Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Sun Lite for Dec. 15, 2003

Lisa Ferguson

Monday, Dec. 15, 2003 | 8:16 a.m.

Destined for the Garbage

There are check marks beside the names of nearly all of the ingrates, er, beloved family members and friends on your holiday gift-giving list - save for the few for whom, year after agonizing year, selecting presents is tantamount to playing a round of mental Twister.

Never fear: Sun Lite is here with gift ideas for the impossible-to-buy-for set. Got a buddy who, while a ton of fun at parties, insists on ignoring advice to "Grow up, already"? Give him or her back a piece of their childhood via a pack of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards.

Anyone who was a kid in the 1980s will remember these gross-out card packs, which poked fun at the equally gross Cabbage Patch Kid doll craze of the decade. The cards featured cartoon drawings of fictional kids whose names described their various bathroom-humor afflictions: Nose Drip Skip, Monte Zuma, Vomi-Ted, Impaled Gail and Snotty Lottie and the like. Trading the cards during school-recess breaks was all the rage.

Following a 15-year hiatus, collectible-card-and-novelty-candy maker Topps has resurrected the Garbage Pail Kids, adding some new tykes to the disgusting lineup, including Zitty Whitney, Harry Potty and Phat Phil. Each pack of cards costs 99 cents and includes a piece of green gum; they can be purchased at a multitude of retail outlets (including hobby stores) nationwide.

Getting the brush off

Magazine subscriptions as gifts are so p. But a subscription where the recipient gets a brand-spankin'-new toothbrush in the mail every so often - that's, well, incredibly odd.

Nevertheless, that's the deal being offered on www.toothbrushexpress.com. Select a favorite toothbrush brand - all of the biggies, including Colgate, Oral-B, Reach, Sonicare and Mentadent, are available - and one will be delivered on a schedule (monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or semi-annually) determined by the purchaser. Other hygienic items including dental floss, picks and tongue scrapers can be added to orders.

The cost of each subscription depends on the type - electric, battery-operated or manual; child or adult - and brand of brush that's chosen, as well as accessories and delivery frequency. An annual subscription for a manual brush that arrives quarterly, for example, is less than $12.25.

Also available on the site: info about the company's "Save the Planet One Toothbrush at a Time" recycling program - old brushes are turned into park benches, planters and decking, but never new brushes. What else are you going to do with used toothbrushes? Unlike outdated magazines, you can't exactly pile them on the coffee table to collect dust.

Picture this

For the pal who has problems letting go of the past - be it relationships, fashions, the California Gold Rush or the women's suffrage movement - consider visiting www.PictureHistory.com to order an item emblazoned with a photo of an event, person or place from days gone by.

The site breaks its massive collection of famous (though mostly obscure) snapshots into numerous, broad categories including "Architecture and Buildings," where a black-and-white photo of banker J. Pierpont Morgan's New York manse, circa 1904, can be plastered on a mousepad for $9.99.

Find the "Social Conditions" category and click on "Toys" - that's where a 1909 baby picture of President Lyndon Johnson clutching his teddy bear resides, just waiting to be stamped on a T-shirt ($16.95). Ponder the Reconstruction Era while sipping java from a mug ($12.95) adorned with an 1865 photo of rations being distributed to Richmond, Va.. residents following the Civil War.