Podcasts about toymakers

Should you cut raw meat on wooden cutting boards? Do the bacteria grow inside the cutting board? Is plastic better? Should you use a finish on wood cutting boards? How often do SERIOUS allergies develop from breathing in wood dust? Should you always wear a mask? What is the risk of cancer for woodworkers? IF YOU'VE BEEN CURIOUS OR CARE ABOUT ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS, YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE!In this episode, we speak with Professor of Wood Anatomy at OSU, Dr. Seri Robinson, about these EXTREMELY important topics. Seri has dedicated years of laboratory research towards addressing these topics and leads a wonderful discussion. A rare occurrence in the maker space where two Ph.D. scientists (Paul & Seri) work together to deconvolute these important topics, cut through fear and misinformation, and come away with real world pragmatic recommendations.For more reading on these topics, here is a link to Seri's book ⁠"Living with Wood: A Guide for Toymakers, Hobbyists, Crafters, and Parents" ⁠and Seri's Patreon all about Wood Safety: http://www.patreon.com/woodsafetyTo watch the YOUTUBE VIDEO of this episode and the irreverent & somewhat unpredictable AFTERSHOW, subscribe to our Patreon:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://patreon.com/user?u=91688467

Send us a textIn this episode, Julie Hilsen interviews David Ask, an entrepreneur and encourager, about the importance of knowing oneself and embracing one's unique identity. They discuss the concept of true north and how it relates to finding one's purpose. David shares a story about an orphan and a toy maker to illustrate the power of belonging and having a mission. They also touch on the significance of affirming and validating others. The conversation concludes with a discussion about David's mission to empower boys through his program, Guardians of Grit. The conversation explores the importance of being a guardian of grit and the role of fathers in raising uncrushable children. It emphasizes the need for fathers to have an internal constitution and values that they can pass on to their children. The conversation also touches on the significance of guarding one's heart and the power of perspective. It concludes with a discussion on the value of relationships and the impact they have on our lives.Support the showLink to Support this Channel: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2153284/supporters/newJulie's Book: https://amzn.to/3K2ZS05Julie's Website for more information, comments or requests: https://lifeofloveandjoy.comI receive a small commission when you purchase from these links. Thank you for your support! Promo Code for Free Audio Book on Audible: https://amzn.to/45YUMdH

On this day in 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy to be advertised on television.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My Summer Lair host Sammy Younan talks to cartoonist Brian "Box" Brown about his non-fiction graphic novel: The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold You Your Childhood. My Summer Lair Chapter #270: Just How Powerful Is He-Man, Anyways? Recorded: Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at 2:00 pm (EST) For more show notes visit MySummerLair.com. Bonus Fun? Sign up for my newsletter because the F in FOMO doesn't stand for Fun. Stress free pop culture (TV shows! Books! Movies! Music! So Many Recommendations!!) tastefully harvested for your divine delight. Once a week a carefully curated edition of My Pal Sammy goes directly to your inbox. Magic or Science? You decide.

This week: Robbie and Lisa celebrate the end of year holidays, we discuss what we've been up to from anniversaries to little treats, some good news, quiz each other on what happened throughout the year, we also ask the age old question Who Asked for This?, read fresh bios of mini highland cows, go over our goals for Accountabilibuddies, AITA, and much more!   Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

This week Robbie and Lisa compare Monday to Wednesday's and Robbie gets ROASTED by Lisa during the Who Asked For This, and is still bitter! All that as well as our usual bits! Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

Toymakers are tweaking original classic games or coming out with new ones that embrace an audience that's been around for a while: people over 65 years old. The products are being marketed as a way for older folks to sharpen their brain skills as well as allay loneliness by helping them connect with other family members and friends, although some experts have raised doubts about toymakers' claims. Toymaker Hasbro penned a licensing deal with Ageless Innovation — which designs toys with older people in mind — to come out with new versions of Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and Life with a tagline "Generations" that offer bigger fonts on tiles and bigger game pieces. The new "Generations" versions of Life and Trivial Pursuit also have expanded their content to cater to younger and older people alike. For instance, the answer to a question in Trivial Pursuit about fitness can be Jack LaLanne or Zumba, depending on the player's age. The new offerings hit stores in August in time for the holiday season. Educational Insights, which focuses on educational toys for pre-schoolers, is incorporating images of older people in its marketing after noticing last year that its brain twister toys like Kanoodle and BrainBolt were resonating with older customers in online reviews. Next year, it will unveil a new twist called BrainBolt Boost that has bigger buttons and is more simplified. "We continue to think about what are the issues that older adults are facing," said Ted Fischer, co-founder and CEO of Ageless Innovation, a spinoff of a toy company that Hasbro had created in 2015 for older people. "We're finding joy in play can have meaningful impact." The strategies come as the pandemic has changed toy buying habits. Long before the pandemic, many adults turned to toys from Legos to collectible items to tap into their inner childhood for comfort. But the pandemic not only accelerated and solidified the trend, it also kicked open the door for older adults who were feeling isolated when they were in lockdown. Many toy companies found them gravitating toward plush animals and robotic pets as companions. This article was provided by The Associated Press.

