY Mag Should Talk To Their Nanny Before Posting
Why's that newborn baby smiling in that $14 million picture? NY Mag say: "We Call Photoshop on the 'People' Pics of the Brangelina Twins" Here at Daddy Types, we call gas. Meanwhile, if Shiloh challenges your kid to a...
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July 25, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Soy Formula In A Plastic Bottle On A Granite Countertop Edition
Where to start ruining your weekend? With a trip to Target to stock up on totally-safe-after-all plastic bottles, or with a trip to Home Depot to get a home radiation testing kit for your granite counter? The NY Times article...
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DT On Location: And In Local Crazy And/Or Parenting News...
When it comes to bullet points, I'm a traditionalist: the minimum is three. Unfortunately, this week the Utah media have only been able to come up with two wacked out parents stories. So I made the parenting angle optional....
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July 14, 2008
Hold That Self-Righteous Mob, Chicago, This Cage-Dad Coverage Sucks
"Nothing about the outside of Ricardo Gonzalez's deep blue Land Rover tells there's a homemade jail inside, where his two young daughters were completely immobilized in tight seats covered with straps, just like an electric chair." Can you ever imagine...
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July 13, 2008
Hippie Directive: Deliver Plant To Apple Superiors
So how's it going for the hippie farmers who want to teach the world to sing, and furnish it with iPhone 3G's, grow apple trees, and save the honey bees on the snowy White House lawn? [cue Mr. Burns...
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July 8, 2008
Hippie Farmers, Kid, Camp Out For iPhones, Publicity
I don't see what the mystery is, GearDiary: some hippies have figured out a simple, 4-step plan for saving the earth: 1) Solicit donations and email addresses for a non-existent non-profit with a TBD mission statement ["#1: Draft mission statement...
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July 4, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Mom & Apple Pie Edition
Scientists and researchers are always coming up with something for parents to celebrate. Here are some freakouts as American as gatekeeper moms and McDonald's apple pies: Actually, this one doesn't have to be a freakout. A psychology study by researchers...
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June 25, 2008
That's Right, The Right Start Is Seeking To Buy Babystyle
An anonymous commenter just left an unconfirmed comment about the future of babystyle, so take it for what it's worth:I heard through the grapevine that The Right Start is supposed to buy Babystyle on July 8th. There is a court...
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June 17, 2008
Iowa City Bugaboo Daytrips, Anyone?
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Iowa City Flood 6/10/2008, originally uploaded by onanov. DT reader Carl emailed:I was just searching...
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June 13, 2008
DT Friday Freakout: Food, Or The Lack Thereof Edition
Whew, for a while there, I was wondering if there wasn't going to be anything to freak out about over the weekend. I shouldn't have worried. Because the NY Attorney General delivered by announcing going after two drugstore chains--Rite-Aid and...
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June 10, 2008
Don't Call Them Token: Dadbloggers Rap On NPR
Tuesday is normally Mocha Moms day on Tell Me More, NPR's daily talk show with Michel Martin; it's as if The View were just about parenting, and just happened to be black. It's also the kind of chitchat that gets...
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June 8, 2008
DT Friday Freaked Out: Extra Art Edition
Whoa, Azerbaijani dad-to-be working as a museum guard who should have been talking to someone instead of slashing a painting by one of my favorite artists with his keys:A former Carnegie Museum of Art guard charged with vandalizing a...
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June 6, 2008
Freakout Friday: All Week Long Edition
Sheesh, after sitting on some of these alarming findings all week, I am freaked out: Childhood cancer rates are highest in Northeast, study finds. higher by like 7%, too: 179/million vs 166/million average. Must be all that liberal health care...
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May 30, 2008
The DT Friday Freakout: BPA, Pb, BC, TKO, CA
Just some of the latest stuff you don't need to worry your pretty little head over this weekend--unless you want to be a good parent, that is: A woman in Arkansas is seeking class action status for her federal...
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May 29, 2008
NYC Pre-K SNAFU WTF?
Except for the part about thousands of parents getting thousands of letters telling them their kids didn't get into any of the programs of their choice, I can't figure out what the hell is going on with the NYC Schools'...
