• Dec. 28, 2006 | 10 a.m. PT

From ads to gifts to mourning the TV dead

I'm back from vacation, and am still getting caught up, but wanted to share a batch of links that collected while I was gone.

Apply directly to the forehead!
We took notice of our favorite and least favorite TV commercials this summer, in Test Pattern's annual commercial contest. Many of those same ads, including HeadOn, Dr. Z, and the Mac-PC ads, showed up in the Wall Street Journal's roundup of best and worst ads of the year. (Link from Romenesko.) And you may have missed "Funniest Commercials of the Year," which aired last night on TBS, but you can still check out some of the funny ads at VeryFunnyAds.com, or   discuss commercials here. And I can't remember if I linked to this before, but it's one blogger's choices for the 10 creepiest advertising icons. How come Digger is only #4? He obviously should be in first place by default.

Leg Lamps 'R' Us
After I published my list of my favorite gifts for entertainment junkies (and discussed it on CKLW radio), I realized I'd forgotten so very many goofy gifts. Here are just a few:
• This ruby-slipper doorstop should give "Wizard of Oz" fans a chuckle.
• I personally would not spend $12 for a can of Campbell's soup, but I love the Andy Warhol tribute intended. Looks like Barneys sold out, but you can still see one of the colorful cans at Boing Boing.
• If you're like me, you watched various parts of Jean Shepherd's classic "A Christmas Story" as it ran in 24-hour rotation during the holidays. Buy your own leg lamp! But be careful, it's frah-gee--lay! It must be Italian!

Leftover holiday links
Like fruitcake, holiday links can sit around forever without going bad. Or maybe, like fruitcake, they're bad from the start. I've already linked to PimpMyNutcracker, the snowflake maker, the snowball-fight game and more, but these links snuck in after Christmas.
• ElfYourself.com, where you upload a photo of your face and magically transform into a dancing elf. I was more than a little freaked out when my sister sent me her boogying elf-costumed self. And from Office Max, the folks who run ElfYourself, similar sites include Conspiracy Carols, Stuck to a Pole, and Everything's A Reindeer.
• I missed this Advent calendar when it was actually Advent, but you can still go through and open up each day, and it's chockful of games and other goodies. I couldn't get all of them to work, but Slingshot Santa worked for me.
• And is this the worst Christmas carol (audio link) ever sung? You decide. I personally enjoy the Cartman version.

MORE ENTERTAINMENT LINKS
• Donald Trump named Most Annoying Money Personality. I'm shocked.
• Here in Seattle, we are still recovering from our recent windstorm-caused power outage. Here's a book that's good to have for the next time that happens: "Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Out." (Thanks to Karen for the link!)
• Sure, everyone can bid farewell to the entertainment greats who died in 2006, but leave it to Entertainment Weekly to mourn TV's fictional dead, from Denny Duquette to Mr. Eko.

• Dec. 14, 2006 | 9:30 a.m. PT

Gifts for entertainment junkies

Inspired by my pal Alan Boyle’s wonderful list of gifts for geeks, I wanted to offer up a short list of my own of fun pop-culture and entertainment-themed gifts. Entertainment, of course, is a very wide field. One person leans towards James Bond, another towards ballet. So this list is based on selective choices of what amused me.  If you know of another fun pop-culture gift idea, send it in. Also, I'm not meaning to promote any one online store over another. You can Google the name of the gift and buy from whatever store you find the best deal at — my links are just meant so you can see the product in question.

1) Homer Simpson's head talking cookie jar
This cookie jar could actually be a diet aid, as one look at chubby ol' Homer may have folks eschewing cookies. When you open the jar, he says things like "D'oh!" and "Why don't you start your diet tomorrow?"

2)“Star Wars” Pez pack
Remember the kid in “Stand By Me” who said if he could only have one food for the rest of his life, it would be cherry-flavored Pez? That kid is not me; I hate the taste of Pez. But I love how the dispensers look, and this “Star Wars” pack is especially awesome.

