(That’s Mr. Knerr on the right. The NYTimes didn’t provide a photo credit, so I guess I should just write, “Photo: New York Times.”)<\/em><\/p>\n* Slinky was not marketed by Wham-O.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sure, Bobby Fischer’s death got all the press, what with the worldwide reactions and reminiscences of his chess-playing genius, his uncomfortable relationship with celebrity, and his later hatred of Jews. But let’s also take time to mourn Richard Knerr. I’d never heard of Mr. Knerr till I opened the NYTimes on Friday morning, when I … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Cheap Novelties”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-tW","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9962,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-191-ben-katchor","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":0},"title":"Episode 191 – Ben Katchor","author":"Gil","date":"October 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #191: Ben Katchor \"How can you keep experimenting within your own work? When they say people reinvent themselves, they just mean they put on new clothes or something.\" Ben Katchor rejoins the show to talk about the 25th anniversary edition of Cheap Novelties: The Pleasures of Urban\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"cheapnovelties-casewrap","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHEAPNOVELTIES.casewrap-620x493.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHEAPNOVELTIES.casewrap-620x493.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHEAPNOVELTIES.casewrap-620x493.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3716,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wham-bam","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":1},"title":"Wham! Bam","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"In honor of April Fools Day, Popmatters decided it was time to goof on an album that sold a bazillion copies and launched the career of George Michael, whose first solo album sold a mind-blowing 20 million copies. (I'm partial to Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1, but my wife is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Andrew Ridgeley\"","block_context":{"text":"Andrew Ridgeley","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/andrew-ridgeley"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00136Q36K","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1016,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-was-a-marvel-zombie","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":2},"title":"I Was a Marvel Zombie","author":"Gil","date":"July 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fun article at the Washington Post on the differences between Marvel & DC comics. I was a Marvel geek throughout my youth, as I found the DC books to be way too square. DC, back then: It's your kid brother, wacked out on Pop-Tarts, still in his underpants at 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":693,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/drawn-and-french-quartered","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":3},"title":"Drawn and French Quartered","author":"Gil","date":"October 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Got back from the French Quarter a few hours ago. During the drive in, we wondered what areas were hit badly by the flood. Then we passed over the 17th St. Canal, and realized what it really looked like. The landscape was gray-brown. It was as if the floodwaters took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Orleans"","block_context":{"text":"New Orleans","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/new-orleans"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/its-only-the-river","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":4},"title":"It’s only the river","author":"Gil","date":"December 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Amy & I meandered through the French Quarter yesterday, in search of cheap novelties (some voodoo dolls at the French Market), some holiday presents (a couple of higher-end masks at Rumors, and a sweatshirt from the local Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville, which my boss contends has the best margaritas around), and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2311,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-an-apology-for-raymond-sebond-take-2","url_meta":{"origin":1856,"position":5},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: An Apology for Raymond Sebond, Take 2","author":"Gil","date":"August 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. This Apology for Raymond Sebond continues to flummox me. Last week, I wrote about the nature of the Apology and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153covered\u00e2\u20ac\u009d pages 387-435 of the Everyman's translation of the essays. This week, I only managed to read another 50 pages, since I was busy with work and a much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1400040213","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a><\/p>\n