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May 28, 2008
Yow. Brooklyn Playground Graffiti Is Edgy
In Manhattan, the public playgrounds are full of Tibetan nannies. In Brooklyn, they're full of chalk-scrawled declarations to, "Free Tibet, Bitch!" and "You can smack people with the swing." Try working that into the pre-school application essay. Tot Lot Graffiti...
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May 27, 2008
Make Way For Ducklings To Not Get Sucked Down The Drain, Smithsonian
Ten little ducklings, swimming in the pool. Because the National Museum of the American Indian thought it'd be cool. Five little ducklings sucked into the drain. Fourth or fifth time? Well, it happened again. Little Aussie children were "standing there...
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May 14, 2008
Boston Likes Its Local Parent Sites The Way It Likes Its Baseball: Totally Nutless
You gotta give them credit for sticking to the concept; when the Boston Globe created its local parenting website/community, they named it "BoMoms: for moms in Boston & beyond." And damned if it isn't the girliest girl talky girl...
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May 8, 2008
Virginia Is For Lovers, Staten Island Is For Wives
Congratulations to Congressman Vito Fossella, Republican [surprised?] of Staten Island, on the birth of his daughter. Three years ago. To his mistress. Who bailed him out of a Virginia jail over the weekend after his arrest for drunk driving. Mrs...
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May 7, 2008
DT Headline Roundup: First, The Bad Ideas Edition
So a family from Northern Ireland goes to Portugal for a little vacation, by the evening, the parents are puking, the kids [ages 6, 2, and 1] are in protective custody, and there's a court appearance set for drunken...
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May 5, 2008
Hey Baby Gear Makers, JPMA Missing Something Here?
Why is your company still a JPMA member? Because I am a Wharton MBA who's been following the baby/parent industry closely for the last five years, and I really can't figure it out. The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association is...
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May 1, 2008
JPMA: We Are 100% Behind BPA. Until We're Not.
I totally forgot to post this earlier this week. At first glance, this press release from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association might seem like one more mindlessly self-serving, knee-jerk response to a damning front page article in the Washington Post...
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April 27, 2008
WP: BPA Caper Being Blown Wide Open
The Washington Post apparently wants some of that think-of-the-children Pulitzer Pie the Chicago Tribune's been having. They have another front page story on BPA and the health risk it poses to infants and pre-pubescent kids, even at extremely low levels...
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April 25, 2008
Apt. For Rent: No Pets, No Preggies, No Shorties
What is the world coming to when a yuppie couple expecting their first kid can't rent an apartment in Brooklyn? A stuck-in-Manhattan couple has filed a class-action discrimination lawsuit against Brown Harris Stevens claiming the brokerage refused to show them...
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April 24, 2008
Hey LA County, Is It Still Co-Sleeping When You Pass Out?
So LA County's Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect [ICAN] wanted some attention for their 2008 Child Death Review Report, and they got it. The front¢er recommendation--the only recommendation, in fact--is that "co-sleeping" is a "potentially lethal act." Of...
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April 23, 2008
Give Up Yet? 10X Lead Found In Playground Astroturf
If you thought Jimmy Hoffa's corpse was the only thing contaminating that New Jersey soccer field, think again. State environmental officials have found lead levels in artificial turf that are up to 10 times the toxic threshold for dirt&grass. But...
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April 17, 2008
JPMA Gives BPA Bottle-Making Self A Big Safety Hug
Ah, glad that's all cleared up. The Juvenile Products Manufacturing Association, whose members make the Bisphenol-A-laden baby bottles, and the BPA epoxy-lined formula cans, have created a valuable, informative website, babybottle.org, to reassure anyone who's listening that bottles containing BPA...
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April 12, 2008
DT Headline Update: The International Breast Milk Project Is Also The Milk Supplier For Prolacta Bioscience
The ABC News report yesterday on the International Breast Milk Project actually didn't lead off with their donations of breast milk to HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. Instead, it began with a domestic tragedy, the tale of Kim Sciulli, who...
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DT Headline Roundup: Wait, What? Edition
Things in my inbox and browser tabs that make me go, wait, am I missing something here? From This Week In The British Surveillance State: A local school board in a London suburb used an anti-terrorist surveillance law to surveille...
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April 7, 2008
DT Headline Roundup: Nude, Wack, Wax Edition
From the accumulated browser tabs of Mr. Daddy T. Frankweiler: "Reading man falls from roof of his moving minivan, runs naked along bypass [has organs-exposing gash in torso, gets tased with no effect, gets wrestled to ground, not yet charged...
