Various and Sundry

Margarete Steiff and the Rise of Stuffed Animals

I did a post the other day about Girl Scout cookies because the holidays count as overall cookie season and perhaps some people might cry foul. True, those people might not be much fun at holiday parties, but they have a point. Stuffed animals, however, deserve some consideration during holiday season because if you’ve never given the gift of a stuffed animal to a kid or been a kid receiving “the best stuffie ever,” well……

Continue reading

Various and Sundry

Lonnie Johnson and the Super Soaking of Summer

It’s 2025 and the first Super Soakers went on sale 35 years ago, changing backyard water gun fights forever. Invented by Lonnie Johnson, the Super Soaker (initially with the entirely accurate if less glib name “Power Drencher”) was a game-changer from a toy company called Larami. My siblings and I were already familiar with Larami doing for water guns what Activision did for Atari 2600 game cartridges. Translated from the Gen X: this was a…

Continue reading