I know I’ve be MIA and with few good excuses. Everyday or so I’ll sit down with the intent of writing a blog and become sidetracked by everything you have written. You guys rock. I’ve even started a few blogs, hmmm, that somehow are saved for later, whenever that might be.
But this morning their was an obscure form of bunnicide in blazing colour at the bottom of the front page of section B in the Eugene Register Guard. The, obvious, hands of a woman firmly wrapped around the head of a fuzzy, stuffed bunny whose sole eye was attached to a chain device of torture. She was pulling on said bunny’s head with firm grasp. Poor bunny. Apparently when a bunny screams on paper it doesn’t make a sound.
I was surprisingly shocked, stupid I know. I just wish more companies paid as extravagant and detailed attention as the bunny tester of Specialized Technology Resources, a company that test children’s toys. Sixteen hundred employs, working forty hours each week to destroy toys with the aim of protecting our children. The latest lead tainted toys made in China for American kids are lunch pales, dispensed by a well intended California organization to promote healthy lunches for school kids. And the basic cost for STR to test a toy line? Just $35.
$35 or better yet, what if we all demanded American made? What a concept. But wait, while America has outlawed lead based paints, there is no law that requires toys to be tested. None, Nada, Nix.
Mattel toys, whom we trust so well, suffered a 1.5 million item recall earlier this year for lead paint on toys. That was only their first recall. This year Mattel has placed recalls for 20 million toys. It boggles the mind – and tells me not enough books and puzzles are sold anymore. The Toy Industry Association is pushing for federally mandated testing. Finally!
And remember that stuffed bunny being sacrificed to make sure babies and toddlers won’t choke on tiny gnawed off parts? STR says a check of stuffing inside those plush toys uncovers filth. Whoa, Nellie! You Betcha! Dead bugs, sawdust, even metal shavings according to the Guard’s report. I was appalled, even at the age of fifty one, I love giving and getting plush toys. And for now on I’m going to be searching for the American Made label – at least they’ll be our bugs.
It gives a whole new meaning to the rabbit died – btw a quick check of five stuffed animals in my collection unveiled that three were from China, two from Vietnam, and one from Korea. I’ve not even checked Ducky’s Duck Collection. Bummer.
Today’s To Stupid To Live! Award shoud go to the MIT student who wore a fake bomb strapped to her person when she went to Logan International Airport to greet her boyfriend this morning. I thought the prerequisites for getting into MIT was brains? And an art project? Get fucking real.
Today in history 1937 - JRR Tolkien’s the Hobbit was first published.
Sith,
Cele
Friday, September 21, 2007
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2 comments:
I knew I guy who got a stuffed toy from one of those crane games, and he saw movement, and he unstitched it to discover tinly little writhing worms inside.
Nice. My son likes big boxes, so I think Christmas is covered.
"...gives a whole new meaning to the rabbit died..." LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!
What did kids do before television and computers and tv games? I keep thinking of the FarSide cartoons, and how kids sat around staring at the walls.
**sigh** It's sad. Kids do need to be outside playing (tag, hide and seek, four-square, etc) or reading.
LOVE Tolkien. I read The Hobbit about six times, and the first time in 5th grade. Then along came the Sword of Shannara in my teens and southern Utah rocks and monuments were suddenly home to dwarves and hidden people.
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