You can get a free in-home repair by calling Wolf Appliance toll-free at (866) 643-6408 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday or by visiting www.wolfappliance.com. The model numbers are P48, PS48 and R48.

Until you get the stove fixed... don't use the 18" oven. The rest of the range is perfectly safe.

Wolf Appliance Recalls Gas Ranges Due to Burn Hazard [CPSC]

"The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging parents and caregivers to stop using convertible “close-sleeper/bedside sleeper” bassinets manufactured by Simplicity Inc., of Reading, Pa. CPSC has learned that on August 21, 2008, a 5-month-old girl from Shawnee, Kan. was strangled to death when she became entrapped between the bassinet’s metal bars. This is the second strangulation death CPSC has learned of in the co-sleeper bassinets. On September 29, 2007, a 4-month-old girl from Noel, Mo. became entrapped in the metal bars of the bassinet and died.

CPSC is issuing this safety alert because SFCA Inc., the company which purchased all of Simplicity Inc.’s assets at public auction in April 2008, has refused to cooperate with the government and recall the products. SFCA maintains that it is not responsible for products previously manufactured by Simplicity Inc.

The Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 convertible bassinets contain metal bars spaced farther apart than 2 3/8 inches, which is the maximum distance allowed under the federal crib safety standard. The metal bars are covered by an adjustable fabric flap which is attached by velcro. The fabric is folded down when the bassinet is converted into a bed-side co-sleeping position. If the velcro is not properly re-secured when the flap is adjusted, an infant can slip through the opening and become entrapped in the metal bars and suffocate.

Infants Strangled to Death in Simplicity Bassinets: CPSC Urges Consumers To Stop Using Simplicity 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 Convertible “Close-Sleeper” Models [CPSC]

From Needcoffee:

I work for Arm & Hammer and wanted to quickly clarify the new 30-day messaging on the Arm & Hammer Fridge-N-Freezer box. I'm sure you know that Arm & Hammer Baking Soda has 100s of uses- from polishing silver to deodorizing your stinky gym shoes, but it is most commonly used to deodorize the fridge.

So first up I'm already on the defensive, because I'm trying to figure out how the hell they know about my gym shoes. But that's another issue.

We are telling consumers to change the box every 30 days because we've found that baking soda helps prevent taste-transfer in your refrigerator, meaning it helps keep the foods in your fridge tasting fresher longer when it is replaced each month.

When you have garlic cloves in your fridge and, say, mozzarella cheese, the garlic can overtake the mozzarella, making it taste like the garlic. But, when you place the Fridge-N-Freezer box in your refrigerator, it keeps those flavors separate from each other- preventing the taste transfer and keeping your refrigerated foods tasting the way they should.

Fair enough—further research has shown that garlicky cheese can be prevented if you buy three times the amount of our product that you did previously.

That sounds vaguely reasonable until you actually start thinking about it. Thankfully, we don't have to because Widge has done it for us.

So what Arm & Hammer is saying here is that after approximately a hundred years of having the product on the shelf, they've learned in the past few months that it helps with taste transfer but only if you buy it once a month. This is new news to them and a new application of the product and hey, a benefit to the consumer. I can buy that, no problem.

Although...it would kind of make the entire thing pointless if I were to find a press release from 1999 that said that "taste-transfer" was an issue, even back in those halcyon days of yore. And wait, here's a website quoting what the Arm & Hammer site used to say, that "We recommend that you replace the ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda in your fridge and freezer every 3 months to keep them smelling fresh and to prevent any taste transfer between stored foods. We can even send you a reminder via E-Mail—just check out our Reminder page."

So basically we're right back where we started. One of three things has occurred.

A) Arm & Hammer's product has gotten weaker so you need to buy three times the amount that you previously needed to avoid taste transfer

2) Food odors have somehow gotten stronger, probably due to global warming

III) Arm & Hammer (not the publicist, who was very nice and I'd like to make it clear I'm not picking on them since they were giving me Arm & Hammer's story and that's their job—but this is my job) just wants to sell three times the amount of baking soda they did in the past and figured out a way to try and do so.

You make the call.

Arm & Hammer Responds [Need Coffee]
The Baking Soda Crop Was Especially Weak This Season [Need Coffee]

A P&G spokesperson told the Boston Globe:
"We don't price in anticipation," Fox said. "We only price to recover costs."

