Little girls still ask for a Barbie at Christmas, but girls now ask for Barbie at age four (like Kiley in the letter to Santa seen here) or even younger. “Barbie was originally intended for nine- to twelve-year-olds; today, girls widely perceive it as a toy for three- to six-year-olds. The association of Barbie with preschool girls sometimes leads slightly older girls to repudiate the doll with sadistic élan.”
(Quotation from Little Hotties.)
Click letter for larger version.
NewMexiKen read a fascinating description of the new American doll market and the competition between Barbie, now 47, and her newest challenger the Bratz dolls. Dolls?
Bratz dolls have large heads and skinny bodies; their almond-shaped eyes are tilted upward at the edges and adorned with thick crescents of eyeshadow, and their lips are lush and pillowy, glossed to a candy-apple sheen and rimmed with dark lip liner. They look like pole dancers on their way to work at a gentlemen’s club. Unlike Barbie, they can stand unassisted. I’ve heard mothers say that they would never buy their daughters a doll that couldn’t stand on its own, but perhaps they should have been more careful what they wished for. To change a Bratz doll’s shoes, you have to snap off its feet at the ankles. (It’s creepy but ingenious; because the footwear is attached to the legs, all those little shoes are harder to lose.) Their outsized feet are oddly insinuating: you can picture the Bratz dolls tottering around on their stalklike legs, like fauns waking up from a tranquillizer dart. Bratz dolls don’t have Barbie’s pinup-girl measurements — they’re not as busty and they’re shorter. But their outfits include halter tops, faux-fur armlets, and ankle-laced stiletto sandals, and they wear the sly, dozy expression of a party girl after one too many mojitos. They are the “girls with a passion for fashion,” as the slogan has it, so their adventures — as presented in all those “sold separately” books and other paraphernalia — run to all-night mall parties and trips to Vegas. (“Deck out and step out for a party in the streets, as you spend the weekend with the girls in the city that never sleeps.”) A Bratz Princess — one of the newer versions — wears a tiara and, instead of a ball gown, a tight camouflage T-shirt and a short skirt. You could never imagine a Bratz doll assuming any of the dozens of careers Barbie has pursued over the decades: not Business Executive or Surgeon or Summit Diplomat — not even Pan Am Flight Attendant or Pet Doctor. Bratz girls seem more like kept girls, or girls trying to convert a stint on reality TV into a future as the new Ashlee or Lindsay or Paris.
Read all of Margaret Talbot’s fascinating article, which originally appeared in The New Yorker.
… was first published on this date in 1843.
Scrooge. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
… of Oscar-nominee Cicely Tyson. She’s 73. Tyson was nominated for the 1973 best actress award for her performance in Sounder.
… of Al Kaline. The hall of fame right fielder is 72.
… of Kevin McHale. The basketball hall of fame member is 49.
… of Mike Lookinland. Bobby Brady is 46.
… of Flashdance’s Jennifer Beals. She’s 43. Flashdance was her second film. She played Clifford’s girlfriend in My Bodyguard. Adam Baldwin (no relation to “the” Baldwins) was the bodyguard, Matt Dillon the bully, and Joan Cusack another girlfriend.
… of Jake Gyllenhaal. The Oscar nominated actor is 26.
Edith Piaf was born on this date in 1915. Petite Piaf (4-10, 90 pounds) was known as the “sparrow of the streets.” She was the leading chanteuse of her day, most well-known for “La vie en rose.” (Here’s a video from 1954.) According to some reports she used her fame to ingratiate herself to Nazi officers during the occupation of France, then in turn used that to gain access to French prisoners with whom she had her photo taken. The prisoners used the photo to create false identity cards to assist in an escape. Ms. Piaf died in 1963.
Yucca House is one of the largest archeological sites in southwest Colorado, and acted as an important community center for the Ancestral Puebloan people from A.D. 1150-1300. On July 2, 1919, Henry Van Kleeck deeded 9.6 acres of land, including most of Yucca House, to the federal government. Due to its significance as an excellent example of a valley pueblo, Woodrow Wilson made Yucca House a National Monument by Presidential Proclamation on December 19, 1919.
Yucca House National Monument is one of our earliest examples of public/private stewardship of our cultural resources and will remain protected well into the future. The long-term preservation of Yucca House ensures that archeologists will be able to continue studying Ancestral Puebloan society and what caused them to migrate from this region in the late 1200s.
Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, writes about one of the Christmas season’s most cherished traditions — taking the little one to see Santa.
We were at the mall early to do some Christmas shopping yesterday when we saw a mom and her two young kids standing outside the door to Santa’s workshop. We asked her what the deal was, and she pointed to the sign about the extra holiday hours. We were in luck. It was 9:45, and Santa was going to be there at 10am. So, we got in line.
Sofie was excited and remarkably well-behaved. At 10, the line had grown behind us, but there was still no sign of Santa. At about 10:15, the kids started whining. At about 10:30, the parents started to wonder if maybe Santa had had a few too many the night before. At about 10:45, someone in line reported seeing “an old guy with a beard” in the parking lot heading toward the Santa house, but he wasn’t in costume yet. Finally, at 11, the doors to Santa’s workshop opened. A pissed-off elf informed us that “corporate” didn’t tell them about the early holiday hours. By this point, the mom in front of us had left, dragging her disappointed and crying kids through the mall – they’d apparently “lost” Santa privileges because they were misbehaving.
Sofie was first in line. She goes in and won’t even look at Santa. Not for a second. Santa was more than happy, however, to have mom sit next to him. Um, gross. So the picture…(which cost us about $700 give or take a few bucks) pretty much sums up our perfect Santa experience:
(1) A long wait in line
(2) Screaming kids
(3) Problems at “corporate”
(4) Our own kid didn’t want to sit on Santa’s lap (or look at him or talk to him)
(5) A lecherous Santa
(6) Ridiculously overpriced photos of the experience
I’ve just moved a new idea to the top of my list of things that need to be invented: self-folding fitted sheets. I hate folding fitted sheets. In fact, I usually just take the sheets off, launder them, dry them, and put the same ones back on so I don’t have to fold the bottom sheet. It takes more time to fold a fitted sheet decently than it does to make the bed.
Self-folding fitted sheets — they’ll make someone a millionaire someday.
… of Keith Richards. The Rolling Stone is 63.
… of Steven Spielberg. The director is 60. The Writer’s Almanac has an interesting little biographical essay about Spielberg.
… of Ray Liotta. The actor, a good fella, is 51.
… of Brad Pitt. Still pretty at 43.
… of Christina Aguilera. She’s 26.
Ty Cobb was born on this date in 1886.
Ty Cobb may have been baseball’s greatest player, if not the game’s fiercest competitor. His batting accomplishments are legendary – a lifetime average of .367, 297 triples, 4,191 hits, 12 batting titles (including nine in a row), 23 straight seasons in which he hit over .300, three .400 seasons (topped by a .420 mark in 1911), and 2,245 runs. Intimidating the opposition, “The Georgia Peach” stole 892 bases during a 24-year career, primarily with the Detroit Tigers. (National Baseball Hall of Fame)
When I was a child, I tell my offspring, my brother and I often would receive just one present at Christmastime, typically an individual crayon. It wouldn’t even be a full crayon, but merely a stub. Still, we’d be grateful and would pretend that “brown” was our favorite of the 64 Crayola colors. We would talk about how great this crayon would be if only we could afford paper.
Joel Achenbach
[First posted here a year ago.]
… was designated on this date in 1940. The site is owned and operated by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Come, walk in the steps of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas as we explore American’s beginnings. Here is where the successful English colonization of North America began with Jamestown. Here is where the first seat of English government in America established it’s self. Here is where the first English representative government met and where the first arrival of Africans to English North American was recorded in 1619. Jamestown, the Beginning of America.
Click image to see larger version and learn more.
Lamar Hunt, who died last week, was one of the founders of the American Football League. He was the son of H.L. Hunt, a Texas oil tycoon who, among other things, fathered 14 children with three women, including two that he was married to simultaneously. H.L.’s great remark about pro football and his son Lamar came after that first AFL season in 1960 (quotation from Football Digest).
[Lamar] Hunt may not have looked it, but he had a lot of money. His father, the legendary H.L. Hunt, had a fortune estimated at $600 million, which may not seem all that impressive in today’s era of billionaires but made him one of the nation’s richest men at the time.
It was the elder Hunt who came up with the best-remembered quote from the AFL era. After his son reportedly lost $1 million in his first season, H.L. was asked how long Lamar could keep doing that. According to various reports, he said Lamar would go broke in about 150 years if he kept it up.