3) “Old School Sesame Street”
Those of us who grew up on the early days of “Sesame Street” will love this DVD pack more than our kids will. This set collects episodes from the very first five seasons of the show (1969-1974), as well as extras such as the original pitch for the program. (Rolf and a very early Kermit introduce sketches while a table of stuffed-shirt Muppets argue about whether they should call the show "The Itty Bitty Kiddy Show.")

4) Napoleon Dynamite talking doll
Someone in our sports department owns this, and every so often I hear “Yesss!” or “Whatever I feel like I wanna do, GOSH!” come floating across the newsroom.

5) Harry Potter Gryffindor scarf and hat
But before you buy these, better let the Sorting Hat tell you if you’re in the right house. Maybe you really belong to Slytherin!

6) “The Complete Calvin and Hobbes”
Every one of the strips has been collected in this giant collection, which is beautiful, but not as comfortable to sprawl out with as the paperbacks. Still, it’s awesome to have them all, and Amazon is selling it for less than $100. (Don’t miss the various two-book sets of “The Complete Peanuts,” too.)

7) Gone to the dogs
Sadly, Meredith and McDreamy’s dog, Doc, has been sent to Doggy Heaven on “Grey’s Anatomy” (a contract dispute? Did he insist on only certain-colored kibble in his dressing room?). But ABC is still selling a McDog food bowl and doggie placemat.

8) “South Park” Towelie towel
Don't forget to bring a towel!

• Dec. 13, 2006 | 12:10 p.m. PT

Readers rave about ‘FoxTrot’

We don't yet have a commenting feature on Test Pattern (it's coming!), but I wanted to share some of your emails about Bill Amend's wonderful "FoxTrot" comic strip moving to Sundays only beginning at the end of this year. Some of you shared your own favorite strips, which is only fair since I listed my top five, and some of you just wanted to thank Amend for bringing Jason, Peter, Paige and crew to life. Here are some of your thoughts:

FAVORITE STRIPS
“I had to chime in on my favorite “Fox Trot” strip. It involved Peter taking a physics test in class, only to have the problem turn into a work of art with pirates and cannons and explosions. The bell rings, as Peter, with his head down on his desk, simply says, 'Doodlers shouldn’t take physics.' " Just hilarious!”    --Clinton

“I’m so sad to hear that Fox Trot will only be showing up on Sundays. I’ve grown up reading and loving this strip. Jason is by far my favorite character. And the two strips I have loved most this year are the one where Jason makes his own Sudoku puzzle and you must solve the math equations first in order to get your clues and the one from just a few weeks ago where he’s giving himself a “Prison Break” tattoo just in case he’s sent to prison by the CIA. God bless Andy for still being sane after all these years!”    --Jenifer

“My favorite “FoxTrot” cartoons are Jason’s geeky takes on the standbys of Sunday comic strips. The classic example is the “Sudorku” strip, which is still causing ripples in the space-time continuum: Another classic is “Jason’s Jumble” (spoiler alert)”    --co-worker Alan

“My favorite: January 1, 1999 strip... Roger and Andy are drinking coffee, reading the paper, no dialogue... and then in the last frame, Roger (or was it Andy?) says “Shouldn’t Martin Landau be on the moon right now or something?” and the other person says “Ssssssshhh...” A total reference to the 1970s show “Space: 1999”, of course. Classic.”    --Clay

“The series of panels (mid ‘90’s I think) during the first rerelease of the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Hilarious!! Jason is THRILLED to be Darth Vader’s evil second son and keeps telling Luke to quit his whining. “Shut up you baby! He’s talking to me!””    --Anonymous

“My favorite foxtrot was when Jason and Marcus were sitting behind their web consulting stand with a sign that showed the prices dropping and dropping until they were free and one of them comments...”what if we offer free lemonade?””    --Andrew

