Reprinted Articles

There’s not too much time left until St. Valentine’s Day, so one must order, and order soon, to make sure it gets there on time. My soul mate and I resolved many years ago to start buying each other funny gifts every holiday (not just Valentines) Our marital success is humor By far, above all else, it has been the core of our relationship and heals wounds beautifully. We have celebrated (and sometimes endured) twenty wonderful years together. We continue to laugh, even after we cry sometimes.

So I’ve scoured the Internet to decide what kinds of gifts we would exchange if we were other couples with different goals and dreams.

For instance, I am not pregnant, but many couples are expecting. There is a wonderful maternity and infant wear shop called Mirth Girth Birth www.mirthgirthbirth.com which offers funny maternity wear and infant wear and a small inventory of gifts and collectibles by the cartoonist whose work appears on the products. The categories are in “Future Professions” such as “Future Dentist” and “Future Musician” etc. One of my favorite is in the Future Musician category which is Beethoven-themed. To explain it in such an article is a bit difficult, but the image shows a giant beet (vegetable) at a piano, with a face that has a striking resemblance to Beethoven. Quite an offbeat hilarious image. The caption only says “Beethoven”, but as Shakespeare said “Brevity is the soul of wit”, and that is all it needs to say

Of course anything from any of Rick London’s stores are worth seeing. The majority of the funny gift stores I found on the net were from the Rick London collection, not surprisingly. He is the master of that kind of product.

Another great gift is from the Rick London Collection. www.ricklondoncollection.com. It is a Starbuck’s parody cartoon coffee mug (he sells dozens of other items of this cartoon from collectible clocks to hoodies), but I particularly like this mug. It is called Starbucks Is Everywhere, and shows an astronaut on the planet Mars, where he is surprised to see a Starbuck’s. He is on his radio telling Houston to forget the freeze-dried coffee on the next journey there. This is a classic to me.

I go nuts for funny greeting cards and never can just buy one. I like to buy the whole box if they are available and there is one place on the net to find them…. Just Funny Greeting Cards www.justfunnygreetingcards.com One of my favorites, and maybe favorite cartoons of all time, is on one of the sets of cards called Easter Island which can be found in the “Holidays” section of the store. It shows the giant metaphysical rock beings of Easter Island gathering colorful Easter eggs and a very funny caption about the kids every year hunting for eggs. Many other topics and cartoon cards are available as well. It’s worth a visit.

Veteran couples want to feel sexy too, and there’s a new store just for us called A Thong In My Heart www.athonginmyheart.com . One of my favorites is Dr. Rorschach Walking His Dog “Spot” which is in the psychiatry section of the store . The store is brand new, and not a huge inventory yet, but what is in there is well worth the visit. The cartoons are on women’s thongs and men’s boxers, which happen to be quite sensual too.

Several of the best “big selection” online stores on the web are Rick Londonwear www.ricklondonwear.com and Londons Times Superstore www.LTSuperstore.com which sells everything from cartoon key chains to mouse pads to sweats to coasters and more. They even have gourmet cartoon coffee gift baskets and the java is as gormet as it gets.

But I don’t just cheerlead for the London-owned stores. Some other stores have fared well in my search as well such as www.stupid.com (that is, if you really go for weird); and sometimes not that funny. If you are into politics and other social issues, this is a good one to visit.

At hipstergifts.com there’s some very funny stuff too. I particularly like the “geekier” section, though, it doesn’t offer a lot of romance, makes for great other holiday gifts.

Last 5 posts by Alexa Ferotina

• The Zen, History, & Positive Energy Of Paper Greeting Cards - January 22nd, 2008
• The History And Evolution Of Mouse Pads - January 17th, 2008
• Cartoonist Rick London: Marketing Wiz Kid Grown Up - January 16th, 2008
• The Beyond Incredible Story Of Cartoonist Rick London - January 12th, 2008
• Novelty Buttons: The Magic Of Self-expression - January 8th, 2008