Block Picture Game

Like any good cheapskate, I enjoy off-beat mail order catalogues. The big mama of the recent catalog craze is Harriet Carter. My wife will, until my dying day tell the story of how I purchased the toilet-paper tube tower from HC. Ya see, it looked pretty good in the catalog, and one of the worst human fears (as categorized by Carl Jung in 1912) is the Fear of Running Out of Toilet Paper. The tower, as I figured it, would provide a stopgap of toilet paper in the event of a sudden empty roll. I'd link to the item in question, but thankfully they no longer make it. When it arrived in the mail, we saw that it was a cheap piece of wobbily plastic that was actually too small in diameter to fit an ordinary roll of toilet paper. Hence why I will never live that item down.

Ahem. Now, even after that disaster, whose lesson I affirmed to learn from well, I decided that while they may botch up bathroom accessories surely Harriet could be trusted when it comes to children's toys! Hence, my purchase of The Personalized Letter Blocks.

Note that this actually turned out to be a pretty good gift. The picture of the gift, is pretty accurate. And my son enjoys them. However, only four of the surfaces have shiny color letters. Another two surfaces have letters etched onto the wood (in 'black and white' as it were). And the last two surfaces have whimsical child-friendly pictures of items that children like. Like cars, or boats, or birds.

However, a few of the pictures are completely goofy. I have no idea what the pictures are to represent. First of all, after the blocks arrived, I discovered that they were manufactured in China. Naturally this means that we have since disposed of them along with any other brightly colored toy from China in our possession (which means our kids play with the only things that are left: dried up food).

So in puzzling out the meaning of these mysterious glyphs, I hypothesize that they must represent playful items that a Chinese slave laborer would imagine an American child would find interesting. You take a look and tell me what you think these are.


Best Guesses:
1. Flower (sorry, it's upside down; note, I think it's a Chrysanthemum)
2. Boat (festooned with military equipment)
3. Duck (OK)
4. Candles (why?)

OK, those were relatively normal. Now try these:

Best Guesses:
1. hovercraft? monorail? electric shaver?
2. ski-lift? Roosevelt Island?
3. trained seal swallowing a dodgeball?
4. a small house with a big chimney? a bong?

Have fun.


Backpost began 4/18/07 and finished 8/10/07, but I really should just label all backposts April 20. Anyway, I just had the pictures.