This week, Robbie records at a record early of 3.30am and Lisa tells us all about her jam-packed weekend! We discuss Santos, Moles, Cybertrucks and more, as well as our usual Who Asked For This?, Accountabillibuddies, and AITA! Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

This week, Robbie gets selfish and Lisa is here for it. We discuss everything from US politics and the downfall of George Santos, to well-known 90s war films and the death of a Nobel Peace Prize winner! All that, as well as Who Asked For This?, Accountabilibuddies, meet a new highland cow, and AITA?! Join us for book club; this month we're reading The Toymakers by Robert Dinsdale. Find it on our book shop at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bookshop.org/shop/wearedoingfine⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Send in your thoughts, questions and recommendations to wearedoingfine@gmail.com. TikTok: @wearedoingfine Instagram: @wearedoingfine

Headlines:  – House Jan. 6 Committee Recommends Criminal Charges For Donald Trump (01:50) – Elon Musk's Twitter Poll Shows Users Want Him to Step Down as CEO, But Will He? (07:30) – Musk's Major Problems At Tesla (10:30) – Supreme Court Rules to Keep Controversial Immigration Policy Title 42– For Now (14:00) – Ozempic Shortage Pits Diabetics Against People Taking Drug to Lose Weight (18:45) – Tylenol, Motrin Shortage for Kids Amid Tripledemic (20:40) – Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Rape in California (22:00) – Barnes & Noble Expanding Stores Again (24:40) – Growing Market for Adult Toys– But Not The Kind You're Thinking Of (27:45) – On This Day: Walk Like An Egyptian (33:10) – Please remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review. – Mosheh Oinounou (@mosheh) is an Emmy and Murrow award-winning journalist. He has 20 years of experience at networks including Fox News, Bloomberg Television and CBS News, where he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News and launched the network's 24 hour news channel. He founded the @mosheh Instagram news account in 2020 and the Mo News podcast and newsletter in 2022. Jill Wagner (@jillrwagner) is an Emmy and Murrow award- winning journalist. She's currently the Managing Editor of the Mo News newsletter and previously worked as a reporter for CBS News, Cheddar News, and News 12. She also co-founded the Need2Know newsletter, and has made it a goal to drop a Seinfeld reference into every Mo News podcast. Follow Mo News on all platforms: Newsletter: https://monews.bulletin.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mosheh/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/mosheh Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoshehNews Snapchat: https://t.snapchat.com/pO9xpLY9 Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/moshehnews TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mosheh Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode, Sean and Rachel sit down to discuss the American Girl Doll Company releasing a book that promotes children to explore their gender identity, and why they believe toy companies are turning to 'woke' ideology.   Later, they discuss the refusal of public libraries across the United States to host author and actor Kirk Cameron on his book tour for his faith-based children's book As You Grow.   Follow Sean and Rachel on Twitter: @SeanDuffyWI & @RCamposDuffy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Supply chain delays are always challenging. But during the holidays, slow shipping can make or break a company's bottom line. Today on the show, a toy company that makes Tonka trucks musters a shipment tracking war room.

This episode Kris' return to Disneyland, New Star Wars novels featuring Luke and Lando, Obi-wan and Anakin, WandaVision' Spinoff Starring Kathryn Hahn, Marvel Studio's What If…? season finale, New season of Young Justice streaming soon on HBO Max this season will be called Young Justice Phantoms, The AP is reporting that Toymakers race to get products on shelves, Netflix orders a That '70s Show' Spinoff called ‘That '90s Show' , New York Comic Con 2021 is in person and masks are a must, James Bond No Time To Die, and Doctor Who season 13.

