November 18, 2012 B10 Lifestyles

JEFF
VRABEL
All kids’
things are
dangerous
SUNDAY
LIVING
Taunton Daily Gazette ! TauntonGazette.com ! Sunday, November 18, 2012 B10
Florida’s tourism on pace for another record year
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s tourism industry is on pace for another record year.
VISIT FLORIDA, the state’s public-private tourism agency, on Thursday released a preliminary estimate showing the state had 21.9 million visitors in the third quarter of 2012. That’s a 3.5 percent
increase over the same four-month period last year.
Direct travel-related employment, though, increased only 1.5 percent, adding 15,000 jobs in July
through October.
Tourism and recreational sales totaled $49 billion in the third quarter, a 7.5 percent increase from
the same period in 2011. Hotel occupancy increased 1.7 percent and average room rates increased 3.3
percent.
QUESTIONS? Contact the newsroom at 508-967-3133 or [email protected].
ONLY IN PRINT HOLIDAYS
Crafts
for
chourico
A
quick word to those
people who study
the danger effects of
monkey bars: YEP. THEY’RE
DANGEROUS, and also do you
guys have any openings? All
you hear is awful awful no jobs
no jobs, yet evidently hordes of
folks can be found dedicating
resources and energies to the
study of the effects of the
dangers of playground equipment. Seriously, if y’all need any
interns or anything, particularly
in the Spinny Thing Division,
I am your man, at least until I
throw up, which will be soonish.
Anyway, of COURSE monkey
bars are dangerous! They’re
MONKEY BARS. Is there anything with the word monkey in
front of it that isn’t intrinsically
dangerous? You swing on them
with your hands, way up in the
air, until you get halfway across,
and then you hurtle to the
ground because your palms and
arms and face hurt. They’re also
dangerous when you get dared
by Tim Grossman to climb across
the top of them to show you’re
not the class’ biggest nerd even
though you can read five grade
levels above everyone else and
are really good at programming
computers I am told by someone
I met at a bar once who definitely didn’t have plastic glasses.
Let me just go ahead and
save science the trouble: Literally
every kids’ thing is dangerous.
Earlier this year, pediatricians
warned that trampolines, particularly the backyard versions
that have those tall surrounding
nets that make them look like
some minor, third-grade version
of The Thunderdome, posed a
strong danger to children and
should be discouraged. This was
a story I saw in the July issue of
Oh Really You And Your Ph.D
Just Put That Together, Really?
(The magazine’s unwieldy name
is probably the reason you
haven’t heard of it. Their website address is similarly a huge
pain to type.)
For my oldest, monkey bars
are actually not that dangerous,
because I don’t think I’ve ever
seen him go across them in
their commonly accepted form.
He likes rather to climb to the
top, and traverse the bars on
their roof, as it were, rather
than mess around with all that
swinging and wrist-hurting. It’s
actually a pretty smart move.
It’s also RISKING ALL SORTS OF
DOOM, which he does, several
thousand times a day, because
he’s 8. Frankly I’m surprised he
survives most of his walks to
the bathroom. Actually seriously
while I’m typing this I just saw
him run into a door frame while
sprinting at full blast around the
house. I wonder if the helmet
store is open on Sunday nights.
But it’s not just the older,
death-wishy one. There is also a
baby now, who is proving himself uniquely skilled at regarding
a room full of toys, soft blocks
and books and discerning,
almost immediately, where the
light sockets are located. Untold
amounts of kid toys in my office,
and the adorable little chubb
isn’t satisfied until he’s close to
chewing on my laptop’s power
cord, which, in his defense,
does have a pleasing strawberry
aftertaste but still seems like an
awful and potentially jolty idea.
To be honest, though, we’ve
been having the most problems lately not with deathly
playgrounds or electrical-thing
biting but with probably the
most dangerous thing around
the house, which is nature.
This morning, in what I hope to
be a pleasingly iconic display
of American Sunday-morning
fathering, the boys and I went
out back and found some sticks,
which, of course, make a really
cool swooooshing sound when
you whip them through the air,
no matter which father’s eye
socket may be in the immediate vicinity. And those were
STICKS! Just LYING THERE ON
THE GROUND, some of which,
I might add, were quite pointy.
