The Consumerist: 20 Creepy Baby Products

What's scariest about all of these items is how happy the babies look.

20 Creepy Baby Products

Crime in suburbia

From The Landmark (subscription required):

Holden

Monday, July 7

2:45 p.m. Individual jumping off library steps spoken to

Wednesday, July 9

4:38 p.m. Marijuana joint found on Powers Rd; possibly belonging to two females seen there yesterday

Sunday, July 13

2:40 p.m. Party asking for consideration for speeding ticket; claims dog made him drive faster
6:20 p.m. Report of cars parked on street not going to any residences on that street; doesn't want police so as not to cause trouble with neighbors

Sterling

Thursday, July 10

12:27 p.m. Assist citizen with seatbelt, Leominster Rd.
6:20 p.m. Dead animal in roadway, Leominster Rd.
11:15 p.m. Fight has broken out, Leominster Rd.

Friday, July 11

11:42 a.m. Dead cat, Leominster Rd.
11:53 a.m. Assault, Leominster Rd.

RoasterBoy Playlist

1) The Torture Playlist
Mother Jones magazine has published a playlist of tunes used to disorient detainees in military prisons. Note that some of the ...
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/torture-playlist.html

2) Happy Birthday, Woody Guthrie!
Happy Birthday, Woody Guthrie! | Listening Post from Wired.com
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/happy-birthday-woody-guthrie.html

3) The Pogues - If I should fall from grace with God (Country Version)
YouTube - The Pogues - If I Should Fall (Country Version)
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/pogues-if-i-should-fall-from-grace-with.html

4) Bruce Springsteen - Born in the USA
The Boss
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/bruce-springsteen-born-in-usa.html

5) Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up
Some days you need to hear this song several times: YouTube - Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush - Don't Give Up
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/peter-gabriel-kate-bush-dont-give-up.html

6) The Pogues with Joe Strummer - London Calling
YouTube - The Pogues - 09 - London Calling (Live @ T&C '88)
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/pogues-with-joe-strummer-london-calling.html

7) Happy 4th - This Land and Woody Guthrie
We were sitting on Adam and Jennie's front porch, singing patriotic songs. This was one of them: Happy 4th - This Land and ...
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/happy-4th-this-land-and-woody-guthrie.html

8) Kimmo Pohjonen & Sami Kuoppamäki: "Driving North"
It's not as creepy as you might think: an accordion cover of a Hendrix via Fark
http://rbplaylist.blogspot.com/2008/07/kimmo-pohjonen-sami-kuoppamki-driving.html

About praise

A friend named John had a seeing-eye dog named Earl. The first time that I met John and Earl, I instinctively reached down to pat Earl on the head. John said, "Please don't pat him. He gets plenty of love, praise, and attention at home. If you pat him, he will look to be patted the next time he sees you. I might be crossing the street. He might look for a pat on the head instead of doing his job, which is to get me across the street safely."

I often think of Earl. It's easy to go looking for a pat on the head instead of focusing on our primary goal, whether that goal is to help someone get across a street or some equally important, if somewhat ordinary, task.

Humbling...

If you make the minimum wage in Massachusetts (USD 8.00) and work full-time (40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year), you're in the top 12% of richest people in the world:

8 * 40 * 50 = $16,000/year

The end of orange season

You've got mostly gray-hairs shopping on a weekday morning and, so, a quick visit to the grocery store is almost impossible. They're inspecting each of their choices carefully, making sure that they are getting the best deal, whether the "Buy 1, Get 2 Free" deal on pork sirloin or packaged salad is really a good deal.
Not only do we have to make sure we have enough room in the refrigerator or freezer for these products, we need to discover our true motive in buying these products. Dan Riely, in his book, Predictably Irrational, describes how the notion of free twists our decision-making process. For example, we have salad with most dinners at home. Even so, it'll be a race to eat three big packages of salad before they start to go bad. Is a "Buy 1, Get 2 Free, Eat 2, Throw Away 1" still a good deal? Probably, even though the local farmers' market offers fresher salads and I can buy only what I need.
It isn't just kids with cell phones these days. During yesterday's shopping trip, there were several gray-hairs chatting away while drifting through the aisles, coordinating their purchases with the person on the other end of the phone. It's getting to the point that we'll need to ban cell phones while shopping, lest all the aisles be jammed up while shoppers argue with their caller because the shopping list says spaghetti but Ronzoni Rigatoni is on sale at 12 for $12.00.
The last of the American oranges are in the produce section now, at about a buck a piece. The oranges in bags come from South Africa and aren't as sweet. (To be fair, it's still in early in the southern hemisphere's winter.) Local tree fruits - apples, peaches, and pears - aren't quite ready. We'll just have to make do with the blueberries and raspberries that grow wild around the camp.