Guest: Andrew Wagar - Spokesperson for the Canadian Toy Association. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today is Wednesday, September 15, and we're looking at Mattel vs. Hasbro.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robert Dinsdale is the author of novels including The Harrowing, Little Exiles, The Toymakers and most recently, Paris By Starlight. The magic-infused worlds he had created with his last two books have led to comparisons with Erin Morgenstern and Neil Gaiman.We enjoyed chatting to Robert about his writing journey and hearing about his time as a literary agent, before he flipped sides and became an author himself. We also learn about why getting that first novel published isn't always the breakthrough you thought it would be, but also why focusing on writing the stories you want to tell can be the way to really engage with readers. In Robert's case, that was deciding to tell story with a magical side, and led to The Toymakers becoming his breakthrough novel. And as he tells us, that magical storytelling combines with contemporary issues in Paris By Starlight.Links:Buy Paris By Starlight and Robert's other booksVisit Robert's websiteFollow Robert on TwitterWatch our video panel Page One Sessions as we discuss writing with great authors: https://youtu.be/gmE6iCDYn-sThe Page One Podcast is brought to you by Write Gear, creators of Page One - the Writer's Notebook. Learn more and order yours now: https://www.writegear.co.uk/page-oneFollow us on Twitter: @write_gearFollow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WriteGearUK/Follow us on Instagram: write_gear_uk See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So what did I read this year? Well, I'm all over the place. But I thought I'd take a moment to hit some of the highlights. These are in no particular order. A Gentleman in Moscow By Amor TowlesThe best book I read this year is A Gentlemen in Moscow by Amor Towles. It's just a wonderful and wonderfully crafted book. I can't say enough great things about it. It has one of the most beautiful and perfect metaphors involving a wine cellar. I literally put the book down and cursed out loud. I couldn't believe how good it was. I thought about it for weeks. But really that's a technical thing. The story is set in 1922. It's about Count Alexander Rostov, an Aristocrat who survives the Russian Revolution because he wrote a poem. Instead of being put against the wall and shot, is sentenced to house arrest, and ultimately labor, in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. This book does what great art should always do, expand your experience of being alive. I don't think I've read a better book in the last five years and I don't expect I will in the next five. For after all, if attentiveness should be measured in minutes and discipline measured in hours, then indomitability must be measured in years.But as they came to the bend in the road where the Count would normally give a snap of the reins to speed the horses home, Helena would place a hand on his arm to signal that he should slow the team—for midnight had just arrived, and a mile behind them the bells of Ascension had begun to swing, their chimes cascading over the frozen land in holy canticle. And in the pause between hymns, if one listened with care, above the pant of the horses, above the whistle of the wind, one could hear the bells of St. Michael’s ten miles away—and then the bells of St. Sofia’s even farther afield—calling one to another like flocks of geese across a pond at dusk. The bells of Ascension . . .“I’ll tell you what is convenient,” he said after a moment. “To sleep until noon and have someone bring you your breakfast on a tray. To cancel an appointment at the very last minute. To keep a carriage waiting at the door of one party so that on a moment’s notice it can whisk you away to another. To sidestep marriage in your youth and put off having children altogether. These are the greatest of conveniences, Anushka—and at one time, I had them all. But in the end, it has been the inconveniences that have mattered to me most.” Anna Urbanova took the cigarette from the Count’s fingers, dropped it in a water glass, and kissed him on the nose.Since the day I was born, Sofia, there was only one time when Life needed me to be in a particular place at a particular time, and that was when your mother brought you to the lobby of the Metropol. And I would not accept the Tsarship of all the Russias in exchange for being in this hotel at that hour.”The Last Good Kiss By James CrumleyTo whipsaw things another great novel that I read was The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley. Here's the beginning:When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon. I would say that Crumley is a guilty pleasure, but I don't feel guilty in the slightest. He's like Hunter S. Thompson and Raymond Chandler had a baby. After I finished that one, I plowed through two more of Crumley's books. No guilt. No regrets. The Story of the Stone by Barry HughartI read The Story of the Stone by Barry Hughart. It's the middle book of the Chronicles of Master Li and Number 10 Ox. These books aren't really like anything else. I have all three and didn't want to guzzle them. They're set in a mythical China that never was. They're wonderfully fantastic, very funny and surprisingly poignant in places. They are also something of a cautionary tale, the book struggled to get traction because it's in a genre of its own. It is fantasy, but Ancient Imperial China as a setting rather than the Middle Ages. Master Li is ancient and the smartest man in China. Number 10 Ox is the narrator and is played as the big, dumb strong guy, but there's a fair amount of unreliable narrator jazz.Big fun and great writing. Here's a couple of sloppily random snags“My surname is Li and my personal name is Kao, and there is a slight flaw in my character,” he said matter-of-factly. “You got a problem?”Fable has strong shoulders that carry far more truth than fact can.Master Li turned bright red while he scorched the air with the Sixty Sequential Sacrileges with which he had won the all-China Freestyle Blasphemy Competition in Hangchow three years in a row.The abbot used to say that the emotional health of a village depended upon having a man whom everyone loved to hate, and Heaven had blessed us with two of them.The Immortality Key: the Secret History of the Religion with No Name by Brian C. MurareskuReading this now. The book is an investigation into what is likely the oldest and most widespread religion -- centered around a funerary rite with hallucinogenic beer and later wine. I pounced on this after listening to an author interview with Andrew Sullivan. It's an intellectual detective story, and quite good. The first thing that hooked me was that this was an explanation for the Eleusinian Mysteries, which was a ceremony that was a well-kept secret in the Greco-Roman world. People made a pilgrimage to Eleusis, fasted, drank the beer, had unbelievable visions, and raved about the experience. Saying things like it's what made civilization possible. And say it removed the fear of death. Which was described as "If you die before you die you will not die."Best guess is the beer was brewed with ergotized wheat. But nobody knows for sure. But two things are interesting about this. One, we can actually test old vessels and figure out what was in these beverages right now. And modern medical research is showing that a single dose, if you will, of psychedelic mushrooms, cures depression and PTSD and takes away the fear of death in hospice patients. Essentially inducing a religious experience with chemicals. Johns Hopkins is doing this research, not some unwashed hippy with a YouTube channel.There are real questions about the early Christian Eucharist: was hallucinogenic? Was it an extension of the Eleusian and Dionysian mysteries. But for me, the craziest thing in the book to wrap my head around has been Goebleki Tepe the oldest known temple, dated from 10,000 B.C. Which appears to have been a sacred brewery for hallucinogenic beer. And, honestly, the hallucinogenic part is the least crazy part of that last statement. The 10,000 b.c. is nuts. That's 6000 years before settled agriculture. And the temple is constructed from gigantic slabs of stone, in a way that we didn't think people could build back then. Insert Ancient Aliens nonsense if you must, but the crazy part is that it reverses what I thought the causality of civilization. It was always thought that first came agriculture, then came beer. But it seems that beer -- as a sacrament -- predates civilization by thousands of years. The other crazy thing about his book is that the brewing of sacred potions was exclusively the realm of women. Old women. Which appears to be the origin of our archetype of witches. Boil toil and trouble anyone? And that this was stamped out as the underground Christ cult grew into the state religion of Rome. There's a lot going on in this book. And if anything I've just mentioned pique your curiosity, you should definitely check it out. Hamilton by Ron ChernowAfter watching the musical on Disney +, which scarcely needs praise from me, but is unbelievably fantastic. And amazing accomplishment on many levels -- I dipped into Ron Chernow's biography, it's also great. Here's a gem that seems uniquely appropriate to the current moment.> “This misfortune affects me less than others,” he told Eliza Schuyler, “because it is not in my temper to repine at evils that are past but to endeavor to draw good out of them, and because I think our safety depends on a total change of system. And this change of system will only be produced by misfortune.”The Bobiverse Series -- Dennis E. TaylorThis series starts with "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)" I listened to a bunch of these, so I don't have a bunch of quotes. Just read them all. They are just lovely, humane, funny speculative fiction. A guy is turned into a Von Neumann probe, A self-replicating device to explore the universe. And as he goes, he replicates himself, fights off aliens, struggles help save humanity -- it's tremendously positive without being trite or stupid. Really, really great. And the audiobooks are some of the best I've heard. In fact, if I had to rank the best audiobooks I've ever heard this currently comes in third Best performance is Stephen Fry reading the complete works of Sherlock Holmes. Of course, the stories are great, but Fry is a great actor who loves Holmes and puts everything he's got into the performance. I can't overstate how good this audio is. Number 2 and Best ensemble performance is 'World War Z'And third place is Ray Porter reading Dennis Taylor's Bobiverse books. Richard Stark, The JuggerI dipped back into this one. Westlake -- Stark was Donald Westlake's pen name -- always said this was the worst book of the series, but there's a moment in this one that's just shockingly powerful. I won't ruin it, but Westlake is master for a host of reasons. Here's a bit of his description Freedman led the way to his office. He was short and barrel-shaped and walked as though he’d do better if he rolled instead. His face was made of Silly Putty, plus hornrimmed glasses.The Road to Character, by David Brooks This book is really a compilation of short biographies of people of great character and how they developed themselves. It is quite good. I dug into it as research on virtues. And the book paid for itself in the introduction here's an excerpt:I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it. The Plan The plan of this book is simple. In the next chapter I will describe an older moral ecology. It was a cultural and intellectual tradition, the “crooked timber” tradition, that emphasized our own brokenness. It was a tradition that demanded humility in the face of our own limitations. But it was also a tradition that held that each of us has the power to confront our own weaknesses, tackle our own sins, and that in the course of this confrontation with ourselves we build character.My general belief is that we’ve accidentally left this moral tradition behind. Over the last several decades, we’ve lost this language, this way of organizing life. We’re not bad. But we are morally inarticulate. We’re not more selfish or venal than people in other times, but we’ve lost the understanding of how character is built.But it did occur to me that there was perhaps a strain of humility that was more common then than now, that there was a moral ecology, stretching back centuries but less prominent now, encouraging people to be more skeptical of their desires, more aware of their own weaknesses, more intent on combatting the flaws in their own natures and turning weakness into strength. People in this tradition, I thought, are less likely to feel that every thought, feeling, and achievement should be immediately shared with the world at large.This is the way humility leads to wisdom. Montaigne once wrote, “We can be knowledgeable with other men’s knowledge, but we can’t be wise with other men’s wisdom.” That’s because wisdom isn’t a body of information. It’s the moral quality of knowing what you don’t know and figuring out a way to handle your ignorance, uncertainty, and limitation.And in it I found this great quote from St. Augustine“How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws and kings can cause or cure.”Aristotle's Politics and EthicsI first read Aristotle's Ethics in college for a class on Classical Political Philosophy. And I jumped back in, as research for thinking about virtueThere is an idea that reading old books is pretentious or stuffy or dull. And that's not been my experience at all. The reason to read books like this, even when they get a little hard is because they are incredibly useful. The Greeks and Aristotle, in particular, laid the foundation stones of civilization -- or drew up the attack plan for what G.K. Chesterton calls "the whole courageous raid which we call civilization." I like that metaphor, because it suggests heroism, fragility and glory in what reveals itself to the not-so-simple work of civilizing one's self and others. This gem came from the commentary to Aristotle's Politics. Aristotle's attention is here directed chiefly towards the phenomena of "Incontinence," weakness of will or imperfect self-control. This condition was to the Greeks a matter of only too frequent experience, but it appeared to them peculiarly difficult to understand. How can a man know what is good or best for him, and yet chronically fail to act upon his knowledge? Socrates was driven to the paradox of denying the possibility, but the facts are too strong for him. Knowledge of the right rule may be present, nay the rightfulness of its authority may be acknowledged, and yet time after time it may be disobeyed; the will may be good and yet overmastered by the force of desire, so that the act done is contrary to the agent's will.It underscores a naïveté of classical political thought -- and this is not to say that the ancients were generally naive -- this is just a mistake. Because, I think I could make a really good case that wrestling with yourself about doing what you know to be good is the defining human problem here at the beginning of the 21st century. The Good Shepherd by C.S. ForesterI have loved the Horatio Hornblower novels since I was, maybe 12. When I saw a preview of the movie Greyhound, I became aware that C.S. Forester had written this book about a commander of a convoy to Britain in the early days of WWII. Tom Hanks got this movie made, wrote the screenplay, starred in it. And that's a clue for you. Not that the movie -- it might be, I haven't seen it -- is good, but that the source material is excellent. Because somebody expended career capital to get it made. This is a tremendous book. The psychological tension and strain of command in combat is represented here in a way that I've never read before. I don't know how you could render this in film. And by that, I'm saying this book does what only books can do, very, very well. It's well-crafted and relentless in a way that doesn't lend itself to punchy quotes, but it made a huge impression on me. Fathers and Sons by Ivan TurgenevI just finished this one and I need more time to think about it. I read it primarily because another writer I greatly admire is giving a lecture on it, so I wanted to be adequately armed for the lecture. A lot of the book is concerned with what happens when you don't believe anything -- if it's even possible not to believe anything. For me, Russian novels manage to be profoundly psychological and spiritual and I can't ingest them quickly. But in it, I found this gem of a line. "Death's an old joke, but it comes fresh to every one."Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt VonnegutI have read embarrassingly little Vonnegut. I read Harrison Bergeron in school -- and it's prescience has terrified me ever since. Vonnegut is amazing. And I'm going to work my way through many more of his books. This was my start. Here's a taste.Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.And so it goes…Inventing the Individual: the Origins of Western Liberalism By Larry SiedentopThe biggest problem with not reading and not being familiar with history is that you can be easily fooled into thinking that the way things are now is the way that they have always been. Even highly educated and intelligent people can fall into this trap and become provincial in time. The book is a study of how the individual became the unit of social organization in the West. It's fascinating. For in the eyes of Islamic fundamentalists, and indeed in the eyes of not a few in the West, liberalism has come to stand for ‘non-belief’ – for indifference and permissiveness, if not for decadence. Why is that? And is the charge justified? This book is an attempt to find out. Its argument rests on two assumptions. The first is that if we are to understand the relationship between beliefs and social institutions – that is, to understand ourselves – then we have to take a very long view. Deep moral changes, changes in belief, can take centuries to begin to modify social institutions. It is folly to expect popular habits and attitudes to change overnight. The second assumption is that beliefs are nonetheless of primary importance, an assumption once far more widely held than it is today. In the nineteenth century there was a prolonged contest between ‘idealist’ and ‘materialist’ views of historical change, with the latter holding that social order rests not so much on shared beliefs but on technology, economic interdependence and an advanced social division of labour. Even the declining appeal of Marxism in the later twentieth century did not discredit that view. Rather, in a strange afterlife, Marxism infiltrated liberal thinking, creating a further temptation to downgrade the role of beliefs. That temptation became all the greater because of the unprecedented prosperity enjoyed by the West after the Second World War. We have come to worship at the shrine of economic growth.The Peloponnesian War by Robert Kagan and Thucydides Commentary Okay, every time I say Peloponnesian War - I've got this stupid line in my head. "Pelop's Ponesian War" Like a guy name Pelops decided to put on a war for entertainment. No idea why this is the case. But this seems to happen with Greek words. I have a joke about Sophocles as well. Big Guido -- "Mikey, why you always writing like that? You should be out playing ball."Micheal -- "I've got a paper due on Sophocles."Big Guido -- "Sophocles? How about you try Sophocles" (Grabs crotch)I've read Thucydides before. Hard, but worth it. Kagan wrote a four-volume masterwork on the history of the War for scholars then distilled it down into this book. I read these, partially because Thucydides is great. And partially as research for a project for something I can't really talk about while it's in the works. The Peloponnesian War was effectively the first “World War” Athenians v Spartans, all the other Greek city states picked a team. It’s got Vietnam baked in (the disastrous Athenian campaign in Syracuse), earthquakes, plagues and some of the defining speeches of Western Culture. Piranesi by Suzzanna ClarkeI liked it. It's gorgeously written, but it didn't have the impact on me that Dr. Strange and Mr. Norell did. I loved that book. Which is a kind of alternate history presupposing disused magic existed in the Napoleonic era. This is is my favorite part“Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange.Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never could.” The Toymakers by Robert DinsdaleI've only read half of this book. It's a Christmas book about a magical toystore in the Heart of London before WWI. In the spring, I started reading it on the recommendation of a friend and I decided to save it for the week of Christmas. It's marvelous magical realism. If you want a Christmas book -- this is the one. Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K.J. ParkerThis is the blurb for the book: "A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all.To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building than battles, is a cheat and a liar, and has a serious problem with authority. He is, in other words, perfect for the job."What nothing on the outside of the book will tell you is that this is a book about the tensions of civilization, racism, oppression and ideology. Orhan is part of a downtrodden minority in the book. Yet it falls to him to save the city and the empire -- the same empire that crushes everybody who's not the empire beneath it's cruel sandaled heel. There's a lot in this book.Orhan is also a magnificent narrator. And this book is funny, insightful, profound, here's a few clips. “A wise man once said, the difference between luck and a wheelbarrow is, luck doesn’t work if you push it.” “Beautiful people, though, I struggle with. Unless you keep your eyes shut or look the other way, you can’t help but have the awful fact ground into you, like the wheel of a heavy wagon running over your neck, that here is someone divided from you by a vast, unbridgeable gap, and they’ve done absolutely nothing to deserve it. Ogus’s wife – her name was Sichelgaita – was that level of beauty. I won’t even try to describe her, because they don’t make words that could take the strain. You felt ashamed to look at her.” “The way I see it, the truth is just barren moorland, all useless bog and heather. It’s only when you break it up and turn it over with the ploughshare of the Good Lie that you can screw a livelihood out of it. Isn’t that what humans do? They take a dead landscape and reshape it into what they need, and want, and can use. I’ve never hesitated to adapt the world to suit me, when I can get away with it.” “That’s how the world changes. It’s either so quick that we never know what hit us, or so gradual that we don’t notice. It’s only later, when books are written and scholars decide what mattered and what didn’t, that red lines are drawn – before this point, the world was this way, after this point, everything was different. You could be there and not have a clue. You could be asleep, or looking the other way, having a quiet s**t or screwing in an alley, and an unseen pen draws a line. Here the Empire ended. Here the Dark Ages began.” A lot of Conn IgguldenConn Iggulden is one of the authors of the Dangerous Book for Boys. But he also writes historical fiction. And, for my money, he makes Bernard Cornwall look like a chump. And Cornwall is excellent. This year I read the Emperor Series about Julius Ceasar. Last year I read his Genghis Khan series. Both excellent. Both in a page-turning, thrilling, gore and violence, arrrgh adventure! Way and as writing. Especially the first two books of the Ceasar series. Some very powerful human moments. And he write women very well. He's tremendously talented. And very diligent with this history. I also read The Falcon of Sparta which is his retelling to Xenophon's Anabasis. The story is one of the greatest adventure stories of all time. Xenophon goes with a 10,000 Hoplite Mercenaries to fight for Cyrus the Younger who attempted to steal the Throne of Persia, but gets killed and his army is defeated.All except the 10,000 greek mercenaries. See they were on the other side of the hill from Cyrus's army, so they are busy routing the rest of the Persian army. And when they find out Cyrus is dead, they have a huge problem. It's the story about how they fought their way back home to Greece. Or Coney Island. Because, not only is this a true story, but it's also the inspiration and plot of Walter Hill's classic 1977 film The Warriors. If you need some historical fiction, pick up some Iggulden. He's a master. And it's seriously fun to say his last name. Boswell's Life of JohnsonI'm reading this bit by bit. My sense is the biography has lasted better than anything Johnson wrote when he was alive. Which is a bit crazy because, except for his Biography of Johnson, it seems that Boswell might have been an annoying drunken hanger-on of a jackass who never did anything else right in his life. Samuel Johnson came from crushing poverty and hardship -- and pretty much single-handedly compiled the first Dictionary of the English Language. In the preface of which he wrote: It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward.Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths of Learning and Genius, who press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other authour may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.He was also a prodigiously fast writer and reader. Boswell says this of him. 'Johnson knew more books than any man alive.' He had a peculiar facility in seizing at once what was valuable in any book, without submitting to the labour of perusing it from beginning to end. He had, from the irritability of his constitution, at all times, an impatience and hurry when he either read or wrote.Which makes me feel better about the way I sometimes raid nonfiction books rather than read them. Or maybe the way I render them, like one boils scraps of meat to render the useful fats out of them. I'm not going to take the time to find the precise metaphor. Whatever it is, it isn't pretty -- it's messy and nothing I'd want my children to watch. I just try to rip the guts right out of the book. And that fact that Johnson did it too makes me feel a little better. The Border by Don WinslowGood, but honestly, not his best. I would suggest The Power of the Dog -- the first book in the trilogy. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but reading The Power of the Dog and The Cartel was an experience like I've never had before. Winslow knows the sordid ins and outs of the Drug War like few others and he gets so much out of it as an author. I am personally against the prohibition of drugs on moral grounds. In addition to being electrifying thrillers, these books help make the human cost of our price supports for drugs real. If cocaine wasn't expensive in the U.S. people wouldn't kill themselves for it in Juarez and Colombia. Pablo Escobar blew up an airliner and bombed the Colombian Supreme Court. That's on him. But it's also on us. But don't let my speechifying put you off. The books are great thrillers. If you liked Narcos, you'll love these. The Three Body Problem, by Liu CixinHere's the Amazon blurb: Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.This is a triple winner of a great book. 1) It's great hard sci-fi. 2) It's is great psychological fiction. Not only is the science good, but the insights into people and society are great as well. 3) It's Chinese science fiction, so you get a glimpse into another culture. Having been to a few conventions and having met a number of sci fi and fantasy authors, it is a little dismal how conventional many of them are. There is a groupthink in what they call "The Field" of writing speculative fiction. And, of course, a lot of internal strife. Who's the good guys, who's the bad guys? I don't pretend to know, but you can get a lot of sameness in fiction when they have the same worldview and they've spend a lot of the same time in the same rooms talking about the same things in the same way. This book wasn't like that at all for me. It was brilliant and refreshing.Plus Others, but...That's for this post. Throw in some scattered reading in the Bible, Shakespeare, Economics and Poetry and it's a year well-spent. Of course, I wish I had a chance to read more, but, you know there was real life to be lived as well. If anybody has a suggestion of something I should read next year, put it in the comments. I have a bit of an addiction with buying books, so please enable me. Get full access to How It's Written by Patrick E. McLean at patrickemclean.substack.com/subscribe

