Ellen Warren

Ladies' mustaches to love!

Tempo — 2009-06-24T11:00:00-05:00

Lots of people have a trademark look.

For starters, there’s a slew of celebrities known for their hair.

Donald Trump? Cotton candy comb over. There’s Willie Nelson’s charmingly weird braids. Elvis: Coal black pompadour. Rod Blagojevitch? Sui generis.

Other famous people are instantly identified by their noteworthy body parts. Dolly Parton has those o’er flowing ta tas. You’d recognize Angelina Jolie’s lips from 100 paces. Ditto Prince Charles’ ears. And Jay Leon’s outsized chin is hard to miss.

Nothing wrong with having something that makes you unforgettable. Or easily recognizable. Or at least remotely different from the rest of the world.

Larry King doesn’t wear those signature suspenders just to keep his pants up. Ozzy Osbourne long ago could have switched from those circular specs to contact lenses. And to make sure you don’t ignore her, Paris Hilton doesn’t travel far without one of her kennel of pink-clad Chihuahuas tucked under her arm.

Some of us spend a lifetime wondering why we seem to be so forgettable. How come we have to keep re-introducing ourselves to those we’ve met over and over. Wish we had a trademark too.

Wouldn’t it be swell if there were a national requirement that everybody wear a big badge like conventioneers you see around town: “Hello my name is” in BIG BLACK LETTERS.

Of course there are some folks, Abe Lincoln for instance, who are so famous they’ve got trademarks to spare. For Honest Abe (note the trademark nickname) it’s not just the stovepipe hat but also that distinctive facial hair.

Lincoln’s beard, a style called a “chin curtain,” is notable for what it does not have, a moustache.

Which bring us to the object pictured here. The French website www.atypyk.com has invites all of us trademark-deprived nobodies to borrow renown moustaches from the past (5 ‘staches for $11.97).

Not only is there the playful Salvador Dali (shown here) but Clark Gable, Burt Reynolds and more. And these trademarks come emblazoned on a pencil.

It’s a signature look that even let’s you sign your name.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

Memorable moustaches. That’s what these disparate characters have in common: Joseph Stalin, Super Mario, Friedrich Nietzsche, Hulk Hogan, Adolf Hitler and Borat Sagdiyev have in common.

To get an up-close appreciation of Dolly Parton’s curves, check out Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum where one of her dresses is displayed in all its eye-popping magnificence.

Private Eyes: These cufflinks are looking at you

Tempo — 2009-05-07T12:20:27-05:00

    There’s no such thing as a private moment any more. Get used to it.
   Just a few years ago, you could change clothes at the gym, use the facilities at the toll road rest stop, pet the puppies at the animal shelter and feel reasonably secure that nobody—but you—was paying attention.
   Cheap, tiny cameras have changed all that.
   Now it's not just nannies who have to worry about being spied on by the camera in the teddy bear’s tummy. Big Bro is everywhere.
   The ever growing number of red-light camera intersections mean more and more heavy-footed drivers who’ve barreled through Chicago intersections are getting walloped with a $90 ticket.
   And those cop car dashboard cams? Well you can try to convince the judge that you only had two beers. But cue the tape and do the time.
   Fans of television’s “The Office” watched Angela, using a home-based cat cam, sit at her desk and keep an eye on her new feline, Precious Lady.
   Gee, what a surprise. Angela’s high-tech set up backfires. Unintended consequences erupt. The crazy cat lady races home to reprimand bad kitty and gets caught on her own cam as her co-workers watch her lick—ick—her feline friend.
     Let this be a lesson to us all—even those of us who don’t lick our pets. Cameras are everywhere, as close at hand as a cell phone. Remember, they can and will be used against us, no Miranda warning required.
    Almost as fast as you can push the "Record" button on whatever mini device you’ve acquired for not much cash, the pictures—especially if they show a drunken starlet, Octomom or a plane crash—can show up for the world to see on YouTube, TMZ, CNN
    At times, it seems that everyone is watching everyone. Not much you can do about except to make a cheeky statement about this uncomfortable state of affairs with these eyeball cufflinks.
Made from doll eyes that really do open and shut, these were found eerily staring from a shelf at Hazel, a gift shop at 1902 W. Montrose Ave. ($14).
   Here’s looking at you, kid.

Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping column every Thursday in the Tribune’s Play section and join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellenwarren.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

You can avoid nearly half of Chicago’s red-light camera intersections by staying off just five city thoroughfares. Got to pick just one to avoid? Make it Western Ave. (18). Others: Ashland Ave. (13); Cicero Ave. (10); Halsted St. (12) and Pulaski Rd. (9).

Dolls have been around since at least 2000 B.C. The oldest were well-dressed women. Baby dolls first appeared in London at The Great Exhibition in 1851.

Finally: a good use for pennies

Tempo — 2009-04-17T12:17:10-05:00

Abe Lincoln is totally the man these days. Not long ago, the nation blew out the candles on Honest Abe’s 200th birthday cake. Figuratively speaking, of course.
   Perhaps you missed the fact that 2009 also marks the 100th birthday of the Lincoln penny.
   In sharp contrast to Lincoln himself, his penny gets no respect. You might even say it gets the opposite: dismissal and disdain.
   An MIT physicist, Jeff Gore (who advocates getting rid of the cent entirely) calculated that fiddling with pennies wastes at least 72 minutes per person every year. They cost more to produce (1.4 cents apiece) than they’re worth. And when was the last time you saw someone actually stoop over to pick up a penny on the sidewalk?
   Well, Stacey Lee Webber does. She's a Chicago artist who created the ring shown here.
   "I always pick up pennies and I have a huge bucket in front of my studio. People give me pennies all the time,” she says
With the recession, Webber says her penny jewelry is “striking chords with people.” They seem to like the idea of flaunting their frugality.
   To put it succinctly, cheap is chic.
   Even though the jewelry costs more than just the value of the coinage—there’s earrings, bracelets and necklaces too—it’s still mostly priced at $100 or less. This definitely-not-a-diamond ring is $100 at Elements, 741 N. Wells, St., 312-642-6574; elementschicago.com
    Pennies, and the jewelry made from them (her Website: thecoinsmith.com), have a “nostalgic feel” says Webber, 25, and remind us of bygone days when you could actually buy something for a measly cent.
   Now, you have to pile a lot of pennies together to buy just a pack of gum. Nonetheless, the U.S. mint made 5.4 billion pennies last year and there is no reason to think that they’re going to stop producing them any time soon.
   Earlier efforts to eradicate the one-cent coin have gone nowhere and its not likely that the new U.S. President from the Land of Lincoln would allow such a travesty on his watch—even if we hardly notice Abe’s profile on them any more.
       “We use coins every day and don’t even look at them any more. They just kind of pass through your hands,” says Webber. Her goal is to change that—one puny penny at a time.
       Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping column every Thursday in the Tribune’s Play section. Join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellenwarren.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

Those little ridges on the edge of coin are called reeds. Pennies and nickels don’t have them but dimes, quarters and half dollars do-- 118, 119 and 150 tiny lines respectively.

Is it legal? Yup, you can mess with money—weld it, cut it, whatever—as long as there’s no “fraudulent intent.”

Octopus love? Eight is enough!

Tempo — 2009-02-28T05:27:00-06:00

As a nation, it seems we’re having an aquatic moment. More specifically, octopi. Or octopuses, if you   prefer.
   On YouTube, t-shirts, at craft fairs and greeting card shops. Seriously, look around. You don’t need to go to the Shedd Aquarium gift shop to see octopi all over the place.
   Artists, crafters and—especially jewelry designers—seem to be captivated by the charms of these intriguing eight-armed sea creatures. (No, they’re not tentacles. You’re thinking of squid, which are often confused with the octopus.)
   The cephalopod shown here was located far far away from any ocean. It was perched in a glass case, not an aquarium, at the Barneys New York store on Oak St.
   Unlike the real thing, this one can’t change color, poison its victims, kill a shark or—sliced thin—make an appearance as a piece of tasty sushi in a Japanese bento box.
   This is a bracelet, a big bracelet with movable arms, fashioned out of oxidized silver by designer Antonio Palladino. At $4,195 it’s not for everyone.
    But Judy Aldridge couldn’t resist. She traces her octopus obsession to growing up on the water in Alaska. When she tried the bracelet on at the Dallas Barneys—“The legs kind of wiggle, it feels a little bit alive”—she said, “I had to have it. It’s like you’re really looking at an octopus!” And when she wears it, “Everyone wants to touch it,” she says. “I’m surprised how many people love octopi.”
   One of them is the also octopus obsessed is San Francisco jewelry artist Deana Fukatsu whose online store name—OctopusMe--says it all (octopusme.etsy.com). She takes real octopus that she buys at a Japanese market, then casts the arms, suckers and all, in silver using the “lost wax” method. There are rings, bracelets, cufflinks, and earrings priced in the hundreds, not thousands. Sales are brisk.
“The octopus is very smart, strong, very cunning, very adaptable, very fluid,” she says. Just the skills set we all need in this tsunami economy.
   Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping column every Thursday in the Tribune’s Play section and read her Life Solutions column in Sunday’s Smart section. Join the conversation at chicagotribune.com/ellenwarren