The company has already raised prices 4-8% in order to counter the skyrocketing cost of raw materials such as "pulp, used in paper, tallow, an animal fat used in soap, and oil-based products such as plastics."

Oh well, at least they're being straightforward about it! Honesty is better than the Grocery Shrink Ray.

P&G will boost product prices by up to 16% [Boston Globe](Thanks, Jill!)
(Photo: kandh07 )

"The Z Report on BPA In Children's Feeding Products, Third Edition" [Z Recommends]

''We're trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years,'' Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid's president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday.

Polaroid failed to embrace the digital technology that has transformed photography, instead sticking to its belief that many photographers who didn't want to wait to get pictures developed would hold onto their old Polaroid cameras.

Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25 percent to 30 percent per year, ''and I've got to believe instant film has been falling as fast if not faster,'' said Ed Lee, a digital photography analyst.

''At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film,'' Lee said.

Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year, the company said — after which, Lee said, Japan's Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film.

Ahh!!! This is so upsetting and yet I absolutely cannot find an e-mail address for ANYONE on their website. I need to revolt. We all need to revolt!! Do you know of any e-mail addresses or anything so I can obsessively write letters?? I would really appreciate any help you could provide.

1265 Main St., Bldg. W3
Waltham, MA 02451
USA - Map
+1-781-386-2000 (Phone)
781-386-8588 (Fax)

Sorry, Jessie. This is pretty sad. Polaroid film is pretty cool stuff, and is beloved by art nerds.

Polaroid won't make Polaroids any longer [Chicago Sun-Times]
(Photo:Tubes.)

The rest of Nair is a bunch of animal, plant, and mineral moisturizers to try to repair the damage inevitably caused when you chemically burn away part of your body.

"What's Inside: Nair Hair Remover, Feel the Burn!" [Wired]
(Photo: Kevin)

Their top pick is the Tiddy Bear, which we actually think is a great name, much better than the "Breast Friend" or the "Dirty Pillow Pillow"—or, if you could license Peter Scolari's face (and it can't be that expensive) then it could be called the "Bosom Buddy".

"Top 5 Most Unfortunately Named Products" [Say No to Crack via Neatorama]

That's why this year we're going out of our way to salute the best of the best. Without further ado... The 10 most amazing, useful, awesome, stupendous products of 2007!

10. Ladders. Perfectly designed for reaching stuff that's too high. Need a can of soup that's on the top shelf? Use a ladder! The one drawback to ladders is that you can fall off of them and kill yourself. Were it not for this small flaw, we're sure ladders would be much higher on the list.

9. Internet. The internet is an excellent tool with many uses. For example, you can type your opinions in list form, post them, and then watch as people from all over the world disagree with you in nearly infinite variations. Believe it or not, some people make a pretty good living doing this.

8. Shoes. Shoes are a product we at the Consumerist use almost every single day. The productivity boost we get from shoes is unmatched. Without them, it takes a lot longer to do even simple tasks such as walking to the store.

7. The Spork. We ask you: What other utensil so deftly handles not only turkey, but stuffing and mashed potatoes as well?

6. Olive Oil. Olive Oil is not only delicious, if you felt like it, you could burn it in a lamp and light your house. Or make soap.

5. Notebooks And Pens. Have you ever had an idea? Or maybe you needed to remember something? What you need is a product that allows you to input data and store it for later. That way, you can free your mind to wonder if Monet would have been worth a damn if he hadn't had cataracts. We give you "Notebooks" and "Pens." They're easy to use right out of the box, considering you've probably had at least 12 years of relevant training provided by our fine education system.

4. Simple Machines. Who doesn't love the inclined plane? So useful for loading things in and out of trucks and entering and exiting buildings. The wheel and axle is another winner, and a wedge can stop a door for you when nothing else will do. Simple machines, we salute you.

3. Coffee & Tea. Neither coffee, nor tea has calories. Both contain caffeine. That's really all we have to say about it.

2. Baking Soda. Baking soda is not only an excellent leavening agent, after you're done eating the yummy biscuits you just made...you can brush your teeth with it. Or clean your produce. Or get a weird smell off of your hands. Or make a science project.

