In the market for a new angel?

I wrote earlier about wanting to take some surreptitious photos of some of the ugly objects we encounter at the markets we go to for our Pomegranate shops. Yet, I'm not very clever with the cell phone camera and can't exactly ask permission from some of the vendors. It would go like this: "Hi, do you mind if, for fun, I take a picture of your lamp shaped like a frog with scary bulging eyes, who's holding onto a plastic hot-air balloon suspended above a murky pond?" That lamp, friends, exists on this planet. Luckily I got a catalog in the mail the other day with some great examples of the worst. This is some dreck I can share with you, all four of my readers. We love (and hate) this stuff. Hate it because it's such a waste of energy and money and resources and is so useless. Love it because when we go back to our hotel at night after a long day of market, it makes us laugh sometimes to the point of tears running down our faces (it's not that funny, but we're usually blithering idiots after the fifth day of ten-hour days at market).

So there's mommy angel above left, harmless enough. She's resin, multi-colored in every pastel there is, made in China, and impossible to dust. Let's hope that your Aunt Gertie doesn't buy her for you (suggested retail $40) when you have your first child. Then there's "Gooooaaaaaaal!" above right. Even Hummel doesn't have this one. Then we have the little fireman, the little golfer and Opie in his little scooter car. Notice something odd here? Something slightly disturbing? The mom angels are all demurely dressed, the picture of sweetness. The dad angels, on the other hand, are shirtless, all ripped abs and glorious in their blondness. Not to mention the fabulous gold bracelets and romanesque cinch belts. Oh my.