Presenting the Alphabet: 14 Gifts that Start with Y

People always talk about sushi making as this formidable, elusive craft that many have tried, but all but the most elite and Jiro-Ono-blessed have failed to execute well. And while I basically agree with this assessment, I've never understood it because most of the time when you're making sushi you're not seasoning or emulsifying or even cooking anything except the rice, which you have a machine to do - flawlessly - for you. And more importantly, if sushi is so hard, why hasn't anyone invented a way to make it easier, and accessible to home cooks one and all? If we can build machines that churn out Indian rotis and spherificate any food into caviar, why the H-E-double-cucumber-sticks can't we build something that makes rolling sushi a no-brainer?

Well, Yomo Sushi thinks they have.

Yoga Joes call themselves "a non-violent toy." Maybe that description makes you smile, in which case you can buy some army men doing yoga as a gift for your kids or to decorate your desktop. Or maybe that description makes you sneer, in which case you too can buy some army men doing yoga. As a gag gift for your favorite member of the armed forces, veteran, or dude who needs to chill out. Much like yoga itself claims to do, the 9 figures striking peace-loving, body-calming, sun-saluting poses transcend all earthly constructs. They are perhaps the perfect present for people who really love namaste, and really hate it alike.

Yosegi Puzzle Boxes suggest that the best way to dissuade petty thieves and nosy family and co-workers is to make them think. Developed during the Edo Period (early 17th to mid 19th century), these Japanese stash holders require equal parts manual and mental dexterity to open.

Yoga Auxiliary Chair? Yoga Auxiliary Chair? Psssh, yeah. Yoga Auxiliary Chair. This is a sex chair if I ever saw one. Even the lady "doing yoga" on it looks like she supports my position. (And looks like she could support many more of my positions too!)

I also like how the Yoga Auxiliary Chair mimics your standard, cheap-ass folding chair, making it even more obvious that this is not only a sex chair, but, unlike the Bowchair luxury models, a poor man's sex chair.

I'd never seen yooperlite before today, but after just a few seconds of gazing at the UV-fluorescent stones, and the designs Palcamsol Distributing has turned them into, has me going all Fred Flintstone and saying, "Yooper-dooper-doo!"

Under normal conditions, yooperlite is a nice enough looking rock, mottled with black and shades of brown and gray. Palcamsol Distributing has shaped the stones into a variety of objects, including beaded bracelets, wicked skull and dragon sculptures, and even a 6-pound solid yooperlite sphere, ready both to tell the future and take out an intruder. But the real yoopermagic begins when the sun goes down, the LEDs go off, and the black light flickers to life.

I've yelled, "Yahtzee!" after finding one last container of Cup Noodles left in the house to eat enough times over the years that a Yahtzee: Cup Noodles version of the dice game makes nothing but sense to me. I've also participated in other kinds of ramen challenges - namely eating contests and dares to inhale single noodles up my nose and pull them out my mouth - so slurping up wins in a ramen-themed Yahtzee game is just one more I'm eager to add to my Cup Noodles success stories.

When Yukon Charlie's shows off their Yukon Hammerhead Pro HD snow sled with the invite to "#ExperienceWinter," part of me hates them, because F you, Yukon Charlie, I've been shoveling snow for the past 2 hours and I don't want to #ExperienceWinter. I want winter to suck it.

But the other part of me appreciates Yukon Charlie's attempt to turn my frown upside with their take on the most accessible way to enjoy the godforsaken snow: sledding. And not just sledding. Sledding on a belly-down speed beast. Get out the way, all you kiddies with your plastic drug store sleds and trash can lids! I'm a-comin' down on a powder coated 6000 aluminum frame polycarbonate and HDPE skis!

Not one to settle for mail-order mattresses alone, Yaasa has developed the Yaasa Adjustable Bed to accompany their hybrid foam-and-coil snooze cushion. At first glance, this bed looks: 1) like something I would like to have to soothe and sit me upright when I'm so hungover I can hardly roll over on a Sunday morning; and 2) Attractively minimalist and stylin' for what is essentially a piece of furniture you'd typically only see in hospitals and your grandma's bedroom.

The Yaasa Adjustable Bed comes with a backlit wireless remote that has one-button position changes between Flat, Anti-Snore, and Zero Gravity. There is also a full range of custom adjustment options for you to tweak to elevate your upper and lower body for working and reading, watching TV, or promoting blood circulation.

As much as I love bloopers videos of people slipping on ice and biting it in snowy winter weather, I don't love it when the subject of such videos is me. YakTrax are traction cleats that slip on over your outdoor shoes to help your treks through packed snow and ice slip-, fall-, and YouTube-free.

YakTrax's "cleats" are really spikeless spirals of 1.2mm skid lock steel coils. They wrap around a poly elastomer webbing to provide 360 degrees of traction, while adding just 5 ounces of weight to each foot.