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

The octopus has a hard beak, sort of like a parrot. But that doesn’t keep it from squeezing through impossibly small spaces. A huge one can contort through an opening the size of a golf ball.

Octopi are said to be as smart as a housecat—and can be trained to twist the top off a soda bottle. Short lifespans make them iffy pets, though.

One look and she's toast

Tempo — 2009-02-14T05:10:00-06:00

Why do we do it? What is it that makes us want to collect things?
The emergency room doctor with hundreds of toy ambulances crowding her desk and bookcases. The Cubs fanatic with a room full of autographed baseballs. The Collie lover whose home overflows with Lassie memorabilia (and dog hair).
    Those obsessions make sense. Sort of. Let’s just say there’s a thread of logic there.
But what are we to make of someone who is captivated by toasters?    The owner of the vintage model shown here said her passion burst upon her without warning decades ago at an antiques show in San Mateo, Cal. Spotting a Toast-O-Lator like the one in the photo, “It was love at first sight,” she said.
For many years, it was unrequited love. Finally, relatives surprised the toaster lover with this one: her own, working model J, believed to have been built in 1947 in Long Island City, New York, where they were produced between 1938 and 1952
   What makes the Toast-O-Lator unique is the way it “walks” the bread through the heating element on an escalator-like device and drops it out the other side onto a waiting plate. Incidentally, the “teeth” of the escalator are called “toast dogs.”
   Advertised as “The Aristocrat of Toasters” you can buy them on eBay and at antique stores for a few hundred dollars.
   Toast-O-Lator lore, intriguing as it might be, fails to answer why people collect toasters. So, I put this question to Eric Norcross, president of the Toaster Museum Foundation (and creator of the frighteningly complete website toaster.org).
“Toasters produce a comforting food,” explained Norcross, who has turned his own 500 plus toaster collection over to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan where they one day will be on public view.
“Bread,” says Norcross, “is a simple, delicious food that nearly everyone can relate to.” On that note, let’s all raise a glass of orange juice and make a toast…to toast.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

The ancient Egyptians are believed to be the first to make what we think of as “modern” bread (leavened with natural yeast) and they probably made the first toast by putting it near a fire.

“Toast sweat” is the droplets of water that condense back on the bread when the warm toast is placed on a cooler surfac

Can't get enough of Frank Gehry

Tempo — 2009-01-10T04:58:00-06:00

Everyone wants a piece of architect Frank Gehry these days.
Lucky for Chicagoans, we’ve already got ours. The explosively exuberant Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park is hard to miss. And if you haven’t walked the stainless steel slither of Gehry’s BP bridge, also at Millennium Park, well, get going!
Gehry, who turns 80 next month, is the genius behind spectacular structures not just here but from coast to coast and around the world.
Obviously, owning a building by this “starchitect” is the province only of those with vast fiscal endowments. For the rest of us, the sculptural delights of his swoops and curves can be be cherished, free of charge, for the cost of a CTA trip to the Loop.
Less known than his multi-million dollar constructions is that Gehry long has been interested in frugality, a virtue not usually associated with his chosen profession. (Ask anyone who has ever remodeled a kitchen about design cost overruns!)
   Gehry has created “junk architecture,” using cheap materials like corrugated sheet metal and chain-link fencing to art-worthy effect.
There’s also his creative use of cardboard to build the “ideal chair” His curvy Edges furniture took this base material out of the landfill and into the living room.
   Today, you can, put a drink on a cardboard Gehry end table and wear Gehry jewelry on a wrist or finger from his collections—named Morph and Torque—for Tiffany.
The jewelry and furniture (for Vitra International) is affordable, but still costs in the hundreds—or more.
So if your Gehry passion is not slated by just looking, consider investing in “Frank Gehry On Line” by Esther da Costa Meyer (Princeton University Art Museum/Yale University Press), the little volume pictured here. The book cover looks and feels like his signature stainless steel. The cardboard slipcase references the cardboard furniture.
And the cost, under $20 at amazon.com, means even the most impoverished Gehry fan can have a piece of him too.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

