Iconic Coffee Cup

Reading about the passing of Leslie Buck, the man who designed the coffee cup pictured above - started me thinking about coffee ads. Leslie Buck's obituary was in the New York Times today; I am attaching the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/nyregion/30buck.html?hp

The Times writes:

It is, of course, the Anthora, the cardboard cup of Grecian design that has held New Yorkers’ coffee securely for nearly half a century. Introduced in the 1960s, the Anthora was long made by the hundreds of millions annually, nearly every cup destined for the New York area.

There are a number of coffee commercials and jingles that come to mind. There is the, "good to the last drop" slogan from Maxwell House. We all know from the ad, that "mountain grown coffee," hand picked by Juan Valdez of course, is the richest tasting blend. I guess Starbucks doesn't advertise, but they do promote themselves through Twitter. Maybe tweeting is the newest form of jingling.

Well, anyway, I wanted to include an actual coffee commercial. I am attaching a classic below. Note - it is for instant coffee. That instant stuff was pretty popular back in the 50s and 60s:

Picture Says a Thousand Words

I have not written for a while, but this piece just caught my eye. It is a photo essay in the New York Times by Ashley Gilbertson.

The New York Times writes: Seven years after the beginning of the Iraq war — and with U.S. troop deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeding 5,000 — a look at what dead soldiers left behind. Since 2007, Mr. Gilbertson has been recording the bedrooms to which young American service members will never return. “You walk into these rooms,” he said, “and you feel like these are the kids you used to hang out with.”

I am attaching the link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/21/magazine/20100321-soliders-bedrooms-slideshow.html?hp

Different Rules for Different People

There is something about NBC News' reporter Andrea Mitchell that really gets my goat. OK, I don't have a goat - but if I did - she (Andrea) would definitely have it by now. Andrea Mitchell has been seen yucking it up all weekend and on Joe today. Her focus of yucks was none other than Sarah Palin. On Saturday, Sarah Palin had glanced at her palm during a question and answer session at the first National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, TN. The Huffington Post produced a photographic close-up, which showed her hand contained the words "Energy", "Tax" and "Lift American Spirits." The phrase "Budget cuts" was also there, though the word "Budget" had been crossed out. Below is a snippet of Andrea on Morning Joe this morning. This was not the first time she had done her - "hold up my hand to show that I wrote on my palm" act. She had done the same shpiel last weekend:

What is it about Andrea Mitchell that really bothers me? Well, I think that a big part of it is her whole, "holier than thou" attitude. Let me get this straight, I am not a supporter of Sarah Palin; I never have been and never will be. But the idea of Andrea Mitchell mocking a person for having talking points on his/her hand - considering that news reporters use prompters - as well as our current President being quite "prompter-friendly," is hypocritical. And ironically, that is the focus of Mitchell's reports - that Palin gets away with things that others would not get away with. That she has, "different rules."

Andrea Mitchell seemed to have "different rules" when reporting on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's run for office in 2008, as well. My view of Andrea Mitchell is that she was much more tough on Hillary Clinton than she ever was on then primary campaigner - now President Obama. I think that many reporters - particularly female news people - had this slant.

Lastly, although biased on my part, I can't ever get over the fact that Andrea Mitchell is married to former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan. When I see Andrea on screen, part of me wants to yell, "your husband had much to do with the 2008 market meltdown and the current state of our economy!!" But, of course, fellow news reporters and political analysts would never say that to Mitchell. If she were not a reporter, they probably would; but, as Mitchell pointed out herself - there are different rules for different people.

I know this is childish - but my favorite "snippet" of video with Andrea Mitchell is connected with balloons and the 2008 Republican Convention. Enjoy:

Warm and fuzzy...not so much.

Lions and tigers and demonic sheep - Oh my! What do demonic sheep have to do with anything? I knew you would ask. Well, they are part of Carly Fiorina's campaign in running for the Senate of California. The ad goes after Republican California Congressman Tom Campbell. The main point of the video ad is that Campbell is a fiscal conservative in name only. Here is what Jason Linkins had to say about it in the Huffington Post:

In this THREE-AND-A-HALF MINUTE LONG video, the Fiorina campaign goes after former California Congressman Tom Campbell, who leads the Republican field in the primary race to unseat incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer. The Fiorina campaign's main point is that Campbell is a "Fiscal Conservative In Name Only." It's a fairly standard issue claim -- or at least it would be, if the video that presented the argument didn't play like Terry Gilliam and Ingmar Bergman collaborated on a campaign-year sequel to "The Wicker Man".

