Excellent knockoff tech toy from China: Benign Girl Cellphone
Boing Boing reader Matt says,
Over the Labor Day weekend, we went to Di Fara's Pizza for the best slice in New York City (probably the world). Well, you have to wait while each slice is hand-made to order, so I took my 14 month-old daughter to the 99 cent store next door to touch things for the duration.LinkOn our way out of the store, we saw this gem: the "Benign Girl" Super Telephone. Chinese marketing at its best. How could there be any lead in a Benign Girl toy? And the package design was genius: The "Try Me Press Button" arrow that points to a non-existent button; that says the phone is "creative" and has "luxurious music."
Free batteries aren't just included, they come pre-corroded!
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Wonderful doll. but more importantly, Di Fara's is the best pizza in the world. if not best food.
Back in the 50s, "made in Japan" was a subject of humor and derision. Subsequently, they ate our lunch in electronics and automobiles. The cost to Americans was millions of good jobs.
There are five Chinese for every American. Our stores are laden with their "low-end" products. We are deeply in their debt. Rather than derision: what is our plan for having a future? Or, are we "pretty vacant"? Will "kow-tow" dojos replace the ninja and karate dojos?
wow, what about Benign Girl's partner in crime, Buggs Bunny. Or should i say Benevolent Bunny.
The toy/packaging is meh. But Let's not go throwing around best pizza in the world so easily. I'm a born and bred New York City-ite, and know for a fact that the best pizza in the world is Sally's in New Haven. I will try your place though.
Di Fara's Pizza! It does take a while for pizza perfection. He makes them by the pie, though.
Feh. You can get a "Malignant Girl" doll at half-price down the street.
Di Fara's? Really? I've never been there, but I'll be damned if Ben's or Pizza Box in the Village isn't fantastic.
What? No audio link?! I really want to hear that "speed induced craziness it tried to pass as music."
Clever way to advertise a pizza place.
Mark blogged this 6/29/06. Aw, snap! ;)
Actually, a friend bought me a "Benign Girl" toy cash register a couple years ago in SoHo. The best thing about Benign Girl is that her Skipper-analog is "Alacrity Girl."
I would so much rather be "Alacrity Girl" than "Benign Girl."
Of course, when you say "best pizza in the world", you mean "best pizza outside of New Haven, CT", since it isn't fair to try and compare other pizzas to New Haven pizza.
As a previous commenter mentioned, Sally's Apizza in New Haven is the best in the world.
I spotted Benign Girl in a dollar store back in 2005 along with several other bizarre toys. There was a "Bazic" sketch pad with the line "Finally, the exciting festival starts in the herb land." on top, but my favorite was these blocks:
http://www.kostia.net/photo/0510-OctoberMisc/slides/Photo_102605_004.html
featuring typical alphabet-block words like Eglantine, Nabs, and Xograph.
"Di Fara's is the best pizza in the world"?!
I don't like to point out the obvious, but have you ever tried the real pizza? I mean pizza made in Naples or Rome (in Italy)?!
But yes in Bell invented the telephone ^-^ so pizza...
I have one of these - bought it at my neighborhood booze store in Iowa City because the packaging was so utterly ridiculous. It plays three sounds: eardrum-piercing ringtone followed by yappy dog; freaky girl-robot voice saying what sounds like "Dollar Bill"; and a loud blast of the J-pop song "I-yi-yi am your little butterfly".
Oh,laws, a week before you I did the exact same thing while waiting for my DiFara's pie to be ready: I went into the same store, took a cell phone shot of "Benign Girl" and forgot to upload it from the phone.
Nobody else but me found it all that amusing!
i got me one of these in a street market in senegal. after mark blogged about it months ago.
Kostia: And all this time, I've been spelling "xograph" with a z!
Paul D.
I've had the New Haven pizza at a few places,Grimaldi's,Lombardi's and Star Tavern as well, and I've also had pizza in Naples, Roma, Milano and Firenze, and it just doesn't compare to Difara's. Seriously, Dom DiFara is the Rilke of pie creation.
Bah someone beat me to the malignant girl joke, but that's ok. I'll add to it anyway.
I heard that not my malignant girl products made it to the states. Most of that line got shelved due to lead content.
jesus, the difara argument has reared it's ugly head again. i personally prefer sally's or totonno's (on a good day)..difara is a little oily for my tastes and the line clusterfuck takes a lot of the joy out of it.
can't wait to try pizza bianco when i go to pheonix for spring training next year....
it's dom demarco, by the way.
Better than Grimaldi's?
Oh well. I haven't liked them quite as much since they got rid of the placemats densely covered with close-set small type explaining (their side of) the history of the Patsy Grimaldi brand name legal feuds.
DiFara's! Best pizza in the world hands down. I love my green olive slice! All you doubters, please, PLEASE stick to your limp slice and DON'T come to Brooklyn to get the best pie. Hope this will cut down the wait at DiFara's. : )