Why Do We Look For Things We Cannot Find

What good is it if a person gains the world and loses his soul!

Okay, I admit it, it's a VERY SLoooooooooW day. So I found, what I thought to be, the very first "off topic" discussion. (The brain hiccup discussion was almost selected, but that one was, at least, in the context of IT.)

And how about that? The first "off-topic" discussion is dripping with flame bait!

And hey, this guy hasn't been around in almost SIX YEARS!

I guess he's still looking for the thing he cannot find -- HIS BRAIN!

Sometimes Things Get Lost. Like Car Keys.

we gave you a map, a flashlight and put you in the hall of mirrors, do you think you could find your own ass, with either hand??? It's something you've had your whole life, you know where it is supposed to be but you can't say you've ever really seen it. How do you even know it even exists for certain??? Can you prove it exists??? Someone once said, "Ergo sum." esentially, "I think therefore, I am." Just because your ass farts and stinks is not conclusive proof that is exists however, keep asking asinine, pseudo-intellectual, quasi philosophical questions of this nature and I am certain someone will hand you yours.

I take it you are afraid of things that go bump in the night. The answer you seek is 42.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

So that is cool,
I was interested in seeing what other posts fearnott has made and if they were all similiar to this current one.
It was interesting to see his post from 2000, well okay not his post, but all the names from TR members linked to that post back in 2000.
Kind of a neat little piece of history.

I had to look that movie up... It was before I was born. I can see how that would drive every teenage boy in the seventies nuts.

42 is The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. The question is still being computed. It is expected that the question is what is 7*6. However, this is often debated. Now, where is my rabbit skin bag?????

But they are fools nonetheless.

The tragedy here is that people only read you through their own level of distortion. Add to that the fact that you are an intellegent man.

I was highly pissed when Julian went after Dawg in another thread- claiming things that were total lies because he was too stupid to READ what Dawg WROTE. The harsh reality is that for some, you are simply too smart. The rest of us get it.

Me? I don't claim that I am always on top of the program. I get tired and freely admit that I get pretty irritated. There are many that try to keep me focused. I love them for that.

Have you noticed that Nighthawk, like Oz Media likes to stir the pot? I guess that some folks just love to see if they can get a rise. others simply exude the value of their character. I think that you are one such.

Keep on, Max. You are valued because of what you bring to the table.

Happy Independence. May we always be able to celebrate it!

42

I bought 25 pair of socks exactly the same and do you think I can make up just one pair after the first wash? [b]NBL and that doesn't mean National Basketball/Baseball or whatever League either.[/b] :D

Now I just garb what's hanging there and walk out in odd socks that drives [b]SWMBO[/b] nuts but as long as they fit I don't care. But what gets me is that [b]SWMBO[/b] never seems to loose any of her warm winter socks just mine. :(

Col ]:)

I'll make a deal with them. They'll vote to allow drinking wherever and whenever, and we'll vote to let them has as many friggin' wives as they want. Actually, in today's day and age, when they have more than one wife, they'll be looking for those drinks themselves!

Disclaimer: Not the oldest thread, as there are maybe a dozen older. But it's the first "off-topic" thread ever posted in the miscellaneous section, at least as far as I can tell. The nerve of that guy! Doesn't he realize that this is a technical site?

And notice, I did get a Neilbite (tm).

However, the problem with the Maxtraps that I'm setting on occasion, is that it goes unnoticed by too many people. And just like a joke that you have to explain, if it comes to that, it loses a lot of its punch.

I've never tried to retrieve data from a crashed hard drive before. If Windows or DOS couldn't read it as a slave drive, I'd trash it. This one, however, I went to great efforts to get the data (not to mention spending $80 for the software to do it). Even though everybody in the office KNOWS that their computers and not backed-up, and that they should save ALL data on one of the servers, "the boss" didn't heed the warnings. I'm gonna' be a friggin' hero tomorrow! How'd you do that, he'll ask? Well, I'll say, it wasn't easy, but ........

Last I was in Utah, I had to pack my own.

Mormons are frequently referred to as "Morons" where I live. Not many of them here in the Midwest. Lutherans are another story...

My next door neighbour was an immigrant from Scotland, and definitively NOT a teetotler.

She had 2 sons, one who became a Mormon. She never ever went to the local Mormon tabernacle.

