The National Design Triennial exhibition is going on now at the Cooper-Hewitt in NYC. We went to the one six years ago (unless it was the 97 show we went to; I'll have to see if I've still got a copy of the catalog. We've been looking for things to do in Manhattan and this might be a contender. Here's a review from this morning's NYTimes. What I find odd about this review is the sense I get that the critic is personally offended by any design object that does not meet her standards of utility. Sure everyone's entitled to their opinions (especially critics, who get paid to have opinions). But when you start making ex cathedra pronouncements that this or that thing should not exist because you don't think anyone needs such a thing... well, I'm not really taking anything else you say all that seriously.