I will always remember the light blue metal bucket in which I used to keep my LEGO as a kid. Every piece was a hand-me-down from my older sister, and by today’s standards, our collection would seem positively pathetic: Just a gallon or two, maybe, of bricks in different colors and dot counts, supplemented by a handful of LEGO people with removable hair.
Not many kids back then could afford those fancy sets that were designed to build a specific item, like a helicopter or spaceship, and to be honest, those were never really popular anyway. What’s the point in… Read more
The year was 1991, and I had bought my very first CD player. I was a 20-year-old college student and had used the money I’d made from a plethora of McJobs to buy it. I only had enough money left over to buy one CD: Simple Minds’ Real Life. As I popped it in the player and took in the crisp, almost too perfect, digital sound, I shot a guilty glance at the record player I had owned since I was 15. There was clearly no turning back now, for me or for anyone. Not only would the future sound… 
Do you remember your first Pez dispenser? I don’t recall what my first one looked like, but I do know I only used to get them while vacationing in Gran Canaria and that the whole Pez experience is closely connected with the island in my childhood memories. Perhaps Pez hadn’t yet reached Sweden in the mid-70s, or maybe they were just considered too exotic and wonderful to give to kids other than for special occasions.
Special or not, Pez is a great brand that has thrilled generations of kids since the company first started to put character heads on their… 
After four days in London followed by ten lovely, sunny days in the Canaries, I’m back in Colorado and looking through the shots in my camera I realized that at least half of them are of neither palm trees nor cocktails with umbrellas but of signage. Is there such a thing as a sign geek? If there is, I am definitely one of them.
From London, we went on to Gran Canaria to visit family, celebrate a big birthday and just relax in the sun.
Before the charter tourism boom of the 1970s, the Canaries were relatively obscure and un(der)developed. Now, it’s one of the most popular vacation spots among Europeans looking for year-round sunshine, and it shows. At the same time, the remote location and absence of much non-tourism related… 