When she died, her Mormon son took over the funeral arrangements and the service was held in a Mormon church(beside the Tabernacle, but the Tabernacle is reserved for special events). There were several eulogies, many of which alluded to the fact she loved a wee dram every now and then. The last one was given by her beloved niece. At the end of her eulogy she pulled out a mickey of scotch and toasted her aunt. The look on the Mormon minister's face was priceless.

James

I have a single pink and brown striped sock. I don't recall ever buying pink and brown striped socks. It isn't bad, as far as socks go, but I don't have the mate, I don't recall EVER seeing a mate to this sock. I don't know why I don't throw it away. It sits there in a basket of unmatched socks in a completely worthless way. Maybe I'm afraid to throw it away. I wonder what that means?

Tofu isn't bad if it's made right. I know, it's disgusting and no one should ever eat it..blah blah blah..I used to say that, too. But I have since had it in a stir fry and it's really not bad. It was really spicy. I guess it could have been anything, I mean with that much heat, it could have been cotton balls.

Maybe y'all are right, it should be outlawed.

.....he was one of those teenagers in the movie theater, and it just stuck with him throughout his travels, whether he was hitchhiking or otherwise. But that's where he got it.

No, really, it is.

Would I post factopinguess around here?

There ya' go.

nobody else is going to think this is funny but

you from doing stoopid things before so why not?

.....having an argument with yourself. You always win!

the factopinguess thing I was supposed to do!!! I'll get right on it. Doggone it all.

I loved the Blue Collar Comedy revue/movie so much I watched it about 3 times on the movie network.

So, when they came out with a TV series, I thought, must be good even if its half as funny.

Well as Max might tell you, I can be wrong, and I was . I tried giving it a chance, but when they went from story telling and BSing on bar stools in front of a live audience to trying to do sketch comedy - it stunk up the place.

James

I didn't have to look them up like I had with the movie.

is not so bad. Personally I will eat it in Miso soup but that is about it. I know some who actually like tofruiti (sp?) it is ice cream made with tofu. Yuck!

it is worth. After all you did work real hard to save information that he/she should have backed up to the server.

Speaking of backups, I know most times the best backup is on the servers which get backed up. I actually worked in a place that limited your server space, so I couldn't backup the development stuff that we had to do on our local machines. Talk about a problem. When our machines would crash there would go months of development. We couldn't check it in using revision control either because they didn't use branching and the nightly build would fail if we checked in our code.

It was ugly and they never would give us enough space to backup our stuff. We weren't allowed CD drives to burn it to CD, or anything cause these were government machines and it was part of the security policy to not allow any drives except the hard drive.

it does everyone in because not enough people know how to appreciate it. :^0

Glad someone is waking the bored up, but timing was interesting given all the trolls lately. :)

edited for emoticons

Brian Adams wrote "Summer of '69" Now 42 as I recall is the answer from Hitchickers Guide, right?

I tried to follow this thread, but I got lost, my map was wet and the ink ran and the paper tore.

I have tried all that- I clean the lint trap BEFORE every load, I wash down the washer and dryer- NOTHING appeases the beast.

24 socks in, 21 socks out. And it occaisionally tosses up a sock I have NEVER seen in my life.

I think that there is a black hole that magically appears to eat your socks. You can't see it when the dryer is stopped. It only shows up about mid cycle.

What ticks me off is that my walking socks are expensive- arch support, dry wicking, blister-proof socks are spendy. That darned dryer is more expensive to feed than I am!

you clean BEFORE every use, I clean BEFORE and AFTER. The beast does not like lint tickling it. Haven't you ever had that elusive itch due to a cat or dog hair? Well I think it is the same for the blasted dryer. Oh and you are right about the washer. They work together at these things.

My Mom was laughing when I climbed in to my washer to retrieve the sock it wouldn't let go of. No way was I not having exact pairs.

This post amused my husband...

42 is the answer to the question, what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

And Max is right. Douglas Adams didn't write the summer of 42. It was Bryan Adams.

It's kinda' scary, but she'll say something in one line, leaving out a lot of stuff, but I know the whole story anyway. The same seems to happen in reverse -- she just knows what I mean, even if I don't say it. Often times, I suppose, other readers might have to fill in the spaces, since you guys aren't as gifted as we are. Okay, I'll fill in the spaces for you.

I suggested that the standard answer "42" was born out of the movie [i]Summer of 42[/i], whose main character was an absolutely stunning woman who had an affair with a teenage boy. (Was her character really 42 years old, as I remember, or is that a factopinguess?)

