Guest Column

YAMS IS KID'S PLAY

by Michael Vallins
Wednesday, July 6, 2005

Inventors dance and spar with ingenuity and nowhere more so perhaps than in the world of toys. The fertile and inquisitive mind of a child provides a playing field for those who, while not children, can still see that which inspires and intrigues and piques the interest of the young.  It is indeed an art form and sometimes there comes along a new idea that potentially joins the gallery with Lego, Barbie, Meccano, Play-Doh and the hula-hoop.

An ingenious toy that I believe will be in that line-up one day is YAMS, a creative building system, comprising colourful pieces of foam which interconnect to build forts, costumes, and just about anything imaginable. It has a free-form capability, allowing the hole-filled, flat foam pieces to be joined together with tubes of the same material — Plastazote, soft and safe, non-toxic and washable, nonflammable and recyclable. After play all the pieces in the kit fold together to form a carrying case which then makes for easy storage.

The creator, Amy Koudelka, recently graduated from Humber College, Toronto, in Industrial design. The idea for YAMS came while teaching a summer school art class for children. This idea transformed to reality at the Rocket Industrial Design Show and Competition, Toronto, Canada, winning three awards including first place in the "Just For Children" category.  Since then Amy’s YAMS has been featured on number of television programs and will be a part of the Design Exchanges Commercialization Project.

It needs to be seen to be appreciated, so to learn more about YAMS, visit -- www.yamsthetoy.com-- the colours and the creative possibilities are dazzling.

The Name of the Dish Doesn’t Jive, Grumble

I am unashamedly a curry connoisseur and a Chinese food aficionado. Being single, I tend to lean towards take-out, rather than hoard a cupboard shelf of spices and make it myself. Indeed, I have tried and I am not good. I also like Greek, Sri Lankan, and Korean food, among a host of others.

My grumble is of late — if a dish is called Beef and Noodles, or Shrimp and Rice, why is there so little of the Beef or Shrimp? Have you noticed how the rice or noodles are piled into the polystyrene container, you think they’ll never stop — why is it piled in? Because that portion of the container is comparable to an elephant and a mouse in comparison to the beef or shrimp slots.  The last time I had beef curry there were just four pieces and they were all on the bone. I haven’t been back to that take-out, but I will, just to tell him why.

We professional takeouters need to assert ourselves. Next time I’ll order Elephant and Mouse without the noodles.

Michael Vallins is a freelance columnist living in Toronto.