It seems some folks were little shook-up in San Diego last week when, just after the announcement of the arrests for an alleged terrorist plot in London, a skywriter flew what appeared to be the word "BOO!" above that California City.
Only it wasn't "BOO!" It was "3001," the name of a company that provides aerial photography services.
According to an item in a column today by Diane Bell, in the Union-Tribune, the folks at 3001 were advertising themselves to the 12,000 (or more) GIS professionals in town for the annual, week-long ESRI GIS Conference.
The ESRI conference is a major event in the GIS calendar. I had heard that the crowd was up to 15,000 this year. Maybe it just seemed that way.
I've attended this event few times in the past; it is huge. The notion of a skywriter overhead doesn't surprise me in the least. My friend Matt was there this year. He remembers the skywriter. He says that no one at the ESRI event that evening, their annual Thursday night, outdoor, themed party, thought it was anything other than 3001's ad.
That, my friends, is what you call "specialty advertising."
I owe a debt to Adena Schutzberg at All Points Blog for a pointer to this item, by the way. Also, I have a few alternate titles for this post to consider: "The Plane! The Plane!" or "Surrender, Jack Dangermond! Surrender!"
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
I Keep Wanting to Post Blog Entries With The Title "Irony!"
There's a Delaware Voice column in today's News Journal (New civic group will keep watch for public) about a new civic group set up to advocate for a more open government here in Delaware.
I don't disagree with the goals of the Delaware Coalition For Open Government. After all, a major part of my role as a state employee is to make information available to the public.
But the new group's acronym, DCFOG, just seems to pierce the haze a bit too sharply.
I don't disagree with the goals of the Delaware Coalition For Open Government. After all, a major part of my role as a state employee is to make information available to the public.
But the new group's acronym, DCFOG, just seems to pierce the haze a bit too sharply.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
We Have A House Guest
We noticed this week that a bird has been building a nest in one of the hanging plant baskets on our porch.This basket hangs just outside a large window on the small, triangular deck between our "new room" and the garage. The plant in the basket had pretty white flowers when I bought it. They have faded since then, but with an avian home in the basket I don't feel that I can replace it.
It looks rather like an enclosed sort of nest. I can't tell if there are any eggs in there. And, as far as I can tell, there is only one bird.
The bird is small, with a long, thin beak. It often stands perched on the wrought-iron-like metal hanger that juts out from the house; or on the edge of the garage roof, across the deck; or up on the peak of our roof. It stands there and squawks. I’m not sure if it is singing, trying to attract a mate, or yelling curses at us for disturbing its nest by looking too closely.
This bird is driving Mocha, our younger cat, crazy. She takes up watch on the bench that sits inside the house under this window and stares intently out at the bird. If we open the window, she scrambles up the screen to the level of the nest.
Poor Mocha, she is convinced that she must eat this bird. I understand; that is her job. But I don't think we can alow that.
I wonder if this is the same bird that used to sit on a large bush just outside of the bay window in the living room. It would sit there, not two feet away from the cat, but separated by a screen and glass, singing away to taunt the cat.
I don’t know birds, so I can’t tell what sort this is. Is there such a thing as a sadist-bird?
Saturday, August 12, 2006
A New Blog From The News Journal
There is another new blog on the News Journal web site. Dialogue Delaware says it will present "inklings and oddments on the Delaware Way."
It looks to me like a collection of minor "reporter's notebook" items. I wonder who the author is. Is it set up to allow any of the paper's reporters to post?
I'd like to see attribution on these posts.
It looks to me like a collection of minor "reporter's notebook" items. I wonder who the author is. Is it set up to allow any of the paper's reporters to post?
I'd like to see attribution on these posts.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Molly Knows How to Avoid Heat Waves
I've just noticed that my old friend and fellow Lewes resident Molly Murray has joined the blogging ranks at the News Journal.
Molly is headed to Alaska on a journalism fellowship and plans to write about her travels in a new bog, North to Alaska, as well as (I assume) in the News Journal.
I first met Molly when I was making the switch from DJ/announcer to radio news guy back in the late 1980s. I got to know her while we were both covering Sussex County Council. She represented true journalism for me, and set an example for me to try to live up to.
Molly is a nice person. I'm happy she gets a chance to go to Alaska and learn new things. I'm also very jealous.
Update (8/11/06, 6:47 a.m.): There are details on Molly's Alaskan plans in this morning's News Journal. She's headed for Alaska today and will spend a bit more than a week up north, posting to her blog each day.
Molly is headed to Alaska on a journalism fellowship and plans to write about her travels in a new bog, North to Alaska, as well as (I assume) in the News Journal.
I first met Molly when I was making the switch from DJ/announcer to radio news guy back in the late 1980s. I got to know her while we were both covering Sussex County Council. She represented true journalism for me, and set an example for me to try to live up to.
Molly is a nice person. I'm happy she gets a chance to go to Alaska and learn new things. I'm also very jealous.
Update (8/11/06, 6:47 a.m.): There are details on Molly's Alaskan plans in this morning's News Journal. She's headed for Alaska today and will spend a bit more than a week up north, posting to her blog each day.