Douglas Adams wrote the [i]Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[/i], which included the [i]Door Number 42[/i] reference, behind which were all the answers to life, the universe, and everything else.

Mae questioned my [i]Summer of 42[/i] claim, suggesting instead the standard answer "42" was born out of the Douglas Adams, [i]Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[/i] series, which is correct. However, Mae didn't make the connection that Douglas Adams, who was a teenager at the time of that movie's original release (~1970-71), was so enthralled and influenced by the movie, that the number "42" stuck with him throughout his life (throughout his travels, hitchhiking or otherwise), and it was actually the reason he chose the number 42 to label his door. After all, why did he choose 42? Why not 41 or 43 -- or 28 for that matter? Why 42? Well, now we know the answer. And that's a factopinguess, Jack!

Bryan Adams did the song, [i]Summer of 69[/i], which has no bearing whatsoever on this conversation. (Unless, of course, you want to try to guess what might have taken place behind the door marked [i]42[/i] in the movie [i]Summer of 42[/i] with that absolutely stunning woman, but I won't go there -- I'll leave that for gg.).

It's a really good theory. But, Douglas Adams never saw the movie. I know this is true, because Ann Coulter told me so.

However, it is rumored that he was drinking Samuel Adams beer while writing it.

Bill Clintn WAS president number 42.

if you want to bring FACTS into this. Sheesh, you're no fun anymore.

there were 39 episodes of Grizzly Adams. There would have been three more episodes, but tragically, the head writer was eaten by a bear. And what was the name of the bear? Doug.

Gives you goosebumps, right?

Bryan Adams that sang in the movie Summer of 42, which was written in the summer of 69 by Douglas Adams. After which he was eaten by a bear named Herman who was pissed at Bill Clinton who was behind the door 42. This of course, was not really noticed by anyone of importance until Max resurrected a Six year old thread 7 times.

I am hoping that genuflecting before the dryer periodically during the cycle will net me a return of the socks that have "softly and silently vanished away". Maybe if I feed it socks that I don't like it will let me keep the ones I do like.

And I would never say a word about the laundry thing. My partner does all the cooking here...

Gremlins that live in both your Washing Machine & Dryer?

I know the ones that live here are evil little sods who take great pleasure in devouring things without thought.

[b]SHMBO[/b] insists that I've upset our Gremlins by not sorting the stuff before washing [b]But I Did[/b] I removed all the grease covered ones before I just bunged the rest in to be washed. She didn't seem to appreciate the help though and went through the roof complaining. I even cleaned out the Washing machine after I had run the grease covered overalls through it in Hot Water in an attempt to prevent the [b]Gremlin[/b] from clutching anything as it would just slip out of it's greasy hands. It threw a belt and I was expected to fix it [b]NOW![/b] After all it's a Microprocessor Controlled unit and I repair Computers so as far as [b]SHMBO[/b] is concerned it's a computer that needed fixing.

I was going to try Liquid Nitrogen in an attempt to kill it off totally but was prevented from using this so the [b]Gremlin[/b] lives and continues to eat my socks. :_|

It's just like one of my Great Danes who would always chew up my left foot thong. I never understood why she did this but at one point in time I had well over 20 Right Foot Thongs and no left ones. I'm beginning to wonder if her evil spirit is now inhabiting the laundry and still devouring my left foot socks. Even though she grew out of this practise and it was happening before she was born. But with Reincarnation I learnt not to rely on time lines as they are meaningless when it comes to being reincarnated.

Col ]:)

Bryan Adams would have been 10 in 1969.

Now either he is quite the charecter. Or he is channeling someone else's experiences. Perhaps Max was 42 in 69?

James

I could't have said it better if I didn't say it myself.

see it in front of you. My little gremlins, no matter how evil, learned not to fight with me. I am a bigger devil then they are and I sick my doggies on them all the time. Pugs can be very interesting when attacking the little things. They aren't called "little gremlins" for nothing you know. Besides, all my puglets are part of my kennel "Jen's Gremlin" in fact it is in their names... Jen's Gremlin M'Lady Shayna, Jen's Gremlin Brother Bane (short for dragonsbane), Jen's Gremlin Sir Gizmo (may he rest in peace)...

