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Mattel CEO: 'Rigorous standards' after massive toy recall

The CEO of Mattel Inc. insisted Tuesday that his company has "rigorous standards" and apologized as the company was forced to recall millions of toys for the second time in two weeks.

The toys were manufactured in China.

The recall, which was announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, affects about 9.5 million toys in the United States, and 11 million in foreign countries.

It is the largest in recent months involving Chinese products, which have come under scrutiny worldwide for containing potentially dangerous high levels of chemicals and toxins.

"We are concerned," Mattel Chief Executive Officer Bob Eckert told CNN. "With respect to the specifics of this recall, Mattel was investigating the earlier recall, and discovered this one as well."

By www.cnn.com 

Here it is again, another Elvis Week.

I can't stand it.

I've got nothing against celebrating Elvis -- his music and his influence are well worth honoring, and not just for one week a year. What I have trouble with is the Elvis who seems to take over during Elvis Week, the one safe for tourist consumption: the spangled Elvis, the overly sideburned Elvis, the fat Elvis.

The caricature Elvis. The joke.

Somewhere along the way the standard image of Elvis ceased to be the vital, virile, dangerous singer who turned popular music on its ear back in the '50s. Instead, he became the lug who padded his career with all those crummy movies. (Colonel Tom Parker, that old con man, always wanted Elvis to be softer and usually got his way -- and Elvis deferred all too often.) Yeah, people remember the 1968 comeback and the tremendous live shows of the early '70s, but ask people today to describe Elvis Aron Presley and I'll bet the word "jumpsuit" is one of the first out of their mouths.

("It's a lot easier to do Vegas Elvis," a professor told me for an article five years ago.)

Anyway, I'd rather listen to "Hound Dog." And "Trying to Get to You." And "Little Sister." And "Guitar Man." And "Crying in the Chapel." Yes, the man could be a complete hammy showman -- you can't stay No. 1 through danger and charisma alone, which explains "Don't Cry Daddy" and "Way Down" -- but Elvis was much deeper than that.

So, if you're in Memphis, enjoy the Elvis gimcrackery and approved consumer tie-ins. But take in some struggling bluesman, too -- or a solid country band. Otherwise, joke Elvis wins. 

Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer

I would be remiss, on the sad occasion of his death, if I didn't offer a tribute to the literary excellence of that poet of the broadcast booth, Phil Rizzuto.

What? You didn't know the Scooter was not just an American League MVP and multiple World Series winner -- not to mention the play-by-play caller in Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" (the sexual connotations of which, allegedly, caught Rizzuto by surprise) -- but a published poet?

Thanks to Tom Peyer and Hart Seely, he is. In 1997, the pair published "O Holy Cow" (Ecco), a collection of verse based on calls, comments and non-sequiturs Rizzuto had made during games. A sampling:

"A little high./Two balls/No strikes.//Riverview Medical Center/Is down the Jersey shore.//Three balls/No strikes." ("F.Y.I.")

"Bobby Thigpen out there./Number thirty-seven./That's the guy in the Peanuts cartoon./Pigpen./That's a joke./That guy in Peanuts with Charlie Brown./He's always dirty./Oh yeah./Every day./Orphan Annie./You know,/She hasn't changed in thirty-two years." ("Forever Young")

"O it was always intense./Just as you said/And it was not a regular/Not a regular game at all./It was every game meant so much,/You know,/One seemed to top the other." ("Remember When")

Lemme tell ya Scooter, the next time I'm in New York, I'll take a drive over the bridge to a place like Fair Lawn to get a cannoli. And I will listen to a game. And I will remember.

Todd Leopold, CNN.com Entertainment Producer