If you’re like me at lunch time, you’re probably eager to enhance your intellectual brain power by browsing Webster’s Dictionary, doing crosswords (in pen) or catching up on the most recent edition to Oprah’s book club! (Ok, ok, or sometimes I nap and read People.) Well, today was an “anagram day!” A friend of mine sent me some encrypted anagram messages to sort out and after I had, I stumbled across this gem of a Web site to help me make up some really inventive ones! Check it out and create your own anagram riddles here! Also, don’t forget to explore the anagram hall of fame!

So, what do you think “LARGER KITTEN MOM” really stands for?

Posted in Clairevoyant | 3 Comments »

George Washington? Captain America? How about William Katt, as teacher Ralph Hinkley?

For those of you who are not well versed in early-80’s sitcoms, William Katt played Ralph Hinkley, a recently divorced teacher who just happened  to wear a superhero costume that granted him amazing powers, including super strength, the ability to fly, invulnerability to projectiles, invisibility and a host of other cool tricks. 

The “magic jammies,” as crime fighting partner Bill Maxell (played by Roberty Culp) called them, were given to Hinkley by an alien, under the premise he was to utilize them for the good of mankind. The problem was Hinkely lost the instruction manual to the suit, which meant hilarity insued every time he put on the costume. Flying more like a wounded duck than Superman, Hinkley was forced  learn all about his new powers, and limits, through a trial and error process of physical comedy that only the 80’s could provide.

Now, how did we get on this topic in the first pace? Isn’t it kind of random? Well, yes of course it is. We’re Merlot and this is The Water Cooler. 

We got here because while discussing Monday night’s season premiere of Heroes, I pointed out that the actor who played the reporter was a hero himself: The Greatest American Hero.

Credit (or blame) my 80’s education for this knowledge. I will take it as a compliment.  In fact, in the world of random, insignificant trivia and observation, I’d have to say it was on par with Matt correctly idetifying Meshach Taylor as the man in Designing Women.

Posted in Rappin' with B-Rad, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

So I went to the theater this weekend to watch this movie. Interestingly enough, there was no poster outside the theater for it. As I think about it, I realized I had not seen a commercial for it either. Just the viral marketing video. Hmmm… After paying $10.25 at 3:10 p.m. (isn’t that still matinee time?) I walked into a small theater of 16 people - all women of course.

As I sit through the plot, I’m almost bored to tears because I have seen this movie at least 16 times before. Wife loves husband, husband cheats on wife, wife is the last to know, wife hits rock bottom because she put everything into her husband, wife finds her own voice along with new hairstyle and wardrobe, wife becomes successful on her own terms, wife forgives husband, everyone lives happily ever after. Boooooooooo!

Why is it that only AFTER the man cheats on her, does the woman only then realize how out of control everything was and how out of touch she was with reality? Why is there never a movie where the woman has a mid-life intervention of her own and decides she wants to do better for herself, not because some man/job/(fill in the blank) has let her down? Come on! Women should be smarter than this by now. Or at least you think they would be after seeing this type of movie over and over again.

And with such a stunning cast (Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Bette Midler, Candice Bergan and a host of others) you think this would have been a very smart film. Apparently, some writers don’t think we are ready for a smart chick flick. Personally I can’t wait any longer, but I don’t have the time to write my own screenplay. It’s 2009 planning season, for goodness sake! So until a smart and intelligent chick flick comes along, I’m sticking to comedies and dramatic thrillers. This way I know I will be on the edge of my seat in anticipation or about to fall out of it from laughter. I think that’s enough said!

Posted in Zsavonne, enough said! | 3 Comments »

The buffet line

It’s the end of the day and I think I speak for everyone when I say that I don’t think I’ll be injesting any sugar for a little while. And this is me (I have a pretty controlling sweet tooth), so you can just imagine how any normal person feels.

It would seem as though Uncle Marxy’s World Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies are now Uncle Marxy’s Award-Winning, World Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies. We don’t know how he does it, but Matt’s won again. He wins everything! Truthfully, those cookies were pretty darn good, but I think we’ll still wait for the indepentdent performance enhancing drug test to come in.

Everything was delicious and the vote was very close. We had a five-way tie until the last vote, so a big congrats to all of our entrants. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m coming down from my sugar high, so I need a nap.