2nd I now understand why I like you - Great Dane's????? I grew up as one of the litter with Great Dane's. My parents used to breed them. We had a lot and I was just one of the litter. ;)

Now it is possible, the gremlins got to your Great Dane and you needed to help her to get them out of the Washing and Drying machines. But then again, look what happened to my Great Danes, they went to battle with the things and came out pugs.

pie up for me. Now I understand and am enlightened by your explanation. I bow down to the gods of 42, 69, Clinton, Sports, Beer, and anything I forgot to bow down to.

...as long as one does not get content, the search will go on.

This post reminds me the story of Angulimala that I had read as a child. There are [b]variations[/b] to the story. Especially the part related to the teacher asking for tutition. There is one variation where the teacher suspects Angulimala to have an affair with his wife. You might want to google to find more if you are interested.

I am not a Buddhist, so this post of mine is not some sort of proselytisation :-)

Source:http://www.buddhanet.net
**************
The King of Kosala had an adviser called Bhaggawa. Bhaggawa had a wife called Mantani and a son called Ahinsaka.

When Ahinsaka was born, all the weapons in the country shone brightly. The king was disturbed by this, and the next morning he called his adviser to find out the reason why the weapons were shiny. The adviser said, "My wife has given birth to a son, Your Majesty."

"Then why do the weapons shine in such a manner?" asked the king.

"Your Majesty, my son will be a bandit."

"Will he rob alone or with a gang?" asked the king.

"He will be single-handed, Your Majesty," replied Bhaggawa.

"We should kill him now," said the king.

"No!" exclaimed Bhaggawa, "As he will be alone we shall be able to catch him easily."

When Ahinsaka was old enough his father sent him to a school in Takka Sila. Ahinsaka was the strongest, brightest and the most obedient child of all the children in the whole school. Other children became envious of him and behind his back made the teacher hate him. Thus, when he had finished his education, the teacher said, "Now you must pay me my tuition fee."

"How much should I pay, Sir?" asked Ahinsaka.

"I don?t want cash but one thousand right-hand human fingers. And remember not to bring two right-hand human fingers from the same person."

Although it was a most difficult thing for him to do, Ahinsaka promised to pay his teacher. Taking a sword, off he went until he reached Kosala.

Hiding near a jungle highway, he waited for passers by. He would rush out and kill them, cutting off a right-hand finger and hanging their corpses on a tree for the vultures and crows. He made a garland out of the finger bones and soon became known as "Angulimala" (anguli=fingers, mala=garland).

Angulimala went to another district and began to kill again. Because he was murdering so many people, the King of Kosala decided to go with his strong army and capture the bandit. When Mantani heard this she went to her husband to try to get him to save their son.

"Darling, he is very fierce now," said Bhaggawa. "He may have changed completely, and if I go there he may even kill me." But the mother was very soft hearted and loved her son more than she loved herself. She thought, "I must go to the jungle myself and save him."

Now Angulimala had killed 999 people. He had spent months and months in the jungle without proper food, sleep or comfort, so he was impatient to pay off his debt and live a decent life. He thought, "Today if even my own mother comes I will kill her and cut off a finger to make one thousand fingers."

Now that day, while the Buddha looked round the world to see if anybody needed help, he saw Angulimala and his mother. "I must save them," he thought as he set out towards the jungle.

The villagers, seeing the Buddha, cried out, "Teacher, don?t go that way, it is too dangerous. Return home quickly." Three times they warned him but the Buddha continued, thanking them for their concern.

Now Angulimala?s mother entered the jungle. Angulimala saw her coming and thought, "Poor lady. She comes alone. I pity her but it cannot be helped . I must keep my word and kill her." All of a sudden, the Buddha appeared between them. Angulimala thought, "It is very good that this ascetic comes before my mother. Why should I kill her? I will leave her alone and kill this stranger." And with his sword he ran towards the Buddha. The Buddha walked slowly before him, thinking, "Let this young man see me running."[b] So Angulimala ran and ran towards the Buddha, but he could not catch up with him. He became so weak that he could not run any further. Then he shouted at the Buddha, "Stop! Stand still!"

"I stand still, Angulimala! Do you also stand still?" said the Buddha.

Angulimala could not understand the meaning of the Buddha?s words, so he asked him, "How can you say you stand still while running faster than me?"

"I stand still Angulimala evermore,
For I am merciful to all living beings;
But you are merciless to living beings.
Therefore I stand still and you stand not still."
[/b]
Angulimala was very pleased with what the Buddha said and throwing away his sword knelt before him. The Buddha blessed him and took him to the monastery, where he became a monk.