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April 5, 2008
DTQ&A: Scott Pankratz, The Dad Who Crowdsurfed His Daughter To Obama
Alright, you have to admit, AP photographer Alex Brandon's shot of 8-month-old Natalie Pankratz-Osborn surfing across the mob at the Barack Obama rally in Missoula, Montana today is pretty awesome. As an aficionado of presidential imagemaking and as a...
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April 4, 2008
Club Libby Lu Trains Little Girls For Promising Future In The T&A Restaurant Industry
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } bakersfield_club_libby_lu, originally uploaded by daddytypes. The big news in Bakersfield, California today was apparently national...
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March 28, 2008
UK Waits Until After Cold Season To Ban Cold Medicine For Babies
It's part of the "special relationship" the US has with the UK: we copy their ubiquitous surveillance state apparatus, and they get our cold medicine ban for kids under two. The BBC reports that The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory...
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March 26, 2008
The CPSC Is A Series Of Tubes! Even When He Loses, Ted Stevens Wins
A couple of weeks ago, Congress took major, nearly unprecedented steps to strengthen the Consumer Products Safety Commission by increasing its budget, but also by giving it greater punitive and regulatory powers. The CPSC Reform Act tightened safety regulations on...
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March 25, 2008
DT Link Roundup: PC, ABC, APC, RR, HR Edition
Some headlines and links from the DT browser tabs: One WSJ dad knows he's ruining his 5-yo son's future by not teaching him more about computers. but dammit, we didn't need Webkinz when we were that age; we blew our...
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March 21, 2008
CA Regs: Pregs Or No Legs, Everyone Parks For Free
A California state legislator from Orange County has introduced a bill that would grant all pregnant women "temporarily disabled" status for the last trimester, plus the first couple of months after giving birth. This would enable them to join the...
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March 20, 2008
Whoa, Babystyle Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
I'm looking into this, and haven't seen it reported anywhere else yet, but I hear eStyle, inc., the parent company of babystyle, cadeau, and kidstyle, filed for bankruptcy protection today. Stay tuned. [here, I guess because it's been 36...
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March 16, 2008
It's Just A Plant We Sell Out Of Our Day Care Center
Awesome. Last week, police in Manhattan arrested a pot dealer who also ran a private day care center. Now we don't use either herb or daycare, but this seems like a quantum leap of convenience. Instead of rearranging your entire...
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I Hope You Know This Will Go Down On Your Permanent Record: UK Police Want DNA From Kindergarteners
Right headline? I couldn't decide between that and "Gattaca! Gattaca! Gattaca!" From the UK Guardian/Observer's pre-crime desk:Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to...
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February 28, 2008
I'd Like To Thank The Crib Bumper Industrial Complex: CPSC Warns Of Crib Threat From 'Soft Bedding'
Is there someone at the JPMA who gets a bonus every time crib bumpers aren't mentioned in a CPSC alert about the dangers of "soft bedding" in cribs? From the AP: Parents are putting their babies at risk when they...
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February 27, 2008
Never Mind The Maddox: Cleveland Kindergartner Suspended For Freshening Up His Mohawk
First, they protested the product, so he didn't spike it up. Then they told his mom that mohawks weren't allowed, even though they're not mentioned in the dress code. Now some charter school in Cleveland sent some six-year-old home after...
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February 22, 2008
Toyetic?? If Yo Gabba Gabba! Is Star Wars, Then I'm Steven Spielberg
Gosh, how much I love Kidscreen, the trade magazine of the children's television industry [tagline: "About reaching children through entertainment"]? I'd love it even if my boys from Yo Gabba Gabba! weren't on the cover [:)] of the big, fat...
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February 19, 2008
Chicago Tribune Wins Award For Doing CPSC's Job
Congratulations to the journalists of the Chicago Tribune, who just won the 2007 George Polk Award for Consumer Reporting: "The newspaper's accounts of children suffering injury and death from exposure to dangerously designed magnetic building sets, lead-tainted toys and defective...
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February 13, 2008
"One Pink And One Purple!"
The kid stayed home from preschool today with a fever [Sorry, playdate buddy! We didn't take her temperature until you were here!]. Now she woke up from a nap with a higher fever, and as I went to get her...