I am attaching the video below:

So, when did the use of "shock value" campaign ads really start? Well, the most famous one - shown only one time in 1964, was called the "Daisy Girl." This is what the Living Room Candidate website has to say about the President Johnson advertisement:

The most famous of all campaign commercials, known as the “Daisy Girl” ad, ran only once as a paid advertisement, during an NBC broadcast of Monday Night at the Movies on September 7, 1964. Without any explanatory words, the ad uses a simple and powerful cinematic device, juxtaposing a scene of a little girl happily picking petals off of a flower (actually a black-eyed Susan), and an ominous countdown to a nuclear explosion. The ad was created by the innovative agency Doyle Dane Bernbach, known for its conceptual, minimal, and modern approach to advertising. The memorable soundtrack was created by Tony Schwartz, an advertising pioneer famous for his work with sound, including anthropological recordings of audio from cultures around the world. The frightening ad was instantly perceived as a portrayal of Barry Goldwater as an extremist. In fact, the Republican National Committee spelled this out by saying, “This ad implies that Senator Goldwater is a reckless man and Lyndon Johnson is a careful man.” This was precisely the intent; in a memo to President Johnson on September 13, Bill Moyers wrote, “The idea was not to let him get away with building a moderate image and to put him on the defensive before the campaign is old.” The ad was replayed in its entirety on ABC’s and CBS’s nightly news shows, amplifying its impact.

Here is the video below. No demonic sheep are portrayed:

It's Not Easy Being Green...

I don't know, maybe it is the fact that it is a Friday, but something about Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Even the Al-Qaida leader is "going green." OK, maybe he is not as green as Kermit the Frog, but he is talking about his fears of global warming. How caring can you get? I know, I am being sarcastic - but the story is for real.

The MyWay Website reports: Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden has called for the world to boycott American goods and the U.S. dollar, blaming the United States and other industrialized countries for global warming, according to a new audiotape released Friday.

Below is a little snippet of Kermit, for your viewing pleasure. And note - it is Kermit - with Jim Henson doing the voice. Enjoy:

State of the Union

President Obama's State of the Union Address is to be held tonight. Lots of talk about the middle class out there on the news and blogs today. What do I think? I know you didn't ask - but I am saying it anyway. To me, trying to save the middle class is like trying to save the dinosaurs. It is a moot point, because - like the dinosaurs - the middle class is already gone. Whatever is left of the middle class is just a facade. There are rich and there are definitely poor - but the middle class is artificially propped up. The whole house of cards is precariously balanced - to be toppled easily by one lost paycheck, one more drop in home values, or the ever falling values of 401Ks.

When I think of dinosaurs - I definitely think of Dino from the Flintstones (picture above). But, I also think of a Saturday morning favorite of mine from the 1970s - Land of the Lost. It was a bizarre show - but I was fascinated by it. I am not including any clips of that terrible movie based on the show with Will Farrell. I am including a snippet from the Saturday series below:

Six Degrees of Separation

OK, so a Republican just won the late Ted Kennedy's senate seat. Is it old news already, since it happened a few days ago? Well, whatever the case, I have been reading about the last time that Massachusetts voters elected a Republican to serve in the US Senate. It occurred in November of 1972, when they re-elected Senator Edward Brooke - pictured above with President Lyndon Johnson.

There is something about this bit of history that reminds me of the game - Six Degrees of Separation - which is closely related to Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon - but I digress. Six Degrees of Separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person in the world.

OK - I know that Senator Edward Brooke does not exactly fit this scenario - but take a look at these interesting facts about the man:

• Senator Brooke was the first African American to be elected by popular vote to the United States Senate.
• Brooke served as a U.S. senator for two terms, from January 3, 1967, to January 3, 1979.
• He was a member of the liberal wing of the Republican Party and organized the Senate's "Wednesday Club" of progressive Republicans who met for Wednesday lunches and strategy discussions.
• In 1974, with Indiana senator Birch Bayh (father of Senator Evan Bayh), he led the fight to retain Title IX of the 1972 Education Act which guarantees equal educational opportunity to girls and women.
• Two days after his 90th birthday, Brooke was presented with the Congressional Gold Medal by President Obama on October 28, 2009.
• In 2008, Barbara Walters revealed in her memoir Audition that she'd had an affair lasting several years with Brooke during the 1970s, while Brooke was married to his first wife.

