In the town of Secaucus, New Jersey (which we like because it suggests a high-level meeting about oceans), there is a place where dreams are made—dreams of fully licensed, if slightly scuffed, design classics. We imagine this place to be at all times filled with directionally bespectacled people, many of whom as infants were soothed not by kitschy musical mobiles but by the comforting presence of a George Nelson Ball Clock. This place is the Design Within Reach Annex, which tomorrow kicks off a two-day warehouse sale (restocked daily, they assure us). And it's not just for people with cars and/or the ability to locate Secaucus on a map! DWR is running a free shuttle bus from its Manhattan studio, which on the hour will whisk you to a 12,000-square-foot discount design wonderland teeming with "non-pristine" furnishings discounted up to 70% off retail price. As for carting that dinged Saarinen table home, you can arrange for delivery. DWR advises you to bring both a tape measure and an open mind.

Banana splits. Sure, we've seen them in photos, TV shows, and comic books (where they qualify as a food group), but we've never seen anyone eat one in person. Maybe we're hanging around with the wrong people or maybe, just maybe, banana splits require too much effort to prepare, what with the procuring and peeling of the banana(s), the scooping of the ice cream just so, the artful drizzling of the chocolate syrup, and don't even get us started on the whipped cream. Enter "Banana Splitters," frozen bite-sized banana slices filled with chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry non-fat frozen yogurt and covered in dark chocolate.

This no fuss, no muss taste treat is the creation of the 13-member Virginia Tech Food Science and Technology Product Development Team, who entered it in the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) product development competition. Their frozen confection was one of six finalists and earned the team a grant to attend last month's IFT Annual Meeting and Food Expo in New Orleans. One judging panel rated it a 7.6 on a sensory scale of 9. "That is between 'likes moderately' and 'likes very much'," said Annie Aigster, a Viriginia Tech doctoral candidate in human nutrition, foods, and exercise. The team is now working on licensing and patenting Banana Splitters. And to think they almost went with another idea. "We briefly considered slices of cream cheese packaged in an edible film," said John Koontz, a recent Ph.D. graduate in food science and technology who snapped the photo at left (in which the background split is missing both whipped cream and cherries). "But people spread different thicknesses of cream cheese on their bagels."

We love a sale, and with the exception of a Ralph Rucci sample sale (which we're pretty sure exist only in our wildest dreams), our favorites take place at the handful of Philippe Starck-designed Taschen bookstores scattered around the globe (the newest is slated to open in Miami Beach late next year). And so, what with the impending solstice, Taschen warehouse sale time is again upon us, having started today for those lucky enough to be in Cologne, Germany or Paris. The stateside sales (at the Taschen emporiums in Beverly Hills, Hollywood, and New York) begin tomorrow morning and run through Sunday, offering beautiful books of "art, anthropology, and aphrodesia" priced at 50% to 75% off. Come early and wear your game face, because we might look sweet, but we will totally jump you for the last discounted display copy of Contemporary Graphic Design.

Now up for bid on eBay are HP laptops that PC Magazine commissioned nine artists and designers to give extreme makeovers -- think metal, spray paint, patent leather, and (in one instance) what appear to be mounds of colorful gumballs. Proceeds from "The Computerlicious Design Experience" auction, which runs through Monday, will benefit the National Cristina Foundation, a nonprofit organization that matches donated computer equipment with needy schools and nonprofit organizations. "We wanted to work with a select yet varied group of artists that would deliver creative, fun, and exciting works of art," PC Magazine editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff tells us. And it's quite a group: Shepard Fairey, fashion label DDCLAB, Paul Frank Industries, graffitist and street muralist de la Vega, handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff, Epiphany Media founder Coltrane Curtis, shoe design firm Matt Bernson Design, sculptor Peter Harper, and queen of interiors Suzan Fellman.

