{"id":1378,"date":"2009-12-05T08:58:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-05T12:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/12\/05\/christmas-brings-zhu-zhus-and-no-nos\/"},"modified":"2009-12-05T08:58:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-05T12:58:00","slug":"christmas-brings-zhu-zhus-and-no-nos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2009\/12\/05\/christmas-brings-zhu-zhus-and-no-nos\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas brings Zhu zhus and no nos"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve always been a cultural contrarian. Call it ego, call it pure eccentricity. <\/p>\n

When all my friends in high school were turning out for basketball, I joined the blue collar wrestling team. (I was 6’1″ and gangly and got my butt kicked…)<\/p>\n

When my pals trooped off to college, I dropped out and headed for Europe and Asia. <\/p>\n

If a book is on the bestseller list, I can’t read it. Two years later? Fine. <\/p>\n

But there’s something about buzz and bubbles and hype that just leaves me cold.<\/p>\n

Even owning a Blackberry or an iPhone reminds me a little of scenes out of Brave New World.<\/p>\n

Weird for someone in the news business, right? But I don’t want to be that “connected.” <\/p>\n

My latest instinctive recoil involves the “zhu zhus,” those animatronic hamsters that kids, apparently, are craving this Christmas season.<\/p>\n

The backstory of these robotic gerbils is kind of sweet: an American Gepetto ginned them up in his St. Louis basement and now he’s a kajillionaire.<\/p>\n

But once something goes viral, as they say these days, the sweetness turns saccharine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of trade publication TimeToPlayMag.com…equates Zhu Zhu pets with the Furby and Pokemon crazes, both nearly a decade ago. Before that, Tickle Me Elmo, and once upon a time, Cabbage Patch dolls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

TimeToPlayMag? Really?<\/p>\n

Here’s my Grinch advice to parents: If there’s one thing that every kid in America HAS to have this holiday season, it’s your job to get your kids something else. <\/p>\n

It’s not disappointment I’m peddling. It’s a sense of avoiding the mad rush on Black Friday.<\/p>\n

It’s a sense of using our own taste and instinct; and of avoiding (whenever possible) being marketed and sold like the consumers we are supposed to be.<\/p>\n

The truth is, I love a big, bountiful Christmas tree as much as the next guy. <\/p>\n

(It’s been long enough after the craze that I’m actually hoping for an iPod…how’s that for neurotic?)<\/p>\n

But at this time of year when we all spend a little beyond our means, there’s value (right?) in looking for unique and beautiful and personal gifts…maybe even locally made.<\/p>\n

And there’s also value in avoiding the latest version of Furby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve always been a cultural contrarian. Call it ego, call it pure eccentricity. When all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}