Great Gadgets

Great Gadgets (12/4-8/06). In this week-long series from All Things Considered, we hear experts and others talk about their favorite gadgets.

Little Things that Make a Bike Ride Better
(12/4/06 -3:37) · "Bicycle designer Georgena Terry describes her favorite gadgets. They don't attach to her bicycle; they are little computer programs that tell her what the weather is before she gets on her bike. Georgena Terry is the president of Terry Precision Cycling."

Lead-Filled Anchor Is a Low-Tech Gadget (12/5/06 - 3:51) · "In part two of our series on favorite gadgets, we hear from Alex Lee, president of Oxo International. You might have one or two of their black-handled ergonomic kitchen tools in your house. Lee describes his favorite gadget: an anchor for his fishing boat that's made of two bags full of lead shot."

Gadget Design Gurus Pick for Grating and Wine
(12/6/06 - 3:00) · "Two men who design what they call "gadgets for gadgets" talk about their favorite small tools. Aaron Lown and John Roscoe Swartz are the creative directors of Built NY, where they make neoprene totes for computers, cell phones, cameras, baby bottles and the like. Their favorite gadgets are a sharkskin ginger grater and a volumetric flask designed to be used in a laboratory -- but instead used as a wine decanter."

Cleaning Up with Roomba
(12/7/06 - 3:49) · "Jason Toon and Luke Duff work for the Web site woot.com. Their favorite gadget is something they bought from themselves: a Roomba. It's a small robot that sweeps up dust."

The Listeners Weigh In
(12/8/06 - 3:55) · "This week we've been hearing about favorite gadgets - from people who design and sell them. Many listeners wrote in to tell us about favorite gadgets, too. Three listeners join us: John Sturdevant, Eve Leedy and Vince Lupo."

Musings

• Compare a gadget of yours with one of those mentioned in any one of these NPR pieces.
  
  
• Comment on what the American writer Henry David Thoreau had to say about gadgets (what he calls "our inventions"), in his 1854 classic, Walden: "Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at."
  
  
• What's the difference between a gadget and a tool? When does a tool become a gadget? Or, using a somewhat different approach, how are gadgets related to toys? Try to use one specific gadget to make your case.
  

Timeless Toys & Games

Timeless Toys. Weekend Edition Sunday: 12/25/05 - 5:01). "Toy inventor Tim Walsh's book Timeless Toys is full of stories about a century of all things playful. He fills Liane Hansen with facts about the Slinky, Play-Doh, Lincoln Logs and other fundamentals of fun."

Old-Fashioned Toys with a New-Fangled Twist (11/27/06) - "Tweens may have been sucked into a world of cell phones and MP3 players, but younger children still can find joy without a joystick -- which is good, because how else would parents get to indulge their inner child? Here's a selection aimed at pushing the old-fashioned buttons of creativity, free play and learning -- with a few modern twists."

Parker Brothers (2/11/04) - "Phil Orbanes discusses the rich history of Parker Brothers board games. Learn about George and his brother Charles Parker, who were responsible for many favorites, including Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Clue, Boggle and Risk." It seems that Hasbro now owns Clue and Monopoly, and here are two pieces (Clue - 8/11/08) and (Monopoly - 9/16/2006) on their planned makeover.

Musings

• The piece on the Parker Brothers mentions the continuing interest in old-fashioned board games. Discuss your own experience with one or more board games or jigsaw puzzles; include a detailed account of the context in which you played the game, and what, if anything, you learned from it.


• There are 40+ toys enshrined at the National Toy Hall of Fame (more @ Wikipedia). Focus or one or two classic toys from this list that you can remember playing a role in your life, or mention one or two others that you think should be included in the list, focusing on toys without batteries. Here's another NPR piece, Toys that Withstand the Test of Time (12/24/2007), where the commentators reflect on their favorite childhood toy.
  


• In your opinion, what makes such a toy or game endure--in other words, a toy a classic? Tell us about any hand-me-down toy you may have played with as a kid, or any of your toys that you think might be worth saving for your own children? The best responses here will make effective use of examples, including lots of concrete details so we can see (or feel, taste, touch, even smell) the toys for ourselves.