Yesterday (April 23rd) was my 30th birthday. While some people fear this occasion, I was not particularly dreading it. I had a small gathering with some friends at the Dovre Club on Valencia Street in San Francisco. My friend Rob thought to bring a piñata, which is becoming a tradition for him.

Foods Co., Rob’s normal source for piñatas, was out of stock (Foods Co. is a discount grocery store where you can get a box of faux-Mexican cookies for that will feed desert to 60 people for $2.99 and you can get great deals on nearly-expired bread) so he had to go elsewhere and purshase a Sesame Street Piñata with streamers. This was fine, because I like streamers, and the candy tastes the same either way.

We couldn’t find anywhere to safely hang it inside the bar, so Rob rigged it up to the street-crossing sign out front, which happened to be in front of a very photogenic mini-backhoe. I managed to bust the piñata open after about four whacks, and everyone (by everyone, I mean my friend Andy while everyone else stood at the side and stared at the filthy sidewalk) rushed in and took their pickings from the selection of suckers and chocolate. Despite the razor-sharp staples that were protruding out of the sides of the piñata (watch out kids!) a good time was had by all- even though I am now officially “old.”

More photos here, if you dare.

1. You are only supposed to take one pill at a time.
2. It lasts for 24 hours.
3. Just because it expired in 2003, that doesn’t mean it won’t work.
4. If you take twice the recommended dose, all your nerve endings in the back of you head will tingle and you’ll be really, really thirsty.

I was walking home tonight and noticed a man and woman in a white Mazda Miata who had been pulled over by a motorcycle cop either for speeding or running a red light. They appeared to be on a date, possibly even a first date. All I could think of was “wow, I can’t imagine which is more embarrassing: being pulled over by a cop on a date, or having to pick up a date in a Miata.”

What do you think about Miatas? Yay or nay?

Image courtesy kelnishi.com

I really don’t get the new hipster fascination with shitty old mopeds. I can see where many of them, especially aging hipsters no longer able to ride up San Francisco’s steep hills on fixies, needed to find another method of transportation. But a 1970s 2-stroke moped that burns oil and is probably more polluting than a Hummer? I’m not sure what exactly is cool about these vehicles, but then again I’m not sure what is cool about not washing your hair or wearing skin-tight tapered jeans that don’t fit in any sense of the word “fit”.

This weekend, I had the pleasure of visiting the Going out of Business sale at the Drug Barn in Colma. Much of the remaining stock has been there a very long time, but a few lucky shoppers are still stocking up on off-brand cherry flavored vodka and religious candles. My favorite remaining item had to be this stuffed dolphin, left over from Valentine’s Day (in 1982, most likely):

It seems like it is common knowledge that if you are trying to sell a house, you probably would want to make it look as appealing as possible. It seems that would especially be true if you happened to live in a place that gets a ridiculous amount of snow in the winter, you would probably want to take a photo on a nice spring day. Perhaps someone should tell that to these people:

This house happens to be very close to where I grew up. While I like winter weather, it’s a hard to tell if it is actually a house or just an elaborate snow fort.

Moving on to a house in Cleveland:

It looks to me like they used a camera phone to take this photo of a fixer-upper in Cleveland. Granted, a nice digital camera sells for more than this house will since they are asking $3,000 and will probably be lucky if they get that.

On to the last item of the day. Following my recent theme of highlighting unsafe products, today’s unsafe toy is the Easy-Bake Oven. While an oven for kids does seem like an accident waiting to happen, the Easy Bake has been around so long you would think they’d worked out all of the potential problems. Not so: the new model not only has resulted in 2nd and 3rd degree burns, but a partial finger amputation!

On my previous posting about the San Jose Sharks’ new logo, one reader mentioned that the Shark in the logo actually looked more like a “diving stick” than a lawn dart (or Jart as they are more commonly known). The thing that both of these “toys” have in common is that they were pulled from the market by the Consumer Products Safety Commission for being unsafe after a number of children were maimed/killed etc. Unsafe products for children are becoming a favorite topic here, you may remember last week’s posting about the Meerkat 50 ATV for children.

The lawn dart was illustrated in the most recent posting- it’s basically a large dart with a heavy metal tip and plastic fins. You throw it and attempt to get in into a ring an the other end of the playing area. Sort of like bocce, but instead of rolling balls, you are throwing a sharp, heavy metal object. Brilliant invention there.

Now back to another reader’s question: what is a diving stick? Diving sticks are short plastic sticks that sink to the bottom of a swimming pool, where they are retrieved by children. How is this dangerous? In the words of the Consumer Products Safety Commission:

“When used in shallow water, serious rectal or vaginal impalement injuries can occur when a child accidentally falls on or jumps buttocks-first into the water, and lands on a dive stick. Facial and eye injuries are also possible when a child attempts to retrieve a dive stick under the water.”

If you are dying to read more about the nature of these injuries (and I doubt you do, especially if you are eating), the Federal Register has the whole article, including the appropriately titled section Description of Injury, posted here. Lawsuits concerning these products are still underway, underwatertimes.com has an article from last October about a suit against Walmart.

The main question I have about these “toys” is this- where do products like this LOOK like they are going to end up:

Thanks to underwatertimes.com for the photo.

National Geographic is reporting that one of the world’s rarest animals, Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, (scientists have never found one alive) is said to be “very greasy and extremely tasty.” Hunters on the island of New Guinea have seen them on rare occasions, as recently as 2005 according to Wikipedia. The echidna is spiny and lays eggs, and as you may have guessed is related to the platypus. It is also worth noting that this animal is named in honor of David Attenborough, the voice of British nature documentaries for over 50 years. He is 81 and is still working. I’m sure he’ll be relieved to know his long-beaked echidna isn’t extinct.

If you want to see an amazing photo of a echidna, check out this post on environmentalgraffiti.com. The one shown here from National Geographic doesn’t do it justice.

While the debate still rages over yesterday’s question, Meerkats: hot or not, David Lazarus at sfgate.com is reporting on the newest Chinese product safety concern. No, it’s not pet food this time… it’s an all-terrain vehicle called the Meerkat 50 and it’s made by a company called Kazuma. According to Lazarus, the Meerkat 50 lacks front brakes, can be started while in gear, and lacks a parking brake. While I was initially fascinated due to the name “Meerkat” and the huge coincidence at hand, I became more interested when I started thinking about what type of parent goes out and looks for cheapest possible Chinese-made ATV to buy for his or her child.

On one hand, I question the logic of purchasing an ATV for a small child in the first place… but if you are going to do it, at least get a decent one. It’s not like saving money by purchasing a $30 off-brand DVD player at Wal-Mart, you are buying a motor vehicle for a child. One look at Kazuma’s web page would be enough to steer me clear of anything they produce.

The real kicker in this story is that even though this is clearly a product that should be banned from being imported, the Bush administration has left a vacancy on the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Unless they have a full board, they are unable to force recalls. Hopefully, people will use common sense and steer clear of this product. Right…