The first commercial cardboard box was produced in England in 1817 although the Chinese invented cardboard more than two centuries earlier.

Can’t get enough cardboard info? The Museum of Cardboard and Printing opened in 1991 in Valreas, France.

Chic and cheap topper: Hat's off

Tempo — 2008-12-20T05:19:00-06:00

We’re spending a lot more time looking back—not ahead—these days.
Today’s bad economic news has made the “good” in “the good old days” look better than ever.
The new year is almost upon us—a traditional time for savoring the promise of what lies ahead.
Instead, “Remember when…” is the conversation starter we’re embracing as 2009 looms scary and dark.
Let’s see. Remember when...
*Companies gave you a job for as long as you wanted to work there, with paid vacation and a pension when you retired?
*We didn’t worry about global warming, disintegrating safety nets, killer cribs and tainted baby bottles?
*New Year’s Eve was a big party night with all the trimmings, including lots of bubbly and a cute new outfit?
Nothing you read on this page is going to find you a great new job, eliminate reliance on fossil fuels or slash the grocery bill.
But take a gander at the photo and recall what the ladies in the ‘50s sitcoms did to perk up their day.
When she was feeling blue, it wasn’t Xanax or a Bombay Sapphire martini that Lucy Ricardo reached for. She went out and bought a new hat! (An entire 1954 “I Love Lucy” episode was built around Lucy’s hat fetish.)
The feathered tiny topper shown here, perched at a saucy angle, won’t make the recession recede but for only $34 it’s pretty sure you’ll get a better return on your investment than putting the cash into the market, your 401k or, for that matter, under your mattress. And it sure can make an entrance at a New Year’s Eve party
Incidentally, the price of this cocktail hat from Urban Outfitters is 1/3rd less than the cost of Lucy’s hat on the TV show more than a half century ago.
There’s economic good news after all. Let it go to your head.

Read senior correspondent Ellen Warren’s shopping column every Thursday in the Tribune’s Play section and see her Life Solutions column in Sunday’s Smart section.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

The word “milliner”—a women’s hat maker—first appeared in 1529 and is a reference to Milan, Italy, which was renowned for the straw from which hats were made.

The hat Lucy Ricardo bought for $49.50 in 1954 would cost a whopping $402.59 in 2008. Then-and-now cost calculations are simple by plugging into bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm

Frugal gems light up a room

Tempo — 2008-12-19T09:41:03-06:00

What’s the highest compliment? How about, “You light up a room?”
We all know someone like that. The woman in the group who makes you happy to be there. The guy who walks in and everyone looks up from their computers. A dynamo personality whose arrival always gets the party started.
   Wouldn’t it be great to be that person? Now you can—for only $5.95.
   The object shown here is a genuine sparkler. It’s battery operated and looks a little like a strobe moon rock—or what a frantically blinking moon rock should look like.
Although it appears to be a ring, the thing is stretchy enough to be a bracelet, or an anklet.
Use them as napkin rings for your dinner party and who needs candlelight?
In recessionary times, plunk one of these on the neck of a bottle of Two Buck Chuck and you’ve cranked up the hostess gift from cheap to chic.
Adorn the stem of a glass of champagne this New Year’s Eve and the lowly domestic stuff tastes like Dom Perignon.
   A boring pony tail is elevated to genuine hairdo status when this mini disco ball is added to the mix. And it’s the perfect gizmo to for a frugal holiday gift.
   One fashionable woman wore hers out to a restaurant and used it to tip the server, who clearly coveted the low-end gem.
And how many jewelry items come with an on/off switch. This mass produced blinker comes from Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art store (mcachicagostore.org) where one in the “on” position (it lasts at least 24 hours) instantly draws the eye to a binful of the sparklers.
The store has sold hundreds and many shoppers (me included) bought one and then returned to the store to buy another—after giving away the first one to a friend who begged nicely.

