weird

4 posts

17 Crazy and Creative Ways to Ask for a Date

When I first ran across this handy guide by Barbara Seegmiller in a used bookstore a year ago, I fell in love with its kooky vintage greatness, for it is certainly creative and fun-loving and by following its rules you’ll definitely get…results. Published in 1986 with help from the English Department of Brigham Young University, it features a stern lecture from the then Associate Dean of BYU on the pitfalls of boredom in youth and boy does it deliver.

Packed with over 300 suggestions by the young in Seegmiller’s community on how to win over that special someone, CWtAfaD undulates wildly between the endearingly corny bad puns/clean cut fun of the ‘80s (i.e. “Give the person a pillow and with a note that says ‘Jane, I’d like you to go to the ___ with me. SLEEP ON IT, and then let me know!’”) and the clinically insane. Continue reading →

Are Sing-a-ma-jigs Cute, Cuddly Fun or Something Else Entirely?

I’m left a little baffled by this toy. On one hand I get what it’s supposed to be. It’s some sort of Elmo-esque plush toy that does what plush toys of the new millennium do. They sing and dance, or shake, and tremble, or whatever else palsy-ridden toys should do nowadays. Why? I have no idea. I’m from the world of soft teddy bears and Raggedy Ann dolls. I never got the appeal of the singing/talking stuffed toy, the Teddy Ruxpins of the toy world. In fact that thing was downright scary! It was like it could read your mind and then rat you out to adults. Sheesh. It was a monster. Now then…the Sing-a-ma-jigs by Fisher Price? Singing flesh eaters? Beloved best toy ever? I dunno.

There is also something about it that may be a bit unsettling. Continue reading →