I’ve lamented in the past how it seems that the mom and pop toy stores of my youth are no more. Every small town mall across the country used to have at least one small toy store, but now, the malls sit empty. What happened to all the toy stores? Were they victims of the ultra-low toy departments of departments stores? Did the big box retailers come in and swallow them up? No matter. Perhaps they are something whose time has passed. And, instead of mourning their loss, we should be thinking about their reinvention.

Continue reading Has the Time Come? →

The concept of busy is a peculiar one indeed. We tend to spend most of our lives running around, doing tasks we don’t want to do and are even less qualified to perform, all so we can look at our friends and family and say, “I am so busy!” But why do we do it? Why do we fill our days with repetitive job after repetitive job? What are we trying to prove?

Continue reading An Argument for Nothing →

JANE: Thanks for helping me out with this, Joe.

JOE:   Just doing what I can to help out.

JANE: I can’t believe it.  All I have to do is get through this job interview, and I’ll be teaching English in Japan.

JOE:   Yup, you will.

JANE: But there’s one thing I don’t understand.

JOE:   What’s that?

Continue reading Final Revenge →

I’ve been an amateur action figure collector for about 13 years or so, and in that time, I’ve achieved certain milestones with my collection. There are certain points where I go, “Whoa. I’ve come a long way, baby.” The first such milestone was, naturally, buying my first figure; a Commander Riker at a Star Trek convention. Then there was the first Star Wars figure, that crazy day in ’94 when I saved my money for three months and then blew it all in one afternoon on action figures, the night I discovered ToyFare magazine…the list goes on. I reached one of those milestones today when I thought, “Ya know, it wouldn’t be too terrible having a Barbie doll in my collection.”

Continue reading Boys and their Toys →