1. Vinegar. Yes, vinegar is the winner. You can use it to make pickles or you can clean your coffee pot with it. You could make salad dressing, or you could clean your counter tops and deodorize your garbage disposal. Vinegar rules!

What simple DRM-free, EULA-free, ETF-free products do you appreciate?

The main difference? Cost. The easy-to-use one-step products from Method and Pledge cost more, but save you the trouble of buffing.

Stainless-steel cleaners [Consumer Reports]

While we can't disagree with the strict literal interpretation of the message, perhaps Walmart should consider printing it on a wallet, rather than on panties meant for teenage girls. The whole prostitution angle is clouding the message of fiscal responsibility. Hey, it's just a suggestion.

(Photo:Feministing)(Thanks,Tormolen!)

Watch what you're buying on eBay and at the "dollar store!"

Real or fake? [Consumer Reports]

Here are our two of our favorites:

Kellogg's Special K Fruit & Yogurt
The company touts that the "cereal combines the crunch of whole grain goodness, the smooth creaminess of yogurt and the sweet taste of berries...." Yet there is more refined rice than whole grain wheat, no berries (just dyed apple pieces), and no yogurt (just yogurt powder that is usually heat treated, killing any beneficial bacteria) in the cereal.

DanActive "Immunity" Dairy Drink
This Dannon product claims to help "strengthen your body's defenses." But the only study Dannon did to see if drinking DanActive kept people from getting sick found that it didn't!

Oh Kellogg, "sweet taste of berries," but no berries?

Didn't George Carlin once say: "What does 'real lemon flavor mean?' No fucking lemons!" George Carlin is always correct.

Food Frauds

Nick writes:

I had a problem with my can of Barbasol Shaving Cream exploding in my shower, so I emailed them and in a few hours they responded with free coupons. Great company! Great customer service!

From: nick Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 10:31 PMTo:

Subject: Product Problemae07002/0727
My fairly new bottle for no apparent reason started to leak out the top, around the button. Thankfully I had it in the shower and it didn't explode all over my bathroom.. It is the Smoothing Aloe.

Nick,
Sorry to hear about the problem with our cream. I am sending you two coupons for free cans. Hopefully something like that doesn't happen again.

Thanks for being a Barbasol user!
-Mike Coughlin
Marketing Assistant
Perio, Inc.
6156 Wilcox Rd.
Dublin, OH 43016

(Photo:venusnaturalis)

Here are a couple of examples of how poorly we participate. Last year, Target recalled nearly 200,000 units of lead-tainted Kool Toyz. They received only 766, less than 1%. And this year, they recalled 5,000 Anima Bamboo Collector Games—and none were returned. Mattel averages a 6% return rate. (The one exception in the article is RC2, which says it managed to get 70% of their defective train products returned by September.)

A lot of parents simply throw out the products, which is a lot less work than returning them to the store or manufacturer, especially when current recall announcements make the effort for busy parents seem like too much of a hassle. The CPSC says the problem with that is it doesn't provide them with data they need to fine-tune future recalls.

But because most industries rely on the media to get the word out about recalls, there's no guarantee the right people will hear the right information before it's swallowed up by the next cycle of stories. In fact, the new bill is named after 16-month-old who smothered in a defective crib that was recalled five years previously, but his parents and the caretakers at the daycare center where the accident occurred had never heard about the recall.

According to some safety advocates, the best solution would be to piggy-back on motor vehicle registration:

Consumers would be better served if the registration required when they buy a car or truck were extended to other products. That way, they would get a letter when an item was recalled. Vehicle recall response rates are among the highest, at about 72% in recent years, said Eric Bolton, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"Many recalled, few returned" [LA Times]

RELATED
Online Form for CPSC Email Alerts [CPSC]
(Photo: Getty)

I just wanted to let you guys know that Amazon has been tracking reviews posted for possible safety concerns. I had a rice cooker that decided to shock me several times, so I wrote an anonymous review back in January. Unexpectedly, a few weeks ago, I get an email from Amazon asking about the incident. Given the gap between the review and the email, I suspect this is a new program on their part. A copy of their email is below.

-teh

Dear XXXX,

Greetings from Amazon.com,

You submitted a potential safety concern for Aroma ARC7031G 6-Cup Rice Cooker and Food Steamer.

Thank you for taking the time to submit a safety concern. It is the continuous dialogue between our customers and Amazon.com that helps improve the overall customer experience on our site.