"The laptops had to be fully functional," says Ulanoff. "But otherwise the designers were not limited -- as you can see by the wide range of designs on the computers." Fairey's (current high bid: $1,150.00) has a decoupage-like flair that extends to the keyboard, while Minkoff's (current bid: $1,525.00) comes with its own smart handbag, a laptop-sized scaling up of her wildly popular "Morning After Bag." Fellman adorned her machine, an HP Pavilion dv6500t currently at $1,375.00, with a whimsical horse graphic that is repeated on the included carrying case. But who needs a bag with the laptop designed by Roberto Crivello and Savania Davies-Keiller of DDCLAB (now at $2,550.00)? They've wrapped HP's "Dragon" laptop in handcrafted leather. The big winner so far, however, is the Paul Frank-designed machine. Plastered with the lovable face of Julius the monkey, it has climbed from a starting bid of 99 cents to its current selling price of $3,333.33.

What do you get when you put three design-minded Bostonians into an 118-year-old former movie theater that is also now home to an environmental design studio and an architectural firm? Something grand -- more specifically, a store called Grand nestled in Somerville's historic Union Square neighborhood. Opened in January by Jonathan O'Toole (CEO and operations manager), Wendy Friedman (chief merchandiser), and Adam Larson (creative director), Grand brings to the Boston area a unique combination of art, commerce, and style. The founding trio, who met while working at Rykodisc, share a love for discovering contemporary home furnishings, apparel, and gifts by independent designers, and they happen to work well as a retail team. "Wendy is a master when it comes to finding new, cool, and unique products," O'Toole tells us. "Adam has an eye for design that is simply amazing. Plus, at the end of the day we're all good friends. We know each others like, dislikes, and generally trust each other to make good choices and decisions."

Designed by Larson, the store's look falls on a continuum spanning art gallery and cabinet of curiousities, with walls enlivened by two massive vinyl installations of a horse and the surface of the moon. As for what's moving most quickly off of Grand's mod shelves, SuckUK's SunJar (the solar-powered LED light in a Mason jar, originally designed by Tobias Wong) is the current top seller, O'Toole says, "closely followed by these cool screen-printed posters of Boston designed by Ork Posters" and clothing by such lines as Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and FluffyCo, the maker of O'Toole's favorite birds of prey-printed hoodie. Next up for the store is online shopping capabilities, new furniture and lighting pieces, and continued collaboration with clothing lines that O'Toole describes as "unique to the Boston market." Grand is also gearing up for its first ever sale, this Friday and Saturday, and O'Toole promises plentiful savings and Harpoon Ale to UnBeige readers who stop by this Friday night. After a few drinks, you won't be able to resist taking home a discounted litter of Harry Allen piglets.

As all of our friends jet off to Milan, we're pretending to be in London, where today Egyptian-flavored department store Harrods begins its "Design Icons" series of events, in-store displays, and great lectures. The all-around celebration of "the leading designers and their products which have burned an impression on the collective consciousness over the past half century" runs through May 24, and true to form, the store's operative question is, "How many of these infamous products do you own?"

The design objects making the icon cut include the Dyson vacuum, the yo-yo, the Castaglionis' Arco lamp, the Swiss Army Knife, and the Etch-a-Sketch (which coincidentally, is what we use to draft UnBeige posts). Then we noticed the curious Evian bottle designed by Christian Lacroix. Produced in a limited edition of 99, the "Lacroix Ice Queen" bottle was inspired by a red wedding dress worn by Madonna. "I gave the silhouette of a princess, a goddess, or a mythical creature, a sort of snow fairy in couture garb," muses Lacroix on the Harrods website. "Crowned with flowers, bejewelled with crystals, 'wearing' the familiar range of jagged peaks and ridges, like the flounces of a crinoline." This bottle (which will be auctioned for charity with a starting bid of £1000) might have been designed to hold Evian, but it reminds us of another liquid-filled lady, one available at your local supermarket, and for a considerably sweeter price: Mrs. Butterworth!

Like Christmas and Gary Coleman's birthday (which is today--he's 40!), the Moss Warehouse Sale happens just once a year. Dear UnBeige readers, it is upon us. Tomorrow morning, design-minded bargain shoppers will make their way to Soho (76 Greene Street, to be precise), just down the street from Moss' perpetually full-priced design emporium. At the stroke of 11am, usually calm, placid, black-garbed urbanites wearing all manner of interesting eyewear will jostle their peers for selected items from the Moss warehouse (which we always picture like Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, complete with Comme des Garcons-clad Oompa Loompas) priced at 25% to 70% off.

