Les Savy Fav is not one of my favorite bands. Like Deerhoof or Dr. Dog, I secretly suspect that the writers at Pitchfork Media tried to pull a fast one on us when they showered praise on the dissonant punk group.

Les Savy Fav's lead man Tim Harrington, however, has a lot more going on than his unintelligible yelps into the microphone would lead you to believe. Harrington and his wife Anna own a wonderfully creative housewares and apparel company called Deadly Squire.

What I like about Deadly Squire's merch is that it manages to be simple without being boring. The line itself contains six basic patterns printed on quality pima cotton. Each of the six patterns is available in 20 different products ranging from oven mitts, tote bags, ties, pillowcases and doggy beds. If you do the math, that's a lot of wares, no? Though you might be hesitant to buy a tie that matches your place mats just remember that a good pattern is a good pattern no matter where it shows up.

When you think "green", you usually don't think "big box store." But maybe you should.

As Thomas Friedman's article in the New York Times Magazine pointed out, a number of major companies, Wal-Mart in particular, have started to recognize the economic as well as the environmental benefits of reducing their ecological footprints.

And as they say, once Wal-Mart goes so too does everyone else...

Today Home Depot introduced a new line of products called Eco Option, which offer customers an environmentally-friendly alternative when they are shopping for home supplies. The Eco Option line contains 3,000 products from energy-efficient light bulbs to natural insect repellent. By 2009, Home Depot hopes to increase the number of green products to 9,000, which would represent 12% of total sales.

Home Depot happens to be the largest supplier of construction materials, and the company hopes that the new Eco Option line will encourage builders and home-owners alike to make the switch to green products. Many of the Eco Options cost slightly more at the cash register. But green products tend to be cheaper in the long run since you save on electricity.

Hopefully with stores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot proving that green is good for business, more companies will choose to follow suit. But for now, the ball's in our court.

[via NYTimes]

Last week, I suggested the Mullet magnets as an alternative to the traditional hostess gift of wine, candles or chocolate. But if your host or hostess has a clever sensibility but no real use for mullet magnets, I've compiled a list of a few other bizarre gifts that will earn you major points at your next dinner party or overnight stay.

Remember when Ren & Stimpy sang, "It's a log, it's a log. It's big, it's round, it's wood. It's a log, it's a log. It's better than bad it's good!"? From that moment on, logs have earned themselves a reputation of incomparable camp, a fact which is writ large in this porcelain log vase from the Curiosity Shoppe. Who wouldn't love a bouquet of fresh flowers in this cheesy woodland container?

When it comes down to it, I love a good pencil-thin mustache. And now you and your host can play Clark Gable and W. Clement Stone all night long with this set of fake stick-on mustaches from Malabar.com.


But if you are looking for something truly unexpected, you always get your charming host or hostess a commemorative Elvis and Nixon mouse pad. The mouse pad from the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace features a photograph of the King and the President shaking hands in the Oval Office.



Did you know that the Netherlands has a royal family just like the United Kingdom? Okay, so there's no one quite as hunky as Prince William in the Dutch Royal family, but they do have their own sort of low-land charm. With a tin of Queen Wilhelmina Peppermints, you can bring your kind host a sweet treat with a bizarre commemorative tin.


Give your host the best gift going: good fortune! But if you cannot make the fates listen to you, at least let your friends indulge in a round at the Prophesy Board, also from the Curiosity Shoppe.

Even if everyone you know has long given up their LP collections for CDs and iPods, there's still something to be said for the artful covers of old records. A record isn't exactly a work of art on it's own, but when you hang it on a wall or set it on a bookshelf, it comes pretty darn close. Anything by Tito Puente and you're golden.


Last but not least, there's always the diner scenes disposable place mats which feature somewhat grim photographs of 1960s era diners. I wouldn't want to eat in the joints shown in these placements, but I wouldn't mind eating on top of them.

Just remember, you don't have to spend a lot to give a great gift to your host or hostess. All things considered, creative gifts are far more valuable than any old Bordeaux, and they almost always guarantee a repeat invitation.