The safety of the products we sell is very important to us. We would like to gather additional information regarding your safety concern. Please take a few minutes to answer the questions below.

For internal reference, this has been assigned Concern ID XXXXX

Thank you once again for taking the time to submit the consumer safety concern. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns, and thanks again for shopping at Amazon.com!

Sincerely,

Product Compliance Team

Electrical Shock I was shocked by this rice cooker twice. It is not properly grounded and I would not recommend it to anyone.

Please reply to this email and choose an answer for each of the following the questions.

1. May Amazon.com provide your customer contact information to the manufacturer of the product and/or relevant government agencies so they maybe contact you for more detailed information?

a) Yes b) No

Answer:

2. Was anyone injured by the product? If so, how many people?

Number 0, 1, 2, 3 ...

Answer:

3. Did the product causeany fatalities? If so, how many people? Please enter 0 if there were no fatalities.

Number: 0, 1, 2, 3 ...

Answer:

4. If anyone was injured, how severe was the injury?

a) No Injury b) Minor First Aid c) Professional Medical Treatment d) Hospitalization e) Permanent Disability f) Death

(Please select a - f)

Answer:

5. If anyone was injured, what type of injury was caused by the product?

a) Burn b) Choking/Asphyxia/Suffocation/Strangulation c) Drowning or Near Drowning d) Shock (All Types) e) Contusion/Abrasions/Swelling/Laceration f) Poisoning/Inhalation g) Head Injury/Head Trauma h) Fracture/Dislocation i) Nerve Damage j) Internal Organ Injury k) Other Injury l) None

(Please select a - l)

Answer:

6. What was the nature of the safety hazard?

a) Fire b) Mechanical c) Electrocution d) Chemical e) Entrapment f) Other g) None

(Please select a - g)

Answer:

Please add any additional comments or information about this product safety concern.

Answer:

For most items: File a complaint with the CPSC.
For automobiles: File a complaint with the NHTSA
For most food, cosmetics, etc: File a complaint with the FDA

Her gentle, friendly demeanor can be deceiving: The highest-ranking woman in China's Communist Party hierarchy is Beijing's enforcer of last resort. In recent years, she has cleaned up the country's image after the SARS crisis, overseen the response to the AIDS epidemic, led tough trade negotiations with Washington, and shored up the mainland's shoddy record on intellectual-property rights.

And now she's head of a new high-level food, drug, and product safety team. Although she has told some people that she plans to retire as vice-chairman after the Communist Party Congress in October, most expect her to stay on as China's top safety czar. "She's very, very good at getting things done," says James M. Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. "If she can't do it, nobody can."

Wu may be China's enforcer of last resort, but her record is mixed. Wu's last job was to lead the Chinese crackdown on manufacturers of pirated movies and knockoff designer handbags. Intellectual property issues still plague China's trade agenda.

The appointment is one of the strongest signals yet that China is willing to tackle the problems posed by substandard exports. Wu is already hard at work. To date, she has closed over 2,000 factories and banned the use of lead paint in toys. For everyone's sake, we hope the lessons she learned battling Chinese counterfeiters have given her the experience needed to finally vanquish the Poison Train once and for all.

Enforcer of Last Resort [BusinessWeek]
(Photo: AFP/Getty Images)

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it's powerless to stop the flow of dangerous products.

From the Washington Post:

Companies notified the agency 97 times last year that they planned to export goods that did not meet some aspect of U.S. safety standards. That is up from 57 times in 2002, according to the agency.

Among the types of goods exported were toys, lighters, fireworks, clothing, chemicals, carpets and pacifiers. They were shipped to Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand, Colombia, the Czech Republic and the Philippines, according to the CPSC. The agency did not identify the companies involved or reveal what standards the goods violate.
...
"Our agency, through our governing statutes, cannot claim much moral authority over the Chinese, or any other foreign country, when it comes to our own export policy," Commissioner Thomas H. Moore of the CPSC said in a list of legislative proposals regarding the agency. "Our export policy is based on a desire to see U.S. manufacturers be able to compete in foreign countries in terms of price and marketability, not safety."

Great! We're repackaging substandard products that can't be sold here and pawning them off on other countries. The CPSC thinks this is hypocritical behavior and it's hard to argue otherwise.