GENERAL THOUGHTS
“I hate that we will be losing Foxtrot during the week. It is a witty and hilarious comic strip that I can only hope others strip writers learn from. The graveyard of truly great comic strips is filling fast, Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side are truly missed. While Foxtrot isn’t dead yet, it seems to be digging its grave.”    --Allen

“Oh man, this really sucks. Foxtrot is my all time favorite strips for all the reasons you gave and one additional one: it could even deal with real life issues without being too preachy OR losing the humor. (case in point, the weeklong run about Paige finding the used syringe on the beach) Even better, Bill Amend has been gracious enough to personally answer all four fanboy emails I’ve sent him over the course of the past six years. What other artist or writer would do that? This will be a huge loss.”    --Dexter

“I like Foxtrot as well as Zits. Didn’t Amend sort of rip off, I mean borrow from Bloom County? Put Jason and Marcus side by side Milo and his friend. You’ll see the similarities.”    --Anonymous

“And yet the San Diego Union Tribune continues to print “Mary Worth”, “Rex Morgan M.D.”, and “Judge Parker”, none of which have read for at least the last 73 years.”    --Les

“Calvin and Hobbes, the daily version of Bloom County, now Foxtrot. We are all doomed. Civilization has ended. The sun will not rise again. Where have you gone Joe Dimaggio?”    --K

• Dec. 12, 2006 | 10:30 a.m. PT

‘FoxTrot’ trots off to Sundays

I mentioned earlier that the "For Better or For Worse" comic strip would be ending in the not-too-distant future. When it rains, it pours in the comic-strip world. Another of my favorite comic strips, Bill Amend's wonderful "FoxTrot," is switching to Sunday-only strips beginning the last day of 2006.

Although I kind of hate Sunday-only strips, it's hard to begrudge Amend his break — he's done such a demanding job so well for so many years. "FoxTrot" is truly one of those rare strips that's like pizza: Even when it's not great, it's still pretty good. I can't think of too many groaners in "FoxTrot." The strip maintained a constant smart attitude, kept up with the times, and its characters felt true to themselves and always believable. It was never offensive, always managing to stay family-friendly without dipping into saccharine "Family Circus" territory.

Dad Roger Fox is a thinner, slightly smarter Homer Simpson, but who, unlike Homer, is obsessed with making everyone play chess with him (he always loses). His wife, Andy, is a tolerant writer and stay-at-home mom who tries to force her family to eat healthy but can never seem to cook anything edible. Older son Peter is a wannabe jock who regularly pulls all-nighters in an attempt to survive high school, sister Paige is obsessed with the culture of beauty she sees in "Fourteen," her version of "Seventeen" magazine.

But it's youngest child Jason who absolutely makes the strip. He's brilliant and knows it, geeky and doesn't care who knows it. He torments Paige in the most crafty, infuriating younger-brother ways, often dragging best pal Marcus and iguana Quincy into the fray. (When "The Blair Witch Project" was out, Jason made his own version, interviewing friends and family about the creepy Paige Witch.) He's Bart Simpson meets Dennis the Menace for the computer age, and he's never met a computer he couldn't hack, a test he couldn't ace, or a girl he could tolerate. Once he freaks out for weeks over an extra-credit problem that stumps him, only to eventually learn, with great relief, that there was a typo in the equation.

I'm sad about "FoxTrot" losing its daily connection because it was there, in the drawn-out storylines, that you really get to know and love a comic-strip family. Over the course of a week or more, you watch them develop a plot, run into roadblocks, and in the case of Jason, scheme, scheme, scheme. On Sundays, the strip has to be a joke that works for regular fans as well as for random people who only buy one newspaper a week, and I fear it will make the strip simpler, less nuanced. Often I've noticed that Sunday-only strips have more trouble connecting to anything other than maybe the upcoming season or holiday, and if the gag doesn't work, it squashes flat as Silly Putty.

The "FoxTrot" news gave me the impetus to pull out some of my books collecting the strip, and here are my completely personal and unscientific choices for the five best "FoxTrot" strips ever.

