Razor Blades Found in Valentine’s Day Lollipops

A couple of lollipops in Lakeland Florida were found to have fragments of metal and razor blades inside forcing the Dollar General Stores chain to recall all lollipops sold by them nationwide.

The offending suckers were red Pokemon-themed heart lollipops. And even if you don’t think you or your kids’ classmates bought their candy at the Doller Store, this is a great reminder to always check candy before you give it to your kids.

There has been no official determination yet on how many lollipops are affected or whether it is a manufacturing glitch or an act of tampering.

The Revenge of the Foreskin

In a past Master Debaters article we asked noodad.com readers to give their opinions on circumcisions for their sons.  Whether you’re a lawsuit-filing Intactivist bent on trimming circumcision from the litany of routine procedures for newborns, or you celebrate the cut like new mom and pop diva Christina Aguilera, the decision to circumcise (or not) is highly contentious.  Don’t stress about the issue too much, though, because your decision to circumcise your son isn’t necessarily the last word on his foreskin.
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Lego Porn

It’s Lego’s 50th anniversary. Everyone is excited about it. Even Google did a Lego logo which tells you the overall significance and influence of the toy on the population at large. Gizmodo, another internet dynamo, did a story on the top 50 Lego sets of all time.

My brother and I were Lego junkies. We were more into the plain blocks than the sets, but we did manage to get ourselves a castle and some space legos. These facilitated inventing Transformers long before Optimus Prime hit the market. We would build ships that we could turn into robots out of Legos. The challenge of course was keeping these en tact as overall our Lego resources were not infinite and we both had a large desire to destroy one guys Krakkarakon to build our Lazatronatar.

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2 Boys Try to Debunk “A Christmas Story”

Let this be a lesson to these 10 year old boys. First, never mess with a classic. And second, if you are going to take a chance, double dog dare your friend to try it out, don’t do it yourself. 2 boys from Chesterton, Indiana tried to dispute the accuracy of the famous scene from A Christmas Story.

“Gavin Dempsey and James Alexander were serving on flag duty at Jackson Elementary School, with the job of raising and lowering the school’s flags, when they decided to see if their tongues really would stick to the cold metal.”

Dempsey later said he thought the scenes were all lies. 2 weeks from now, this kid will probably be walking around with an eye patch.

Read the rest of the story here.

Rethinking Parenting: Eating Boogers May Be Good For You

In every classroom or every school bus there is always one kid that picks his nose and eats his boogers. This is actually has an official technical term: Mucophagy.

You never wanted to be “that” kid and now that you are a dad, you certainly don’t want your kid to be “that” kid. But before you go and slap that hand away from their face, you may want to know something.

Apparently, picking your nose and eating boogers is not only a natural thing, it’s a healthy one. “Some research suggests that mucophagy may be a natural and even healthy activity, which exposes the digestive system to bacteria accumulated in the mucus, thereby helping to strengthen the immune system.”

So take comfort in the fact that even if your kid becomes “that kid”, he or she will at least be healthier.

Growing Trend: Men Getting Breast Implants

Men are getting breast implants. And its not to go and fondle themselves like that scene in the Drew Carey Show. According to an article on the SFGate.com, more and more men are getting pectoral implants so they can look like jacked warriors in loin cloths like the characters in 300.

I don’t think I am the only person who feels a tad disturbed by this trend. We have already discussed that manboobs are no laughing matter but to go and actually go through with cosmetic surgery to look like a guy from the Handsome Boy Modeling School is taking it a bit far.

What do you guys think?

Subway: A Healthier Option for Kids…Also a Dangerous One

On a Saturday filled with errands, my wife and I decided to stop for lunch at Subway with the kids. From a marketing perspective, Subway has done a pretty good job differentiating themselves from the generic sandwich shop market by being the healthier option. “Eat Fresh” certainly keeps Subway above the “Mmmm…Toasty” and “Funny name, great sandwiches” that Quiznos and Schlotzsky’s provides.

We bought our daughter a turkey and cheese sandwich with apple wedges and an apple juice. That’s no comparison to the 5 piece chicken McNugget Happy Meal with french fries and a Hi-C orange drink.

My son got a salami sandwich with no cheese (milk allergy) and even though the meat was greasier than his sister’s turkey, compared to a hamburger, we were feeling pretty decent about our healthier choice for them. Read the rest of this entry »

I Wonder What the Teacher Thought

When you’re a dad, every once in a while your kids will serve up surprises. Some of these are not of the pleasant variety, like hearing one of them say, “Feed the fish more!” as he dumps the whole jar of fish food in the 10-gallon tank, forcing you to become an emergency vet in an effort to save $8 worth of neon tetras. Or maybe going up to the crib only to find your kid has smeared his own feces all over his body so he looks like an extra from Apocalypto. You’ll see far more of these types of surprises when raising your kids than the good ones. I must have been due for a good surprise, though, because I got one the other day that became an instant classics in my family’s lore. I thought I’d share it with all you noodads. Just put your mind in the gutter and check out my first-grader’s math homework… Read the rest of this entry »

Top 10 Reasons Not to Leave Your Kids Alone in the Car

To the mother of the baby who left her kid in the car. You are lucky. I have to ask you, what errand was so important that you make completing it a higher priority than the well-being of your 1 year old? Range Rovers by Land Rover are indeed awesome cars, but unless yours is uber customized, they do not have built in isolettes which would regulate the temperature of an infant, always sensing when they need a little heat. If your reasoning was “It was too cold outside for the baby”, then you are a Darwin awards candidate. Your car does not maintain heat. It was off. They also do not change diapers, nor do they gavage milk.

You are lucky that the operator of the parking garage and a Bostonnow.com employee care about kids. They looked out for your motionless baby. You could have been hit by a bus, kidnapped or even killed during your errand. They were willing to assume the worst in order to make sure that your baby was cared for in the event that something had gone awry.

What mission were you on that you would risk the well-being of an innocent incapable of self care? You must have found the hidde base of Osama bin-Laden and needed to report it to the authorities. Maybe you needed to deliver urgent medication to an RSV infested area and could not take the baby in for fear of her contracting the potentially deadly virus. On the surface it looks a lot like laziness.
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Should Breastfeeding Videos Be Banned By YouTube?

Breastfeeding is a natural and very exciting thing for a dad to witness. As we have written before, although it may seem like an erotic peepshow jackpot for predads thinking they will get to ogle their wives’ monster jugs every few hours, they will quickly realize that it is sadly, not the case.

But is breastfeeding obscene? Apparently Facebook thought so. They banned pictures of breastfeeding on their site. Then when a video montage of women breastfeeding was put together by a mom in protest and published on YouTube, they banned it too. Read the rest of this entry »