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Home Decorators outfits “The Apprentice”

St. Louis-based Home Decorators Collection has a supporting role on the fifth season of The Apprentice with Donald Trump. The merchant contributed several home decor items to the NBC reality show in which wannabe moguls compete for an apprenticeship with the New York-based billionaire developer. The new Trump Tower Suite will include Home Decorators' Glenwood Cast Iron Bistro outdoor furniture, wool area rugs from the Antoinette Collection, and Crystal One-Tier Chandeliers in the powder room. We're not sure that Home Decorators Collection is going to see a boost in business from its role on the show, but it's always fun to be on television. And considering Trump's fixation on picking the best of the best, the association is, as his former rival Apprentice host Martha Stewart would say, a good thing.

Fishing for phone sex?

All-American outdoor gear, apparel, gifts, and home goods merchant L.L. Bean is the last company one would associate with pornography. But a misprint in the Freeport, ME-based mailer's spring 2006 fishing catalog may have directed some fishing enthusiasts to a phone sex line. At the bottom of the first page of the catalog, letters were swapped in the 1-800-FISH-LLB phone number, so that callers were directed to titillating talkers. Try explaining that one to your wife! Bean, which has used the vanity number for years, was aware of the phone sex operator with the similar digits and had unsuccessfully tried to buy the number. Reeling from the un-PC PR, the cataloger sent postcards and e-mails to customers who had received the books with the fishy phone number, and a replacement catalog was due to mail in March. We feel bad for Bean, but there is a connection between fly-fishing and phone sex: Both aim for a live one on the line.

A nice Scheiny smile

Healthcare products and services provider Henry Schein is helping to bring a smile to underprivileged children. The Melville, NY-based merchant partnered with the American Dental Association (ADA) for the fourth year to support Give Kids a Smile Day, a program that provided free oral-health services to nearly 1 million underserved kids in 2,000 communities across the country. This annual one-day initiative from the ADA enlisted some 40,000 dental team members, including more than 12,000 volunteer dentists, who on Feb. 3 provided free educational, preventive, and restorative dental services to children from low-income families. Schein-Sullivan Dental, the company's U.S. dental division, served as the exclusive distributor of products for Give Kids a Smile Day — with a little help from its friends: 47 of Henry Schein's vendor partners donated products to the program this year. Cheers to Schein, the ADA, and all the other program participants for giving kids another reason to crack a smile.

In love with Lilly

Do you love Lilly? Not catalog legend Lillian Vernon, but posh/preppy Lilly Pulitzer, the purveyor of pink-and-green prints. The King of Prussia, PA-based company in March kicked off Lilly Lover Days, a month-long celebration of parties, teas, luncheons, and other events to honor its fans. Lilly Lovers were also invited to submit stories and photos — presumably about their Lilly-clad adventures — for a chance to win one of three prizes. With one of the prizes, the winner's story and photo will be in included in an upcoming Lilly Pulitzer catalog. We guess this is an honor for serious Lilly fans, but since you can't order from the book (though you can order online or from a store) it's not like it's a real catalog. Lime green was never our color anyway.