When The Chips Are Down . . .

The guy who invented the Pringles potato chip canning system has died. He was cremated. Some of his ashes have been buried in a Pringles can. Don't believe me? Check it out here.

Crocs a Crock? A Mild Rant

Joining millions of other fans around the world, I own two pairs of Crocs and my children each own Crocs as well. For those of you living in a cave, Crocs are essentially rubber/plastic beach footwear available in a wide variety of fiesta-inspired colors. They are anti-microbial, open and airy, easily cared for, and started out with one style a few years ago. They now come in dozens of styles and colors for multiple purposes and also sport "jibbitz" - little iconographic stubs that you can insert into the holes in the tops of Crocs to personalize yours (I keep calling them "giblets").


I usually don't like trendy things for the reason alone that they are trendy, yet I do admire functional items at a reasonable price. Consequently I am a big fan of Crocs, but my respect came down a notch yesterday. A company-owned Crocs store opened in my neighborhood and we went to check it out. Very trendy location, trendy store design, trendy music playing - all of which I can forgive them for. Of course the bins with the jibbitz were swarmed by children like bees to a hive. What I found absolutely annoying was that not a single item in the store had a price on it.


We had come for one specific item for which we happened to know the price, but the lack of pricing on other items dissuaded our efforts to shop for additional purchases. When we asked the fellow at the register why nothing was priced, he said it was intended to have customers initiate a dialog with store employees by asking how much things were.


Who's brilliant marketing strategy was this? I can understand if you have lots of staff roaming the store to answer such questions. Instead, however, there were only the people at the registers who were constantly being interrupted by customers asking about pricing. Not only was this counter-productive in terms of "establishing a dialog," but it took 2-3 times as long to pay for our purchase as the guy who was checking us out always had to think about his respnse to price inquiries, and we felt like he was guessing half the time. "How much are these strapless pump Crocs?" "Uhhh, fifty-five, ninety-five?"


What is even more interesting, is that when Crocs are sold in other retail stores, the MSRP is pre-printed on the Crocs-affixed tags. This means that the company actually had to make up special tags just for the company stores that omit the price.


Guys. Stick with the original image of beach-bums around the world adorning their feet with your product. I don't mind if you expand the original line either, and whoever thought up jibbitz should get a prize. But don't get so full of yourself in the retail environment.

Weekend Bushisms

Came back to the office to find these two delightful new George W. Bushisms from Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy!

"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."

--As quoted by Reuters; May 5, 2000

"I always jest to people, the Oval Office is the kind of place where people stand outside, they're getting ready to come in and tell me what for, and they walk in and get overwhelmed by the atmosphere. And they say 'Man, you're looking pretty.' "

--Washington, D.C.; November 4, 2004

Only 232 days left!!!

Are Malaprops Heriditary?

Webster's defines a malaprop as "the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context."

My wife Betsy is a veritable fount of malaprops, her most famous one being when we had just had an argument and she wished to make peace. She meant to say that she was offering me an olive branch, but instead offered me a fig leaf. My response was to look down to see why I might be in need of one (Was something showing that shouldn't be?) and that particular malaprop was sealed in our memories forever.

Today, Sammy and I were having some father-son time which included lunch out. Sammy was asking about dessert and when I told him that maybe we would get some ice cream on our way home, he wanted to ask if we could stop at Cold Stone Creamery. What came out of his mouth, however, was "Dad, can we please stop at Stone Cold Bakery?"

Is that where they sell day-old bread? Or are they perpetually out of hot cross buns?

I guess it runs in the family.

Recent Bushism Calendar Entries

Some recent tasty morsels from my George W. Bushisms Calendar:

"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer questions. I can't answer your question."

-- In response to a question about whether

he wished he could take back any of his

answers in the first debate; Reynoldsburg,

Ohio; October 4, 2000

"The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany."

-- Washington, D.C.; May 5, 2006

"The important question is, How many hands have I shaked?"

-- Answering a question about why he hasn't

spent more time in New Hampshire;

The New York Times; October 23, 1999

Only 264 days left!!!

Meryl Streep Tribute

Every year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center of which we are members, holds a gala tribute honoring someone in film. We have attended many of these over the years, with honorees such as Martin Scorcese, Clint Eastwood, and Dustin Hoffman. Last night - the Film Society's 30th gala tribute - honored Meryl Streep.

The program is a mix of film clips and tributes from colleagues in the industry, winding up with a speech by the honoree. Past galas have ranged from ho-hum (Dustin Hoffman - you got the impression that no one really likes him) to excellent (Martin Scorcese).

Last night's blew them all away. The clips demonstrated the wide range and phenomenal talent of the honoree, but it was the speeches that really told the tale of a consummate professional who is just a darned nice, funny, and all around great person.

Of course, it was a treat to be seated in the audience, listening to accolades being heaped upon Ms. Streep by Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Christopher Walken, Jonathan Demme, Mike Nichols, Stanley Tucci, Uma Thurman, Garrison Keillor and Amy Adams. DeNiro, who at the Scorcese tribute demonstrated that the rumors regarding his incredible shyness and discomfort with public speaking are quite true, was actually the funniest presenter last night. Although he read verbatim from a stack of index cards, rarely looking up or making any eye contact with the audience, he was hysterically funny. All of the presenters were quite humorous and clearly spoke from the heart.

The final clip was a preview from the soon to be released Mamma Mia! with Streep singing "The Winner Takes It All" proving that she can add belting out a musical number to her impressive list of talents.

The program notes made mention of the fact that as opposed to other leading ladies that have come before her, Streep has remained in the spotlight solely for her professional work. She has never been involved in a scandal or started a ruckus. At the end, Ms. Streep spoke extemporaneously and quite personally for about 10 or 15 minutes, and we were left with the distinct impression that every sincere word spoken by those who paid tribute to her was deserved. She truly is one of film's treasures and apparently someone you would want as a friend.

Hulu

I've been reading a lot recently about Hulu and decided to check it out. I can definitely see how these premium quality clips would be addictive.

I was thrilled to find a selection of hundreds of SNL clips dating back to the first season, including two of my all-time favorites: Celebrity Jeopardy with French Stewart, Burt Reynolds and Sean Connery; and the NPR Delicious Dish Holiday Show with Alec Baldwin (ranked by E! as the second funniest SNL sketch ever).

In recent years, SNL has also been exceptionally good at sneaking things past the censors. While I couldn't find the Cork Soakers sketch on Hulu, I did find Colonel Angus and the Sofa King commercial. When I saw this last one on television live, it took me almost til the end of the sketch to figure out the gag which then had me ROTFL.

(Luckily, I did find Cork Soakers here and while I was looking for it, also found More Cowbell here. Note to NBC and Hulu - make high quality vids of these two classics available.)

Lastly, Hulu also features the uncensored version of the SNL digital short, D**k in a Box and for those of a certain age (as young'ns just might not appreciate it), Alec Baldwin in SNL's The Tony Bennett Show with guest Anthony Benedetto.

Enjoy!

UPDATED!!! They must have listened to me as the Cork Soaker sketch is now available on Hulu. Now, how about More Cowbell guys?

UPDATED!!! More Cowbell is now available on Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die site here!