Jesus wants you to drive more

Twice monthly, a West Bridgewater MA Catholic church holds a drawing for $50 gas card. All you have to do to win is attend Mass: Church uses incentives to fill up the pews - Waltham, MA - The Daily News Tribune

The rain stopped two houses down

A walk with an old dog is a different kind of walk. Marley and I went for our walk to Worcester this morning. It's a three-mile route, all sidewalks, with a lot of tree coverage. Close to the one-mile marker, it started to sprinkle and continued for about 20 minutes, enough to dampen the streets and sidewalks that weren't protected by the leafy canopy. On the way back, Marley slowed quite a bit, particularly on the last half mile. Usually, when he wants us to slow our pace, he'll get in front of us. This time, though, he was hanging back. With a charming coincidence, I was listening to Bruce Springsteen's "If I should fall behind". We turned the corner and walked on the damp pavement of our street. The dampness stopped two houses away. The rest of the road was dry. When we reached our yard, still on his leash, Marley lay down and began rolling around on his back, scratching what itched, bits of dried grass clippings clinging to his fur. Once inside, he had a long drink of water and then settled for a nap on rug by the door.

Paper reduction

We're conducting an experiment of sorts. I've changed our Boston Globe subscription to Sunday only. During the week, I'll read their news on their website, mostly via RSS feeds. All of their comics are online as well.
For a long time, years, after we'd moved to Holden, I'd been wishing for home delivery of the Globe. The Globe is a good newspaper, not as good as it had been, but still a good paper. For a while, particularly with the publication of the Pentagon papers in 1971, the Globe was a national force. It had a solid Washington bureau, excellent foreign correspondents, and award-winning investigative teams. And, back then, it had Pogo. (For a while, when I was in college in the 60s, I subscribed to the Herald, just to get Pogo when the strip ran in that paper.) So, for 10 or 15 years, we'd ride through the countryside and I'd envy the green Globe delivery tubes that were in front of small-town homes.
IIRC, it wasn't until the New York Times company purchased the Worcester Telegram that we were able to get home delivery of the Globe. Since then, we've had several newspaper carriers. Gone are the days of a kid on a bicycle; to make money, you need have motorized divisions. Our current carriers are great. The papers show up on our doorstep around 4:45 on weekdays and 5:30 on weekends.
So why change? Why drop the daily edition? I have more time to read so, if anything, I ought add another paper or two. Not surprisingly, the reasons are several.

• The web has changed  everything. The streams of news merge into a river of Amazonian proportions, but this river can also be filtered, sliced, and mashed into a news source that meets my interest while also allowing for serendipity. 
• I'd like to save a few trees. Although our town has an excellent, single-stream recycling program, it does seem odd that two people can fill a 95-gallon barrel with paper and other recyclables. 
• We'd like to save a few bucks. I don't mind reading ad-supported content on the web any more than I mind reading ad-supported newspapers.
• The Globe is less compelling than it used to be. I realize that we may be talking about a death spiral for newspapers: reduced content leading to fewer subscribers leading to more staff and content reductions. Nevertheless, the management should have thought of that. The Wall Street Journal, for example, established an excellent online edition back in 1996. Even though it's a paid site (about $120/year), it has attracted a million subscribers.

The reduced quantity of news from our local and regional newspapers, with  more and more content shifted to the web, does leave people without good Internet access with fewer options. The digital divide is a topic for another day. In the meantime, for the summer, anyway, I'm giving up the print version of the weekday Boston Globe. I'll report back from time to time on how well I can eat my morning cereal while reading the online version.