"Given this background, it is somewhat hypocritical of us to berate any other country for not requiring their manufacturers to abide by the myriad U.S. mandatory and voluntary product-safety standards," Moore said.

Products That Miss Safety Standards Sent Overseas by U.S. Companies [Washington Post]
(Photo:Morton Fox)

How did he miss the news? James doesn't watch tv or use the internet.

"We rely on the media to a greater or lesser extent depending on the particular recall we're working on," Tim Ulatowski of the Food and Drug Administration says. Is that enough? What about people who don't like the media? From NPR:

"Now the problem with that, of course, is that if you're not reading, watching or listening in the right place, you're gonna miss the news," says Donald Mays, senior director for public safety planning for Consumer Reports magazine.

Many people did miss the announcement. The company checked and found stores that still had Complete MoisturePLUS Multipurpose solution on their shelves.

Reports of new infections came in to the CDC. The FDA had to send out a second press release a couple of weeks ago. Ulatowski said the challenge was the size of the recall — 28 million bottles since May 2005.

"It's difficult to reach into everyone's medicine cabinet to determine that that product has been controlled and returned or disposed of by the consumer," he says.

It's Easy to Miss the Memo on Product Recalls [NPR]

PREVIOUSLY: Most Contact Lens Wearers Don't Know About AMO's MoisturePlus Recall
AMO Recalls Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution

From the NYT:

Consumer goods companies, which once saw packages largely as containers for shipping their products, are now using them more as 3-D ads to grab shoppers' attention.

The shift is mostly because of the rise of the Internet and hundreds of television channels, which mean marketers can no longer count on people seeing their commercials.

So they are using their bottles, cans, boxes and plastic packs to improve sales by attracting the eyes of consumers, who often make most of their shopping decisions at the last minute while standing in front of store shelves.

"The media is fragmented, and we can't find people — we can't get them to sit down and listen to our argument on a television spot," said Jerry Kathman, chief executive of LPK, a brand agency based in Cincinnati. "The package can convey that argument."

As recently as the 1990s, most package designs were retained for seven or more years. Now marketing executives say they are constantly planning package overhauls. The average life of a package before its next makeover is down to two years, they add.

Product Packages Now Shout to Get Your Attention [NYT] (Thanks, Molly!)
(Photo:Lars Klove)

From the LATimes:

For every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," they knew six to eight fewer words than other children, the study found.

Parents aiming to put their babies on the fast track, even if they are still working on walking, each year buy hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the videos.

Unfortunately it's all money down the tubes, according to Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Christakis and his colleagues surveyed 1,000 parents in Washington and Minnesota and determined their babies' vocabularies using a set of 90 common baby words, including mommy, nose and choo-choo.

The researchers found that 32% of the babies were shown the videos, and 17% of those were shown them for more than an hour a day, according to the study in the Journal of Pediatrics.

The videos, which are designed to engage a baby's attention, hop from scene to scene with minimal dialogue and include mesmerizing images, like a lava lamp.

'Baby Einstein': a bright idea? [LA Times] (Thanks, James!)

From the Associated Press:

Eva Fountain, 61, says she shared a potentially bad can of the Castleberry's Food chili sauce with her husband and two grandchildren.

Fountain told The Sun Herald newspaper on Wednesday that she called the company and it confirmed the can she purchased at the D'Iberville Wal-Mart was part of the recall.

Fountain said that as of late Wednesday, no one in her family had shown any symptoms of botulism.

Castleberry recalled its products after four people became ill after eating their hot dog chili sauce, which Fountain also ate.
A Wal-Mart spokesman said the products have been pulled from the shelves.

Fountain said she purchased the can last week before the recall was widely publicized and left for a camping trip before she heard about the recall.

Coast woman claims she bought potentially botulism-tainted chili sauce [Hattiesburg American via Writing on the Wal]

(Photo:Stopnlook)

The wine was to be sold exclusively at Costco. Where did the pressure to halt the wine's release come from? California winemakers, oddly enough. They were upset that Disney would be promoting a foreign product—a French wine.

Ratatouille is, of course, set in France. From the LA Times:

"The California Wine Institute has been relentless in trying to make this an issue" that it's a French wine, Foster said. "But the entire movie is based on a French restaurant and French food and wine."

