Random Thursday

Scan of Dodge adThis is so much easier than actually giving any thought to a post…

  • Print Ad of the Week goes to the new one for the Dodge Caliber, which I scanned from the new issue of Mountain Bike. Click on the thumbnail at right to see the full-sized version (minus all the annoying-but-inevitable fine print at the bottom urging you not to try to xerox your car’s butt at home). It may be carrying the American tendency to anthropomorphize our vehicles to an extreme, but it’s still funny. If you like junior high humor, of course. Which, of course, I do.
  • Did I mention that I drive a Dodge?
  • And speaking of ads, remember back a few days when we were talking about the Alltel wireless phone ads that showcase the competitors’ spokesmen/women/things? (No? Shame on you.) I wondered whether Alltel would build on that first ad, and the answer came this morning when it ran on Fox & Friends. Instead of the ending group hug, however, it concluded with the geeky Can-You-Hear-Me-Now? guy from Verizon (thanks, Beth!) leering at the Catherine Zeta-Jones clone, asking, “does this mean I can call her?” Pseudo-CZJ responds with a silent eye-roll that forever brands Verizon Guy as the all-time loser we figured him to be. Excellent. And, again, gutsy for Alltel to conclude the ad with the spotlight on the competition.
  • Here’s it is fun to type and funner to say. Try it.
  • Which classic rock group did a song referring to the all-time loser?
  • I see that a distinguished Congressional panel has done intensive study and concluded that FEMA is broken, can’t be fixed, and needs to be replaced. I dare that panel to study Congress. Double-dare.
  • Speaking of Fox & Friends, I liked E.D. Hill’s suggestion this morning that if all Mexicans and illegal Mexican immigrants are going to boycott US products and services on May 1 in protest of the immigration reform movement, they should go all the way with it and refuse to accept any of the free government-subsidized social and medical services. The US taxpayers might just come out ahead on that deal.
  • In closing, let me just say that any blogger worth his or her salt should be willing to make a fool of himself or herself, just to prove that he or she isn’t taking himself or herself too seriously. As if I haven’t already sufficiently shown my capacity to do just that, there’s a good chance that I’m going to take that sentiment to a whole new level tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Just another Content Free™ post from the Fire Ant Gazette, where we take seriously our pledge to always be “cheap but not inexpensive.” I urge all my readers to show your support by not buying any Fire Ant merchandise on May 1. (After all, why should May 1 be any different than the other 364 days of the year?)

23 comments

  1. Just happened to trip over your anthill this morning, and glad of it. In the words of the governor of California, “I’ll be back.”
    In response to your musings:

    • All I know is that the day I hear my Civic say, “Does this hitch make my rear end look big?” is the day I have myself committed.
    • I can’t place the song lyrics. It’s this sort of increasingly common memory lapse that pushes me toward a shuffling madness and, perhaps, headlong to my death.
    • Willing to make a fool of myself: check.

  2. Hey, welcome to the Gazette, Mr. Foo. Feel free to come back anytime, although you might want to keep in mind one of the cardinal groundrules: don’t be funnier than your host (which you’ve violated at least twice thus far, but we’ll let it slide seeing as how you’re new here).
    Of course, you’ve nailed the music…but let’s not give away too much at this point, OK? 😉
    I see you’re a ‘bent rider, too. Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Nerds, amigo…and check out the letters to the editor in the current issue of Bicycling Magazine.
    Oh, and you are blogrolled.

  3. You know – I’m really glad you explained the ad to me, cause I looked at it and had a brief moment of head scratching. I get it now, but…well…I don’t think I’m in their target demographic. 🙂
    I’ve always been a big fan of “funner”. “More funner” is even…well, more funner.
    FEMA is broken and can’t be fixed. Recommended solution? Rename it. Cause seriously, that’s the net result of what’s being proposed. Cause a rose by any other name will most definitely smell better – or at least not have as much bad press associated with it…yet.

  4. Cause seriously, that’s the net result of what’s being proposed.
    I agree, Beth. It’s hard to understand how simply jacking up one agency and running another one under it does anything to help whatever serious problems they think FEMA suffers, unless they simply think it suffers from a bad acronym.

  6. Is it Thursday again?!
    I love that ad. I hadn’t seen it before but can definitely relate…was it junior high? Or high school? Well, some of us matured earlier than others, I suppose.
    …one of the cardinal groundrules: don’t be funnier than your host…
    Oh, please. Since when has that ever been a problem? We’re all just enablers, remember? 😉
    Can we call our new friend Mr. McFoo?

  10. I know (part of) the song, but not the title or artist. And I refuse to resort to Google. This time.
    “Have you heard about the lonesome loser?
    He’s a loser but he still keeps on tryin’…”
    Was this question a continuation of the item before (the Verizon guy) or preparation for the item ahead (the US Congress)? Or is it all just one category?

  11. Brian, both Mr. Foo and Jim have already correctly identified the song, although they’ve done so by leaving additionally obscure references so as not to tip off other readers. And, unfortunately, it’s not the song you mention.
    Quizzes like this sometimes make me feel thick as a brick.

  12. The Dodge ad is funny. And I don’t usually go in for junior high humor, but that made me laugh. Maybe I’ve been spending enough time with my boys or at the elementary school that it’s rubbing off on me.

  14. Jennifer, I think most of us still have a bit of the junior high mentality in us — if we’re honest enough to admit it. Actually, I think it’s a good sign when someone can get tickled at something like this…
    Mark, that’s the artist and album. Know the song, by any chance?

  17. OK – I was going to say something about the “thick as a brick” comment, Eric, (having missed all the clues myself) and then I broke down searched on Jethro Tull and discovered *that* was a joke I missed, too.
    I’ll point now to your paragraph on the virtues of making a fool of one’s self… be he blogger or commenter.
    Did I mention the lovely weather we’re having here in Ohio today? Ah, spring…

  18. Brian, don’t be so hard on yourself. You have to be a geezer (in relative terms) to know some of this stuff. (No offense to Foo, Jim, and Mark, of course.)
    But I’m glad to see that the Gazette is playing an important role in the education of America’s youth! 😉

  22. Actually, Mark, here’s what you need to learn to say: “You darn kids…get off my lawn!” Then shake your fist menacingly.
    It’s not as easy as it sounds; don’t worry if it takes a while to get it down.

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