E.T. the extraterrestrial is sure to approve of this kind of frog dissection. Knitting in Biology Frog by Crafty Hedgehog, $95. Available at CraftyHedgehog.etsy.com
Not only for display and study, the Knitting in Biology Frog can be unpinned from his frame, “so you can take him out and cuddle him if you wish,” says Emily Stoneking of CraftyHedgehog. How often one wants to cuddle a sliced open frog I’m unsure, but at least the option’s there.
The frog sits in an 8 x 10 frame. He is hand knit out of a silk/wool blend while his entrails are needle felted out of 100% wool.
Seeing this sparks in me the desire to see an avant-garde, macabre exhibition of Kermit the Frog along with other muppets splayed open like science experiments. Too far? Sorry, I’ve been watching movies like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Midnight Meat Train as of late.
He even has little Xs for eyes to signify his eternal sacrifice for your education.
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters. $12.95, available at most bookstores. Click on the image for insight from Winters on the process of writing this book.
While in New York this past week, I had the pleasure of attending a reading of Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, the latest Jane Austen mash-up from Quirk Classics which first produced the bestseller, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Sea Monsters is rumored to be funnier as well as more heavily decorated with unsavory creatures than Zombies.
The reading was at Bluestockings, a progressive bookstore located in the Lower East Side. The crowd was timely, attentive and eager. When we arrived slightly after 7 p.m., which was the event’s start time on Facebook, all the seats available were occupied. We stood there weighing our standing-room-only options with hands full of delicious, hot coffee from the bookstore’s cafe when employees began shoving chairs in small empty spaces for our sitting pleasure. Shortly thereafter the reading began with authors Ben Winters and “Jane Austen” reading three passages from the book. My favorite part being the words, “fishy face fingers,” to describe the guy on the cover’s mug.
I included audio recorded with my iPhone below; one passage is awkwardly split in two sound bits. Enjoy.
Co-authors Jane Austen and Ben Winters with Athgard Claw-Fangler, a sea monster at the Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters reading in Bluestockings bookstore, Manhattan.
Here you see "Luke" warming himself inside a Tauntaun sleeping bag. This model looks remarkably like my neighbor, Josh. ThinkGeek.com, $99.99. On Backorder.
If you’re like me the first thing you think when looking at this sleeping bag is, “Why is that guy dressed like a pilot in a dinosaur sleeping bag?” But, if you’re more like my brother Kell, then you immediately think, “Oh my god, a Tauntaun sleeping bag!! Why didn’t this exist when I was a kid?” I suppose the rest of this post more so applies to the second kind of folk but for you others, the attention to detail of this invention is pretty awesome so stick around.
A Tauntaun is a creature that lives on planet Hoth which plays a vital role in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. In order to keep Luke Skywalker from freezing to death, Han Solo cuts open a dead Tauntaun and shoves Luke inside for warmth. And thus the inspiration for this sleeping bag which includes a saddle feature, plush head that doubles as a pillow, a Tauntaun-guts-print on the inside of the bag and a light saber zipper pull to simulate cutting the creature open when you climb inside.
The inspiration: Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and a Tauntaun on Hoth.
This product is currently on backorder but ThinkGeek.com states that if you order now, your bag will ship by December 7. Also, only two Tauntauns allowed per customer. Sorry cub scout leader Joe.
Full-body view of the Tauntaun sleeping bag available from ThinkGeek.com.
My favorite part of this video featuring the sleeping bag is when Han Solo looks from Luke to the Tauntaun and you can see the electrical outlet in the background.
Original HEXBUG, Bravo and his HEXBUG crab buddy in black. Heights Toy Center, $10.99 & $14.99.
I don’t care if you’re 10 or 25, you want one of these. HEXBUGSare little robotic creatures that scurry around of their own accord (well, one has a remote control) reacting to light, sound and physical objects. The saleslady at Heights Toy Center gave me the heads up on the HEXBUGS craze and once she switched these two on, I turned wideyed and said, “eeeew,” repeatedly. I was grossed out in a good way of course, fascinated by the creepily awesome sideways crawl of the crab. To see the movement yourself go to hexbug.com and watch some boring-ish videos but please know these robot bugs are much cooler in person. Someone can buy me a crab in turquoise is all I’m saying.
On the top row are the original HEXBUGS. The ones with long arms are Inchworms and they have a remote control, as you can see. On the bottom row are the crabs--they walk sideways! Photo from www.hexbug.com.
Just think of your hot coffee as scalding lava or a tremendous meteorite and enjoy putting dinosaurs into extinction over and over again.
As of late, my Welcome to Las Vegas and I ♥ Arkansas mugs haven’t been all that fun to sip coffee or cocoa from. I try not to let my mug boredom get to me but morning after morning of rummaging through my cabinet looking for an unfindable perfect coffee vessel can mess with a person. I need a new coffee cup to spice things up a bit. Only something that represents extreme danger, mystery and awesomeness will do. Serendipitously I discover this dinosaur mug at CALS Cox Center while on assignment. Pouring hot coffee into this sucker destroys the meaty Tyrannosaurus Rex picture into a natural history museum bone rendering. I wonder if filling only half the mug with hot coffee could make the dino half vicious-alive-rex and half harmless-fossil-rex all at once! I must investigate.
