Friday Deals from Buy.com [DaddyDeals]
Here are some DaddyDeals for Friday March 18 from Buy.com.
Howard Stern, George Takei Support Gilbert Gottfried
Quick update on Gilbert Gottfried and his ousting as the voice of the Aflac duck. (Or as we put it, Gilbert GotFired.) Howard Stern said on his SiriusXM radio show today that Gilbert never had a squeaky clean image, so for Aflac to can him now is stupid. That’s exactly what I said. George Takei also weighed in, according to Howard, saying that he didn’t really care about Gilbert’s jokes. (I’m paraphrasing; I’ll update if I can find the exact quote.)
If you do a Google Realtime Search for George Takei Gilbert Gottfried there are a couple of references to the above, like this tweet:
Hey if George Takei can take a joke and still follows Gilbert Gottfried …I dont see a problem #SuluRocks
Another tweeter (twitterer? Which is grammatically correct? And does it matter?) wrote:
With Gilbert Gottfried’s ouster, Aflac needs a new voice for their duck. I suggest George Takei. #NewAflacDuck
Not a bad idea, actually. The duck would have a deeper voice, though. Oh, my.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ALsvU50wQ]
Interview With Wisconsin Parent Involved in Protests
Here is my interview with Jen, a Wisconsin parent who has been involved in the growing protest movement.
Some of the points that Jen made were:
– The protests have been peaceful and non-violent. According to her, the police have actually thanked protesters for behaving so politely. On Saturday, there were no arrests.
– The crowds have been getting bigger. News reports put the number at 100,000, which she says is “the largest gathering in Wisconsin state history”, and may even be the largest labor rally in United States history. “Even Fox News” said there were 100,000 people there on Saturday, she said. Jen questioned why the Tea Party rallies, which were not as well attended, received non-stop news coverage.
– According to Jen, the protests are being attended by people of all ages and social classes. The farmer’s union drove tractors to the Wisconsin State Capital building on Saturday. The police and firefighters have expressed support for their fellow public workers, despite the fact that Governor Walker made them exempt from the new “no collective bargaining” bill.
Jen is a parent who started going to the Wisconsin State Capitol building protests to support her kids’ teachers, who are, of course, public workers. According to her, the protests will continue every day, and the big rallies are usually on Saturday.
You can listen to the interview here, or subscribe to the Brett Singer podcast via iTunes. We hope to be able to talk to Jen again to get an idea of what’s happening on the ground in Wisconsin.
Dad Gilbert Gottfried fired as voice of Aflac duck
Comedian and celebrity dad Gilbert Gottfried was fired as the voice of the Aflac duck, according to CNN. He made the following jokes via Twitter about Japan:
“Japan called me. They said ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.'”
“I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.'”
The tweets have since been deleted according to Yahoo! News.
I’m against people being fired for making jokes. Then again, there is such a thing as, you know, judgment. This is poor judgment on Gilbert’s part.
Gottfried has never been a comic who works clean, which is why I always found it amusing that he gets so much work in children’s entertainment like Aladdin and Cyberchase.
Here is Gilbert Gottfried at the Hugh Hefner roast, one of my favorite routines of his.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VE2VVbpZ7w]
By the way, yes, Gilbert is indeed a father. I know this because I listen to Howard Stern. I guess he’ll have to look for another steady gig to support the family.
And OK, fine. We should call him Gilbert GotFired. Get it? Oy.
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried fired as voice of Aflac duck – CNN.com.
External Hard Drive Sale at Amazon (UPDATE: Also at JR.com)
External hard drives are very handy for parents. Digital photos and videos of the kids take up an incredible amount of disk space. You need to back up those memories or you will not be pleased.
Luckily technology is pretty cheap these days. Even so, a sale on something useful for parents, like external hard drives, is always welcome. Check out these hard drive deals at Amazon.com. Buy two. Just in case.
External Hard Drive Sale at Amazon.com
UPDATE: Roger Sinasohn tells us via Facebook that Fry’s has 2TB drives for $89 in store. California folks, take note.
UPDATE 2: He also points out that JR.com has the Western Digital Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive for $89, and a 2TB version
for $99. Thanks for the tip!
Here are links to both drives at JR.com. I had a horrible experience at their store once in person (many years ago), but have never had any issues buying from them online.
Western Digital Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDBAAU0015HBK-NESN
Western Digital Elements 2TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDBAAU0020HBK-NESN
MIMOBOTs St. Patty’s Week Sale
What is a Mimobot? It’s a flash drive, which most kids use in school these days. (These kids today. When I was their age, I had a TRS-80 with 16k of RAM and the only external storage was a cassette tape drive. And we liked it! Dagnabit.) What makes Mimobots different from the average flash drive is that they come in cool shapes, like Star Wars. So if your kid has to use a flash drive for school purposes, why not let ’em use one shaped like R2D2?
I’ve written about Mimobots over at AOL ParentDish, putting them on my list of the Best Gifts of 2009 for Teens and made the Batman Mimobot one of my Top 10 Tech Toys from this year’s Toy Fair. There’s a sale going on at mimoco.com; 20% off on green flash drives, 50% off on “select stuff we like.” 50% off is the kind of deal I like too. Check out the sale here.
MIMOBOTs St. Patty’s Week Sale!
Getting Kids To Exercise While Being Afraid To Let Them Out Alone
Is there anything more important than teaching kids to exercise? Well, yes, technically there is. But in an age when there are an endless number of screens that children are exposed to, it’s more important than ever to teach kids that it’s important to GET OUTSIDE and run around.
This link is to the American Heart Association web site. Of course, most kids don’t spend a lot of time perusing sites like that. So people come up with cutesy ways to convince them to do it.
I like the NFL’s Play 60 program; I don’t know how effective it is but the idea is certainly a good one. Here’s a video report I did for AOL ParentDish about it. Read more »