So I’m not really sure what to
do about that sort of danger,
except ban nature, which would
have been a lot more likely with
a Romney victory. In the meantime, the boys and I will stick to
the spinny things.
JEFF VRABEL’S MOST DANGEROUS
TOY AS A CHILD WAS THAT
HAN SOLO FIGURINE THAT KEPT
BURSTING INTO FLAME. HE CAN BE
REACHED AT HTTP://JEFFVRABEL.
COM OR FOLLOWED AT HTTP://
TWITTER.COM/JEFFVRABEL.
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Fall River native Mike Robidoux mounts vintage paper dolls, similar to these Shirley Temple ones, on a wood
backing.
Master carpenter, Fall River native brings dolls to Durfee craft fair
Linda Murphy
Herald News Life Editor
FALL RIVER — Got chourico? If so, Mike
Robidoux is willing to barter his wares at the 36th
annual Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair at B.M.C
Durfee High School for a pound or two.
One of about 200 artists, crafters and artisans
expected at the two-day event this year, Robidoux
is heading back to his native city to sell his work
— wood-mounted vintage paper dolls — and pick
up some of the hometown fare he misses living in
Campbell, Ohio. “I thought it would be funny to see
how much I can get,” said Robidoux, who will be
bringing two empty coolers to transport the chourico
back to Ohio.
He said he’s willing to give $5 off on an item for
a pound, which costs about $3, and yes, he realizes
there’ll also be some boxes of Hoo Mee Chow Mein
offered for barter as well. He’ll give a couple bucks
off for that too. “When you leave the city, that’s the
kind of food you miss,” said Robidoux, a master
carpenter who left the city after graduating from
Durfee High in 1977.
Though his full-time work is as a carpenter,
Robidoux began collecting the vintage paper dolls
and mounting them on the wood backing 25 years
ago for a friend’s children. He cuts out the wood
backing specifically to each doll; he also has each
wardrobe piece on a slightly thinner, 1/8-inch wood
backing.
Before long, he realized they also appealed to
adults and collectors, who grew up with paper
dolls, and he began making them and selling them
at craft fairs around the country. “I was very big in
California; I don’t know how I’ll do there,” he said
of his first time selling them at the Durfee event.
“They’re very cool.”
And he said his collection of hundreds of vintage paper dolls, from which he draws to craft the
wooden items, are the ones generations of people
will remember playing with as kids: McCalls, Barbie,
Shirley Temple, and Kewpie dolls. He even customizes the paper dolls for parents or grandparents who
want their child’s or grandchild’s faces on the doll.
Shoppers at the Durfee event will have to give him
a photo or email it to him and he will customize the
face in his home studio using Photoshop to match it
to the colors and size of the doll.
The prices vary widely from about $12 to $50
depending on the sizes and the number of clothes
that have to be fit to the doll.
Robidoux is also a sculptor, but he said he probably won’t be bringing any of those pieces to this
show.
The addition of the unique paper dolls is one of
several new exhibitors at the show this year, said Jim
Rogers, fair founder and director. “We have a lot of
new, one-of-a kind items this year,” he said.
He’s expecting two potters from the Cape
Robidoux’s vintage paper dolls range from orignals like Kitty
Cucumber dolls, left, to personalized ones that he customizes
with the face of a client’s child or grandchild, right.
— Richard Seaman, of Mashpee, and Josephine
Glazebrook, of Brewster — to join the array of
crafters and artists selling pottery, jewelry, ornaments, decorative items, and knitted goods.
“It’s become a traditional Christmas event in the
city,” said Rogers, of the fair that he said attracts
about 1,000 people over the two days. “We have
people who come to it year after year and all the
money goes to scholarships.”
The 36th annual Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair
will be held at B.M.C. Durfee High School, on Dec.
1 and 2. The two-day event, sponsored by the Fall
River Scholarship Foundation, will be open from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no admission charge and
plenty of free parking. Proceeds from the fair will
be awarded in the form of scholarships to Fall River
students next June.
