Where to go for weird Father's Day gifts?

June 8, 2009 10:20 AM

Father's Day is coming up! Fast! My dad loves really bizarre, silly and off-the-wall stuff. A little morbid is also good (he was pleased as punch when I gave him a strawberry-flavored gummy human heart), but not required. I've given him surprise boxes from Archie McPhee before (which he loved), but I'd like to find him something even different-er this year. Where should I shop?

If it helps: my 50-something-year-old dad doesn't fit the Hallmark mold for American fathers. He doesn't care about football or beer. He shares cooking and household chores with my mom. This is a CS Lewis-reading, science program-watching, Norah Jones (okay, and the Monkees)-listening nerd who's still a kid inside.

posted by katillathehun to shopping (8 comments total)

I gave this taxidermied Hamlet mouse as a gift, once. It's really cool, if you're not grossed out by that kind of thing. On seeing it, a friend went out and got one for herself.

(It's hard to tell in the photo, but it has a little cape.)
posted by penchant at 10:30 AM on June 8 [3 favorites]

American Science and Surplus is a great online store for slightly geeky, unusual or useful trinkets. Perhaps lacking in the morbidity dept, but you said he watches science programs and helps around the house :)
posted by Joh at 10:48 AM on June 8

Cool + Morbid + Your General Area = NECROMANCE.

You can order stuff from them online, but since you live in Los Angeles, you might as well swing by their two locations on Melrose (they're a few doors apart from one another). One location is gothy/Victorian/strange, and the other is all dead animals (taxidermy, bones, etc.).
posted by Parasite Unseen at 12:03 PM on June 8 [1 favorite]

Neat store that sells fun items online.
posted by alteredcarbon at 12:36 PM on June 8

There aer good suggestions in this big listing of interesting online stores from a few years ago.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:22 PM on June 8

Ebola tie! Gonorrhea boxers!

My dad LOVES his. (We should probably get our dads together.)
posted by Madamina at 5:59 PM on June 8

J-Box has some unusual stuff and foods (J-List is the accompanying site with more adult products).
posted by birdsquared at 10:56 PM on June 8

My dad would totally love the ebola tie, and I see lots of other items he'd dig on those sites, too. Thanks for the help!
posted by katillathehun at 11:08 AM on June 9