Two of the world's biggest toymakers Hasbro and Mattel have forecast bumper sales this holiday season as parents spend big on keeping their kids entertained during the pandemic. Kyoko Gasha takes a closer look at the impact of COVID-19 on the industry and the outlook for this all-important shopping season. Richard Gottlieb is the founder and CEO of Global Toy Experts. He joined us from New York. #ToyMakers #FestiveSeasonSales #Pandemic

Abbas talks about the beginning of the very famous toy Mechanix that every one of us has played in our childhood. He throws light on how he learned business skills from his father and helped Zephyr grow. Listen on to find out how Abbas is following is father's footsteps and adding to the legacy by taking a leap forward and starting another company in the same niche and add to your "Dhandho ni Soch".

Trifulca Wrestling Media presenta el cuarto episodio de Wrestling Collectors Spot la cual es conducida por el Coleccionista y experto en el Coleccionismo Joey de Joey & Friends Hot Spot Collectors, quien nos da la historia del coleccionismo en las figuras de lucha libre parte 4. Figuras de la extinta WCW hechas por la compañía Original San Francisco Toys Maker. Redes de Joey Facebook https://www.facebook.com/joeyandfriends/ Instagram https://instagram.com/joeyandfriendspr?igshid=etols5b2ni4b Redes de Trifulca Wrestling Media Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TrifulcaWrestling/ Instagram https://instagram.com/trifulcawrestlingmedia?igshid=11kmzu8xbvybt Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/TrifulcaMedia YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVZ0uJt-0skE-PkVGnmyTeA Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2Nki4huLPMwYftru08gFYV?si=BhUveS5kRvyTJU0ePNO2Ew Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trifulca-wrestling-media/id1459553025 Anchor https://anchor.fm/trifulcawrestling #collectors #WrestlingCollectors #bookingsinsentido #somosindies #indiewrestling #wrestling #luchalibre #trifulcawrestlingpodcast #TWPInterview #TWNews #wrestlingpodcast #podcastenespañol #latinpodcast #noesmasdelomismo #prowrestler #prowrestling #trifulcawrestlingmedia #podcastlatino #latinpodcast #trifulcawrestlingnews #wwe #aew #boxing #mma #ufc #wrestlingnews #luchalibre

On this episode of Beyond The Limit, we sit down with Mackenzie Belcastro. Mackenzie is the author of the upcoming novel, The Play House. Magical realism in genre, The Play House toes the line between fantasy and reality, leaving the reader to wonder what is real and what is suggestion/illusion. This story is inspired by mysticism, mythology, folklore, and fairytales, and for the fans of Chocolat and The Toymakers.Mackenzie is also the Co-Founder of SaturdaySocialTO a gathering for creatives and entrepreneurs located in Toronto, Canada. Mackenzie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mackbelcastroMackenzie’s Website: https://mackenziebelcastro.comTyler’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twilliamsliveTyler’s Website: https://www.tylerwilliamslive.com

Immortal beings (who are expressly not the Eternals, Guardians, or Toymakers), evil, nightmares, mental health, and giant hands are just some (alright, most) of the topics tackled in this week’s Doctor Who episode, “Can You Hear Me?”, and the Three Who Rule have opinions and conjecture to bandy about for days in an episode that provoked a lot more discussion than we thought we would. And it’s our first episode of several this week as our Gallifrey One Preview Episode follows on Tuesday! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Links: Support Radio Free Skaro on Patreon! Radio Free Skaro Gallifrey One 2020 live show: These Go To Eleven! Can You Hear Me? Finale teaser trailer Finale episode titles, Ian McElhinney and Steve Toussaint to guest Millennium FX no longer working on Doctor Who after Praxeus Praxeus BBC One overnights Praxeus BBC America overnights Praxeus BBC America Live+3 ratings Fugitive of the Judoon BBC final ratings Fugitive of the Judoon AI UK demand for Doctor Who “exceptional” Spyfall Part One and Part Two BBC Live+28 ratings Praxeus t-shirt UK Season 12 Blu-ray re-release due March 2 Faceless Ones home video details Doctor Who Magazine 548 released Sophie Aldred talks “A Childhood’s End” on the Penguin Books podcast Big Finish brings together Captain Jack and River Song Final Big Finish Short Trips for 2020 announced The Witchfinders audio novelization Keith Barnfather’s “The Doctors” series on Amazon Prime The Edge of Time gets a physical release for Playstation VR Doctor Who baking sets due later in 2020 Jacqueline Hill biography came out Nov 23, 2019 Millennium FX no longer working on Doctor Who after Praxeus

Meet Flora Ekpe-Idang, the founder of Corage Dolls. On this episode, Ms. Ekpe-Idang discusses why she started  her doll company and the importance of diversity in the industry. You can find more information at  .  

