My favorite thing in the world as a kid was the Johnson Smith catalog, a one-stop home for bugs in ice cubes, rubber snakes, and switchblade combs.

The company is still around, and is still selling the awesome, but it's tough to recapture the retro charm of an ad like this one.

I sent away for one thing from Johnson Smith: the X-Ray Specs. Sadly, I never received them. Probably because I ignored the instructions to send "check or money order only" and instead put six quarters into an envelope. But one thing was always maddening in its allure: the "Surprise Box." What could possibly be in it?! Well, surplus inventory and other crap, but the mystery was irresistible anyway.

That's why I fell head over heels for the Something Store. For $10, they'll send you "an item selected randomly among many things from our inventory."

I am so all over this.

UPDATE: It was an egg with seeds inside, which you crack open and then grow in a little planter.

Dan
(writing projects and current releases)