Enduring Icons and Bright Ideas.

While reading the Beloit Mindset List for the class of 2016, I stopped at # 27:

Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens.

I hadn't really thought about that before.  Suddenly a light went on in my head.

I had been idlely wondering if, since the familiar incandescent light bulb is being  phased out, would the newer fluorescent bulbs come to represent bright ideas.  However, these other ancient icons have persevered; why not the old light bulb?

I have a theory in connection with the bright-idea idea.  I remember little drawings of Thomas Edison with his light bulb hovering above his head in a thinking-cloud frame.  This was the pictograph of Edison inventing the light bulb. I think this image led to the now common use of the pictograph above for having a bright idea.  Maybe people zillions of years in the future will still use this icon and have no idea why it should represent a bright idea.

Think about that, will you.

Clandestine Decoration

This tree-hugger is the first instance of yarn bombing that I seen in my usual haunts.

In an age of acid etching graffitti,  it's encouraging to see nondestructive forms of street art. 

Clever Captions Will Win Valuable Prizes!

Create comical captions for either of these photos and win big!  Deadline for entries is March 20!

 

I wonder why humans stick their other ends in here?

(The winner!)

Mechanix Monday

Bim Gump was a character from The Gumps comic strip.  Bim was the Gumps' rich uncle and, evidently, an enthusiastic smoker.
And now for something completely different: a clock-comb.

An Invention Worth Blogging: The Clock-Comb

Finally I Have Triumphed!

Whenever I think of some snappy phrase or word--alpha bitch, snivelization, catmosphere--I go to Google to see if anybody else has thought of it. And, up to now, every idea I have has been thought of by 20,000 other people first.
But now, at long last, I believe I have beaten the crowd. How about this: a duel is a slay date. Get it? Yuk, yuk. So I record it here for the whole world to see and marvel at.

My Mind is Blank

NASA needs a name for its new satellite, but my aging brain won't come up with anything. I guess the old gray matter just ain't what it used to be.

No New Ideas Available

So Chuck was complaining about how tedious it was to use his Sonicare toothbrush for the full 2 minutes, and I suggested that they should use 2 minutes of music instead of the beeps. Well, Google informs me that musical toothbrushes are already out there. This always happens when I get a marketable idea. For instance, Alpha Bitch. There's a cute play on "alpha male." Too late; somebody is already selling Alpha Bitch tee shirts. Catmosphere. Somebody did a so-named series of paintings. Snivelization. A song.