The store cautions that "items may be slightly damaged, dusty, or otherwise past their sell-by date," but hey, chalk it up to your fancy for that lived-in, wabi sabi look (viva patina!). The sale runs through Sunday at 6pm, but note that it's a first-come-first-served situation (translation: get there early), and all sales are final. We're bringing along a Ted Muehling candlestick to fend off the hoards!

Now that Kidrobot has had some time to both relax on the slopes and enjoy the sun that shines perpetually on its newly opened Miami store, it's back in expasion mode. The company has just announced its collaboration with Schifter + Partners (former owners of LeSportsac) to produce a handbag and accessories collection that will debut this fall, WWD reports. Here's what will be hitting shelves:

The Kidrobot accessories collection with Schifter + Partners includes two groups, one in nylon and the other in canvas. The nylon styles retail from $45 to $275 and feature the Kidrobot Grid and Toy Pile-up prints. The 12 styles include duffles, totes, and backpacks on which three Kidrobot toys -- the Smorkin' Labbit, Mini Munny, and Yummy Breakfast -- attach to the side. The accessories include cosmetics cases and electronic cases for cell phones and iPods.

The cotton canvas group retails from $25 to $125. Eight styles come available in black, brown, and magenta. Each bag and small accessory is decorated with the Kidrobot print in reflective silver ink. One toy is attached to the side.

Kidrobot plans to keep tight control of the line's distribution and update the collection frequently. "Our products are always changing and our store is always changing its great design," Kidrobot founder Paul Budnitz told WWD. "There's almost nothing that we've done that hasn't sold out, eventually."

Can't make it to Compostmodern tomorrow? Us neither. (We'll be busy here in New York, putting the finishing touches on a festive, dreamy Martin Luther King Day pastry and reading Alissa's updates from the front.) But we've found another way to get that good, clean, Bay Area sustainably-designed feeling! Tomorrow Method will commence selling its all-natural, biodegradable cleaning products on the Home Shopping Network, which nowadays the kids are calling HSN. Method founders Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry will be on air at 7am and 11pm EST tomorrow, chatting with host Chris Scanlon and offering up an especially swell deal on an eight-piece "Detox Your Home Cleaning Kit" (retail value $50.03, but yours for the low low price of $19.98) that comes with a reusable "Plastic Bag Rehab" tote. Method is sharing the hour-long show with Dyson Innovations, so expect some bagless upright cyclonic action as well.

Are you thinking what we're thinking? Does this alliance of IAC-owned HSN and Method mean that the fritted white band-lined windows of the Frank Gehry-designed IAC glacier are squeegeed with the likes of Method's mint window wash? We like to think so!

Speaking of Murray Moss, remember when he told us about that fruitcake he so enjoys, the one made by monks? The one his sister sends him every year? The one he calls "his favorite food item of all time"? Now the rum-injected holiday treat can be yours--all year 'round. The two-pound, candied fruit-studded delicacy is the creation of the monks of Assumption Abbey, a Trappist monastery established in the Ozarks in southern Missouri in 1950 (plus, their website welcomes you with a Gregorian chant!). When not praying, they do a swift business in fruitcakes. "The rummier the yummier," Assumption Abbey's Chief Fruitcake Maker Brother Joseph Reisch told the Wall Street Journal recently.

Why fruitcakes? Well, they were a logical follow-up to the product the monks used to make and sell: concrete blocks. "Around here we like to say, 'If you liked our concrete blocks, you'll love our fruitcakes,'" quipped Reisch. Today, the abbey bakes 250,000 fruitcakes a year and handles everything-- from marinating the fruit in burgundy wine to packaging and aging the finished cakes.

Meanwhile, the monastery's description of itself sounds spookily like the world of Moss: "Assumption Abbey is not a commercial enterprise," they say on their website. "It is a way of life." Can a Jasper Morrison for Alessi fruitcake keeper be far off?