1. Majoring in advanced "Melrose Place"
Jason sits on the couch watching "Highlander," and proceeds to explain its elaborate sci-fi/fantasy plot to an uncaring Paige. She howls "Jason, that is the most ridiculous and unbelievable premise for a TV show that I've ever heard of! I can't believe you buy into this nonsense!" The scene later cuts to Paige watching HER show, "Melrose Place," with an uncaring Peter, and explaining "See, Billy and Allison were going to get married, but then Billy married Brooke and Allison married Brooke’s DAD." Complication, obviously, is in the eye of the beholder.

2. Where in the world?
Paige's dim friend, Nicole, is asked to identify Iraq on a world map from which the country names have been removed. "OK, if this is America," she says "then Iraq must be here." Her tortured teacher, Ms. Porter, sighs "OK, let's back up to that 'if,' Nicole." And Nicole takes another stab at it, saying "OK, if THIS is America..."

3. But at least she has charisma points
Jason finally manages to convince Paige to play Dungeons and Dragons with him. She takes six hours to set up her characters, one of whom she names "Lisa Marie the Fashionplate," much to Jason's horror. Finally, she's ready to play, at which time Dungeon Master Jason immediately collapses "Jason Caverns" on top of her characters, killing them all. "Where's a real sword when you need one?" she moans.

4. The heat is on
As much as I loved "FoxTrot's" longer storylines, the strip could also pull off a quick three-or-four panel joke like no other. In one, we see Paige asking "Mom, can I turn up the heat?" She follows up with "Dad, can I turn up the heat?" She then cranks up the thermostat, crowing "Can't say I didn't ask." And Jason (or was it Peter?) dryly responds "Can't say they're home, either." (Another of my favorite Paige lines: When trying out for cheerleading, she chants "C'mon, team, make 'em fume and fuss, send 'em home losers in their loser pus -- I mean, bus!" I think I liked her first version better.)

5. The adventures of Captain Goofball
In a strip that seems especially fitting due to this recent news, Roger discovers that Andy has been asked to advise the editor of their local newspaper on which comic strips should be cut. The problem? She's lobbying for the paper to ditch "Captain Goofball," a hasn't-been-funny-for-decades strip about which Roger holds fond childhood memories. "I mean, that strip made me laugh my head off as a kid," he protests. "Well, maybe today's kids would like a chance to laugh THEIR heads off," she parries. He has one last weapon: "But today's kids don't even READ newspapers." And Andy responds, in one of those great "Fox Trot" instances where the reader is trusted to be smart enough to finish the character's thought, "Call this a hunch, but..."

MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
• The New Yorker psychotically reviews legendary children's books, including "Goodnight Moon."
• Corporate logos visible from space: Was KFC or Target first?
• Confessions of a Topps baseball-card editor

• Dec. 11, 2006 | 6 a.m. PT

Multi-link Monday: Penguin cam, more

A new batch of links to start the week off right.

• With that "Happy Feet" movie seemingly permanently entrenched at the top of the box office, may I suggest the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Penguin Cam, for those of you who just can't get enough of the tuxedoed cuties? You can tune in to feeding time — it's fun to watch them all crowd around for chow. In the cam's off-hours, they even replay footage from before. (Via Tech Space.)

• Some of you love free online games, others, I know, skip right over them. I can take or leave 'em, but this one had me addicted. In Dobble, you spell out a certain word by grabbing letters in a very Mario Brothers way. I like the weird little cartoon guy, too. (Via Ultimate Insult)

• Also via Ultimate Insult: Hilarious warnings on the Japanese version of the Nintendo Wii. You may have seen this link before: My friend Alan sent it to his 16-year-old son, who sniffed at how "old" it was. But I still like how it seems to warn you not to feed shamrocks to your Wii, and that you should encourage your Wii not to take up smoking. It reminds me of Airtoons. (Note: Some of the Airtoons are more risque than I remember them being.)

