# Hello Kitty **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 21, 1999, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084 "1999-12-21T19:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/1 "1999-12-21T19:39:00Z")
## Did anyone else have this stuff as a kid? I remember our mall had a whole Hello Kitty store. My sister used to buy me all these teeny tiny pencils and pads of paper, colored pens, markers, purses, candy. All sorts of Hello Kitty stuff. I loved it! Zette [http://auctions.yahoo.com/40009-category-leaf.html](http://auctions.yahoo.com/40009-category-leaf.html) Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high. Not enough and you’re gonna die… [Click here for some GOOD news for a change](http://www.binghamtonpress.com/binghamtonnews/local/Sanews5.html)[Zettecity](http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/2 "1999-12-21T19:47:00Z")
Oh, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!! Not the DREADED Hello Kitty crap !! ## My sister used to have ALL their stuff. I can give you her e-mail, if you wish. Please leave me out of it, I beg of you… Coldfire * * * “You know how complex women are” - Neil Peart, Rush (1993) ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/3 "1999-12-21T19:49:00Z")
They **have** a Hello Kitty store in the Mall of America right now. 1980: My best friend in sixth grade was obsessed with Hello Kitty. I never saw the appeal. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/4 "1999-12-21T20:10:00Z")
[The Official Sanrio Website - Home of Hello Kitty!](http://sanrio.com/) [SANRIO Come on, Join us!](http://kitty.sanrio.co.jp/english/welcome.html) * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/5 "1999-12-21T20:14:00Z")
Poo, just when I thought I had this code thing memorized. [The Official Sanrio Website - Home of Hello Kitty](http://sanrio.com/) [SANRIO Come On, Join Us](http://kitty.sanrio.co.jp/english/welcome.html) * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/6 "1999-12-21T20:18:00Z")
Hello Kitty is still pretty big here, in South Carolina–even our rinky little mall has a store. My friend Adam described Hello Kitty best when he said “Americans created the idea of bastardizing the cuteness of something for profit, but the Japanese are so much better at it than us!” ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/7 "1999-12-21T20:18:00Z")
[Hello Kitty Has No Mouth](http://www.greenet.com/~brion/hellokitty/index.html) * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ThisYearsGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@ThisYearsGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisYearsGirl)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/8 "1999-12-21T20:19:00Z")
Hello Kitty is still pretty big here, in South Carolina–even our rinky little mall has a store. My friend Adam described Hello Kitty best when he said “Americans created the idea of the warping the cuteness of something for profit, but the Japanese are so much better at it than us!” ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/9 "1999-12-21T20:22:00Z")
Woo, I’m sandwiched between a simulpost. That’s never happened to me before 🙂 * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![eden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@eden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eden)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/10 "1999-12-21T21:24:00Z")
Oh, since I don’t know anyone IRL, I can say…I actually like Hello Kitty stuff, even though I’m about eighteen times too old to admit it to my peers. They have a character called Badtz Maru, who I called Bad-Ass Chicken until I found out he’s a penguin. I love this character, he has this flat, sort of pissed-off look I find anomalous in the cutesy figurine world. I have several little note pads and a squeezy stress toy in this character. I have a Hello Kitty change purse. People always snicker when I whip it out to pay for my pornos (just kidding!). But they do snicker. ---
**Author:** ![MadPoet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@MadPoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadPoet)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/11 "1999-12-21T21:28:00Z")
There is a Hello Kitty store in a dead mall in the Portland suburbs… kinda a step down from the Mall Of America. But it’s there. * * * [http://www.madpoet.com](http://www.madpoet.com) Computers have let mankind make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns. ---
**Author:** ![Gr8Kat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gr8kat/32/18668_2.png) [@Gr8Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gr8Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/12 "1999-12-21T21:36:00Z")
MadPoet, which mall is that? You can also buy Hello Kitty stuff at Uwajimaya (on the Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway across from Burger King). It’s an Asian grocery store, book store, gift shop, Japanese restaurant, and travel agency all in one, and it’s Hello Kitty and Pokemon central. I could spend all day there. (I love Japanese candy.) * * * “I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy [The Kat House](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/home.htm) [Join the FSH Webring](http://members.aol.com/gr8kat1/KatGen/fshwebring.htm) ---
**Author:** ![eden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@eden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eden)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/13 "1999-12-21T21:41:00Z")
…And did I mention I also like Pokemons? orangecakes, wherever you are, I still giggle over your comment in the School Shootings thread, “it was caused by pokemons.” That has become my stock explanation. ---
**Author:** ![missdavis102](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@missdavis102](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missdavis102)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/14 "1999-12-21T21:42:00Z")
I love the Hello Kitty stuff too. My faves are Pekkle the duck, Picke Bicke the mouse, Pippo the pig, and of course Badtz Maru the pissed off penguin. I’m starting to get into the Chococat, but I don’t want my house to get all full of cat items, so it’s ‘proceed with caution’. I may be getting too old to really enjoy it - I was in the local store a week ago and only managed to spend $13. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/15 "1999-12-21T21:49:00Z")
We have sanrio stores in the malls here in Western WA too. * * * Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/16 "1999-12-21T21:51:00Z")
I love Hello Kitty stuff, although I don’t actually have any of my own. I bought some stuff for deprived kids for Christmas, and one of the things I got was a Hello Kitty nail art kit. I love Badtz Maru and Choco Cat. Hello Kitty is sold almost everywhere here in Tampa. As far as Pokemon goes, I think Pikachu is cute, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/17 "1999-12-21T22:04:00Z")
Anyone else notice that Hello Kitty looks sorta like Leonardo Di Caprio? Or that Pogo bears an eerie resemblance to David Duchovny? ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/18 "1999-12-21T22:22:00Z")
I think Zippy the Pinhead ™ put it best: > [@](#): > > “Hello Kitty sent my parents to an Argentinian re-education camp!” * * * **Launcher may train without warning.** ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/19 "1999-12-21T23:09:00Z")
HUGE stores in Japan - as you might imagine! * * * The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those who got there first. ---
**Author:** ![eden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f9b8f/32.png) [@eden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eden)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084/20 "1999-12-21T23:46:00Z")
There’s a series of wacky Berlitz-type travel language books called Wicked Spanish, French, etc… In the Japanese book, there was a series of phrases that went something like: [Japanese phrase here]: Your house has such good energy! [Ditto]: In the garden, the sound of the fountain brings serenity to my spirit. [Ditto]: And in the living room, I am struck by the Hello Kitty motif. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hello-kitty/13084.md?page=2)