Foolery

Fashion Terror Alert Level: ORANGE

 


(Photo stolen from OMG)

I do believe orange is no longer my favorite color. Thanks so much to fashion designer Vivienne Westwood for ruining it for me. Can someone introduce her to *cough-wheeze-GAG*

beige?

Plymouth Rock On

Got a letter from my brother Mantel Man today. I don't think it will need any explanation. Hope he won't mind the theft. You don't mind, do you Mantel Man? (He doesn't mind.)

 


(Original photo stolen from mrbinfv on Flickr)

After driving the Camaro around for two years using only the rear stereo speakers, I finally got the cracked front ones replaced in time for my road trip north. It didn't cost much -- at least not monetarily.

The manager handed me the car keys and told me, "Wait a week or so before you really rock it."  Hmm... a breaking-in period for stereo speakers? No problem -- I don't play my music very loudly anyway. I walked out to the car, got in, and turned the key.

I regained consciousness lying face-down about 30 feet from the car. All the windows were broken, the paint had peeled off, and the car itself seemed to have melted and re-formed as some sort of Plymouth (most of which have broken windows and no paint anyway). Well, the new speakers definitely worked.  However, if they needed breaking in, it appeared that the installer had been accomplishing just that, before shutting down the car without turning the volume down.  Either he forgot, or he had a twisted sense of humor.

 


(Original Photo stolen from samwilkinson on Flickr)

That's not the worst part:  when I turned on the ignition, the radio happened to be playing something by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  SOMEBODY out there has a twisted sense of humor.

 


(Original photo stolen from these guys)

And Now for Some Gratuitous Nudity

This story in the Record-Searchlight caught my eye this morning and I wanted to share.

First, some background . . . do you remember the movie "Calendar Girls" from 2004?* According to the stringent research I conducted for, like, 10-12 minutes, in 1999 a group of women of Yorkshire, England, created a calendar featuring artfully-posed photos of themselves naked as jaybirds.

 


This guy is naked as the day he was hatched.  (Illustration stolen from this site)

The fundraiser for leukemia research was a huge success despite the fact (actually because of the fact) that none of the women fit the contemporary ideal of a pin-up girl. The bravery and good humor of the women appealed to tens of thousands of people enough that they willingly pried open their wallets to buy.

 
 

(Photo stolen from these guys)

Well, apparently the little mountain town of Weaverville has a group of merchants (both men and women) trying the same approach. It's hard enough being a merchant without having all of your customers drive down the hill to a bigger town to shop, so I think these people are used to taking extreme steps to keep people's attention.

Like, getting naked, apparently.

(Photo stolen from the Trinity County Visitor's Guide site)

The best part of all of this is that it is
a fundraiser.
You guessed that, right? Well, it is. Weaverville was dealt a devastating blow September 12th when the Trinity River Lumber mill burned, and wiped out a significant source of revenue for the area. You can read about recovery efforts here because my 12 minutes of research time are up. Buying a calendar will help these people financially in a very tough time, plus, you get a naked calendar. Win-win.

I'm calling them to get a calendar for my office wall. Remind me to post a photo of it when it gets here. Who's with me?



*I haven't seen the movie, nor do I have any connection to the town of Weaverville, California, other than driving through it when heading to the redwoods.