Novelty & Gag Toys

When the Spanish-Revival-style Roxy opened on Broadway in 1927, the 5,900-seat movie theater boasted an enormous pipe organ with three keyboards and its own 110-member symphony orchestra. A mechanical orchestra pit rose and receded before screenings. The theater employed a male chorus, a ballet company and a chorus line called the Roxyettes. The all-male ushers, drilled and dressed to military precision, were memorialized by Cole Porter in a lyric from "You're the Top": "You're the pants on a Roxy usher." Movie theaters have pretty much been in decline ever since, buffeted by a sequence of near-mortal blows: The Great Depression. The automobile. World War II. Radio and television. Affordable high-definition TVs and surround-sound systems. Home video. Netflix. And now: "Trolls World Tour." With movie theaters closed because of the pandemic, many Hollywood producers have delayed the release of potential blockbusters. But on April 10, Universal Pictur...

Once again, the narrative takes viewers along on an adventure with Kimmy (Ellie Kemper) and Titus (Tituss Burgess), with the wrinkle being that they are presented with a series of choices. Two options appear side by side across the bottom of the screen, with the viewer clicking on one of them, taking the story -- such as it is -- in that direction. To their credit, the producers have fun with the contrivance. They even break the fourth wall, to use a popular viewing term, both figuratively and literally at one point. Still, the choices presented -- a party dress or a classy one, go work out or skip it and take a nap, etc. -- don't really add up to much in moving the story along. As a result, the whole exercise feels labored and slow. According to the producers, who had bid farewell early last year, the idea of a movie-length special morphed into this "first interactive comedy event," with Netflix wanting to try out what the service learned from "Bandersnatch" in...

In his 1977 book, ''Liberté, liberté chérie,'' Pierre Mendès-France recounts the various waves of flight that marked the exodus from Paris in the spring of 1940, at the dawn of the German occupation. ''In the early days, we saw fast and sumptuous American cars driven by liveried chauffeurs,'' he writes. These were followed by the ''less shiny, less new'' vehicles of the middle classes, which were in turn followed days later by caravans of jalopies, eventually abandoned by the roadside, ''their owners continuing on foot to the next town, then by train, bicycle, or hitchhiking.'' Next came the cyclists — ''mostly young, often carefree'' — then the pedestrians, ''sometimes whole families, the man with a rucksack on his shoulder, the woman pushing a cart or baby carriage.'' Later came the stragglers, ''overwhelmed, feet bloodied.'' Final...

© Florin Cristian Ailenei via Getty Images The day after the World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic, my husband and I quit using pacifiers with our 2-year-old. The timing is purely coincidental. We've spent the last few days talking up the "pacifier fairy" and she is slated to come that night, taking our daughter's binkies away to give to babies who aren't big girls yet. The first day without it, she refuses to nap. She cries for an hour, begging for the comfort of her pacifier, before we quit trying to get her down. She cries every nap and night, hollow pleas for her "pacis." It takes hours to get her down each night like it did when she was a baby, when we would go into her room over and over to lay her back in her crib. Similarly, when she sleeps, it's in fits and spurts, and she wakes up at odd hours of the night, screaming.  Two days later, her day care closes. On top of the fractured sleep, we are now ...

TODAY'S KIDS will think it weird that robots were ever considered some space-age novelty. Children are already surrounded by voices (see Siri, Alexa) that respond to their every whim, and pet-like Roombas that relentlessly clean up after them. Why would they blink at a universe full of self-driving cars and A.I.-augmented everything else? Nevertheless, there are still reasons to buy robot kits for these worldly kids. Building a friendly bot-toy helps children adapt even more readily to a changing world and develop STEM skills—in... 10 Best Robot Toys for Kids - Christmas Gift Ideas - #TechToys

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci says there is 'no doubt' we will see new coronavirus cases as the country reopens. (April 28) AP Domestic ROUNDUP, Mont. – Traffic got a little busier along Main Street, but otherwise, it was hard to tell that coronavirus restrictions were ending in the tiny central Montana town of Roundup. That's because it's largely business as usual in the town of 1,800 people. Nonessential stores could reopen as a statewide shutdown ended this week, but most shops in Roundup – the pharmacy, the hardware store, two small grocers – were essential and never closed. A florist and a thrift shop reopened Monday, apparently two of the only stores that had to shut down at all. Bars and restaurants remain shuttered and getting takeout is still the only option until May 4, when they can open with restrictions. Parts of the U.S. are starting to lift closures, and some of the quickest to ...

ROUNDUP, Mont. (AP) — Traffic got a little busier along Main Street, but otherwise, it was hard to tell that coronavirus restrictions were ending in the tiny Montana town of Roundup. That's because it's largely business as usual in the town of 1,800 people. Nonessential stores could reopen as a statewide shutdown ended this week, but most shops in Roundup — the pharmacy, the hardware store, two small grocers — were essential and never closed. A florist and a thrift shop reopened Monday, apparently two of the only stores that had to shut down at all. Bars and restaurants remain shuttered and getting takeout is still the only option until May 4, when they can open with restrictions. Parts of the U.S. are starting to lift closures, and some of the quickest to do so have been rural states like Montana, Vermont and Alaska. The effects of the pandemic in small towns can seem a world away from cities grappling with overwhelmed hospitals, packed morgues and economies pushed to the brin...