Matt Townsend, Bloomberg News Global Business Reporter, breaks down Hasbro and Mattel going in opposite directions. Bloomberg News Tech Reporter Spencer Soper discusses the political and legal implications of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alleging that the publisher of the National Enquirer tried to blackmail him with embarrassing photos of himself and a woman who wasn’t his wife. Brian Chappatta, Bloomberg Opinion Debt Columnist, explains why investors are snapping up cooperate debt despite risks. Jared Robins, President at NoSweat, talks about linking startup ventures with professional athletes. And we Drive to the Close of markets with Michael Tiedemann, CEO of Tiedemann Advisors.Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Producer: Paul Brennan 

Matt Townsend, Bloomberg News Global Business Reporter, breaks down Hasbro and Mattel going in opposite directions. Bloomberg News Tech Reporter Spencer Soper discusses the political and legal implications of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos alleging that the publisher of the National Enquirer tried to blackmail him with embarrassing photos of himself and a woman who wasn't his wife. Brian Chappatta, Bloomberg Opinion Debt Columnist, explains why investors are snapping up cooperate debt despite risks. Jared Robins, President at NoSweat, talks about linking startup ventures with professional athletes. And we Drive to the Close of markets with Michael Tiedemann, CEO of Tiedemann Advisors.Hosts: Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Producer: Paul Brennan  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

More than 40 years ago, Top Gear debuted as a monthly, 30-minute magazine-style, automotive-related program on the British Broadcasting Corporation. It was based in Birmingham, England, and the initial episode's topics included speed traps, fuel economy and strange road signs. A year later, the program expanded to a weekly format and it was broadcast for nearly a quarter century. David Ankin (center) and his colleagues from the automotive reality show, ToyMakerz. Simultaneously, much has changed and not much has changed in automotive programming. Enthusiasts are still as passionate about cars and truck and driving. Speed, fuel usage and bizarre things on the road are all still topics for automotive reality television programs. Shows like the rekindled version of Top Gear, American Chopper and Monster Garage brought the concept to greater prominence in the early 2000s with the unique personalities of hosts such as Jeremy Clarkson, Paul Teutul, and Jesse James. Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee and Jay Leno's Garage have captured mainstream audiences with little interest in automobiles. Nearly every network now has an automotive reality show. At least one program, ToyMakerz, has a star who had no desire to be on television. Which is why, in part, the show is increasingly popular. The host is David Ankin, a former stuntman, motorcycle racer, fabricator and customizer, and former restaurant owner. He's catapulted the small city of Reidsville, N.C., where his ToyMakers, Inc. company shop is located, into the national spotlight. The show follows Ankin and his team, including teenage son, as it builds a one-off custom vehicle or enhances an original car. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia interview Ankin on this episode of The Weekly Driver Podcast. “In the big scheme of things, I never wanted to do a TV, ever,” said Ankin. “It was never in my plans. I have friends who have TV shows, but I wasn't interested, at all. But I had a guy one time tell what a great avenue it is to advertise your business. I started thinking about it for a couple of years, and he was right.” The third season of ToyMakerz, featuring eight episodes, will debut March 10 on its new network affiliation, DRIVE. It's a programming block on A+E Networks' FYI and HISTORY channels. DRIVE will be broadcast on HISTORY on Sunday mornings from 7 a.m. to noon and Saturday on FYI from 5 p.m. to midnight. The networks are available throughout the extended San Francisco Bay Area. As the program's moniker declares: It's unique toys for big boys. Ankin drives the creations he makes to extremes. Unlike other reality shows, drama isn't infused into ToyMakerz. Each episode unfolds with plenty. The reality? The show is real. “There a lot of guys who build things as a piece of art and that's exactly what it is for me,” said Ankin. “But if you can't drive it, what good is it? I want to drive everything I have. I build them to drive them. I don't enter car shows. I don't care about any of that stuff. I want to drive the cars and I want to drive them hard.” Episodes in season three will include a twin-seat, front-engine dragster for the street, custom racing drones, and a Willys exhibition car. Legendary NASCAR driver and car owner Richard Petty and actor Dean Cain will be among the guests. “I live, eat and breath the show,” said Ankin, whose brand includes a sizable social media following, merchandise sales and public appearances. “You're constantly taking care of your brands, your fans. You're taking care of the shop, your family life, and you're taking care of employees. We have 35 of 45 people who work for us. I love what I do. It's the hardest thing I've ever done and probably the most rewarding.” The Weekly Driver encourages and appreciates feedback from our listeners. Please forward episode links to family, friend and colleagues. And you are welcome to repost links from the podcast to your social media account...

This month I talk about some of the films I've seen. Mortal Engines, Aquaman and what has to be the worst Sherlock Holmes adaptation EVER!! I wax on about some books I've read, A Christmas Carol, The Toymakers, One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night and some others. I introduce you to a fluff faced pain who will no doubt be a regular guest voice. Not to mention some TV chat, a bit of food and a nice hot bourbon cocktail to keep you warm.

We watch the Doctor (William Hartnell) and Steven and Dodo captured and forced to play games by the Toymaker in order to prove the Doctor is appropriately intelligent in this episode from April 1966. But is the deck stacked in the Toymakers favor? The Doctor and Companions have to solve some puzzles in order to get back to the TARDIS and escape, but we only have to watch the episodes and talk about them.Original Posting Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2017

100 years ago Smith and Bradley were two of the three largest employers in Brattleboro. It was a time before computer chips, when young people entertained themselves with their imaginations, wood and cast iron toys. Here's the story...

