My favorites are the dart coat hooks and the weird eyeball one. (As always, click on the pic for more info.) Now you tell me, where do you hang your hat?

The knobs, casing and antenna knob in this delightfully retro AM/FM radio (with mp3 hookups, no less) are all made from uncoated sustainably-grown new growth wood, and for every tree used in production, a new one is planted to take its place. Did I mention that it’s handcrafted in an Indonesian farming village? That makes it cute and quaint, for those with first-world guilt. Sure, you have to rub it down with some oil now and again, but that’s a small price to pay for great design. Well, those periodic rub-downs and $250, the going price.

If, however, $250 seems a bit much to pay for a radio, may I recommend something somewhat similar that’s a tad less expensive but no less beautiful.

When the holidays roll around, thousands if not millions of people decide that there’s nothing their loved ones want more than the gadgets they saw in infomercials and on the discount shelves of their local supermarkets. Why this is, I cannot guess. The end result is that people who prefer that their kitchen tools perform multiple tasks have to grin and say things like, “Why, how thoughtful…I’m sure we’ll find somewhere to put it.”

Do yourself a favor and don’t saddle anyone on your holiday gift list with these:

At my house, we make an awesome pizza in this pizza cooker we like to call “an oven.” Fans of dedicated pizza cookers say that they make a better pizza faster, but the only place I could put something this unwieldy happens to be exactly where The Beard rolls out his homemade dough. And I love homemade dough too much to make that sacrifice.

Um…should I be glad that there is now a product that makes combining boiling water and dry pasta even easier? Because I’m really not…unlike the actors on the infomercial, I’m able to handle uncooked pasta without spilling it everywhere.

I guess you could put this iced tea maker right next to your coffee maker. Then the people who like hot coffee could have it and the people who like iced tea could have it…but what about the people who like hot tea or iced coffee? I guess you’ll be needing some bigger counters!

An automatic egg cooker? I can honestly say I’ve never had any problems cooking eggs, but for all I know I’m in the minority. Still, spend a little time experimenting in the kitchen and this product becomes utterly pointless.

Okay, so this avocado slicer looks kind of cool and can be neatly stowed away in a drawer along with your mini butane torch, corn zipper, and biscuit cutter. But some of us already have an avocado slicer…I call mine The Beard.

Before you buy the latest gadget for your own kitchen or someone else’s, ask yourself, “Can it only make or do one thing?” The ask, “Can the same task be performed with something most people already own?” There are, for example, electric quesadilla makers and hot dog steamers out there when a quality pan can both make quesadillas and steam hot dogs.

What’s the most useless kitchen tool you’ve received?