Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Welcome to Find a Toad

Welcome to Find a Toad, a blog dedicated to (hopefully) helping you find the right gift for anyone and everyone in your life.

First off, what does Find a Toad even mean?  I could give a long winded explanation (my blog, remember?) about a childhood nickname, reclaiming years of embarrassment in a positive light, and a fondness for a beloved kids' book.  All that's true.  But I thought it had a sort of memorable, funny ring besides.  Hell, we're always looking for princes in the worst places (sorry, all two of my straight guy readers, for leaving you out).  It's better in just about every case to find a toad.  Sometimes it might turn into a prince, but even an insanely useful, voracious insect eating amphibian isn't so bad compared to the schlock that's out there.  I'm on the lookout for toad-like gifts that magically transform into princes upon receipt.

So onto the gift concept.  Every magazine on earth has a gift guide this time of year.  Most of them are shameless examples of publicity at work: samples and "gifts" get sent to writers and editors, and they take the path of least resistance by writing about them.  Rarely do I see an innovative gift guide (InStyle is the guiltiest party for this kind of giveaway journalism); Domino and Lucky magazines tend to have the best gift arrays (but I'm suspicious of these as well).

I'm planning to divide giftees into categories.  Not just "He," and "She," and "Baby," but "The Best Friend with More Money Than God Who Can Buy Whatever She Wants."   After all, ANYONE can buy a baby gift (what's the tadpole going to do, complain?), but not anyone can buy the perfect gift for "The Perpetually Dissatisfied Mother-In-Law," or the "Friend's Wife Who Claims to Hate Materialism."  Hopefully, I can help out there.

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