By Staff
Since Santa Claus outsourced elf toy production to China, you ever wonder what Chinese children play with amid all the product scares?
An Associated Press report buried on page 8 of a major metropolitan newspaper quotes a freelance writer for film magazines buying toys for her son, 5, as paying extra for Legos blocks from Denmark and Japanese train sets.
Foreign brands enjoy a reputation for higher quality, even among Chinese parents.
"We pay close attention to the news about toy and food safety," she said. "If I find a problem with a certain brand, I will just stop using it for sure."
How ironic.
When it comes to buying playthings for their own children, Chinese families who can afford it opt for foreign-made goods – even though they're made in China, too.
Quality and safety issues draw more attention as incomes rise and upwardly mobile Chinese grow more health conscious.
These Chinese parents assume that factories making foreign toy brands adhere to more rigorous standards to guard against lead paint and other harmful materials.
"I dare not buy cheap wooden toys or toys with paint," a professor at Shanghai International Studies University whose daughter, 7, tested for elevated levels of lead in her blood, told the AP. "I have a stupid standard: I buy her expensive toys in big department stores."
At the "gargantuan" New World Department Store in Shanghai, the AP said shelves are crowded with foreign brands, such as Mattel, which cost 40 to 50 percent more.
Chinese-brand toys are "crammed into a few shelves stacked with dolls and toddler toys made by StarMoon Toys," a manufacturer in Dongguan that also makes toys for some of the world's biggest brands.
As living standards rise, China's toy market grows 20 percent a year.
How bad is the Michigan economy?: They had a job fair in Warren Dec. 14 and 100 turned out for jobs maintaining military vehicles – in Iraq, the Detroit Free Press reported Dec. 15.
The $212,000 annual salary certainly didn't discourage anyone who has spent months trying to find work.
Use found for cats: South Korean scientists clone kitties that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays. That could help develop cures for human genetic diseases, the Science and Technology Ministry said.
Three Turkish Angora cats were born in January and February through cloning with a gene that produces a red fluorescent protein that makes them glow in the dark.
Sagging fine: Police in Pine Lawn, Mo., near St. Louis, are authorized to enforce an ordinance against wearing pants so low that underwear or skin is exposed. The fine is $100.
Parents of juvenile saggers can be hit with a $500 penalty and 90 days in jail.
Now instead of pulling people over, the cops are pulling them up.
When I'm 64: Joe Namath received his bachelor of arts degree Dec. 14 at Alabama after finishing a 30-hour program over the past five years.
"It was fun, but it was hard. I had a very difficult time getting myself to sit down and spend the time (studying)."
Google takes on Wikipedia: Google Inc. of Mountain View, Calif., owner of the most popular Internet search engine, started a Web site, Knol, that will compete with the online encyclopedia, where users contribute and edit entries. Knol stands for a unit of knowledge.
Sleep on it: A survey of 120 college students found those who never pulled an all-nighter had average grade-point averages of 3.1 to 2.9 for those who have.
Lawyer of Year: Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, so named Dec. 12 in a magazine published by the American Bar Association for making the most news.
Gonzales, who resigned in September after 2 1/2 years, must be relieved that Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan are not attorneys.
Obit: Ike Turner, 76, died Dec. 12 at his suburban San Diego home. "Blues men in America, we were outcasts," he told the Chicago Tribune in 2001. "Before the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds came along – it had to come from whites in England for America to appreciate what we did." He and Tina opened the Stones' legendary 1969 North American tour. Drugs landed Turner in prison. He was in a cell instead of at his 1991 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Tina left her abusive husband in 1976 and made a huge comeback in 1984 with "Private Dancer."
His reputation was further tarnished with "What's Love Got to Do With It," the 1993 movie loosely based on her autobiography, but Ike quit taking drugs, beat his demons and turned his life around.
john.eby@leaderpub.com