Monday, June 29, 2009

AMERICA - THANK HEAVEN



I thank my God that I live in a land that is truly “choice above all others”. Each of us is a very fortunate person, thank heaven. Thank heaven for America! Despite our weaknesses, despite our problems, despite our challenges, this is the greatest nation on earth. Someone once said “we haven’t done badly for a nation of immigrants.”
But we haven’t done it alone. We have done it because God helped us do it. Our gratitude for this great country should be to Him. At the conclusion of the convention at which the Constitution was adopted George Washington said, “We have raised a standard to which the good and wise can repair; the event is in the hands of God… who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be, that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks.”
Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit a very large military installation in California, it was a language training base that was shared by all branches of the military. Twice a day as the flag of our great country was raised or lowered every single person on that base would stop what they were doing, salute and face the flag. Weather they were jogging, studying or shopping, even cars would stop in the street as the occupants would get out of their cars to give respect for the symbol of this country. This daily event never failed to touch my heart and bring a tear to my eye.
Let us all take pause during the coming weeks to give thanks. Not just for another holiday or an extra day to our weekend. But give thanks for the greatest country on earth. And pray that the leaders of this land will continue to seek the inspiration of that creator that inspired and guided our founding fathers.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

WHO AM I


Probably one of the longest living mascots in advertising history is this dog.
commonly called the RCA Dog. He was first used in the US by Thomas Edison's company the Victor Talking Machine Co., which later became RCA Victor and finally just RCA. It is all the same company just the evolution of the name.
The slogan that was used for many years with the image of the dog was "His Masters Voice".
For a short time he had a companion standing at his side in many ads.

So here is the contest. WHAT ARE THE DOG'S NAMES. You have to get both names.
(clue: the names rhyme with each other.)

yes you will win something. I just don't know what yet, maybe some old RCA vinyl, dinner out or who knows.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

ALIEN LANDING STRIP

This is a picture of an ancient alien landing strip. It was built billions of years ago by a civilization of giant brine shrimp that came from another galaxy to inhabit this part of our planet. They were mistaken in their theory that the entire earth had the same brinish atmosphere that surrounds the Great Salt Lake. Thankfully for us, they were wrong.

Yes the brine shrimp are still here, they are the only living thing that survives in the Great Salt Lake. However in a very strange phenomenon of reverse evolution, never imagined by Darwin, the shrimp have actually gotten much smaller than they were when they first arrived eons ago.....

.............Actually
I think this is all that's left of the grand boardwalk of the old Saltair resort, the boardwalk ran from the railroad spur out to the resort. It looks like rocks neatly lined up but is actually the salt encrusted wood pylons. It is hard to believe visiting the Lake today that there was ever anything this grand that ever existed out there.
In the photo it looks like the ground is all dried and cracked mud, but when we walked out here the top layer was dry and underneath was still muddy so it gave you the sensation of walking on thick foam rubber.