No Turkish Bride_It Was an April Fool's Joke

It is time to come clean and admit that I am NOT marrying a woman I met on the Internet named Sibel Turkan Atasoy who lives in Afyon, Turkey. She is a fictional name, and if any woman, living in Afyon, Turkey, or elsewhere actually has that name we will be floored.

I took the middle name from the great Turkish actress Turkan Soray.

I must also profess that I was April Fooled myself as University of Utah Utes gymnastics coach proclaimed that his team had landed the top gymnast in the world on collegegymnasts.com.

Interestingly enough, we asked Bing who was the top-ranke gymnast in the world and they said Sharaya Musser. She happens to be a highly-accomplished gymnast at Penn State, but we are 99-percent sure that she is not actually the 'best in the world.'

I guess this means so much for the power of search engines!

Casulaties of Modern Technology (8 of 12)_ Etch A Sketch

Of course, we love Albert Einstein here at The Daily Vampire, but the reason for this entry, which was originally going to feature Hallmark greeting cards, is for a politically honest gaffe made by Eric Fehrnstorm, a spokesperson for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign.

This week, Fehrnstorm told CNN following Romney's win in Illinois in response to a question about the possibility of the Republican Mike Dukakis (forgive the editorial comment) shifting his stump speeches to win over independent voters as opposed to staunch right-wingers who have seemingly split the vote between Romney's two main Republican foes, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.

And, in case you were in a village in Uzbekistan, and you missed what Fehrnstorum said, it was this: "You hit a reset button for the fall campaign. Everything changes. It's almost like an Etch-A-Sketch. You kind of shake it up and start all over again."

As for the product itself, its origins go back to th elate 1950s, according to the manufacturers, the Ohio Art Company (which relocated production to Shenzhen, China, in 2001), when Andre Cassagnes, a French electrician discovered that a drawing toy could be created with joysticks, aluminum powder and glass.

As a result, the first Etch-A-Sketch went into production in 1960, and it became very popular with baby boomers. The Etch-A-Sketch was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester, NY, in 2008.

To be fair, the Etch-A-Sketch, which was not as popular as it was in its heyday until Fehrnstorm gave new attention to something that most of us played with the backseats of station wagons as kids, is not really a Casualty of Modern Technology. But, it has evolved since the toy was introduced to the market. The modern Etch-A-Sketch also allows for coloring.

Casualties of Modern Technology (5 of 12)_View-Masters

Today, we are continue to feature two items which are still on the market, at least here in the United States, but it is a safe assumption that both View-Masters, which we are featuring here, and board games, such as Monopoly, are used less often than they were 30-35 years ago.

When I was a child in the 1970s, View-Masters were extremely popular, and there were 3-D slides for many popular tv shows and movies, such as "The Lone Ranger."

My mom, who is an antiques dealer, has also sold earlier versions of the View-Master that were sold at tourist destinations, including Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. This form of the View-Master was introduced at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, according to Wikipedia.

In 1966, the products were merchandised with popular tv shows, including "Star Trek" and "Rowan and Martin's Laugh In."

Though they are found less often in the open market, Fisher Price still produces View-Masters, and there are slides with images from popular children's films, such as "Toy Story 3."

The used View-Masters we grew up with are available through sites like e-bay, and from what I noticed, they typically seem to sell for about $10 each.

Bonus Silly Photo to Fill Space- Mr. Potato Head (Our 750th Entry)

I suppose if one gave a child in Eskisehir, Turkey, a Mr. Potato Head doll for Christmas (hopefully, you're smart enough to get the joke), you have the tell little Ali or Ayse that the toy's name would be translated to ' Mr.Patates Kafasi'

But, closer to home, one can presumingly find Mr. Potato Head who is now over 50 years old at an independent toy store like Building Blocks, which has two locations in Chicago.

This item was feautred on our Top 10 Silly Things to Buy Me for X-Mas list last week.

Today, happens to mark the 750th entry of "The Daily Vampire" and we are celebrating here at the famed Elmo's Diner in Durham, NC, (actually not where we're at, but I have driven by the place and it looks swell!). The establishment also has a location in Carrboro, NC (Chapel Hill).

We will post another silly image from that list on Tuesday (perhaps). So, there is a chance you may get to see what a Che Guevara plush-toy or a Jesus Christ bobblehead doll looks like! We have no idea if they sell those at Building Blocks (we needed to say that for legal reasons!).

Silly Photo to Fill Space- Santo the Wrestler Toy

If there is one 'good' thing about globalization, it is that one can find an action for beloved Mexican wrestler Santo that is Made in China!

This figure above was not among the toys featured in a recent "Independent Weekly" expose/satire as the Raleigh, NC-based alt weekly went into a Roses discount store, one of many owned by millionaire businessman Art Pope, who is from Raleigh.

Pope is one of the leading contributors to the Republican Party and the Tea Party in North Carolina, and he has complained that it is 'almost extortion' that state Democrats want to boycott his stores.

On the right-leaning radio station 680-AM WPTF, Pope apparently said (according to "Indy Weekly") that his free-market, anti-government approach allows him to give more money to charity. (inserted editorial comment here: uh-huh).

The excellent article by Bob Geary, Samiha Shanna and Lisa Sorg featured many toys sold at Pope's stores, which were ironically Made in China.

Silly Photo to Fill Space_ Zhu Zhu Pets

I could have alternatively titled this entry: "Why I'm Glad I Don't Have Kids!"

Though liberal-turned-conservative P.J. O'Rourke, now a contributor to the neo-conservative journal "The Weekly Standard" (which I actually read from time to time) maintains that somehow having a daughter made him go from being Michael Moore to Dick Cheney overnight....I suppose as I've gotten older I've gone from Michael Moore to Bill Clinton, and that seems conservative enough!

I don't know how it is in your part of the country, but here in Dixie, the conservative coalition seems to be made up of religious zealots, Yosemite Sam gun nuts and radical Ayn Rand anti-government types. I know moderate conservative columnist David Brooks was in North Carolina last year, but I wonder if he got a chance to talk to people at the Waffle House in Greensboro to see how far, far right they are........?!

Hmm.......this was NOT supposed to be a political entry.....oh well!