when did you last buy a beanie baby

Or even more interesting when was the last time you sold one?

As head (and only) researcher here at Lisleman’s Institute for Better Postings, I decided to travel back in time a little. Think back when the frenzy sweeping the nation (just picture this huge broom sweeping off dust bunnies driven by some OCD lady) was :

AKA Sizzle the Bear

Beanie Babies

Do you remember buying your first beanie baby?

I’m not a beanie baby trader but I have two former collectors in my family.

My older sister is a beanie baby junkie. I asked her these questions just recently. It was only a few years ago that she spotted one in a gift shop that she just had to get for a grandchild. She has about a hundred stored neatly in boxes in her garage.

The other family member is our youngest, now adult, daughter. She has a plastic bin of them.

I recall telling our daughter during her beanie baby craze that they are only worth anything when you sell them. Now that’s not totally true. The pleasure of looking at one on your shelf, night stand, wherever I imagine is worth something. Many people buy knickknacks for their homes and even office cubicles. Extreme knickknacking can result in a knickknackatory.

The creator of beanie babies, Ty Warner, (recently beaned in court by the Feds over a tax issue) was from Chicagoland. Our family happens to know a lady who became very wealthy by starting (and selling it off) a beanie babies magazine. She lives in a nice big house not too far from here. You can tell when something has become very lucrative, the criminals show up. Smuggled counterfeit beanie babies became an issue for US customs back then.

So ok they were fun and inexpensive but like so many fads your window for money making was limited and required a bit of luck. Investing in beanie babies was not a sound retirement plan. Also, I would not want to be sitting in prison because of beanie babies smuggling.  I would probably make up a different more exciting crime to tell fellow inmates.

So knick knack paddy whack leave this dog a bone (a comment).

I sold a memory once

E-bay sells memories. The E-bay buyer of my memory probably was going to resell it. Perhaps the future buyer was doing the opposite; buying a memory.

The strange thing is these memories are not bought and sold. It’s only the symbol of the memory. I still have the small memory of my grade school lunchbox back in a corner of my brain. I just don’t have the rusty lunchbox in the corner of my basement.

Music generates many memories for me. Happy, sad, or just pleasant impressions of past events play along in my head with many songs.

“One for my baby” doesn’t revive any specific memory. It brings an image of small hole-in-wall bar with one sad customer left. My blog brain heard it and I started comparing it to blogging.

I’ve got the routine put another post in the blog

...

You’d never know it

but buddy I’m kinda poet

and I got a lot of things to say

... 

and thanks for the cheer 

I hope you didn’t mind 

my bending your ear

barbie message what about ken

Yes finally!  I found the above picture years ago and I knew I would be able to get a blog post out of it someday.  I never cared for Barbies but troll dolls were cool even way back in the late sixties.

So did you hear about this controversial Barbie doll?

Some Barbie designer (who are these people?  Didn't make it in the real life fashion biz?) produced an inked/tattooed Barbie.

Don't be too worried about your impressionable girls getting a hold of one.  They sold out quickly.  According to reports the doll was produced for the adult collectors.  Ok I understand collecting old Barbies but buying new ones as an adult?  I have better uses for $50. 

Sending the wrong message to young girls?  Honestly if you worried about that type of thing why even let any type of Barbie doll in the house.  I would be more worried about the "normal" Barbie giving my daughter the desire for a boob job.  (IMHO a boob job is even a dumber idea than some ink job)

One possible advantage of this would be the lesson of watching the tattoo wear off with age.  Now that lesson would take awhile unless you borrow my portable orbital sander.

Now from my experience with raising daughters (also noticed with granddaughter) the Barbies are most often found naked.  At least the tattoo distracts you from the thought she has been running a nudist camp in the toy box. 

 

athletic Barbie - do you think her hair gets messed up?

This was fun.  I hope you enjoyed the trolls roasting Barbie as much as I did.

Oh, no word from Ken on this latest development.

Oh BTW, Lisleman is still collecting Left-over Laugh posts on his LLL#4. (please tell me why I am writing this in the third person??)

Hooah

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

You talkin’ to me

Gooooood Mornnnninng Vietnam

I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore

E.T. phone home.

