Barbie Dreamhouse recently celebrated 62 years of existence.[1] The first house included a black and white TV box, an uneven checkered rug, and a painful-looking plaid couch. Dreamhouse Toys began with a modest fantasy. Yet, few artifacts outline the recent history of commoditization as thoroughly as the Barbie Dreamhouse. Each decade fetched a brighter idea...
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When was the last time you listened to music on the radio? A couple of weeks ago, my phone died on my drive to work, so I decided to give the radio a shot. I hadn’t done so for more than five years, and it only took me about thirty seconds to remember why. There...
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A year ago, my wife and I took our nine-month-old daughter to visit our family in the city where I was born and raised in Brazil. The expectations and concerns about flying a long distance with our little girl were high. Everything was fine until our flight got canceled two days in a row, making...
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After residing for over thirty years in Northern Virginia, my wife and I recently moved to Austin, Texas. Even though both locales technically own the label “Southern,” Texas feels a bit like a foreign culture. And I’m not just referring to vocabulary choices like y’all, yonder, and “howdy.” Learning new roads (with U-Turn lanes!), tasting...
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Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? So closes the final song of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s critically acclaimed musical Hamilton.[1] One of its main themes is the idea of ‘the narrative.’ Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and other historical figures fight for their legacy and place in history, knowing that will be determined, in the end,...
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Growing up, I regularly spent time with the Berenstein Bears. You may have really loved those books—I certainly did, and do—but you may or may not be aware that the Berenstein Bears series caught a lot of controversy for being some of the first children’s books that displayed what has been called “The Doofus Dad,”...
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