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April 2, 2004

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q.  She's 40-something though ageless, still a teenager after all these years, first conceived in the U.S. yet sprung to life in Japan after World War II, today reborn at the rate of two a second, 60 million a year, her bodystuff from Saudi Arabia, nylon hair from Japan, cotton dresses from China, brought together in places like Indonesia and Malaysia, making her truly a "global citizen" found in 140 countries around the world.  Who is she?

    A.  She's Barbie, the most profitable toy in history, reaping her creator California-based Mattel Corporation well over a billion dollars in annual revenues though Barbie was never made in the U.S., say Anthony Giddens et al. in "Introduction to Sociology."  Only her cardboard packaging and some of her paints have been U.S.-made, exemplifying manufacturing in the "global commodity chain."


     
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