"Gads" For Dads and Grads
Best Tech Gadget Gifts For Father's Day and Graduation

My latest MSN piece:



Enjoy!

Other gift ideas that didn't make it into the final article:

For Dads:



The “Grill Master”: Dad makes the best hamburgers in the neighborhood, but even he could use some help. The Char-broil Commercial Series Infrared Gas Grill uses an infrared burner system that eliminates flare-ups that cook food unevenly. An 810 sq. inch stainless steel cooking area provides room for approximately 36 burgers, and a 13,000 BTU side stove with griddle is perfect for heating sauces or vegetables. $499 at lowes.com.



The "Couch Potato”: After eating all that meat, Dad might need to hit the gym. He can work out at home using Wii Fit for the Nintendo Wii. The game uses a wireless peripheral called the Wii Balance Board, which measures body mass index and helps players perform more than 40 different exercises, including step aerobics, yoga, even simulated skiing. $89.99 + Nintendo Wii ($294.99) at gamestop.com.



“Mr. Fix It”: Every craftsman needs a cordless drill, and the Makita 18V Compact Lithium-Ion Cordless ½ inch Driver-Drill Kit packs the most power in a light package, providing 450 pounds of torque while weighing in at a measly 3.5 pounds. And it only takes 15 minutes to charge the battery. $201 at homedepot.com



"The Traveling Salesman": When Dad's on the road, he might miss all those shows he watches at home. Help alleviate the homesickness with the Sling Media Slingbox Pro. The device connects to your cable or satellite box at home, and beams the signal through the internet to your mobile phone or laptop. $249.99 at circuitcity.com.



"The Outdoorsman": You've heard of the old idiom "carrot and stick," but the folks at Element 21 took it literally. They built their E21 Carrot Stix Fishing Rods with a composite material containing 70% cellulose fibers extracted from—you guessed it—carrots. The result is a lightweight, but durable fishing rod that won the Freshwater Rod award and overall Best of Show at the 2007 American Sportfishing Association's annual convention. $149.95 at e21fishing.com.

For Grads:



Beach Bum: After four grueling years of college—which involved no partying whatsoever—your graduate deserves to relax. This summer, they can lounge poolside or on the beach listening to their iPod on the weather-resistant BoomBucket Portable Music System. Unlike many other iPod docks, a clear cover protects the iPod from harm. The bucket doubles as a portable iPod charger. $150.00 at brookstone.com



The Blogger: Whether your son or daughter is the next TalkingPointsMemo or the next Washingtonienne, they'll need a laptop computer to type up their story. For Apple fans, there's the MacBook Air, one of the lightest laptop computers on the market, good for when reporting breaking news from the field. For PC lovers, Lenovo's ThinkPad X300 is nearly as thin and light as the Air, and includes a DVD burner drive. Air, $1799 at apple.com. Thinkpad, $2799.99 at compusa.com.



The Amateur Photographer: Your graduate has an eye for the perfect picture—just check out those photos they posted on Facebook. The Sony Cybershot W170 Digital Camera has 10.1 megapixel resolution, a 5x optical zoom, face recognition and anti-blur, plus "Smile Shutter" technology—which can automatically capture the moment your subject is smiling or laughing. $299.99 at bestbuy.com



The Traveler: Many graduates want to see the world before settling into a job. Make sure they don't get lost. The Garmin nuvi GPS Navigation touch-screen devices are small enough to fit in your pocket and come loaded with road maps and millions of points of interest for North America. The top of the line 750 model includes an MP3 player, audio book player, picture viewer, and a currency converter. Optional features include traffic alerts and a subscription to MSN Direct content. $250 - $600 at garmin.com.



The Pod Person: Wherever your grad goes, they'll probably need some portable entertainment. Not much needs to be said about the iPod Nano, the latest in the line of Apple's popular MP3 players. The slim, palm-sized player comes in six different colors and both the 4 GB and 8 GB models have plenty of room for your graduate's collection of music, TV shows, movies and podcasts. $149 at apple.com.

Jewish Fantasy Baseball: Week 9

I've been busy the last few weeks with birthdays, graduations, and yes, actual work. So I didn't check in on the "semites of swat" lately. And I should have, because while I was reveling in the joy of springtime, my ragtag crew of yamulke-wearing sluggers were putting on an impressive show. Like Moses triumphing over the Pharaoh, or David slaying Goliath, the Major League Jews have overcome incredible mismatches to find themselves tied for 1st place in the East division after 8 weeks.

Their run for the top began in week 6, when the Koufax Kids beat "Coming From Behind," 232-190. Kevin "The Knish" Youkilis easily took home the Adam's Life Sluggin' Semite of the Week award with a 12 for 32, 3 2B, 5 HR, 8 R, 10 RBI, BB, SB performance.

Sox 'em Rocks 'em came to town in week 7, but soon discovered that a team featuring David Ortiz and Josh Hamilton was no match for a chosen squad led by Ryan Braun and Ian Kinsler. Braun's 50 points (10 for 29, 2B, 3B, 6 HR, 8 R, 10 RBI, BB) tied with Lance Berkman for the team lead, and helped the Team Temple to a 269-222 victory. Braun's running out of room on his shelf for all the Sluggin' Semite of the Week awards he's collected.

The Mitzvah Men came back down to earth in a week 8 matchup against cmobaseball. An injury to Moises Alou, and weak performances all around spelled the end of the winning streak (some bad gefilte fish is rumored to be at fault). Only Ian Kinsler, who opted for the chopped liver instead, came through when needed. He only hit .243, but had a double, 3 HR, 6 R, 8 RBI, a BB and a SB, good for 36 points. Kinsler wins the Adam's Life Sluggin' Semite Award for week 8.