• Remember this summer, when you could go to a site promoting "Snakes on a Plane" and get a Samuel L. Jackson message "personalized" for yourself or a friend? (Obviously, Jackson had only recorded certain first names, so people like myself with uncommon names were out of luck.) Anyway, NBC is now doing something similar, only with Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock."

• This reader-submitted link, to a very good cause, may be pretty well-known. But it also seemed like a nice counterpart to the online wish list sites I offered up last week. Says Scott: "And for the anti-pop culture site of the season go to Heifer.org Buy some poor folks a flock of baby chicks for $20 or or a bee hive for $30 or a goat $120 or go all out and buy a heifer for $500."

• Dec. 7, 2006 | 6 a.m. PT

Pearl Harbor remembered

Day that will live in infamy
I can't type "December 7" without thinking of Pearl Harbor. When I worked at a newspaper, I was one of those who felt there should always be a mention of it on the front page every year on the anniversary. Not everyone agrees. Check your local paper and see.  The Naval Historical Society Web page has plenty of facts about the attack and the war, including some stunning photos. And for some amazing reading about the war as it progressed, check out Indiana University's samples of work by the legendary Ernie Pyle. Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gun at Okinawa, where my dad was also stationed during the war.

Update: NewsOK.com has some brilliant Pearl Harbor coverage, including an interactive animation of the attack as it developed. (Via Romenesko)

Also, the Honolulu Advertiser has a slideshow of images of a new model of the USS Arizona being unveiled at the memorial to the sunken battleship.

Another link stolen from Romenesko: The New York Times is posting a series of stories about the attacks that was written just one year after Pearl Harbor, censored by the Navy and never saw print until now. Unbelievable that we get to read it now, so many decades after the event passed into history. Florida's Poynter Institute examines the whys and wherefores here.

Tom Brokaw   reports on a man who was present at both Pearl Harbor and at the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald. Talk about "Zelig."

Very Merry Trio
I mentioned last week that I can't stand that Hallmark commercial where the mom magically soothes a crabby airport crowd by playing an obnoxious musical toy. Some readers agreed, including Angie, who said "My thoughts exactly. The first time that Hallmark commercial aired I said to my husband, 'Those people would have bludgeoned that woman for that!' And did you notice, one of her kids was asleep or just about asleep when she started that nonsense. Good grief, let sleeping kids lie!" But others disagree. Said Bill: "I love that Hallmark commercial. That cabin fever must be getting you down." I whipped up a poll: Love it or hate it?

Konnichiwa, I'm a Mac
We've discussed the Mac-PC ads in our summer commercial contest: Apparently Japan is running a version of them, which you can watch here, along with some fascinating discussion about how the ads had to be tweaked for the Japanese market. My favorite line from recent versions of the ads comes from the one where the Mac is wearing a suit and PC snaps "What's with the big-boy clothes?"

LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB
• Best name for a holiday TV special so far this year: "What's With That Christmas House?" Yes, there's one of those in my neighborhood, too.
• The "Sopranos" character who was killed with a pool cue wants to hawk pool cues. Hey, you play the hand that's dealt you, so to speak.
• Slate has a very sweet piece on receiving a signed baseball card in the mail 15 years after it was requested.

• Dec. 5, 2006 | 6 a.m. PT

Managing your family's gift lists online

Yesterday I shared reader Kim's question about a specific site. She said "I'm looking for a link that allows a group of people to post their Christmas wish lists and then for items to be "crossed off" anonymously as gifts are purchased. Any thoughts? Thanks."

I had a couple of feeble ideas, but readers had even better ones. Here's what we came up with. Kim, and anyone else, take your pick.

