Cute Overload: An Empire of Adorableness

Posted at 2:10 PM Aug 21, 2008

By Bonnie Ruberg

The New York Times loves kittens. At least, today they do. Their advertising section brings us an article about the success of CuteOverload.com, the site full of adorable animal photos that finds that perfect balance between cuddly and ironic -- the same one Boing Boing so rightly calls "like taking a happy pill." Apple employee and all-around awesome lady Meg Frost, who runs Cute Overload, recently put together a day-by-day calender of images from the site, which is apparently selling like hot cakes (hot baby penguins?) on Amazon.

The New York Times seems a bit awed by its success, and I am too. While I get the appeal of being the first internet dork on your block to own 365 print pages of fluffiness (don't get me wrong, I'm one such internet dork and so are 95 percent of the people I know), the appeal of Cute Overload for me has always been as a break from the online bickering. In real life, I don't need cuteness -- or at least not as much. Also, I'm thinking the bunny who shares my apartment might see it, get jealous, and eat it while I'm not looking. Then I'd find shreds of adorable animal photos all over the living room, and that would just be wrong.