By Daddy Clay February 17th, 2008

Despite last year’s debacle, I’m back in NYC at the annual Toy Fair.

My generous and enthusiastic, but child-free host yesterday expressed interest in accompanying me to the show. I asked her what was the longest amount of time that she had spent in a crowded Toys ‘r’ Us in the Christmas season. Just to give her perspective on how much “fun” is involved.

My feet were numb before I was halfway through the massive show’s upper floor yesterday. I may never penetrate to the lower floor. Some of the exhibitors are welcoming of me and my press badge (credential vetting process?), with dedicated team members at the ready with press kits and tours of the new products. Some exhibitors refuse to make eye contact as soon as they make you for not being a buyer.

I don’t even bother with the big boys like Mattel and Lego. I’ve heard they beat up bloggers just for asking to get in to their fortress-like booths.
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Tags: christmas, games, gifts, new york, toy fair, Toys
Posted in DadLabs

By Daddy Clay February 10th, 2008

It’s tough for a dad, no matter how evolved and dispassionate and balanced with values in the right place, to watch his child lose a game. It’s even tougher for a guy to watch his child struggle through a losing season. But to watch your kid go through an entire sport season without winning a single game is excruciating to the point of bad behavior.
Bubba’s basketball team just moments ago completed a perfect season: 0-9.

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Tags: basketball, bubba, Sports
Posted in Sports

By Daddy Clay February 7th, 2008

Robert Yang, design and kid products blogger at coochicoos, has launched a new blog focusing on the family car called Car and Caboodle. I have to confess that one of my many character flaws in a politically incorrect, and blatantly consumeristic obsession with cars. You can take the boy out of Dallas…

I read Edmunds and Jalopnik and Consumer Reports obsessively, the car review is the first (and sometimes only) thing that I read in the Sunday Times. So when Robert asked me to take a pop quiz about our family car for the site, I jumped at it. And can I please say, that I am chest pounding proud of my minivan. I’m a minivan man, and you SUV drivers can kiss my ass.

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Tags: car and caboodle, cars, driving, road trips, robert yang, vans
Posted in DadLabs, Fatherhood

By Daddy Clay February 6th, 2008

Time for us to put our tinfoil hats back on. A coalition of environmental groups and NGOs from the US and Canada collaborated to produce a pretty grim report on BPA in baby bottles. Perhaps not surpringly, these guys are a bit more strident about their findings than the NIH. Obviously they could give a shite about the baby-industrial complex. You can download a PDF of the report here. Happy reading.

Tags: baby bottles, bpa, Health
Posted in Health