Meanwhile, the king was waiting with his army at the palace to receive the Buddha's blessing before setting out to the jungle. When the Buddha did not come, he went to the monastery with his five hundred horses and soldiers. The Buddha asked him, "What is it that troubles you, mighty King?"

"There is a most fierce killer called Angulimala and I am going to catch him."

"But mighty King, suppose you see Angulimala head shaven, wearing yellow robes. What would you do to him?"

"I would worship him," answered the king.

Then the Buddha called Angulimala and the frightened soldiers started to run away. But the Buddha stopped them, and taught the Dharma to them all.
*******************

You won't find it.

He needs to work on his BS until he'd even be mediocre.

...take it as a compliment, considering it comes from someone who has no credibility (in all things political). It's a double-negative kinda' thing.

My days of breeding Danes are long gone now, the last litter I found that the people who wanted them where no where near as well breed as my puppies. One woman who wanted a Bitch was telling me how she planed to breed from her every time that she came into season so I upped the price to an unacceptable level. She wasn't getting one of my puppies to mistreat like that. ;\

You must have had a very easy life as if your parents Danes where anything like mine they simply refused to allow me to punish the children when they did any thing wrong it was really pathetic seeing a Dane getting between you and the offending child and crying. Of course that could punish the children as they saw fit but I couldn't so much as lay a hand on one of them for their own protection. Naturally the dog where always there to stop the kids doing anything silly, it was so funny to watch a Dane with absolutely [b]No Road Sense[/b] preventing a child from walking anywhere near the road.

Even when the kids got older the dogs still protected them from punishment but the dogs felt it was their duty to reprimand them when they got too boisterous for the dogs they would just walk past them closely and swing their pelvis and send the kids sprawling. It never took anymore to make the kids pull their heads in they just realised that they had gone [b]Too Far.[/b] :^0

But the one that I just had to roil around the floor laughing about was with my son when he was about 15 years old and my Blue Dane dog they used to play and where inseparable but the moment that my son put on a certain jacket it was gloves off time and he used to play rough. This involved trying to knock each other to the ground grasping the neck till the one on the ground submitted and then they would pull apart and start all over again. Of course the Dog had it down pat and would reach out with a front leg wrap it behind my sons legs and push forward. He never lost and would bring my son to the ground then lay on him to prevent him getting up and grab him by the thought till he got a pat on the back and then he would let go. Well one day my son was determined to get one over on the dog so he ambushed him in the front yard which of course didn't work out quite the way that he planed as the dog had him on the ground faster than he could move and had him held down. Well this was no big deal and was usual practise but this day two old ladies where walking up the street and saw what was going on and went into fits of terror screaming out for help as this [b]Poor child was being attacked by this Big Vicious Dog![/b] I walked out and saw what was happening and just yelled out to my son not to hurt the dog. The look of total Disbelief on their faces was priceless and I had to retreat inside so I didn't laugh in their faces.

My daughter used to walk the Dog around when she was very little and she was always most insistent on where she would take him for a walk. Mind you at this time you couldn't see her head over his back just a couple of tiny legs under him walking around. She never fully realised that he was taking her for a walk and protecting her at the same time from any strangers. He stood 38 inches at the shoulder so she must have been slightly shorter than that 38 inches and was just at the stage of walking. Even the puppy which was boisterous as hell would behave herself when one of the kids where walking her though I never allowed her to walk the daughter in public as she liked the attention way too much as she would stop to get pats from complete strangers, the dog on the other hand being older wouldn't allow anyone near the child.

To this day my daughter still insists that this isn't really home without at least one Dane in the house, she was always used to having several around her when she was growing up. Currently she's been dropping hints about me getting another Dane and has been asking me to come out with her to look at puppies.

Now that she has the fish tank fully stocked she seems to be starting on the Danes again. It's really funny as I look at a littler of puppies and start pointing out what's wrong with them the seller suddenly becomes less than helpful and wants me out of the place. So far every one of these place that I've been dragged along to has appeared to me to be a business of making as much money as possible out of the Dogs at the expense of the health of the Bitches and this doesn't sit well with me so I find fault with all the puppies. If she was to take me to a breeder who genuinely loved the dogs I would be in real trouble but from what I've seen so far these people have disappeared and it's now an industry of rolling out puppies at every opportunity as cheaply as possible and then charge as much as possible while having the puppies the least amount of time possible currently they are allowing puppies to go at 8 weeks and at this stage they are not even protected from Distemper let alone Parvo as they have only had their first temporary shots.