TELEVISION
3 TV networks airing Sandy specials on prime time tonight
NEW YORK (AP)
— Less than three weeks
after Superstorm Sandy came
ashore on the East Coast,
three television networks will
offer the chance to relive the
experience on the same night.
PBS’ “Nova” series will air
a one-hour special on Sandy
on Sunday evening, the same
night that History is sched-
uled to run “Superstorm 2012:
Hell and High Water.” The
National Geographic network
first airs its Sandy special on
Thursday but will rerun it on
Sunday night.
Two of the specials, on
PBS and National Geographic,
will directly compete with
each other Sunday at 7 p.m.
Eastern time.
ANNIVERSARIES
Couple celebrates 50 years
SANDRA AND PAUL DUMONT
Mr. and Mrs. Paul A. and
Sandra L. Dumont celebrated
their 50th wedding anniversary. They were married
Nov. 17, 1962, in the Chapel
at Francis E. Warren AFB,
Cheyenne, Wyo. Chaplain Neil
F. Enwright performed the
ceremony.
Mr. and Mrs. Dumont are
the parents of Paul V., Lisa M.
and Patricia M. of Taunton,
and Craig V. of Norton. They
have 13 grandchildren and 10
great-great grandchildren.
Mr. Dumont, 71, was born
in Taunton.
Mrs. Dumont, the former
Sandra Rezac, 67, was born in
Cheyenne, Wyo.
Mr. and Mrs. Dumont are
retired, and they enjoy traveling.
The National Geographic
special is being made by
Pioneer Productions, which
has also made the extreme
weather specials “Raging
Planet” and “The Year the
Earth Went Wild.” Producers
of “Superstorm 2012”
promise to include home
video, news footage and computer recreations to tell the
WEDDINGS
storm’s story and its effect on
people.
History turned to a British
production team to make its
special, which was initially
scheduled for an hour but cut
back to 30 minutes. Scientists
and meteorologists are interviewed to discuss how the
storm formed, along with
people who lived through it.
Hart-Paull
SOMERSET — Allison
Hart and Justin Paull were
married August 10, 2012
at St. Patrick’s Church in
Somerset. A reception followed at the Fall River
Country Club.
Maid of honor was
Katelyn Raby, sister of the
bride, and Alex Paull served
as best man for his brother.
Allison, a social worker
for the Department of
Children and Families, is
the daughter of William and
Sandra Hart of Somerset.
Justin, son of Allyn and
Joanne Paull of Taunton,
is a quality assurance manager at Pierce Aluminum
in Franklin, MA. Allison
and Justin are graduates of Framingham State
University.
The couple honey-
“Nova” also shows storm
footage but spends time
on the question of whether
superstorms are becoming
more frequent and what can
be done to protect coastlines.
It airs directly before a Ken
Burns special, “The Dust
Bowl,” about another extreme
atmospheric event.
BIRTHS
Brittany Austin and Julius
Rosario of Brockton, announce
the birth of their son, Javien, Oct.
27, 2012, at Signature Healthcare
Brockton Hospital.
Jennifer Robbins and Andrew
Gonsalves, of Assonet, MA,
announce the birth of their
daughter, Lauren Rebecca
Gonsalves, Sept. 22, 2012, weight
and length 7 lbs, 7 oz; 21” long,
at Women & Infants Hospital,
Providence, RI
MR. AND MRS. JUSTIN PAULL
(ALLISON HART)
now living in Taunton, Ma.
Michelle and Charles Tuffile,
of Dighton, announce the birth of
their daughter, Celia Juliet Tuffile,
Sept. 30, 2012, weight and length:
7.11 lbs, 19 in.
They are also the parents of
Cami 10, Tucker 8, Hollis 6, and
Stuart 3.
Paternal grandparents are Fred
and Conni Tuffile, of Lakeville, MA.
Maternal grandparents are
Arthur and Barbara Gauthier, of
Taunton, MA.
Maternal great grandmother is
Mary Westgate.