Tribune photo by Bonnie Trafelet

Six Apollo space missions between 1969 and 1972 yielded an 842-pound haul of moon rocks. They range in size from a speck to “Big Muley,” a whopping 25.8 pounder. You can see a tiny on in the window of Tribune Tower, 435 N. Michigan Ave.

Fits to a 'T'

Tempo — 2008-12-19T09:40:35-06:00

Less is more. Good things come in small packages. Poor is the new rich.
All three of these aphorisms—including the last one that I just made up—apply to the item in the photo. It is a basic cotton crew-neck T-shirt and it’s a way hot gift idea for these dismal economic times.
The shirt is from Muji, a Japanese company that glories in being mundane. Muji’s online “message” (muji.com) proudly says, “We do not create products that lure customer into believing that ‘this is best’ or ‘I must have this.’” Wanna bet?
The must-have item shown here is fresh out of its packaging (hence the wrinkles). And the packaging might just might be the most intriguing part of the whole nifty deal: The shirt arrives shrink wrapped into a tiny, solid 2 1/2-inch block.
This odd little package makes everyone who sees it clamor to release the mystery object from its tiny cellophane prison. And if all that doesn’t scream “I must have this” then you don’t know a very neat gift when you see it ($22).
Although Muji and its minimalist ethic have been around since 1980, the company wonderfully captures the zeitgeist of this American moment.
What better way to cope with collective national anxiety than to embrace a company whose (lengthy) explanation of itself asserts, “Unless we adopt values informed by moderation and self-restraint, the world will find itself at an impasse”?
Speaking of an impasse, to acquire this shirt, you can’t just walk into a store here. The two U.S. Muji shops, both in New York, won’t take phone orders. After many false leads, I learned you can order them from New York’s Museum of Modern Art’s customer service line, 1-800-793-3167. Or if they’re so hot that New York sells out, have them shipped from England from the only non-Japanese website: http://www.muji.eu/index.asp?
After all that, consider one more applicable aphorism: Nothing is simple.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

There are various accounts of the origin of the T-shirt but the first politician to see their advantage as a human billboard is said to be Thomas Dewey. His "Dew it with Dewey" shirt apeared during his 1948 campaign for Prresident. Harry Truman still beat him.

Funny candy gums up the works

Tempo — 2008-12-01T14:31:45-06:00

We ask "why?" It's a human instinct—to try and figure out the reason things happen.
Why are we putting on weight? Hmmm, maybe it's all those Cheetos and hot fudge sundaes.
Why does the dog sit barking beneath the dinner table? Could it be that because we always give her a little treat from our plate to shut her up?
Why is everybody else getting a raise and we’re stuck at the same crummy pay? Long lunches, short work weeks and blaming co-workers when things go wrong, that’s why.
Those are simple examples of cause and effect—the relationship of two things where the first makes the second one happen.
Some questions, of course, have no easy answers, no obvious causes to blame for the effects. That’s what keeps lawyers, economists and a lot of doctors in business.
Dentists, well, that’s a different deal.
Think about the items pictured here. Seldom are cause and effect presented so neatly in just one thing.
What you’re looking at is a glass filled with candy, shaped and colored to look like little false teeth. Eat enough of these and—well, you know what happens.
I ran into a bin of this object lesson in New York at a branch of the candy shop chain, Sweet & Sour (1167 2nd Ave., 212-308-0618).
A big paper sack of the candy false choppers set me back a mere $13.95—vastly less than the cost of filling even a tiny tooth cavity brought on by sugar binging.
It seemed like a fun idea to put out a big bowl of these gummy gums-and-teeth at a recent get together at my house.
I didn’t anticipate that this would prompt my party guests to launch into their personal stories of dental disaster. Braces. Wisdom teeth. Decay. Tooth grinding. Root canals. Jaw pain. Plaque. Water Piks. Oh the horror. This is not the sparkling conversation of a successful social event. My party bombed.
Icky candy, lousy party. Cause and effect? Maybe. Unintended consequences? Definitely.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

Can false teeth save your life? Yup. Earlier this year in Zagreb,
Croatia a fight over a debt prompted one man to shoot another at point blank range. The bullet lodged guy’s false teeth. He was shook up but uninjured.

