Author: Steve DiMatteo

Americans are quickly becoming a solitary group, and that’s concerning for a whole host of reasons. And before you start pointing to the pandemic of the past two years as a reason for the downtrend, which would be valid, it turns out that time with friends went down between 2014 and 2019 more than it has even during the COVID-19 era. It’s a bleak picture painted by Bryce Ward, an economist and the founder of ABMJ Consulting, in a recent Washington Post editorial. For some reason, in 2014, time with friends really started to fall off a cliff collectively. Coincidentally,…

When people say that children’s toys of previous generations were unsafe, that might be an understatement, and the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory is the perfect example of that. The Atomic Energy Lab was a toy lab set that was promoted as giving kids the opportunity to create their own chemical reactions and put on a “magic show,” so at least there was some educational aspect to it. Perhaps that was why it wasn’t all that successful, selling fewer than 5,000 kits between 1950 and 1951. Part of the reason too could have been the price, which was a steep…

It never hurts to be prepared, even as the world is ending. When CNN launched in 1980, Ted Turner had his cable news station ready for just such a scenario, as he said, “Barring satellite problems, we won’t be signing off until the world ends.” Not many people might have taken him literally, but the “Turner Doomsday Video” is an actual clip that was planned to play in the event of a doomsday event like, say, all-out nuclear warfare or an alien invasion (and assuming the aliens didn’t appreciate baseball). Turner himself instructed the video to be made, and it…

In case you didn’t know, the Toy Hall of Fame is a very real thing, located in Rochester, New York as part of The Strong National Museum of Play. In other words, it’s a perfect road trip destination for the family. And like any good Hall of Fame, the one dedicated to toys inducts new members every year, and in the 2022 class, the Toy Hall of Fame will be welcoming in the classic top, the Lite-Brite, and the Masters of the Universe line of toys, which just so happens to be celebrating its 40th anniversary. While anyone can nominate…

I was recently reading that the city of Cleveland was abruptly suspending its leaf pickup service. It was so sudden, people had of course already begun raking and blowing their leaves to their curbs, thinking the city would be picking them up. And now, these people will be forced to bag all of them up if they want to see them gone. Not exactly the most pressing problem in the world, but hey, it’s all relative. I bring this up because I’ve been fighting the same leaf battle myself for years. I live in a beautiful, tree-lined neighborhood and I…

Due in part to social media and the ever-present specter of internet clout that comes with it, Salem, Massachusetts has become something of a hotspot. Well, a hotspot for tourists, but a complete nightmare for the residents of this small New England town. It turns out, Salem – despite what you might think of it and its connection to the history of witchcraft in the United States – is not a Halloween Disney World, and while there are always people making the trek out there to get a dose of history and take a few pictures, this year has been…

The concept of a religious parent being concerned about unleashing hell on their children through media is certainly nothing new. But it is always fun when a new story like this rears its head. We probably should have figured it would pop up as Hocus Pocus 2 was released on Disney+, and sure enough, a Texas woman named Jamie Gooch came through in the clutch. In a Facebook post that went viral and quickly went private for obvious reasons, Gooch explained that exposing our children to Hocus Pocus 2 had the potential unintended consequence of making families “fall victim to…

Candy corn certainly seems to be the most divisive Halloween candy of all – you either love it, eating it by the handful every October, or you hate it more than anything on the planet. There is no in-between on this one. Candy corn lovers are staunch defenders of the candy, steadfast in their undying support for this colorful but maligned candy, so much so that I don’t even think learning the ingredients will change one’s mind. But let’s see – if you knew candy corn was made of animal bones and bug secretions, would that change anything for you?…

Bobbleheads are a staple of American collecting culture. Baseball teams give them out to fans each and every season, we get bobbleheads of presidential candidates, and you can even get yourself custom made into bobblehead form. We’ve got a Bobblehead Hall of Fame, too, which really only makes sense at this point. So it’s a big thing to get some world-record-breaking news when it comes to our beloved bobbleheads. The New Home of the Biggest Bobblehead in the World Now, if you’re a fan of bargain hunting, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, a chain of…

Home run balls are all the rage again, what with St. Louis’ Albert Pujols hitting his 700th home run and Aaron Judge crossing the 60-homer mark with the Yankees. This of course also resurfaces the age-old debate over what someone should do with such a memorable home run ball should they catch it. In most cases, fans hold out for at least some autographed memorabilia from the team and/or player who hit the milestone homer. In Judge’s case, the fan got some signed baseballs and an autographed bat in exchange for the ball. The person who caught Pujols’ ball left…