They're here

Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown

You can't handle the truth

Open the pod bay doors, HAL

I am serious... and don't call me Shirley

Stella! Hey, Stella!

Snap out of it!

There's no crying in baseball!

I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Houston, we have a problem.

I see dead people.

I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog too!

Take your stinking paws off me, 
you damned dirty ape!

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. 
A former greenskeeper, now, 
about to become the Masters champion. 
It looks like a mirac...
It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!

Mama always said life was like 
a box of chocolates. 
You never know what you're gonna get.

I'll have what she's having.

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

Go ahead make my day.

(leave a comment)

Short news you don’t care about

Wayne Newton has penguins

I’m not sure how long his condition has existed. I just learned of his odd situation while listening to “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me”. He was a guest on the show and played their “not my job” game.

During the interview I learned he has a 40 acre menagerie in Las Vegas called Casa de Shenandoah.

I guess (never had them myself) if you have the penguins, you want to share them with others.

Wayne and his wife just obtained approval to turn their Vegas ranch into an entertainment attraction.

It might be a good break from the slots and tables of the strip. The Newtons have more than penguins. Such as: a Frank Sinatra champagne glass, Nat King Cole's watch, Steve McQueen's Rolls-Royce and a Johnny Cash guitar.

He could sell autographed copies of “Danke Schoen”.

are you collecting

Ideas like cans

can be collected and recycled.

Check out Mrs. 4444 ( that number might be her IQ) and her regular Friday feature.

Do you ever leave long comments?
I have noticed a few long ones in the blogs I follow. I appreciate all comments that are not spam. Just commenting, I liked it, hi, I was here, is fine with me but witty ones are the most fun to read.
But sometimes the post just triggers some memory or strong opinion which I'm compelled to explain at length. I've written comments longer than some of my posts.
Have I done that on your blog? (ask me I will)

~~~~~~~~

(if you are non-technical just skip this one) I am analog or non-digitally experienced - in electrical engineering there are analog circuits and digital circuits. When I studied for my degree the digital world was here but just beginning. Today you can focus your studies almost completely within the digital world.
So where is this rambling going?
A teenager today having only experienced digital pushbuttons, texting, and laser readers doesn't know the world of rotary dials, public payphones, tuning radio stations, rabbit ears, dropping film off, pen-pals and calculating change for a dollar. I've read that the rapid feedback of our digital world is changing the wiring of our brains. I hope not.
Writing this makes me feel old, but able to relate in an analog way.

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How do you feel when you get compliments from inebriated friends and relatives?
They still count right?
Once I heard I looked like George Clooney. It made my day. Another time at a party, a woman called me over to tell me how much she loved my hair. That was a little weird. She was with her husband at the time, but the bar had been opened for more than an hour - so does it count?.

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compliment vs. complaint - so different yet so close - drop 'me', replace with 'a', and flip 'i'.

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Does my blog have ephemeral followers? (Dumb question but my writing needs improved vocabulary.)

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Have you been listening to any oldies?
Carly Simon wrote and sang some great ones. Ever wonder about "You're So Vain"? check Carly Simon's site. She has a page about it.

~~~~~~~~

Does your town/city have those countdown signs on pedestrian crossings?
Don't they make you hurry up and try to beat your last time?
Years ago my sister and I were crossing an intersection equipped with the countdown clocks. I said:

"You see that sign?"
"That how much time we have to live before we are run over."
Ok that last one reminds me of how ambulance drivers get to give people the ride of the lives.

play it backwards

Remember playing that Beatle album backwards? Which one was it?

I still have a turntable but besides a complete dusting it needs at least a new cartridge. Probably ruined it playing songs backwards.

Some readers may NOT know life before MP3's. There was one.

Anyways, this guy has a huge collection of all types of records. It's reported to be the world's largest (3 million records). It's up for sale. But since the buyer must buy the whole thing and come up with millions in cash it has not sold that quickly. (I could spend the rest of my life selling it on e-bay - hmm).

Here's a short video about him.



I wonder if you played the whole collection backwards what would happen? secret of the universe or a really drawn out headache