Posted in aka Jana "My name's pronounced 'John-uh'" Sanders Perry | 3 Comments »

Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

September 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. In honor of this, let me provide you with a couple of tools. Click here to visit the Official International Talk Like A Pirate Day Web site. But, first I recommend having some fun by discovering your very own pirate name. Click here to visit the Pirate Name Generator. It’s really easy. So easy, in fact, that it only took me three minutes to research my co-worker’s pirate names! Want to see them? Follow the jump…

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Posted in aka Jana "My name's pronounced 'John-uh'" Sanders Perry | 1 Comment »

It’s time for the Merlot Marketing Semi-Annual Bake Off! And the competition is fierce. At noon, we’ll be judging all of the entries and voting for our favorites, so stay tuned because we’ll announce the winner later. The rules for this competition are very simple: Everything must be made from scratch (no boxed mixes), and must have been baked in an oven. The entries don’t have to be sweets. As long as they were baked in an oven, they qualify.

There a lot on the line today. Mostly pride. Although for me, it’s a little more than pride. It’s also my title. I’ve won the last two baking competitions, so a win for me today would mean a hat trick. I’ve never had a hat trick before, so I’m hoping my entry will solidify my place in Merlot baking history. 

Hungry? You will be. A list of all of the entries is after the jump…

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Posted in aka Jana "My name's pronounced 'John-uh'" Sanders Perry | 2 Comments »

"Let me see you 'walk it out'"

First off, I’m all for exercising and while this seems like a great way we could all “use our time wisely,” I’m not so sure I’m a big fan of the “Walkstations”. Zsavonne did a post about this sometime ago, but I found this article in the New York Times and thought it was kind of interesting. According to the NYT article “about 335 Walkstations, have been sold nationwide,”  and a social network for the walkstation fans have blossomed: officewalker.ning.com…as of right now it hails about 30 members (hey, you have to start somewhere).

Seriously, could you even imagine Merlot full of Walkstations??? Yeaaaa not so much…

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While we are all trying to discover the next new thing in marketing, this may be taking things a step too far. Check out this video from SlateV.com about the potential future of viral marketing. What’s makes this scary is that it could be real.

Posted in Zsavonne, enough said! | 1 Comment »

We’ve all had that idea that seemed good at the time that later turned out to be a mistake. Often, it’s not the idea that’s inherently bad, but the execution.

I thought I’d share one such case for educational purposes [To protect the guilty, names have been omitted]:

As a full-service marketing agency, we often receive promotional items from magazines, printers, contractors, vendors and other people looking to sell us thier goods and services. Once such entity recently decided to showcase it’s value and service by sending us a promotional piece delivered via the good people at the United States Postal Serivce.

The general idea was this: Send prospective clients an edible goodie that ties in with a written promotional piece. Here’s where the potential for a good idea stopped and the execution of that idea took a turn for the worse. 

The edible goody: A minature chocolate candy bar. The offense: Sending it in the mail, to Sacramento area businesses, in AUGUST! For those that don’t know, the average high temperature in Sacramento during August is 93 degrees. On the day we received the candy bar, it topped 100. Although some candies claim not to melt in your hand, few can stand up to the temperatures seen inside a metal mailbox during a Sacramento summer.

So, while the sender thought her or she would be sending an tasty, edible gift that tied in nicely with thier solicitation, what we got was a goopy choco-mess and the sender lost all ability to communicate her or her preferred message.

Looks a little lumpy

Chocolate Goop

This is proof once again, that despite the best of intentions, you can never overlook the details. 

And, if you’re wondering, yes, I still ate what was left of the candy bar.

Posted in Rappin' with B-Rad | No Comments »

Ever since I was a wee tike, I’ve loved kinesthetic learning materials, like those children’s books that let you feel the soft feathers of a chick or the rough sandpapery texture of a cat’s tongue. I totally get it! Well, now I’m all grown up and you know what—I’m still enamored by that concept! So to kick off another nail-biting, beer-clinking, ref-jeering season of football, I thought I’d share some really inventive, touchy-feely advertising done to promote Monday Night Football on ESPN! The ad agency for ESPN has brought the field to the bus stop reminding everyone to “Sack Monday’s Doldrums” with another riveting few hours watching Monday Night Football. To be really eye-catching, they’ve put Astroturf on the side of the bus stop so you can’t help but to want to touch the ad for the full experience. It is similar to those books I used to love for the involvement, though normally I wouldn’t associate anything “touchy-feely” with ESPN football—maybe words like touchdown and field goal. But this ad is so awesome, when you see it you may just get the urge to yell out “Put me in coach!” or “Peanuts and a Bud Light over here please!” It even gives merit to chest bumping others waiting for the bus and running up the aisle looking for high-fives. (Though I’d be wary of attempting to pat the bus driver on the rear, if I were you.) Either way, it’s a great conversation piece and a memorable campaign! The only thing that could make it better is getting a live feed of the game and commentary in the bus shelter too. So far a friend of mine has spotted this firsthand in Chicago, so here’s to hoping it makes its way west. Until then, game on!

Posted in Clairevoyant | No Comments »