I always kept my puppies till they had had their second round of injections and then for several days afterwards just to make sure that there where no adverse affects from the shots.

But she's still looking so maybe I'll be having problems latter when she finds a breeder who thinks like me. Personally I really don't want another Dane as they just get under your skin and it hurts way too much when they reach the end of their short lives. Also constantly having then watch over you is slightly off putting. I can remember one time I was under a car I was working on it and I felt a warm breath on my neck, after the pain stopped from banging my head on the floor of the car and then the concrete I realised that the dog was under there with me supervising everything that I did and had his nose about half an inch away from my neck. :D

Col ]:)

One of the reasons we no longer have Dane's is exactly what you have found. The breeders (even when you go to the shows) don't seem to really love the dogs and are doing things that I don't think are in the best interest of the dogs. I am not sure where in the world you can go to find a good Dane anymore.

My favorite breeder died several years ago. Lena Basset - you may know of her. She wrote some books and in one of them is my sisters and I in the middle of a litter of blacks.

I have thought about doing rescue work when my studies are finished. I have the room and wouldn't mind helping out with Danes and Pugs. I have a weakness for these characters.

I used to go out on mischef (sp?) night with the Danes and never needed a human partner. Our area was always clear of the trouble. :) When I was little, my parents used to put the black Danes in the car, you should have seen the mischief makers faces when two eyes are following you around the car. ;)

OZ has slipped out of the #1 ranking on TR. Believe it or not (I know I was nieve or something) but last year when I was active on TR, OZ held the #1 seat and actually seemed to have some really good posts.

Now I am seeing a new side to him and I am just wondering what happened to the old OZ. Dawg, I read your post and wonder just how nieve I really was back then. :(

I was doing some work on my Sister in Law's Mini. Then when I went to take it for a drive all 3 Danes bolted into the car and sat on the back seat. Don't worry about Col they just had to get in and go for a ride and if he was in the way it was fair game to push him out of the way so they could get in.

There where the 3 of them sitting on the back seat wedged in place I don't think I could have got them in if I wanted to do it but somehow they managed. The Mini on the other hand didn't take it very well with all that weight in the back it was virtually dragging it's rear end on the ground but it drove OK till I got pulled up by the Police for wedging all the doge into the car and being cruel to them. Apparently they believed all the bruises and cuts over me, was me forcing the [b]Poor Dogs[/b] into the car and not them bolting to get in and sending me flying. :D

They just didn't believe me that the dogs did it themselves and they refused to move out of the car which only made it worse so the nice friendly Police Officers followed me home I was nearly there anyway and the dogs bolted out of the car and neatly trapped the 2 Cops between a wall and themselves. While they where getting patted everything was OK but the moment that the Cops stopped patting the dogs they lent on them and squashed them against the brick wall. Finally the Cops wanted to move on and give me a ticket but of course the dogs wouldn't move away after all they where getting the attention that they deserved then I opened the door of the mini again and they just couldn't resist that had to bolt to get in and sat on the back seat looking all eager waiting for another ride The 2 Cops couldn't believe their eyes and insisted that I must have trained them to do things like that. The only way that we could get them out was for the wife to open a couple of cans of Sardines at which time they couldn't contain themselves any longer as their stomachs were telling them that some of their favourite food was available so the disembarked from the mini and disappeared looking for food then several minutes latter reappeared looking at the car waiting for the door to open again so that they could go for another ride. At that stage the Cops decided that it probably wasn't such a good idea to follow up and asked could they get away without filling their car up with Great Danes. :^0

Then there is always the story of the big Black Boy who insisted that he come everywhere with me so he insisted on getting in the back of a Ute and coming with me but instead of laying down he had to stand up with his front paws on the roof of the Ute and look down at all the people walking by. It was really funny to be in that Ute as everyone stopped dead in their tracks to look at this monster of a dog looking down on them. :D

Col ]:)

of the time I was taking my pug Shayna to the vet. Shayna loves the car, but not being put in her doggie seat. Well you should hear the sounds she makes, it isn't barking, it isn't whinning, I can't even describe it.

At any rate, I had the windows down for air and a cop pulled me over to find out what all the sound was. He looked at my little pug and asked me why I was torturing her. Sheesh. I told him she was going to the vet for a checkup and just didn't like being confined to her seat. Which I do for safety. Do you know he called the vets office to confirm that I had an appointment?