This week, the Tallis Troop faces wyometslover, whom they defeated in week 2. A victory could mean sole posession of first place in the division, while a loss would be worse than a broken sauna at the JCC. Stay tuned for more.

Division Standings:
--------------------------W L T PTS
Chipperfan08............4-4-0 1742
Major League Jews....4-4-0 1598
cmoBaseball.............2-6-2 1600
wyometslover............1-7-3 1617

Monk Love



The New York Times has an interesting article about two Buddhist Americans, Michael Roach and Christie McNally, who have vowed never to separate by more than 15 feet. And... they're celibate.

"[Michael] is a good guy and learned person, but the Bill Clinton question lingers over him," said Lama Surya Das, an American Buddhist who studied in Tibet and wrote “Awakening the Buddha Within." "He is with a much younger blond bombshell. What is a deep relationship that is not sexual? It is hard to understand."

Hmm. "What is a deep relationship that is not sexual?" Sounds like Lama Das is one horny bastard.

Of course, it is a bit hard to understand how going against one's biological imperative is spiritual. Especially since following such a course would... you know... sort of bring about the end to one's lineage. And if we can't have kids to thrust our strange beliefs on, then who will lead our cult spiritual revolution once we go off to that big yurt in the sky?

After all, celibacy was not exactly a big draw for the Shakers.

Why would a religion include a mandate to promote the eventual extinction of the human race? Because that's what would happen if everyone suddenly went celibate. Didn't anyone see Children of Men?!?!


No kids? Shakers wish.

But I do think Michael and Christie are on to something. They've built a relationship out of mutual respect and genuine care for one another. They watch out for each other, and they're there for each other, all of the time. Maybe if we focused a little less on sex and just a bit more on that other stuff, then we wouldn't all be divorcing each other, cheating with hookers and hiring hit men to off our significant others. After all, if these two could stay together after sleeping in a smelly yurt night after night, then isn't there hope for Eliot and Silda Spitzer?

Perhaps those two should consider the 15 feet rule.

Stare At Jessica Alba

Have to hand it to Will @ Clicked for finding this. There are few better ways to spend two minutes online than to have a staring contest with Jessica Alba.



For the record, she beat me. But that doesn't change the fact that I could stare at her all day.

Say It Ain't So Hillary

Hillary Clinton makes it awfully hard to support her campaign when she makes statements like this:



Now, in her defense, she's merely quoting what an AP report found. But why couldn't she just have said, "The AP says that I'm more popular with working class Americans." Why'd she have to say "white Americans"? Why'd she have to go into demographic detail at all?

By making the argument that she's more popular with white people (uneducated white people, for that matter), Hillary basically goes against dozens of years of Democratic Party logic, which strives to encompass minority groups in securing a victory against the largely racist, xenophobic and homophobic Republican party. Now she's saying... "Screw Obama's support from minorities-- I've got the whites! And we all know they're the real ones that matter."

That may not have been the message Hillary was aiming to send. But that's what people heard. And as a white man, I'm disgusted. I don't think any leader of any political party should think in terms of racial lines. And I certainly don't think any candidate should tout their overwhelming support from uneducated white people. A President of this nation should represent all people equally, no matter their skin color. Instead of proudly proclaiming how popular she was with the redneck set, Hillary should have simply stuck to touting her popularity in large states, and battleground states like Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania, which could be key to this year's elections. That's her strongest argument, I believe.

Just listen to how she stumbles over the word "white," twice. She's clearly not comfortable even saying it. I chalk this up to a horrible advisor, giving her some really bad direction. That troubles me, because Hillary is smart enough to not go for that.

I've been pro-Hillary, but as the media makes out her campaign to be more and more desperate (even though the delegate split is tiny), she seems to be coming a bit unravelled. And it's unfortunate, because we shouldn't choose our Presidential candidate based on the campaign missteps or flubbed lines. It should be about who has the best ideas, and the best track record of implementing, or attempting to implement those ideas. Obama has yet to thrill me with any ideas of substance. And name me one thing he's actually done during his time in the senate, other than campaigning for President?

But at least he hasn't offended me, like Hillary has now.

Another big argument going for her was that she's been in the White House before. And not just as some Laura Bush-style walking-talking-photo-op. She has experience "under fire." Not sniper fire, as she erroneously claimed, but fire from Republicans. She's withstood it well. The Whitewater scandal washed out. Her health care plan was destroyed, but she remained dedicated to finding a solution. She's actually attempted to do things, even when a Republican legislature made those things impossible.

Obama? Well, he likes the word "change" as much as Bush likes the words "hard work." I'm not a fan of words. I'm a fan of actions.

But, as I said, Hillary keeps making it harder to defend her. By scrapping for every vote, she's compromised some of her ideals, making more and more statements that appeal to the segment of the populace that hasn't already decided for Obama. And this just makes her even less attractive to the typical Obama voter, who still actually believes there are politicians that can turn America into a Utopian candyland, full of bunnies and sunshine. Obama, luckily for him, has not had to make such concessions.

Yet.

When the election versus McCain comes, and he finds himself trailing in the polls, desperate for some of that Hillary-segment of the Democratic party, he will undoubtedly have to make some of the same, pandering statements as she did.

When you're in front, you can be everyone's messiah. But I fear, when the general election comes, Obama's youthful idealism will not be enough to take the election from the battle-tested McCain and the Republican fear-mongering machine.

I believe Hillary can. She has before.

And I, for one, cannot withstand another 4-8 years of Republican rule.