Baby Name News!

It's like Christmas has come early!! My favorite baby name experts Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz have a new website!!!

It's AWESOME. Check it out!! Go now!! It's called NAMEBERRY!

http://nameberry.com/

Check out the great blog, and search your favorite names to hear some great commentary. My favorite feature of their books has always been the brilliant lists. Rather than just offering an alphabetical listing of names with their meanings, Savran and Rosenkrantz group names by their style, tone, popularity, or reputation.

One of the most fun new lists is the Coolator. It gives Uncool, Cool, and Cooler versions of a variety of common names. For example: Avis, Ava, Avery. The Exoticizer works similarly: as in Andrew, Andre, Andreas. The Dada Drummer generally disapproves of the "cooler" and "exotic-er" names (ie Stephanie, Stella, Story AND Sarah, Zara, Zahara) but enjoys the lists nonetheless!

Use these tools, reade! There is no excuse for rotten baby name choices now!

Words of the Week

And the award for the BEST PHRASE I have heard this week goes to....

PIE CRACKERS

Isn't that the most amazing set of syllables! It sounds like a yummy treat, a white rap group, and an exclamation all at the same time. Let's use it in a sentence, shall we?

"Holy Pie Crackers! I can't believe you ate all the pie crackers while listening to that awful new Pie Crackers song."

It totally works!!

Thanks Lolly (and Lundy!!) for that new addition to my vocabulary. It makes me very giddy!

The Dada Drummer is an Ace of Cakes

That's right. I can TOTALLY decorate cakes. I learned it from TV, the shiny box in my living room that also taught me to build a chopper, design high fashion, decorate rooms, train dogs, sell antiques, style hair, and race around the world. Thank you, TV!

But back to my cake decorating skills. Which are awesome.

My best friend Special K just had a birthday. I don't want to be indiscreet by revealing his age, but I can tell you that his party theme was "42". That's the name of a super fun domino game that old men play in Texas. Old men, plus the Dada Drummer's friends.

In the game 42 (did I mention it's super fun?) each player pulls seven dominoes. So for Special K's birthday, I made seven domino cakes.

The dots are mini-oreos and the lines are squares of hershey bar. I'm SUCH a sugar artist!

And, just for the record, I gave him a REALLY GOOD hand of dominoes! Happy Birthday, Special K!

T-Shirt Awesomeness

Oh. My. Lost.

Someone buy me this. Now.

Name that Alumni!

The alumni magazine for a Green and Gold university in my neighborhood came to my mailbox today. The Dada Drummer is interested in only one section of such publications: baby announcements. Sometimes there are acceptable names in the list. Usually they offend. Here are some choice selections from the recent issue...

Good:
Audrey
Gracie
Elijah

Bad:
Corbin
Brendon
Makaylee
Harper Reese

I'd love to get reports of bad names from the alumni magazines on your coffee table!