Yup. I've Felt Like This
I found this image on Flickr today. I don't know if this was intended to slam Microsoft or Apple. I don't care.I'm really sick of these Mac ads. I know the intent is to make PCs out as stodgy and old and un-cool. I get that.
But these ads also make me think of Macs as patronizing, self-righteous jerks.
I have a similar reaction to those Geico ads that feature the insulted cavemen. All I can think of when I see the ad in which the Geico pitch-man has to take the caveguys out to lunch to apologize is what a prissy, petty, ungracious creep that one caveman is.
Oh Dear
I guess I should have thought more carefully the other day before posting my slightly self-righteous take on the recent visit of Girls Gone Wild to Dewey Beach.
I was reacting to an early version of the story from the News Journal's web site. I started having doubts when I read the full version the next morning and now that I have read Ryan Cormier's take on the story and Mike M's on Down with Absolutes, I'm having even more.
I was reacting to an early version of the story from the News Journal's web site. I started having doubts when I read the full version the next morning and now that I have read Ryan Cormier's take on the story and Mike M's on Down with Absolutes, I'm having even more.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Imagine My Surprise
I just finished a novel that is set, in part, in my home town, only in the late 1800s.I had not realized that it would be set here in Lewes when I pulled Tunnell's Boys off the library shelf. I just did what I always do, I wandered along the New Books shelf and, judging them entirely by their covers, picked two to bring home and read. That approach usually works just fine.
Tunnell's Boys is a historical novel by Tony Junker, a Philadelphia architect and sailor. It tells the story of two young men who meet as apprentice Delaware River and Bay Pilots. It is set partly in Philadelphia, partly in Lewes, and partly on the Delaware River and Bay and on the Atlantic Ocean.
The sail and steam-powered boating in the book is very well told. Mr. Junker knows his boats and the moods of deep and shallow waters. It works just fine as a sea-going adventure.
Thematically, this book is about war and responsibility and the duties of men and women in the world. Mr. Junker is a Quaker, and uses his story to examine some of the larger issues of life from the perspective of Quaker practice. The story turns on the US war with Spain over Cuba. It holds some parallels for our foreign policy predicament of today.
What fascinated me, though, was to read a novel set in Lewes, Delaware. I don't know our history quite well enough to know how much license Mr. Junker may have taken, but I know enough to say that he has painted a plausible past for the First Town.
Much of the action takes place on the waters of the Bay. The characters live and work on a schooner that anchors behind the breakwater off Lewes. They discuss the need for a second breakwater, to expand the anchorage. This would be built eventually. The old Cape Henlopen Lighthouse is there on the dunes, but a major storm erodes away the sand at the base, and characters worry that it may soon slide away. I recognized street names and places. It felt right; it felt like Lewes in the days of sail.
I do wonder about Mr. Junker's addition of a brothel, run and staffed by Cuban emigres, to 19th-century Lewes. I am not sure whether that might be accurate or not, and I'm not sure who to ask. Should I go up to one of the elderly ladies of the Lewes Historical Society and ask? I suppose they might surprise me.
I also found myself thinking of local "coastal conservative" Jud Bennett as I read this book. Jud is now working his way up in politics, and blogging. But he was once a Delaware River and Bay Pilot. I could see Jud, a big guy, bushy-bearded and commanding, climbing onto the deck of a three-masted ship and piloting her up from Lewes the Philadelphia.
In fact, I used Jud's face in my internal movie for one of the characters in the book.
I had thought to read another sea-story, fun and salty but nothing special. Instead, I found a sort of history machine, taking me back in my town's time.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Questions I Ask Myself on Reading Some of the Latest Delaware Headlines
I took a peek at some of the stories that the News Journal is working up for the news on Wednesday. A couple of questions come to my mind.
Didn't we see this coming? Bobby Jacobs now faces forgery and theft charges related to his management of the Slam Dunk to the Beach basket ball tournament. Also, what took so long? And where is Bobby? (Print version, from 8/9/06)
Where do they get the seasonal cops for Dewey Beach? Two off-duty Dewey summer police officers are under investigation for allegedly drinking with an under-age woman on the Girls Gone Wild tour bus recently. Also, why has it taken so long for Girls Gone Wild to roll into Dewey? Oh, and, on a personal note: ew.
Update (8/9/06: 06:49 a.m.): The more complete, print version this morning, suggests that there may be more, or less, here than first suggested.
Didn't we see this coming? Bobby Jacobs now faces forgery and theft charges related to his management of the Slam Dunk to the Beach basket ball tournament. Also, what took so long? And where is Bobby? (Print version, from 8/9/06)
Where do they get the seasonal cops for Dewey Beach? Two off-duty Dewey summer police officers are under investigation for allegedly drinking with an under-age woman on the Girls Gone Wild tour bus recently. Also, why has it taken so long for Girls Gone Wild to roll into Dewey? Oh, and, on a personal note: ew.
Update (8/9/06: 06:49 a.m.): The more complete, print version this morning, suggests that there may be more, or less, here than first suggested.
Sometimes Life Really is Just Like a Game, Played With Real Money
I've walked and driven past this sign at least once a week for years. It always struck me as odd, but I never really looked closely at it to figured out why.Until this noon. Walking back from 33 West with a Caesar Salad, I paused to take a closer look.
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