Stick entered into Toy Hall of Fame
A plain ol' stick was entered into the National Toy Hall of Fame yesterday. It joins the kite, Mr. Potato Head, Crayola crayons, the Atari 2600, LEGO, and several dozen other toy greats. Also added this year are the baby doll and the skateboard. From the Associated Press:
"Stick, skateboard, Baby Doll enter Toy Hall of Fame"Curators said the stick was a special addition in the spirit of a 2005 inductee, the cardboard box. They praised its all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities, noting its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed in myriad ways by a child's creativity.
"It's very open-ended, all-natural, the perfect price -- there aren't any rules or instructions for its use," said Christopher Bensch, the museum's curator of collections. "It can be a Wild West horse, a medieval knight's sword, a boat on a stream or a slingshot with a rubber band. ... No snowman is complete without a couple of stick arms, and every campfire needs a stick for toasting marshmallows.
"This toy is so fantastic that it's not just for humans anymore. You can find otters, chimps and dogs -- especially dogs -- playing with it."
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This is a prank, right?
Stick is NOT A TOY. You can put your eye out with that thing!
No, it's a stick.
an atari with out an imagintion is still an atari a stick without imagintaion is still a stick by this logic the stick has no ground to stand on.. not an offical toy. its pure imagintaion that makes the stick a toy not the stick it self
Haha, I thought it was brilliant:)
In other news, every child in America to be inducted into the NFL Hall Of Fame. Curators said that every child has a passion for sport that rises above professional athletes.
So... this Hall of Fame thing has existed for several years already, and *only now* are they inducting one *the* quintessential toys into it? I'm disappointed.
Love the idea of a museum of play, though. Shame it's on the wrong continent for me to visit...
Unfortunately the National Toy Child Safety Commission has issued a recall on the stick, naming it their #1 dangerous toy. They are in negotiations with Al Gore and other environmentalists who make access to sticks easier and easier every year.
In a press release they said:
"Stop waving that around: you want to poke somebody's eye out?"
I attended an outdoor wedding where the adopted 4-year old child of the couple accompanied them on a long walk up a curving path under the trees to the area where the ceremony was to take place.
Little Jeremy kept stopping to pick up sticks along the way, wandering left and right from the appointed path, keeping the whole collective giggling and laughing and setting a great mood for the event.
It was a beautiful scene on a beautiful fall day and brought joy to all who attended.
Of course, a few days later, Prop 8 determined that it wasn't a 'real marriage'. How sad.
I think it's a great call. Why does a toy have to be manufactured, marketed and sold to be legitimate? I know when my youngest son was 3, when he went outside to play the first thing he did was pick up a stick. He was pretty much set for the next 15 minutes or so.
What's brown and sticky?
I have only one thing to sing:
What rolls down stairs
alone or in pairs,
and over your neighbor's dog?
What's great for a snack,
And fits on your back?
It's log, log, log
It's log, it's log,
It's big, it's heavy, it's wood.
It's log, it's log, it's better than bad, it's good."
Everyone wants a log
You're gonna love it, log
Come on and get your log
Everyone needs a log
log log log
They should include the option with spider webs and dog doo at one end of it.
As my five year old nephew once informed me: "It's not a stick, it's a light saber. Duuuuh."
It's displayed right between sand and that rock.
Now, when are they gonna induct the humble rock?
It's a building block, a projectile, even a seat (if big enough).
It can fill in for pirate booty, double as a hand grenade, and brings hours of joy to all.
This is so right! One of the first things my boys will do when we get to the park today, will be to find a good stick, and I dare not throw out a box until they have broken it down flat.
humans are funny!
The stick is unquestionably the best toy ever. Clearly, #s 1 and 3 have never been children themselves, but instead popped fully-formed out of the head of some old curmudgeon.
It's not just that it can be anything at all, unlike a dull old Atari, but that it is still being used as anything at all. The stick must be the most played with toy in the history of creation.
Card board box is pretty good as well, but doesn't approach the stick in terms of universality and staying power.
I have a friend whose nose was broken during a game of "dodge the stick". The game turns out to be pretty much exactly what you'd imagine: throwing a stick as hard as you can at someone, whilst they try to dodge it. Unfortunately for my friend, sticks aren't very good at differentiating who is playing and who isn't.
