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A complete, cuddly history of the Teddy Bear

When Theodore Roosevelt came upon a bear that was trapped (or some reports say he was tied) to a tree, his hunting party urged him to shoot the animal. The U.S. President would have none of it. He insisted it wouldn't be sporting. A newspaper subsequently published a cartoon depicting the incident. Spurred by the cartoon, which showed Roosevelt turning his back (and his gun) away from a cute little bear cub, an enterprising entrepreneur made a fuzzy toy and dubbed it "Teddy's Bear." That was 1902 and it was Christmas, and the entrepreneur, a man named Morris Michtom, eventually established a toy empire, largely built on what would be called the teddy bear. A little bit of housekeeping: Roosevelt's hunting...

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A complete History of the Bean Bag Chair

Pizza, eyeglasses, the ice cream cone. All wonderful things, right? You can thank the Italians for those three items. The bean bag chair too. The first bean bag chair was invented fifty years ago by three Italians for a company called Sacco in 1968. A lot has changed since that first bean bag was mass produced. Today, most sensible people realize that it's much better to rest on a chair filled with foam. Beans aren't worth a hill of beans when it comes to seating. The First Bean Bag Chair Piero Gatti, Cesare Paolini and Franco Teodoro were commissioned by Sacco in 1968 to design a new type of chair that would appeal to a young demographic that desired new...

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