If your interest in cause and effect goes beyond candy, Aristotle is your man. He believed that knowing causes was essential to understanding the world.

Puppies as presents?

Tempo — 2008-11-27T17:46:00-06:00

THE ANSWER ANGEL

Dear Answer Angel: Now that Barack and Michelle Obama have announced they're getting their kids a puppy, my sons (ages 5 and 7) have really turned up the volume on their long-standing request for a dog. The problem: I think Christmas would be the perfect time to give them one. My husband claims it's the worst time imaginable. Too much excitement already, he says. The kids will overlook the puppy, they'll think it's a gift and not something they have to take care of, etc. So, Answer Angel, what's the advice about giving kids puppies for Christmas? Good or bad?

—C.B.D

Dear C.: One sentence I try never to utter: "Your husband is right." But on this one, I've got to agree with him. Christmas is a very bad time to bring a dog into the picture.

The holidays are filled with chaos in even the most organized households. Lots of visitors coming and going, tons of temptations for even the best-behaved pup. There will be tasty snacks within reach, enticingly chewable gifts left unguarded and a Christmas tree to lift a leg on.

If everyone agrees that a dog is in your future, consider presenting the kids with stuffed animals to practice their pretend walking, feeding, cleaning up after (really!) with the promise that the live Precious Pup will arrive at a certain date—if they show they can take some responsibility.

The Anti-Cruelty Society says picking out the PP should be a group decision. "Bringing a dog into anyone's life can be a 10- to 20-year commitment and certainly shouldn't be taken lightly," says vice president Nadine Walmsley.

She endorses my advice (love that!) to wait until post-holidays to get the dog. She likes the stuffed dog idea too, and says Anti-Cruelty raises money by selling cute white poodles for $10 (157 W. Grand Ave.; 312-644-8338, ext. 314, anticruelty.org).

One more thing: You know, angels have dogs too. And I can tell you from my own experience, as soon as the excitement of Precious Pup fades—and that doesn't take long—all the kids' promises to care for the little cutie evaporate. And you will spend the rest of the dog's life begging someone besides you to take the dogs out in sleet, snow and icy misery.

Can madly flapping wings leave skid marks? What with all the firings and layoffs, I'm toiling around the clock to keep my job—as the primo place to go for your holiday predicaments.

Night and day, 24/7, tireless Angel am I. (Are you reading this, boss?) All the chores, decisions and awkward social situations got you down? I'll find answers to resolve your "issues" and ease your way through the mistletoe madness. No concern is too small, no problem too insignificant. And if I'm stumped, I'll call on my team—a squadron of cherubic experts on the Tribune staff.

Got a devilish problem, a question, a gripe? Relax, there's an Angel on your shoulder.

shopellen@tribune.com

Gifts for the tech saavy kid?

Tempo — 2008-11-27T17:42:00-06:00

THE ANSWER ANGEL

Dear Answer Angel: What are some off-the-wall toy/gift ideas for little nieces age 3 to 8? Last year I gave one of them a Flip Video and wonder if there is anything new like that out there this year.

—Marsha S.

Dear Marsha: This Angel is waiting for divine intervention to teach her how to download songs from iTunes so this question is way above my halo level. For an answer, I turned this question over to someone who actually has mastered technology—the Tribune's Tech Buzz columnist Eric Benderoff.

He says, "I love, love the EyeClops product. A great interactive toy. A new model was recently released." He's referring to a fun bionic microscope that plugs into your TV. Check it out at eyeclops.com.

Here's more Benderoff advice on digital toys:

"There's a lot out there and a lot of it is junk. For example, digital cameras with Dora, Diego, Disney characters, etc., are awful. They take really bad pictures. Instead, I suggest giving the kid a hand-me-down digital camera. Much better, but not as cute."