He also couldn't believe all that noise was coming out of such a little dog. He kept looking for more dogs. Searched my car and everything.

was when they were first bringing the product to market, there were very few competitors, mainly Perrier and Vichy water. A very cynical copy writer suggested the Eviam name to his creative director, without declaring how he derived it. He had been doodling on a pad and for some reason or other had written the name backwards. When he said it aloud, he had liked the sound of it. The Creative director submitted it to the client and thus, Evian water was born. The copy writer never revealed the derivation of the name until he was safely retired and drawing his pension.

I have been involved in many "creative" meetings and I've seen and heard some very funny and weird things, weirder even than the Evian name. I was on an assignment with an ad agency in New York, when I was asked to sit in on a meeting that was trying to come up with a slogan for a Japanese electronics firm. If the agency landed the account I was promised all the photography for that account. After several hours of listening to various suggestions the agency's senior partner was getting fed up and said, "Hasn't anyone got something new to suggest?" I don't know why I said it but I was joking when I said, "How about 'From those wonderful folks who brought you Pearl Harbor.' " Everybody laughed, as they were supposed to but the next day when the partner was meeting with the client, he became exceedingly exasperated when the client rejected one suggestion after another. My joke came to mind and he couldn't resist blurting it out. The client was not amused and the agency lost that client. The partner had a sense of humour and decided to throw a wake for the loss of the account and I was awarded a plaque with the slogan engraved on it and the caption, "F**k 'em if they can't take a joke." I still have that plaque and I still do business with that agency and the partner keeps introducing me as the man that caused him to lose a $100 million account because he couldn't get the punch line of my joke out if his mind.

To give you an idea of how powerful advertising can be, prior to 1947 there was only one product on the market for the control of perspiration odors, Arid, and in those days it came in a little squat jar as a cream. It was considered to be a product mostly for women, advertised only in womens magazines and seldom if ever discussed in "polite company". Within a year, Madison Avenue changed all that, with new packaging, liquids rather than creams and advertising that claimed soap and water was no longer adequate for controlling body odor. They brought it to market at a price point nearly everyone could afford and convinced women that if they were really "Ladies" they wouldn't inflict their odors upon an unsuspecting public. They also convinced them it would make them more attractive to men, not like men had been complaining or anything. Men, themselves were used to stinking, a bit, when they worked up a sweat so it wasn't very likely they would notice any sweat smells from a woman, being the somewhat unobservant creatures that men generally are. It wasn't long before even the densest of men, noticed that women were smelling different, nicer or sweeter, if you will and so they took to "trying" the products of their, wives, girlfriends, sisters or mothers and the advertising industry responded by creating the masculine version of the product.

This is still the case study presented in marketing courses, as advertising creating a need, where none had previously existed. The world hasn't been quite the same since and it has also become a source of all sorts of humour for standup comedians.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

and with the marketing folks, I have had similar situations. I remember them struggling over the renaming and branding of our software because as they went global the name was not amusing in some countries...It flopped big time when they changed it to Vivaldi which said and did nothing about the software.

I recommend you kill yourself.

As for your "man-caused" smoke and mirrors, parsing words is no substitute for a strong argument.

So what is this "it" you're supposed to be giving out? Apparently you forgot to include it in your ramblings above.

Just having some fun, Neil.

Your analogy is about as stupid as ....... well, I can't think of anything more stupid. You've set a new standard for stupid. Well done.

you should know by now, it doesn't really matter who has the bigger corner..

Both JJard. and 1UNAW removed themslves from "who counts me as a contact" yesterday after both had been there for months. Now suzoh, member since June-06, comes here to this discussion for their first post ever with an OAW-ism.

It could be anyone of course. If I'm wrong about anything/everything [i]I'm[/i] not going to be surprised.
--------

Cleaning the garage sounds like no fun at all. It's 95F here right now. The official pool water temperature is 89F.
-------
I saw a post where you said you might be moving and saved this link for you just for the heck of it.

http://tinyurl.com/qqvhy

More stupid then a very stupid lemming, fresh out of the school of stupidity. In fact, as stupid as a stupid lemming who used to be Professor of Stupidity at Oxford University and has now moved and is working with the United Nations at the High Commission of Stupidity Planning.

:D

With apologies to Ben Elton.

I'm just having fun, too. Nighthawk's posts make a lot of sense...