The Institute, of course, denies that the problem was that the wine was French.

"We would have been just as upset if it were a California wine," said Nancy Light, an institute spokeswoman.

She said her group complained to Disney because the Ratatouille label, with Remy holding a rat-sized glass of wine, appeared to violate the spirit of the code of advertising standards that all institute members must follow. The code bans the use of any advertising that might appeal to people below the legal drinking age by using photos of very young models or cartoon characters, Light said.

"We were in touch with [Disney]. We basically shared the code with them," she said.

The wine seems designed to appeal to adults who like Disney movies rather than kids who like getting drunk, but what do we know?

In unrelated news, when we were writing this story our spell-checker inexplicably wanted to change the word "ratatouille" to Bouillabaisse. True story.

Disney backs out of wine promotion [LA Times]

The tires, made by Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co., have an insufficient or missing gum strip, a safety feature that helps prevent the tires from separating, the lawyers and a consumers' group said in a statement. The group, Safety Research & Strategies, is urging retailers and wholesalers to stop selling the tires.

The New York Times reports that "tread separation" is the same problem that caused the infamous Firestone recall of 2000. The Times further reported that the New Jersey based importer would not receive help from the NHTSA and was responsible for the full cost of the recall. The importer responded by claiming that a recall would bankrupt the business:

Since Foreign Tire Sales maintains no inventory of tires, he said the company would have to buy new tires for every tire that was returned in the recall. That, added to the cost of disposing of the old tires, [a spokesperson] said, would cost about $200 for each tire.

"We don't really know where to start," he said. "There's no way F.T.S. can recall this universe of tires. It will have to go belly up."

Chinese Tires Are Ordered Recalled [NYT]
Chinese tires face recall [CNN Money] (Thanks, Everyone!)
(Photo: NYT)

The Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) test discs were designed to objectively demonstrate a television's capabilities:

...the discs have a series of five simple tests that will help a shopper see how well an HDTV or disc player can reduce visual noise, reproduce curved lines without "jaggies" and recreate images with full resolution and picture clarity, among other things.

When a High-Definition Picture Is Too Good to Believe, See How It Handles This Test Disc [NYT]
HQV Benchmark DVD

Evian now joins KFC, Proctor and Gamble and Walmart on the list of foreign companies that have recently had products banned from China for health concerns. —MEGHANN MARCO

China seizes 118 tons of Evian water [International Herald Tribune]
(Photo: Beige Alert)

World of Walmart [via Kottke]

A reader writes in to express her displeasure at parent company Unilever's decision to add tara gum filler to Breyer's Ice Cream. Karen writes:

I'm writing about some semi-recent reformulations made to Breyer's ice creams. I think you could have a real impact on, first, getting the word out about the changes the owning company has made, and more generally, adding to the debate about how much label reading consumers should really have to do, and how pissed they can justifiably be if a company alters a long-standing or heavily-marketed brand or stops operating on the principles that attracted customers to it.

I'm 90% one of those whole-organic-slow foods nuts, and the other 10% of the time a voracious label-reader. Every once in a while, some of it rubs off on my family. Today my mother came to me with a complaint about the Breyer's ice cream she bought (within her price range, it is the only brand that meets my "seal of approval"...). It was different to her — no better than an arby's shake(!) she claimed — and she was disappointed. I tasted it and agreed — it had a light, ice-crystally consistency - and then read the ingredient list, of course, which contained a couple of less than quality additions.

I jumped online to confirm and find out about the new ingredients, and easily gathered more info on the websites linked below. I'm doubly disappointed by the wikipedia entry, since it seems to have been taken over by the Breyer's marketing department. Thanks for listening, and I hope you find this worthy of covering.

Thank you,
Karen

Karen linked us to this website, which contains an official company response to a customer's questions about tara gum and what it's doing in Breyer's Ice Cream. Unilever's PR Guy Writes:

In response to your questions regarding the use of tara gum in its ice cream, Breyers is proud of its all-natural heritage. It's a position we take very seriously and one we work hard to maintain. We value the confidence our customers have in our products and go to great lengths to ensure exceptional quality and great taste.

So when consumers expressed concern over the texture of our products, we responded. By adding a natural gum to Breyers All Natural Vanilla ice cream, we've helped to protect the product's texture while staying true to our all-natural commitment. We use tara gum from natural plant sources to help Breyers ice cream stay creamier and more enjoyable for longer periods of time.