… rode out on what is now Sun Point in search of lost cattle on this date in 1888 and first saw Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde. That afternoon, Richard found Spruce Tree House, and the next day, the two men discovered Square Tower House. Al Wetherill, Richard’s brother, saw Cliff Palace sometime the year before, but he did not enter the dwelling, so the credit for the “discovery” has been given to Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason.
In 1901, Richard Wetherill homesteaded land that included Pueblo Bonito, Pueblo Del Arroyo, and Chetro Ketl in what is now Chaco Culture National Historical Park. Wetherill remained in Chaco Canyon, homesteading and operating a trading post at Pueblo Bonito until his controversial murder in 1910. Chiishch’ilin Biy, charged with his murder, served several years in prison, but was released in 1914 due to poor health. Wetherill is buried in the small cemetery west of Pueblo Bonito.
In a discovery that has stunned even those behind it, scientists at a Toronto hospital say they have proof the body’s nervous system helps trigger diabetes, opening the door to a potential near-cure of the disease that affects millions of Canadians.
Diabetic mice became healthy virtually overnight after researchers injected a substance to counteract the effect of malfunctioning pain neurons in the pancreas.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Dr. Michael Salter, a pain expert at the Hospital for Sick Children and one of the scientists. “Mice with diabetes suddenly didn’t have diabetes any more.”
The researchers caution they have yet to confirm their findings in people, but say they expect results from human studies within a year or so. Any treatment that may emerge to help at least some patients would likely be years away from hitting the market.
More: “They also conclude that there are far more similarities than previously thought between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and that nerves likely play a role in other chronic inflammatory conditions, such as asthma and Crohn’s disease.”
Link via dangerousmeta!
This one is tough.
Comments are critical to blogs. They are the number one distinguishing feature that separates them from websites, those static billboards on the web. It is through this interaction that blogs continue the conversation started by the author. Feedback, input, advice, answers to questions, questions needing answers, all enrich the dialog that makes blogs blogs.
Start your surfing here, activate the Miles Davis music player (lower right corner), choose a track and be “cool and collected” while surfing the net.
(You can leave the music player window open in the background.)
MildChild saves Christmas.
Saturday both Albuquerque newspapers — The Albuquerque Journal and The Albuquerque Tribune — published photos of 180 people found guilty of drunken driving in local courts during June, July and August. It was quite an array.
The first thing everyone did, of course, was look to see whom they knew. Then the comparisons. There appeared to be at least one man arrested (and convicted) more than once. And sisters arrested, but on different dates.
What NewMexiKen found interesting was the blood alcohol content, which was listed for those who agreed to the test. Point-oh-six appears to be the level for conviction (at least for minors). There were some listed all the way up to .30. Funny thing was, the higher the BAC the better the mug shot. Still high I guess.
Every couple of months my friend Mae Laborde checks in to let me know how her acting career is going. She’s in a tough racket, to say the least, but Mae is definitely a working actress, with a steady flow of jobs in commercials, TV shows and film. Not bad for someone who just broke into the business four years ago, at the age of 93.
“Listen to this, honey,” Mae said the other day on the phone. “I’ve just had a call to go to a studio near Hollywood. It’s for some kind of TV show, I think, and I didn’t even have to audition for this one. They just called and said I had the job. Not bad, huh?”
She’ll be A-list by the time she hits 100, I swear it.
Read more from Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times.
At an open house yesterday NewMexiKen was impressed by a beautiful woman possibly 80. She was wearing a quite attractive sweater that depicted a nativity scene. It even had, on the lower back, two of the three kings, apparently showing up late (as indeed they did). It was lovely, but even lovelier was the way we were made to understand, quite unequivocably, that she’d gotten it from “Neiman Marcus.”
In It’s A Wonderful Life George Bailey learns that if he’d never been born his hometown would have turned from Bedford Falls into Pottersville.
So what has America become in the 60 years since the Frank Capra movie?
You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money! Well, it doesn’t, Mister Potter! In the—in the whole vast configuration of things, I’d say, you were nothing but a scurvy little spider!
Orville and Wilbur Wright successfully made the first four sustained flights of a heavier-than-air machine under the complete control of the pilot at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on this date 103 years ago. Their fourth attempt, at 10:35 am, lasted 12 seconds and covered 120 feet.
The photograph (click to enlarge) “shows Orville Wright at the controls of the machine, lying prone on the lower wing with hips in the cradle which operated the wing-warping mechanism. Wilbur Wright running alongside to balance the machine, has just released his hold on the forward upright of the right wing.” (Library of Congress)
