Sam Farber, Creator of Oxo Utensils, Dies at 88

During World War II, Mr. Farber served with the Army Air Forces in Turkey and North Africa. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard in 1946 and later joined his father's business.Mr. Farber, who lectured frequently about industrial design and received many awards in the field, was also a major collector of outsider art, including work by Henry Darger and Martín Ramírez.As a board member of the American Folk Art Museum in New York, he helped secure the architectural firm Tod Williams, Billie Tsien & Associates to design the museum's former home on West 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Opened in 2001 and widely praised by critics, the building is now owned by its neighbor, the Museum of Modern Art.Mr. Farber's first marriage, to Joan Levine, ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, the former Betsey Wells Kriegsman, whom he married in 1985, survivors include two sons from his first marriage, John and Thomas; two stepchildren, Mark Kriegsman and Sue Kriegsman; four granddaughters; and three step-granddaughters.A longtime resident of Manhattan, Mr. Farber lived most recently in Lexington, Mass.Today, Oxo is owned by Helen of Troy, a maker of personal care products. Its Good Grips line now comprises hundreds of items, including cleaning, gardening and barbecue tools.All for the want of a painless peeler a quarter-century ago."It's hard to think of a vegetable peeler as radical," Mr. Farber told The Los Angeles Times in 2000. "But I guess it was."

s the Miami Heat rounded the homestretch of today's parade, InterContinental staff and guests took to a small stage along the parade's route to smash ladles against soup pots and smack spoons against baking pans.The cacophonous pots and pans celebration has become synonymous with sporting success in South Florida. The Sun Sentinel and WSVN have both taken stabs at explaining the tradition, each ultimately pointing towards Latin American political demonstrations as the potential source.Now pots and pans are being embraced as a mainstream Miami tradition, as evidenced by the InterContinental's "pots and pans private party".