“Eons pass in seconds!” Disappearing Dinosaur Mug, $12. Available at CALS Cox Center in the River Market.
The title pretty much says it all but to clarify this is a workbook used in conjunction with the book Twilight to learn useful vocabulary words that come up in standardized tests. Each chapter lists a group of related vocabulary words from Twilight along with corresponding page numbers for you to read the context in which each word was used. Then you are asked to guess at the word’s meaning, which is later defined on another page along with some multiple choice questions like you’d see in the ACT or SAT.
The first word listed in Group 1, “Noble Death?” is “noble.” The definition defining Twilight provides for this vocabulary word is:
1. Noble (p.1) means dignified or honorable, like a king… or a “vegetarian” vampire.”
There. Education. Done.
For reference, some of the other Group names are:
• Desolation
• Abstinence?
• His Topaz Eyes
• A Dazzling Rescuer
• Tousled Hair
Brian Leaf has authored several test prep books, but this seems to be his only movie-themed work. He has his own web page selling these books along with several videos including this one that explains why he was inspired to put together this workbook for students.
Oh and don’t worry there’s one for New Moon and surely there’ll be one from each of the series.
In a fit of marketing flair, HBO announces the release of Tru Blood beverage, the fictional food source (human blood) supplement created for its series True Blood, now in its second season. The product to be released for sale to the public shares only its name and packaging–not its ingredients– with the show’s synthetic blood drink that allows vampires to sustain life without taking life. True Blood’s vampires are all in agreement that the supplement is nothing like the real thing. Just as for us with the release of Tru Blood beverage, orange soda. Statement from HBO’s www.trubeverage.com :
Introduced during the True Blood forum at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2009, the drink will hit store shelves in September. It boasts a crisp, slightly tart, lightly sweet tang, and a deep red color to match the appearance of the Tru Blood product featured on the True Blood series.
My only issue with this release other than the obvious is that the drink is non-alcoholic. Given the violent and sexual content of True Blood, orange soda seems a little too kiddie a taste. If the creators of Tru Blood beverage properly reflected the campy-ness of the show they would have made this a malt liquor. That would have been perfect and would have fit the price of $16 for a 4-pack accordingly. $4 for an orange soda? Talk about creating a product for suckers. I… just…said that.
Bill and Sookie at Fangtasia where Bill enjoys his preferred flavor of Tru Blood, O Negative.
The video is not an official commercial made my HBO but a mock-ad made even before the show’s first season was released I believe. The concept of the show and the blood drink leaked causing people to put time and effort into this:
Today, Seth and I went to Metro, a convenience shop on the first floor of the 124 W. Capitol building, to get a snack before our staff meeting. They have goodies like push pops, green tea and a variety of foil balloons for $2 that keep their helium forever (I bought one last Friday that is still happily floating above Shea’s desk and it’s Wednesday!). One corner of the store is dedicated to greeting cards for all occasions, running about $2-$3. My favorite being…
As you may have noticed, dear readers, a few firecracker favorites don the cover of Sync this week. While perusing the aisles of Fireworks World (at 8920 Landers Road, North Little Rock) for the best materials to create the cover, Seth and I discovered some new fireworks. I documented the experience for you.
First of all, the place is nearly invisible from the road since there are no distinguishing characteristics so I include a picture:
Oh right. It's actually really easy to see thanks to this over-sized, orange inflatable bulldog.
What may be less noticeable are those tiny letters that say, "one of the."
Now, I haven’t gone shopping for fireworks in quite some time so there were some unfamiliar faces amongst the usual fare of sparklers, Black Cats and Cocks Crowing at Dawn (yes, evidently that is the officially name of those novelty rooster fireworks).
Good morning.
A shark bite translated into fiery sparkle-fury? I want to see this.
Stripper pole + high-cut bathing suit = wholesome family entertainment!
I'm unsure as to whether this is named LOL! because this isn't a firework at all or if the contents truly are somehow hilarious.
Not only bump. But grind too.
A long-uncelebrated family Independence Day tradition of mine includes several family members sitting in basket weave lawn chairs alongside tractor equipment in the dark of 4th of July evening. We’re all at my grandparent Hitt’s home in Lookeba Sickles, Oklahoma. Each family unit brings a variety of fireworks and we combine everyone’s purchases to make a grand near-redneck spectacle of the evening. After each lit fuse, boom sound, bright flare and sometimes roof on fire… my aunt or my cousin or my mom would yell out, “Oh that was a good one! What was that one called!?” My grandfather, brothers or cousin would yell back the name, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” or “Eagle’s Declaration of Ultimate and Unwavering Independence.” This recognition does two things: 1. It alerts the group to the name of the firework we all must remember to get next year. 2. It honors the family that purchased the firework, for they obviously chose wisely.
If I were to go to Lookeba Sickles for 4th of July this year, sit in my lawn chair, eat homemade vanilla ice cream and wait for my firework choices to induce awe-filled exclamations, “ooooooooooh. aaaaaaaaaaaah.” I wouldn’t want to hear my grandfather reply to a firework-name inquiry with, “That last one was one of Shannon’s, called Bump and Grind.”