Maybe not Kevin Bacon material - but good stuff. Hey, the guy slept with Barbara. I am including a snippet of an interview of Senator Brooke below, in which he discusses why he ran on the Republican ticket:

There's this old joke...

There is this old joke that keeps going through my head since hearing of Republican Scott Brown's taking of the late Ted Kennedy's senate seat - "If Ted Kennedy were alive today he would be turning over in his grave." The New York Times writes, "by a decisive margin, Mr. Brown defeated Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, who had been considered a prohibitive favorite to win just over a month ago after she easily won the Democratic primary."

New Jersey was bad enough, but now Massachusetts? Even though this win does not mean "everything," it certainly means, "something." I can imagine the glee on the faces of personalities such as Palin, Limbaugh, and the assorted Fox News broadcasters.

I recall Ted Kennedy announcing his support for Obama that January day back in 2008. Senator Kennedy saw in Obama what had been missing in Democratic politics since the times of his brothers - John and Bobby Kennedy. President Obama has that skill - to be a mirror of what people are looking for. But, to quote an old Paul Simon song, "a man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest." What will happen now? Who knows? Will President Obama and fellow Democrats get more ballsy? I sure as hell hope so. Here is a snippet of that speech from the late Senator Kennedy from January 2008.

Ignorning the Obvious

Earlier today I was reading in Time Magazine about some of the "Lessons of Flight 253." Time reports that "missed signs, cumbersome lists and spotty screening permitted a terrorist to take a makeshift bomb on a Christmas flight to Detroit." What is so frightening to me, is that many of the "missed signs" appear so blatant. Of course, hindsight is always 20-20, but if global aviation-security is missing this obvious cues, than how can we, the public, feel secure about their also seeing the more subtle warnings.

There is something about the magazine's timeline of events reminded me of television shows that I grew up with in the late 60s and 70s. Comedy was not very subtle then. It was in your face, obvious. Right out there, for everyone to see. Not that I am saying that the possibility of what could have happened on Flight 253 is in anyway funny - just the opposite - it could have been devastating. What I am saying is that the from the earliest signs to the exploding underpants - is right out there for everyone to see - or to miss in this case. Here is a snippet of how Time lays it out:

May 2009 - Abdulmutallab is barred from entering the UK and placed on Britain's security watch list.

August 2009 - Visits Yemen to study Arabic, renounces family ties, and received lessons in bombmaking.

November 2009 - Abdulmutallab's father warns the US embassy in Nigeria that his son has developed radical views. His name is placed on a low-level watch list. His visa is not revoked.

December 2009 - Pays cash for $2,831 one-way airline ticket. Gives no contact information. On December 24th, he flies from Lagos, Nigeria to Amsterdam, carrying only a backpack. There, he transfers to Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit.


Getting back to comedy, when I was growing up in the 1970s, the Carol Burnett Show was one of that era's series that offered obvious comedy. It was right there, in your face. I have a snippet of one of their skits, that happens to focus on a gentleman (Harvey Korman) boarding an airplane. Enjoy:

Did you hear what's coming back?

Did you hear what is coming back? OK, you probably guessed it from the "photo" above; the return of the Polaroid Instant Camera was announced at this week's Consumer Electronics Show. Here is what was reported in USA Today:

For the purist, Polaroid is introducing a new film camera model, the PIC 1000, which looks and resembles the Polaroid One-Step from the 1970s and 1980s.
"Digital is the future, but the market has screamed for the return of Polaroid film," says Jon Pollock, Polaroid's chief marketing officer. The film is targeted toward artists and enthusiasts, and the cost per photo will be "pretty expensive," he acknowledges. No exact price was announced.

Pretty interesting. Hey - what can be better? Instant photos without the chance of an "instant" download to Perez Hilton's website. About 30 years ago, Polaroid One-Step Cameras were a hot item - and were successfully advertised by James Garner and Mariette Hartley. People often thought that they were an actual couple. In "real life," they weren't. Here is a snippet of one of their commercials: