Tauntaun Sleeping Bag

Now this is Real Star Wars Stuff. Back before George Lucas fell in love with courtiers and namby-pamby councils Star Wars was about manly survival in hostile conditions, and none of these conditions were more manly and hostile than the Jack London-esque planet Hoth. Remember the Wampa? Remember Han going out to search for Luke? Remember how Han kept Luke warm through the frozen Hoth night?

Yes indeed, hailing from an age when The Empire Strikes Back was a sequel (and not Episode V - phthah!), we have the Tauntaun sleeping bag from Think Geek. Now you to can split open the belly of an other-worldy biped with your plush light-saber zipper and warm yourself in the intestines of the deceased beast. Better yet, you can get your nieces and nephews to revel in the grossness of it all - quieter than a drumset, and yet somehow more disturbing: the perfect gift for other people's children.

If only Glade would come out with Tauntaun Entrail scented oil plug-ins the experience would be complete.

Sources:
Think Geek (via Fark)
Glade

Pokémon Maxi Pad

Words fail me. A pikachu reusable maxi pad? I suppose it is environmentally friendly...

But, you ask, how will Hello, Kitty respond to this marketing onslaught? Like any good kid-friendly cartoon character: with weapons.



Sources:
Etsy via
The Zeray Gazette via
Neatorama
Associated Content
Ms. Pink
Jim's Gun Supply

It Was 30 Years Ago Today

Disco was in its death throes, Bill Gates had just moved Microsoft from Albuquerque to Bellevue, WA, and the Federal Reserve interest rate finished the year at 15.25%. Out of the maelstrom emerged the University of Wisconsin Pail & Shovel Party, the name coming from its promise to convert the school budget into pennies which students could shovel into buckets to pay for their expenses as needed. After their re-election in the spring, the P&S decided to thank the student body by frivolously spending their money on some lawn ornaments. When the students arrived on campus the morning of September 4th, 1979, they found 1008 pink flamingos covering Bascom Hill in front of the dean's office, an event remembered on postcards to this day, an event of such magnitude that the city of Madison, Wisconsin, after much hard fought lobbying, has now declared the plastic pink flamingo to be its official bird.

Don Featherstone, designer of the original pink flamingo in 1957, said that as far as he knows, the 1,000 pink flamingos on Bascom Hill remains the largest gathering of the plastic birds anywhere.

Sources:

World News Australia

Green Bay Press Gazette

Madison.com

Wisconsin Historical Society

Boo!

This is not truly tasteless: it has a little bit of Monday humor about it, don't you think? Via Yanko Design we have South Korean designer Ji-youn Kim's Hangman Light. In the background you can even see a couple of wall hangings. (Look it's not as tasteless as this.)

Take a look through Kim's website, he's got some pretty cool stuff, everything from construction equipment to solid toothpaste. What do I want most - even more than the Hangman Light (although I would settle for the Hangman light), what I want is the Boo, a battery charging boomerang: man, that is cool.

Sources:

Yanko Design via Neatorama

Excuse in a Box

You know the guy, the over-involved one who coaches baseball, volunteers to read to his kid's class twice a week, and decorates his cubicle with endearing photos and macaroni artwork. The one who always misses work to do something with his kid. The one you always have to cover for. The one who leaves you, the childless, responsible drone to do his job for him.

You are jealous of him. You hate him. You know you do.

If only YOU had a child, then it would all be different. If only YOU had a child then YOU could skip work and frolic with antelope or whatever it is you'd rather be doing. If only.

Well, now, you CAN be that guy.

Created by Melissa Maher, I give you: The Office Kid.

As real as Jan Brady's boyfriend, The Office Kid is what excuses are made of: photographs and family drawings, no real kid necessary. Who needs a sick kid? All you really need is a physician's note.

For guys, all you have to do is name the little twerp, come up with a little background story, and start skipping work. It's a little harder for gals (it always is, isn't it?), but the idea of an emergency adoption on your trip to Cancun (where you will have to return twice a year so he can visit his birth parents), or the death of a (preferably fictional) relative can serve as a satisfying explanation.

Like everything of quality, you can buy it, er, him on eBay.

Sources:

Neatorama

UrbanDaddy

Donkey Tea Bags

I know some of you are only checking this out to satisfy your prurient interests, but these are, in fact real tea bags. (Really.) Donkey Products from famously humorous Germany brings you three sets of tea bags: Royal Tea (pictured), featuring the British royal family, Democratea, featuring various world leaders, and the slightly prurient Strip Tea, which you'll just have to click through to see if you can't figure it out on your own.

No word yet on where these can be purchased. (Sounds like a job for Archie McPhee!)