• "The site that we use is ThingsIwant.com — this lets you link to any page — not just Amazon — and also lets you add things manually for things that aren’t found on Web pages.  The buyer can mark them as purchased so that you don’t get dupes.  You can password-protect your list so that only people you want to see it can see it.”    —Sandy

• "Online giftlist Web site — Givm.com. Free. Create a list of items you want. Publish your list to anyone, whether they have a giftlist account or not. Add item ideas to others' lists. Add comments to items on any lists you can see. Items and comments can be hidden from the recipient, to keep them surprised! You can mark gifts as 'bought', which other users can see, but the recipient won't see. Enjoy."      —Erich

• "I've been using FindGift.com for several years.  You have to download and install an icon on your browser's toolbar.  Once that's done, you can go to any Web site, find something you want, then use the toolbar icon to add it to your wishlist (it pops up a box and fills in the details of the item as much as it can — you can add details, select a category, like "books", specify size/color/etc., and add any kind of details you want). You can even manually add entries for things that aren't online.  The wishlists are publicly accessible, and each item is hyperlinked to the website you selected it from. If the person buys it, they have to return to the findgift.com site to check it off as purchased.  Unlike Amazon, it can't automatically recognize when an item is purchased.  An advantage to this is you can price-compare on different sites to find the best deal or buy at a store, you don't have to buy from the site the person linked to."    —Elaine

• "I Googled Christmas Lists today.  I found a couple of links that might work for Kim: YourChristmasList.com and TheThingsIWant.com."   —Leslie   [see above for Sandy's endorsement of the latter.]

• Well, my ideas look pretty bad after that. It reminds me of the "Peanuts" cartoon where Linus describes the elaborate scenarios he sees in the clouds, and Charlie Brown says something like "I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsey but I changed my mind." That said, Remember The Milk is an online list and task manager, Google Notebook lets you clip items you saw online and keep them in a file, and 30 Boxes is a neat way to share your calendar and other facts online. The Web amazes me: It's really not all porn, no matter what that song in "Avenue Q" says.

OTHER LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB:
• I liked this very sweet piece in Slate about receiving a signed baseball card back 15 years after it was sent to the player. (Via Deadspin.)
• MusicNation wants to be the "American Idol" of online music-video competitions. Good luck with that. Entering is free now, but will cost you $25 after Jan. 1.
• With the new airline regulations limiting how much of certain toiletries you can bring on board, this site, which sells individual-size everything, is beginning to look ingenious.

• Dec. 4, 2006 | 6 a.m. PT

Multi-link Monday

Welcome to December! Hope you're staying warm. Before we get to the links, a reader named Kim has a question. She says "I know we're supposed to send you links but I need some help finding one, please. I'm looking for a link that allows a group of people to post their Christmas wish lists and then for items to be "crossed off" anonymously as gifts are purchased. Any thoughts? Thanks."

Hmm, if your people all make Amazon.com wish lists, that happens there, but obviously the products must be purchased at Amazon. If you have a little blog savvy, you could start a group Weblog at Blogger.com, give only your participants the password, and log in and cross off the gifts as you buy them. That's all I can think of. If anyone has a site that more specifically answers Kim's question, send it in.

Let's start December off right with our quintet of random linkage fun.

•.Want to buy a present for the person who has everything? Try personalized M&Ms -- they're a bit pricey, but might make a fun party snack. Just remember: You're paying several times more than you would for regular M&Ms, and the minimum order is 4 7-ounce bags at $11.50 each.

• The UK arm of Penguin Publishing is releasing certain classic books with plain covers and letting the book purchasers draw their own cover art. Fun idea, but I am in no way artistic enough to make a cover that isn't embarrassing. (Via Boing Boing.)

• For those who love addictive online games: Try this all-white jigsaw puzzle. Sure, it's easy as pie at first, but keep at it and see how you do. (Via USA Today.)

• My pal Will over at Clicked borrowed the snowflake-maker link from me last week. I'll return the favor by snitching one of his: Merriam-Webster is asking readers to vote for the 2007 word of the year. Past words that made their top 10 lists included "tsunami" and "levee" in 2005 and "blog" and "cicada" in 2004.

• Reader-submitted link: Kelly F. says "This is a fun site for the holidays if somewhat unconventional: PimpMyNutcracker.com." Click on the different topics ("head," "legs," etc) in the left margin and keep clicking to see that item change. Kinda like dressing The Sims!