The always wonderful Wondermark today fed into my paternal fears...not twelve hours after I spent a little too much time looking around to see if Spiderman and His Amazing Friends was available on DVD for Miles to watch (because, of course, the new Spectacular Spiderman cartoon is a little to hip and edgy, and what he really needs is the poorly-animated, badly-thought-out adventures of Spiderman and his friends, Firestar and Iceman...who I doubt, seriously, would be friends).

So yes, I am trying to give my son my own childhood.

Or, I could give him an anachronistic childhood even I don't recall.

• There is a "growing pressure to develop farmed caviar that's as delicious as the wild stuff"
• Velvet is a "sensuous fabric that's adding a decadence to men's daywear"
• "Diamonds now have more glimmer than glitz"
• There is "hot competition to buy cool, classic Aston Martins"
• The pocket watch is making a "21st century comeback"
• The heel has been declared "the latest focus for fancy footwear"
• Hong Kong has a "hip beating heart"
  

• Uniqlo (I'm sure that's like saying The Gap is cool, but hey)
• Hakuhinkan Toy Park
• House Wellness C1000 Lemon Water
• Capybara-san
• The crows (I think they are awesome...but I guess they are a smart and territorial problem...which is being address by bees)
• Yatter-Pelican (from Yatterman)
• Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo
• The prevalence of R&B-esque smooth hits playing everywhere I go
  

• The taxis (so clean and shiny and awesome)
• The trucks (so clean and shiny and awesome)
  
• The surprising number of Isuzu Piazzas (Impulses)
• The Toyota Yaris RS
• The Honda Stream
  
• The Honda dog
  
• The Honda Elysion
• Nissan Cubes (on the road)
• The Nissan Pino
• The BMW 1-series 5-door
• The fact that Dodge Magnums are all over the place (and done up nicely)
• The Bugatti Veyron parked outside the hotel
• Kei Vans
• The Mazda Demio
• The Mazda Scrum wagon (so vantastic!)
  

• Dashboard dashboards dashboards.  Companies seem need to focus more attention on the dashboard...where one rests one's eyes 98% of the time you interact with your car.  All but the highest end Volvos and Audis had this wrong wrong wrong...and we outdone by things like the Nissan Versa and Hyundais.  The "nubby hard black plastic" lobby must be powerful...barely beating out the "sharp unfinished edges" lobby.
  
• I was thouroughly underwhelmed by the Scion Xb
• I was thouroughly underwhelmed by the Audi A3 and A4 (including the Avant)...something about the interiors of these cars seemed so...puffy.  Like all the interior panels with 1/2" too...puffy.  Very cramped.
• If I had no materialistic self-image yearnings, I would absolutely buy a $17,000 Nissan Versa over an Audi A4.
• The new Nissan Maxima has a fantastic interior, but looks a bit like the 25-lb potato that was recently unearthed.
• I really really want to like Hyundais...they are inexpensive, well-made, efficient, solid cars...that are so unbearably boring.
• I, apparently, missed gawking at Stephen Tyler as he had a lunch of, I presume, $6 nachos.
• $67,000 for a Chevy Tahoe "Flex Fuel" mess is stupid.
• The Chevy Cobalt SS may be fast, but it is embarassing.
• The new Mazda6 is big and "flabby" (via Chris), and gets distressing mediocre gas mileage.
  

• The kappa, Japanese water sprites known for "passing gas" or kidnapping and eating children, can be dispatched and appeased in two ways:  first, when confronted by a kappa you should try to take advantage of its sense of ettiquette...it will be forced to return your deep bow with one of its own, which will in turn drain the pool of water that sits atop its head, weakening it.  Secondly, you can befriend a kappa by a generous gift of cucumbers (of note, this is why cucumber sushi is called kappamaki).
• The EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered) of Existence Project "...highlights and protects some of the weirdest and most wonderful species on the planet.  EDGE species have few close relatives on the tree of life and are often extremely unusual in the way they look, live and behave, as well as in their genetic make-up.  They represent a unique and irreplaceable part of the world’s natural heritage, yet an alarming proportion are currently sliding silently towards extinction unnoticed."  This is an astounding collection of amazingly unique and adapted creatures.

• Junot Díaz (of Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" fame, which I enjoyed) reads "Flaka," a new short story, at a recent appearance at Harvard Square's Brattle Theater. (mp3  |  via The Boston Phoenix)
• Paul Auster (of "Travels In The Scriptorium" fame, which I also enjoyed) reads 40-minutes worth of his new book, "Man In The Dark," which, while seemingly similar to Scriptorium, sounds as though it continues his magically bleak and compelling voice. (mp3 | via KQED's The Writers' Block)
• Neal Stephenson reads a short bit from his new book, Anathem (video | via The Long Now Foundation)