Yearning for more? Watch for his column Thursdays in the business pages and his blog with Eric Gwinn, Eric 2.0 (chicagotribune.com/eric), especially the post there about buying tech toys: chicagotribune.com/techtoys. And be sure to check out Gadgets columnist Gwinn's guide to the best video games to give this season, inside this section.

Best Christmas movies?

Tempo — 2008-11-27T17:38:00-06:00

Can madly flapping wings leave skid marks? What with all the firings and layoffs, I'm toiling around the clock to keep my job—as the primo place to go for your holiday predicaments.

THE ANSWER ANGEL

Dear Answer Angel: For a movie fanatic friend, I'd like to give him DVDs of the five best Christmas movies ever. What do you recommend?

—Jan

Dear Jan: Thanks for valuing my opinion on movies, but judging from the lame ones in my Netflix queue (you don't want to know), I think you might want to hear from Michael Phillips, the Tribune's movie critic, who says he gets asked this question every year.

He immediately suggested these:

"The Shop Around the Corner," 1940, with Jimmy Stewart
"A Christmas Carol," "from 1951; that's the best one."
"Holiday," George Cukor's 1938 classic with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. "It's not a Christmas movie but it is a holiday movie with a great New Year's Eve scene."

What's Christmas without a cheese ball, and Phillips said both of these choices are indeed "cheese ball but durable."

"It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)
"Miracle on 34th Street" (1947)

Finally, Phillips says the new "A Christmas Tale" with Catherine Deneuve is terrific. But you'll have to go to a theater to see it since it just opened here last week.

Night and day, 24/7, tireless Angel am I. (Are you reading this, boss?) All the chores, decisions and awkward social situations got you down? I'll find answers to resolve your "issues" and ease your way through the mistletoe madness. No concern is too small, no problem too insignificant. And if I'm stumped, I'll call on my team—a squadron of cherubic experts on the Tribune staff.

Got a devilish problem, a question, a gripe? Relax, there's an Angel on your shoulder.

shopellen@tribune.com

Pooh hoo: Disney's everywhere now

Tempo — 2008-11-22T05:55:00-06:00

Wallt Disney has taken over the universe. Is there any hollow, village, bayou or river bend not yet infiltrated by Disney Nation? Don’t think so.
Not long ago, Disney ambassadors were strolling along Michigan Ave. handing out golden envelopes that said “You’re Invited!” in two languages (“Estas invitado!”) It was a pitch to vacation at Disney Parks.
There were Mickey Mouse balloons for the kids (100 per cent biodegradable; “Please handle your balloon responsibly.”). And it was just a few blocks to the Disney Store for full immersion in Walt’s World.
The store can be a little overwhelming. All that cross marketing. See the movie. Wear the jammies. Watch the DVD. Listen to the CD. Play the game.
“Dream it. Be it,” is the slogan you see at the front door. “See it. Buy It,” is more like it.
Now Disney has crossed the last cultural frontier. The New York City Opera has commissioned a work based on the final months of Walt Disney’s life.
More than a few PhD theses have touched on Disney’s appropriation of classic fairy tales. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White to name a few.
Other classics, like Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh now are more likely to conjure up Disney versions—whose images appear on everything from key chains to diaper bags—than the more artistic originals.
The Pooh fork shown here is part of a three-piece cutlery set (Piglet knife; Tigger spoon) found on the grocery store shelf at Village Market in little (pop. 1530) Centreville, Mich.
Equipped with his Pooh utensils, are you asking WWWDD—What Would Walt Disney Do?
I’m guessing he’d shop online (disneystore.com) or high tail it to his the Michigan Ave. flagship store to snag a Tigger Plate and an Eeyore cup and be all set for the moment he felt that rumbly in his tummy.

Tribune photo by Bill Hogan

Centreville, Michigan is the unlikely hometown of one of Hollywood’s smallest performers, Verne Troyer, two-feet eight inches tall. The actor best known for his role as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movies graduated from Centreville High in 1987.

A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne’s first book was such an embarrassment that that he bought back the copyright to prevent a reprint when he got famous. Milne’s widow sold the Winnie the Pooh rights to Walt Disney five years after his death, in 1961.

Birthday buying for dummies

Tempo — 2008-11-07T11:08:24-06:00

Stumped for how to buy a present? Hate to shop? Want to give good gift but are totally clueless? I can help. Click here and relax!