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February 11, 2008
Make Joints, Not Jihadis: The "I Don't Want To Blow You Up!" Coloring Book
Global war on terror harshing your buzz? Ever thought what it'd be like if, like, all the jihadi Muslims were actually just the figment of some galactic giant's imagination? Or maybe they're, like, atoms on the fingertip of some...
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February 7, 2008
From The DT Dept. Of Corrections: Stone Cold Derek Lindsay Is A Kick-Ass Dad
I want to clear up any misconceptions that might have arisen from that report last May about Massachusetts martial arts expert and dad Derek Lindsay getting arrested for disorderly conduct at McDonald's after telling his kid to push some...
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January 30, 2008
Actual Study: Double Dipping IS Like Swapping Spit
The Clemson University molecular biologists who disproved the 5-Second Rule have published the results of the first known scientific study of double dipping. On the question of how many bacteria are actually transferred by double dipping, the scientifically irrefutable answer...
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January 29, 2008
Some Study: Flattery Starts At 4yo
A Chinese-Canadian study published in Developmental Science shows that kids learn to "flatter" around the age of 4. The finding was based on kids in three age groups, 3, 4, and 5, being asked to judge artworks. The 3yo's weren't,...
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January 24, 2008
Short Trip? Secret Files Show Stasi Attempt To Drive Mom W/ Two Toddlers Crazy
Unbelievable. Wired has a story about using mesh computing to piece together hundreds of tons of shredded files left behind by the East German secret police, the Stasi. After gaining access to her 60-volume [!] file, one former peace activist...
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January 23, 2008
Oh, Crap: NYT Tests Our Maguro, Finds Freakout Levels Of Mercury
The New York Times had tuna sushi from 20 Manhattan stores and restaurants tested for mercury, and they found levels so high, they freaked out the chefs and restaurant owners and everyone else. Samples came from places we go, too:...
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The Only DT Post On The Death Of Heath Ledger
His response to an interviewer's question about how having a kid changed his life:“You’re forced into, kind of, respecting yourself more,” he said. “You learn more about yourself through your child, I guess. I think you also look at death...
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January 22, 2008
Acting Didn't Work Out? LA SAHD Amuses Self, No One Else With Phony Classified Ads
You know you're pathetic when even the bloggers look down at you. A Los Angeles at-home dad [who would be a go-to-work dad if his chosen profession was something besides acting] apparently passes the time by placing totally random classified...
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January 17, 2008
FDA Makes It Official: Stop With The Cold Medicine For Kids Under 2yo
Well, don't say you didn't know it was coming. The FDA issued an official public health announcement today stating that over-the-counter cold medicines and decongestants should not be given to kids under 2 years old. The drugs can cause "serious...
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January 16, 2008
Clowns 100% Scary: UK Survey Reveals What Kids Already Know
God save the Queen and her National Health System. When the kids were surveyed about what they liked for hospital decorations, 100% said, "NOT CLOWNS." Clowns were "too scary" and freaked even the big kids out. the British magazine Nursing...
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January 15, 2008
2007 Safety Stories: I Have Some Good News & Some Bad News
First, the good news: Phthalates are still leaching from your kid's vinyl toys, and Bisphenol-A is still leaching from your polycarbonate bottles and the linings of your formula cans! At first, when it was named Worst Science Story of 2007...
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January 10, 2008
Searing Lactivist News! Nestle Brands Babies In China, Gets Smoked By Children's Book Author
Train your headlights on these tantalizingly ample developments in the lactivists' global battle against the ringleader of Big Formula, Nestlé. Lactivists got to Sean Taylor, the author of When A Monster Is Born, which won gold medal in the 2007...
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December 26, 2007
Wait, What's Wrong With The CPSC Reauthorization Act??
Somehow I missed this in my pre-Christmas inbox: "Dec. 21, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JPMA SUPPORTS PASSAGE OF CPSC REAUTHORIZATION ACT" If the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association is trumpeting their support for a piece of safety regulation-related legislation, something must...
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December 21, 2007
Saks Children's Book: Happiness Comes From Clothes, Nose Jobs
What have I ever done to Saks, hmm? I mean until their Club Libby Lu started shaking their Baby Paris moneymakers in my face, I never had a bad word in my life for them. And I've been a...
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