Posted April 7, 2005
Have you ever dutifully set your alarm clock early, only to wonder the next morning why the hell you set it for then? I've not only done that, I've actually blown off the wake-up time, thinking, in half-coma logic, Hey, that's wrong; I still have more time to sleep! As an ad hoc solution to my morning cluelessness, I've taken to putting Post-it Notes on the face of the clock when necessary—stuff like "MEETING ON 57th AT 9" or "JFK FLIGHT 8:40." The IKEA Slabang (love that name) alarm clock absorbs that reminder function by letting you easily record a seven-second voice memo which you can change as often as you like. Slabang, I've found, is extra fun if you fake a voice, like, say, Madonna with a British accent or The Daily Show's Lewis Black. (It's amazing how often I groggily fail, at first, to recognize my own lame impression.) And it comes in a shade of yellow that somehow manages to seem both top-of-the-day-to-ya friendly and way more urgent than a Post-it.

$9.99 at IKEA, ikea.com for locations and hours.

• Not available online
• Store Review and Details

• More:
• Best Bets Daily
• Articles by S. Dumenco
• From the Apr 7, 2005 issue of New York