Well then by all rights the penis should be in the museum too.
Sticks are good, so is string. But don't forget MUD!
Sticks may not only be the number one toy for humans on the planet earth, they are probably the number one WORK TOOL on the planet.
Sticks are incredibly overlooked and under appreciated--given their universal use and importance. It's hard, for example, to find serious books or websites about sticks.
My humble contribution: http://www.allenbukoff.com/FluxusMidwest/sticks/index.html
DOOMSTALK @20, I'm quite familiar with that game. It's best played at recess during the winter months, when overstuffed coats can act as armor.
I have an old Atari 2600 that I use as a makeshift stick.
"It's a toy!"
"It's a stick!"
"You're both wrong! It's a toy *and* a stick!"
You can also use it to roll a hoop and fend off commies. Yes sirreeeeee!
Seems like the toy museum are into Mad Men as much as me.
The sticks we had when I was growing up were way better than the ones they have now.
#12
That's exactly what popped in my head as well! :)
I think the idea is totally appropriate: The person who came up with it no doubt still has a child's mind.
The ultimate toy is a kid's imagination.
Commenters various and sundry:
So, let me get this straight: Stick isn't a toy, but Ball is?
Next you will tell me that Paper isn't a toy.
*flings paper dart at you*
Then you will tell me that ink isn't a toy.
Then, glyphs.
Language: Not A Toy. Yeah. right.
Even Fire gets made into a toy.
"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eyeball. Then, hey, free eyeball." - Jack Handy
I knew that investment in a used Jack Handy calendar would be useful someday.
mmm, want to play (dead rat conkers and real pooh sticks)..... but they're after me.
Alas, I too wonder why our dear mineral, the rock, has not been inducted. The omission has the potential to spark outrage, were it not for the absence of our friend, the flint rock.
Could it be that there exists some racial inequality between igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic? ...An imbalance that leaves their ill-fated induction process in piles of rubble?
Or might it be that they can sometimes be too hard to find when you need their help?
Only the sands of time will tell.
Sorry, but a rock is a pet, not a toy.
With the cost of plastic soaring, Dollar Tree store managers trying to stock their toy section for Christmas are breathing a sigh of relief.
I live in Rochester just a few miles from the Strong Museum of Play. It's an awesome place to go, even if you have no kids.
I tell ya, there aren't a lot of museums where you can go and play with an original Pong console...
Scary.
What about Inanimate Carbon Rod?
Inanimate Carbon Rod beats Stick any day of the week!
#12: like minds think alike, it seems.
LOG
I want to speak in praise of MIG @31, a message that's no longer there. When MIG realized that he'd duplicated what an earlier commenter had said, he wrote and asked me to unpublish his own comment.
Good attitude.
Wigwam @38 if you think that's scary, what are you doing reading Boing Boing? Your nerves must be a wreck.
Anonymous @39, Inanimate Carbon Rod doesn't make the right whooshing noises when you wave it around. You can't bend it to make it fit, or make it hold on to something by splitting it at one end.
The ad Log was parodying.
In the years before I moved to CA and searched for the Kappa I lived in Rochester.
I worked at this museum during its earlier incarnation - the Margaret Woodbury Strong Museum.
My original job, which was really quite lowly as befit my state of affairs, was that of OBJECT HANDLER.
The deep storage ( not the visible storage on the second floor ) contains a fair number of totally boing boing thematic artifacts.
Her family estate in Pittsford was stuffed to the ceiling with these things. The indoor pool was filled in, floored over and piled up with racks of this stuff. We cataloged it, packed it, and moved it out.
The stick is right at home.
I am not kidding.
(hell I think I was reading the BB zine when working there. or duplex planet.)
The carboard box is still the king of toys.
It's about damn time. Many are the pleasures of the stick
you've gotta be quick! buy your kids a stick!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bKwQebSOh5E
@11: there's actually a bilingual version of that joke (English-Japanese).
Q: What's brown and really great?
A: suteki! (Japanese for "great", but also the way the Japanese pronounce the English word "stick".)
I love the stick and the dirt clod butt what do I know. Hell, I'm watching this USC Cal game.