TARATS 20!

I have received another TARATS entry, making it 20 pictures so far. The email:

 

I took this in Ann Arbor, MI on 10/21/12. This is one of the first pics I took with my new Iphone 5. I think it turned out pretty great. This is an unedited picture too - straight from my phone.
Thanks for the fun contest!
Josh

 

 

 Woah. Stunner. Thanks Josh!

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Tarats Entry #19 - Seattle

Longtime reader of these pages Steve A has had two trees in mind for my contest this year. One of them is (or was) ready. If you are at all familiar with Steve or his blog DFW Point-to-Point, you will already know that Steve sometimes has something of a historical bent, one that I quite enjoy.

Leave it to Steve to make his first tree entry one with a documented back-story! Take it away, Steve...

Entry #1 - from North Seattle (well, it became part of North Seattle about 100 years after this tree sprouted). The day after this photo was shot, heavy rain set in as often happens in Seattle and when it cleared, the tree looked like the bottom photo. In truth, the brown pickup is in both photos. Note how the Maple rivals the Douglas firs in height, and how the trunk is nearly the same diameter as the silver car is wide. There is more on this tree at:


http://wedgwoodinseattlehistory.com/2012/02/20/a-tree-in-wedgwood-history/ 

Steve, thank you for that serious big-ass tree.

I got 18 entries last year, but they were from 18 individual people. This entry makes it 19 trees from 12 people so far. Thanks all! Anybody else? C'mon, you know you wanna... if you're showing up late and have no tree to photograph, well, um, too bad, I guess. Maybe next year?

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Are You #%^1n' Kiddin' Me #8

I can not stand it when commercials make strange illogical connections between things. Check this out:

 

 

 

Did you catch that? "Gillette wanted to see how far one ProGlide cartridge could go, so they sent me around the world to find out." What? Hang on. Let me get this straight. For the viewer to believe this bit of ad copy, they also would have to believe that the good people at Gillette are extraordinarily stupid. You see, the only way a distance test works is when the product or item in question is worn by travelling said distance. Like a brake pad, for instance. This should be abundantly clear to all thinking humans. Somehow I just can't see executives at Gillette saying to themselves, "I wonder how this razor will perform after a long flight in a jet plane? I know those damn flights sure wear me out!"
 

Turns out, Gillette is actually advertising how long a cartridge will last (5 weeks, impressive!) rather than far it can go. So why send it on a journey with some good lookin' dude? The answer is clear: to make a commercial, of course!

Trouble is, when they (or, more accurately, some ad agency) make this stupid illogical connection, they are banking on the fact that television viewers are too zoned out and tube worn to even notice the insult to their intelligence. Were the people who approved this campaign zoned out too? Maybe, I guess. I kind of hope so, because otherwise they noticed the bad logic and just didn't care. Why not, right? Many commercials do this kind of thing and slip by without us noticing.

Well, on this occasion, I noticed, and I have to say hey Gillette, Are You #%^1n' Kiddin' Me? Using that logic if you really want to impress me with how far your cartridge can go, make it a little heavier and do a throwing comparison! I bet with just a couple of ounces of ballast the proglide could go WAY farther than the competition! Or wait, maybe you could strap one to the next Mars rover! That one would go really far! That would the best razor ever made, I mean, look how far it goes!

 

ARG. I mean, ARG.

R A N T W I C K