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December 2010

Silent Nights…and Days

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The Christmas season has given all of the girls in the house a horrible cold/sore throat/cough.  Dallas, with his superior genes, remains unscathed by this latest germ invasion.

The sickness has rendered one of the more chatty girls in the house voiceless.  Two days of silence from her has made me realize she does far too much yelling, screaming, whining, and complaining on a daily basis.  Sometimes the silence from her hour after hour is heavenly.

The good/bad news is her voice seems to be coming back.

Yes, I think by the weekend I’ll be able to resume my normal vocal activities.

Toys That Kill

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With a fresh batch of toys unwrapped from under the Christmas tree. It’s time to post about the comments people have made about the book “Toys That Kill” available on Amazon.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out
of 5 stars Thank Goodness for Edward M. Swartz, Esq.!!!, December 21, 2008 By Steve G (New York, NY) – See all my reviews This review is from: Toys That Kill (Paperback) The year was 1988 and I was seven years old. I had a habit of sucking on those ball-headed Fisher-Price Little People until their faces came off and they just looked like little roll-on deodorants. This annoyed my little sister to no end and she would always tell on me and I’d get in trouble. Finally one day to spite her I decided I would just see how many of her Little People I could swallow. I ate the dog, the grandpa, the two little kids, the mom, and had the bus driver halfway down my throat when I suddenly couldn’t breathe! I was already starting to black out when my mother discovered me.
Fortunately mom had Swartz’s “Toys That Kill” on the shelf in easy reach – she quickly turned to the section on Little People to read the details on a version of the Heimlich maneuver specific to Little People choking accidents. Thanks to Edward Swartz, mom was able to save my life that day. Fortunately, Fisher-Price soon realized the evil of their ways and redesigned Little People thanks to the efforts of public servants such as Swartz who crusaded valiantly on the behalf of us “real” little people. Sure, the new Little People aren’t as cute – in fact, they’re kinda creepy looking – but that’s a small sacrifice for safety. 5.0 out of 5 stars Killer Toys!, November 19, 2001 By Art Neville (Rochester, NY) – See all my reviews This review is from: Toys That Kill (Paperback) When my child was run over by a popping-ball
“lawnmower”, and killed… I became suddenly aware of the danger of toys. I have locally formed a group to raise awarness of the liability of the toy industry for allowing such lax standards to pass. In addition to our monthly toy burning, we all agree to read on book together on the evils of the toy industry. This book is so popular, it’s been selected over a dozen times for book of the month. Very compelling!
http://www.amazon.com/Toys-That-Kill-edward-swartz/dp/0394746074

Candy Window 2004

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This morning I was thinking about the candy window we did back in 2004.  I was looking at the pictures and I thought I would share them with you since we didn’t have the blog back in 2004.

ZCMI in Salt Lake used to have window displays during Christmas that were made entirely out of candy.  When ZCMI discontinued it Provo City took over and had the candy windows in the windows of businesses in downtown Provo.  We participated for a couple of years.  This was our entry.  It was a lot of work.  You might notice the picture of me and Rebecca on the fireplace and on the bookshelf.

Every surface that you see had to be made from something edible.  The pictures of us were coated with sugar.  The walls were frosting and gum sticks.  The floor was dyed coconut.  The fireplace was rock candy.  The bookshelf was rolled out Tootsie Rolls.  The door was pretzels.  The tree was sour straws.  The man was mostly fondant.  The popcorn strand was nerds so we had to buy a large quantity of nerds to sort out the white ones.  You can imagine where many of the rest went.

I can’t remember what award we won for the window but it was featured on TV and on promotional posters.  The theme for this year was “O Christmas Tree.”  We called our window “O Blasted Christmas Tree.”

Maybe tomorrow I’ll do a post about other candy windows.

Unofficial Picture of the Week

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I hadn’t prepared a picture of the week but Rebecca found this one online. I didn’t take this picture.  As you might already know, our beloved Provo Tabernacle burned down this week.  This picture is an amazing coincidence?  A testimony of the Savior?  You decide.  I believe in Christ.

ksl.com – Provo firefighters still fighting tabernacle fire (Gallery Viewer).

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