Because ice cream is temperature-sensitive, this addition has further allowed us to ensure the ice cream's quality throughout it distribution. As you can imagine, ice cream's taste and texture can be unfavorably affected if exposed to temperature fluctuations during shipping or storage. Our customers describe the problem as ice cream with a "gritty" or "grainy" texture. In fact, growing distribution and increased handling of our ice cream in the marketplace has indeed resulted in greater chances for temperature abuse and heightened potential for texture problems.

Breyer's has sold out to the taraguministas. Which ice cream should Karen switch to? Does Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream contain tara gum?—MEGHANN MARCO

Breyer's Natural Ice Cream And Tara Gum: Unilever's Response [A Daily Scoop]

Research finds that the product is well regarded on Amazon.com. —MEGHANN MARCO

Discuss. —MEGHANN MARCO

Consumer Reports doesn't think Elmo is worth it, and, frankly, neither do we. We suggest getting your little darling a cuddly stuffed version. It's cheaper...and quieter.

Other Winners and Losers for the Holiday season include:

•Lazer Tag Team Ops by Hasbro, New Super Mario Bros for Nintendo DS and DS Lite game systems, and Moon Sand Castle Set by Spin Master were winners with kids.

•Most kids just didn't like: Cranium Giggle Gear: Mega Mask Kit, Lego SpongeBob and Plankton's Adventure, Lego Mindstorms NXT, and HyperScan Game System with X-Men by Mattel.

Elmo is back. [ConsumerReports.org]
Toy Test 2006 [ConsumerReports.org]

What's next, hamburgers pushed right against your third eye?

However, unlike the advertising a certain other product in this vein, the Temporal Artery Thermometer is non-invasive.

(Thanks to Adam!)

Finally! A pair of panties that portends the ghastly, hirsute reality below.

The product description (translated from German to pidgin) of the Winterfell Pubic Hair panties: "It looks like somebody forgot a small tuft! But it doesn't matter anyway since her lover likes it cosy and thinks of her fur to be shamelessly sexy. From now on Flokati and Co. can get lost!"

These are a great gift, not only for friends looking for a guiltless way to break up with their boyfriends, but also for mothers and grandmothers. "Pour vous, grandmere!"

Winterfell Pubic Hair Panties [Miss Geshick & Lady Lapsus]

Perhaps not, but that hasn't stopped Yuhzimi from trying. A teamup with Victorinox resulted in the release of a limited edition series of designer Swiss Army Knives, or, Hipster SAK's.

They're called the "Urban Survivor" series and come with a special chain and box. The pieces become available in the next two weeks "from select retailers worldwide."

Spiffy idea, but frankly, we don't find the imagery they've selected to be all that compelling. The classic still reigns supreme.

"Survival of the Hippest" [ANIMAL]

The waterproof cell is made of Chinese merchant bags and boasts shoulder straps and a storage pocket.

Video and project by Jenny Chowdhury for her NYU project. With a little bit of painter's tape, some dumpster diving and spray paint, you too can have an MBA in Design and Technology. Found at theapt.

Perhaps then, it's better to choose, as reader Myron did, the "top activated" trash can. One may find it easier to deliver a more nuanced expression of energy with one's hand than one's foot

He paid one hundred and fifty dollars but after its lid broke, he found he got his money's worth, after the jump...

Myron writes:

"I'm very much the grumpy old man when if comes to being a consumer, so I take pleasure in reading The Consumerist to reassure myself that while I might not be normal, at least I'm not alone. I simply want to be treated fairly by businesses. So, when a company does right by me its only fair I can offer a compliment instead of the usual complaint.

Two years ago I bought a $150 trash can made by SimpleHuman. Now thats a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a trash can and I'm still embarassed about it. So when the lid broke recently I tried to salvage the unit by buying a new lid. I contacted SimpleHuman via their website and without any fuss, they promptly mailed me a new lid for free. I was stunned at how quicky my problem was solved and how, for probably $20, they turned a customer who liked the product but was embarrased to recommend it for how expensive it was, into a loyal customer who would sing the company's praises.

Myron"

The Simple Human trash can, available for $149.99 here with free shipping.