Merry Christmas

Beware The Norwegians

This letter arrived at my place of business years before I started working there.  Copies of it have been passed around ever since.

The End Of An Era

Nester & Max
Nintendo Power: Volume 285

My grandparents gave me a subscription to the Nintendo Power magazine starting with Volume 3.  I was eight years old at the time, and I read this magazine multiple times from cover to cover while I waited for the next issue to come in the mail, at which point the cycle would repeat.  One of the parts that I looked forward to the most was the Howard & Nester comic that was published in each issue for the first few years of its publication.  Its 24 year production run has come to an end with the December 2012 issue, which includes this incredible comic from artist Bill Mudron (scans courtesy of Painted Pixels).

Festive Shortbread

Snowman Cookie
Starbucks (2012)
It's almost too cute to eat... almost.

Pumpernickel Croutons

Ruby Tuesday
Moosic, PA
The salad bar at Ruby Tuesday is pretty great, but it's the croutons that keep me coming back.

Unique Balls

Is unique in the whole world

One You Pop, You'll Want To Stop

Pumpkin Pie Spice chips
Pringles (2012)
They're not as bad as they look, but I got tired of them after a small handful.

The Best Juice Ever Served In A Box

Ecto Cooler
Hi-C (1993)

This was my favorite drink in the late 80's and early 90's.  I wish that they'd bring it back.  This box came from the L.M. Kallok Collection and was scanned and shared by Jason Liebig.

Expensive Twinkies

As soon as Hostess announced that they were going out of business, the whole world lost its collective minds and began buying up all of the remaining Twinkies from store shelves. This has resulted in a flood of Twinkies for sale on eBay at a hilarious mark-up.  For example, this box of snack cakes has a starting bid of $200k.  If you don't want to risk getting sniped at the last second, you can always opt for the "Buy It Now" price and pay a quarter of a million dollars.  Act now, and you get free shipping.  What a deal!

I'll go ahead and let Tallahassee from Zombieland go after these.  Frankly, I don't think they're worth the regular retail price.

President Obama and McKayla Maroney Are Unimpressed

The photo of the year, taken by Pete Souza.

The Doctor And The Grouch

Julius Erving and Oscar The Grouch
Sesame Street (1982)

King Tut

Tutankham
Original Arcade: Konami (1982)
Atari 2600: Parker Bros (1983)
Roughly 60 years after Howard Carter discovered the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, Konami released this treasure hunting maze game to arcades.  The home port is significantly different, but it had pretty cool music for its time.

The Observatory Collection

Wonka Inventing Room

Observatory Collection
This collection of dark chocolate truffles from the Wonka Inventing Room are inspired by stars and meteors.  It's a pretty cool idea for a candy brand like Wonka.  I think if they put sugar candy like Nerds and Fun Dip on the backburner and focused more on creative chocolates, Wonka could be right up there with Hershey as an American chocolatier.

The Travel Trunk Collection

Wonka Inventing Room

Travel Trunk Collection
The majority of candy available from the Wonka Inventing Room are boxed truffles.  I hope that they ship some of these out to Pennsylvania so that I can try them.

Inventive Candy Bars

Wonka Inventing Room
Sweet Hollywood - Los Angeles, CA

The Sweet Hollywood candy shop has partnered with Nestle to create the Wonka Inventing Room.  This store-within-a-store is selling some of the most creative candy I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, these products won't be available in stores across the country, but you can order them online.

Witchcraft In Orbit

Witches, Ghosts And Goblins To Color
Treasure Books Inc (1965)

This spooky coloring book from 1965 twas shared by Todd Franklin of Neato Coolville, which has several pages from this book scanned and shared.  It was produced by Treasure Books Inc, which is the same publisher who was responsible for Funny Monsters coloring book that was shared by Aeron Alfrey last year.

This is my favorite page out of the ones that were shared by Todd.  It's pretty cool to see space-themed things in the years leading up to the moon landing.

Intergalactic Music Machine

Moog Inspired Art
DKNG Studios (2012)
This incredible artwork was created by Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman of DKNG Design Studio for  Synth: A Group Art Show Inspired by Bob Moog.  This is their third consecutive year participating at Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina, and for this year, they've created a design to fuse Moog's synthesizers with the cockpit of a spaceship to create an intergalactic music machine... and it glows in the dark!

Prints are available in the DKNG Store.