Today is Tuesday, July 31, and we’re looking at Mattel vs. Hasbro.

Host: Ale  Finalmente, Ale se puso las pilas y empezó a terminar sus libros empezados... en este episodio les platica un poquito del libro The Toymakers por Robert Dinsdale y Handbook for Mortals por Lani Sarem, el cual termino de leer después de más de 6 meses!!  Estos libros los recibió gratis de parte de www.NetGalley.com, a cambio de una reseña honesta del libro! Pruebenlo!   Suscríbanse! Dia de Ocio // Dia de Manga // Dia de Comics  Instagram: DiadeOcio // Twitter: @DiadeOcioMty // Facebook: Día de Comics // Email: diadeociopodcast@gmail.com 

Host: Ale  Finalmente, Ale se puso las pilas y empezó a terminar sus libros empezados... en este episodio les platica un poquito del libro The Toymakers por Robert Dinsdale y Handbook for Mortals por Lani Sarem, el cual termino de leer después de más de 6 meses!!  Estos libros los recibió gratis de parte de www.NetGalley.com, a cambio de una reseña honesta del libro! Pruebenlo!   Suscríbanse! Dia de Ocio // Dia de Manga // Dia de Comics  Instagram: DiadeOcio // Twitter: @DiadeOcioMty // Facebook: Día de Comics // Email: diadeociopodcast@gmail.com 

Investors cheer the latest jobs report. Toymakers tank on a possible Toys R Us liquidation. Cigna shakes up the healthcare industry. And Costco helps consumers prepare for the apocalypse. Plus, marketing consultant Steve Miller talks about his new book, Uncopyable: How to Create an Unfair Advantage Over Your Competition.

This week we talked to Addie (@atdiy) and Whisker (@whixr), the Toymakers (@Tymkrs). They make electronics kits, videos, and conference badges. Toymakers site (tymkrs.com) has a link to their IRC channel, videos, and Tindie store(including those amazing heart simulators, the easy to make Amplify Me, and Protosynth Midi). Their reddit community is r/Tymkrs. It has a lot more information about the CypherCon 2017 badges. More about CypherCon at cyphercon.com. Some of their ZombieTech podcast is available on YouTube (along with First Spin and Patch Bay, see the playlists to find grouped series). Note that Rabbithole is the name of their hackspace as well as the video series documenting project creation. Episode 200 has the violin we discussed. We seem to have talked about a lot of other people on the show, especially shared friends and past Embedded.fm guests (some of whom were on ZombieTech). Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories with their online and Sunnyvale store. This is run by Lenore (40: Mwahaha Session) and Wendell (124: Please Don’t Light Yourself On Fire)  Joe Grand (58: Use These Powers For Good) John Schuch (74: All Of Us Came In Sixth) Alvaro Prieto (130: Criminal Training Camp and 200: Oops) Some fiction for you: Black Mirror (Netflix) Feed by Mira Grant [Everything by Mira Grant / Seanan McGuire is on my “devour immediately” list! -El] MiTel SX Technician’s Handbook 

In an industry where $10 Billion giants rule the shelves, how does a smaller “David”, Like Tucker Toys company competitively bring down these Goliaths? Host Bart Jackson invites Tucker’s CEO/President Mark Nathan to unfold this tale of inventive triumph. Dedicated to keeping kids active, Tuckers’ innovative team generates a constant stream of new games and sports equipment that transforms play and brings home revenue. Tune in and see how far a business can go when it’s devoted to a positive mission.

In an industry where $10 Billion giants rule the shelves, how does a smaller “David”, Like Tucker Toys company competitively bring down these Goliaths?  Host Bart Jackson invites Tucker's CEO/President Mark Nathan to unfold this tale of inventive triumph.  Dedicated to keeping kids active, Tuckers' innovative team generates a constant stream of new games and sports equipment that transforms play and brings home revenue.  Tune in and see how far a business can go when it's devoted to a positive mission.

Santa Claus joins Merrill Brown on this holiday edition of Media Download. Producer: Juan Contla Executive Producer & Social: Anabella Poland Music courtesy of Tom Tuminello - Santa & The Toymakers.

Please welcome the Lennon Sisters to The Best Ever You Show! As one of the most acclaimed and admired vocal groups in popular music, The Lennon Sisters are entertainment icons and throughout a dazzling career have conquered all facets of show business.  First finding overnight success as television stars, they continued their rise to fame as recording artists, best-selling authors and live performers in theaters, nightclubs and major performing arts centers throughout the United States, where they continue to captivate audiences with their legendary harmonies . America first fell in love with The Lennon Sisters as the "girls next door."  For 13 years on The Lawrence Welk Show, the Sisters (Dianne, Peggy, Kathy and Janet), charmed the nation with their sweet-voiced harmonies. They were dubbed "America's Sweethearts of Song" and Americans still admire them today. After their well-received television debut, the Sisters began a concert career, traveling extensively to make record-breaking personal appearances in every major U.S. city, and throughout the heartland.  As their popularity grew, merchandising tie-ins such as paper dolls, TV trays and coloring books, began to appear. As the quintessential American girls, they sang for seven United States Presidents, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan, an achievement that few other performers can claim.  Kathy and Janet are with us to also talk about their new line of toys and dolls called “Best Pals” designed by Kathy & Janet to take kids and their parents back to a simpler time. Visit http://www.bestpals.net for more information.

From "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town," here is the EVIL holiday classic. So destroy all toys and make the kids cry! MUAHAHAHA! Project for Awesome SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR AWESOME. Or something. I dunno, I kinda question how awesome they really are. Well, not so much how awesome they are I suppose, but how much awesomer they are than anyone else. Everyone is awesome, right? Except for me, of course. I'm evil.