top Archives • FAUX REAL THO

1 2 3 4! Oi! the Boat Records, the World-Renowned Punk Rock Record Label in Our Backyard

Fascinated with what it takes to run a record label out of Lafayette, Indiana, I met with Max Campbell and Joe Yakamicki of Oi! the Boat Records to discuss the ins and outs of operating a punk label in flyover country. And then, inspired by our conversation, I spent the next two days researching the…

Riding Bikes With a Teenager

There are so many pieces out there about riding with young kids, but not many about riding with older kids, so when I started riding with my older child, a young teenager, I felt like we were on the steep end of the learning curve. The Big Kid learned to ride a bike when he…

I Wrote a Thing: Secret Fine Dining, Local Food, and Red Tape with Pop-Up Lafayette

A review of Pop-Up Lafayette, the new, elusive, all local and organic “supper club” that is taking over the imaginations of area foodies. “Our political philosophies are layer upon layer,” one chef said. Another said, “We just want to cook beautiful food in an interesting way.” Another said, “We want to cook food we are…

Who Was G.G. Drayton?

If you’re local to the Lafayette, Indiana, area and you’ve eaten at Arni’s, you are probably already familiar with G.G. Drayton’s art without realizing it. She was well-known in her time for creating the “Dolly Dingle” and “Kaptain Kiddo” characters, including an extremely popular line of paper dolls — which are featured in jumbo size…

Riding Bikes with a Toddler

If you’ve considered riding bikes with a toddler, you know the needs and options for outfitting yourself for a ride can be overwhelming. When wee Baby Cletus turned about a year old, I located a helmet that fit her head and promptly began sourcing iBerts on Craigslist. I liked the idea a lot — baby…

On the Vintage Spiro Agnew Watch by Dirty Time Company

I ran across this hilarious Spiro Agnew watch this weekend. Spiro Agnew was Nixon’s extremely unpopular vice president, and the first VP to resign from office due to criminal charges. One of the many jokes targeting Agnew was: “Did you know that Mickey Mouse wears a Spiro Agnew watch?” I don’t get it either. During…

Three Easy Steps to Good Customer Service on Social Media

The bad thing about social media is that as a business owner this is an opportunity to fall on your face, and an opportunity for the Internet (capital “I”) to laugh at you. However, it’s also an opportunity to show how classy and gracious to are to your clients and how eager you are to see they have a good experience.

How to Blog, For Real

I’ve been blogging for roughly twelve years, and writing online daily for longer than that. It’s both just a habit and vastly more than a habit. Sometimes it’s nearly compulsive. There are so many listicles online about what makes an effective blogger, and how to blog to succeed in business, but I think it can…

Free Vintage Clip Art!: 170 Vintage, Retro, Mid-Century Fair Use Images for Download

For many years, I designed all my personal sites with a 1950’s era, mid-century vibe. During this time I amassed a huge collection of free, fair-use, mid-century clip art. Behold, free vintage clip art for you to use on your own projects! The following may include space references, pro-cigarette ads, martinis, kitsch, weird babies and/or Ronald…

One of my favorites: Schoolhouse Auctions in teeny-tiny Yeoman, Indiana.

That Auction Life: When all your belongings are disposable, for sale, or have a price.

One of my many hobbies is moonlighting as a vintage jewelry dealer. I’ve been thrifting since I was a teenager, and started getting into auctions in a serious way a few years ago. About that time, I started to specialize in jewelry and sell jewelry online. Why jewelry? It’s the subject of another post. Just…

Does Baby Einstein Help or Harm Children?

Last time [writing at Feministe in 2007–ed] I wrote a long entry on some of the spurious advertising techniques made to push products on children under the age of five. Since then, a major study was released suggesting that many of the educational videos aimed at very young children not only have limited to no educational…

Marketing Elmo’s World

As companies further develop methods to perfect brand identification and market to target demographics, some controversy has been stirred in recent years over marketing aimed at children — if one should do it, what age groups can one ethically target, and how. Children don’t usually balance the checkbook, we know, so what can companies do to inspire…