There are 365 days each crappy year
And work never seems to end in ‘em
So the annual problem for our generation
Is finding a good way to spend ‘em
Like maybe… Building a flash drive Or fighting in a blog war Or falling in Technorati rank
Discovering something that doesn’t exist (Hey! ) Or making John take a shower
So yeah, it’s a Phineas and Ferb CD boombox. But with an FX sound effects button, LED siren, and an awesome design, it should more than qualify for a gadget and therefore worthy of a post here on CrunchGear. After all, these two little characters embody the spirit of having fun with technology and doing things yourself. So yeah, we won’t tell anyone if this boombox actually ends up in your workshop instead of your kids room. $ 70 @ Amazon
The Acme Visible Strat-O-Matic, image by Jeff Gates My trips back home to Los Angeles are always frenetic and filled with mixed emotions. Too much family history. As always I visit my parents’ graves (sadly, my family reunions are slowly moving from my relatives’ homes, to the cemetery). But on this trip I’d reconnect with my father in a very different and most unusual way. [GeekDad reader, and occasional topic , Jeff Gates sent us this poignant story about his dad and a cool piece of retro-technology.] This morning, as I drove through Beverly Hills, I suddenly thought of dad- funny, we lived in the San Fernando Valley, far from this exclusive enclave- but didn’t he used to buy his suits at a men’s shop down the street? Malibu Clothes , that was it! As a youngster my father dragged me with him on his periodic trips to buy his suits. But what so enticing to this seven year old was the gatekeeper at the store’s entrance. Malibu Clothes was wholesale decades before outlets but you needed a referral to get in. There was always an old man sitting at a counter waiting to get your name. It was my first brush with status. And it felt like a secret club. The memory gnawed at me as I drove down Wilshire Boulevard. Could the store still be there after all this time? I pulled over to the curb to Google it. Yes, still in business after 65 years! But I called to make sure. “Is this the store where you have to be referred in order to get in?” I asked. “My father used to buy me suits there. Do you think you’d still have our names on file?” “Oh yes, we keep all records,” came the reply. I turned at the next corner. The Acme Visible Strat-O-Matic, image by Jeff Gates When I entered the store my memory of the place returned with total clarity. Before me stood the largest rotating card file I’d ever seen: an Acme Visible Strat-O-Matic. Thousands upon thousands of index cards with clients’ names were filed away right next to the obligatory photo wall of celebrity customers. Suddenly I remembered the last time I was in there. In 1975, fresh out of college, I was about to go on interviews for my first teaching job and my father wanted to buy me a suit for this special occasion. This was his way of saying how proud he was of me. It was camel hair three-piece affair. The memory was complete. The salesman looked under my father’s name and pulled out a thick stack of cards stapled together. After examining Dad’s 45-year clothes-buying history he said: “Ah, I remember your Dad.” When I told him he had died eight years before he said he was sorry and he’d remove him from their list. “Can I keep his cards?” I asked. According to his records, my father first came to Malibu Clothes in 1955, referred by one Ray Buchman. I had no idea who that was. In December 1956 he bought two sport coats, each under $40, and a pair of slacks. Every time he bought something they marked it on a card. “Don’t you put everything in a database?” I asked. “Yes, but having something to carry with me while you shop allows me to quickly scan your buying habits —what you like and don’t like and how many times you’ve come in and bought nothing. Stuff like that.” I thumbed to the last card dated August 18, 2000. Handwritten notes had morphed into barcodes. Dad had bought three pair of slacks on that last trip. A month later he would be in the hospital and a month after that I’d make a hasty trip to L.A. for his funeral. Here it was: a side of my father I’d never thought of. Almost a decade after his death I had retrieved a rich history of him, of us, on a whim. I bought a sport coat that day at a price you wouldn’t believe. And my clothes choices have been duly filed in Malibu’s Strat-O-Matic. But the real deal was that stack of cards– Dad’s cards. And they were priceless. [Jeff Gates blogs regularly at Life Outtacontext .] Read the rest of this entry »
Photo: TeeFury.com Father’s Day can be a huge responsibility. It’s a lot of work, even for us dads. After all, you have to remember to call your own pops. You’ve got the father-in-law, too. Maybe your best buddy just became a dad, too, so don’t forget him. What’s better than a phone call? How about an affordable-yet-awesome t-shirt proclaiming the wearer to be the superest of all dads? TeeFury has got you covered, at least until midnight tonight. TeeFury sells a unique user-designed t-shirt every 24 hours, for $9 a pop. So catch this one while it’s hot, because it’ll be gone tomorrow. Might as well buy one for yourself while you’re at it, right? And if the dads in your life need some body coverage for their more Clark Kent-ish moments, don’t forget the official GeekDad t-shirt from ThinkGeek. Buy the shirt from TeeFury For more Father’s Day gift ideas, check out our 2010 Father’s Day Gift Guide . Read the rest of this entry »
Dads & Grads Gift Ideas for 2010, send them in We are in the process of compiling the top 10 gifts for Dads and Grads for 2010. If your graduation is coming up what would you like to get? If you are a dad, what gadget or consumer electronics product would you like to get from your loved ones? We wou…
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