Yes, I know you’re sick of Christmas. But here’s one important fact (which I learned from AdCult): Did you know that Santa Claus looks the way he does today because of Coca-Cola advertisements that began in 1931? Yup. I find this most interesting because I had no idea Coke had anything to do with styling Santa, so I bet they wish they had added some Coke reference to every Santa Claus depiction. Then we could’ve seen some truly creative retaliatory marketing from Pepsi (would they have dressed him in blue instead?). Read more in this Brief History of Santa.

People from different generations can have different associations for the same thing. A friend said to me: “When the previous generation hears that riff from the song ‘Under Pressure’ they think of Queen and David Bowie. Our generation thinks of Vanilla Ice. And kids now think it’s from that Gap ad!” I wonder if the “ecommerce” generation will know that “amazon” used to mean a tall, aggressive, strong-willed woman instead of online shopping. It’s odd to realize how the same word has an entirely different primary meaning in another person’s brain. Even weirder when it’s the entire next generation.

It always bothers me when I go to an art museum and they don’t have a print or postcard of a painting I like. I guess in order for the production of a print to be economical, it has to be of a popular painting. But, true to form, I tend to latch onto the less favored ones. Will it take a technical advance in print production or a new logistical paradigm to make “printing on demand” economical for museum pieces? Are there legal issues that are in the way as well?

Yay! Bravo (cable network) is now showing episodes of Moonlighting! This was my absolute favorite show in the 80’s. It didn’t take itself too seriously, often broke the “fourth wall”, and unfortunately self-combusted. Hmm, now I remember why I once bought pairs of heavy goldtone earrings and sunglasses with gradient lenses. As if I could ever look like Cybill Sheperd.

Thank goodness for Steve Martin, the writer. He’s keeping intelligent humor writing from becoming a lost art. I was so happy to read his essay in the New York Times on the millenium. An overdone subject, made fresh and hilarious by his special brand of wit.

A while ago someone made fun of me for saying “PIN number”, since the “N” already stands for number. Since then I’ve been careful to use all those ubiquitous TLAs properly. But I’d been dutifully calling Java Server Pages “JSPs”, only to find that all the documentation says “JSP pages”, which seems redundant. I guess it’s OK because “JSP” is the designator for the type of the page (like HTML page, which just happens to not have the word page in it). I dunno. I probably shouldn’t worry about proper usage when all of us are making it up as we go along.

Happy New Year! All I can think about right now is all those people who had to be at work for the Y2K rollover. Many thanks to all of you who stood vigil over the servers and phones to make sure the world knew that all us geeks know what we’re doing (or at least how to fix it). I appreciate it.

If all goes according to plan, a coworker of mine, John Lewis, is jumping out of a (we hope) perfectly good airplane onto the South Pole any hour now. Don’t worry, he’ll be wearing a parachute. And, since he’s skydived the North Pole already (he has the photos to prove it), this should be a piece of cake. New Year’s Eve usually makes people look back at what they’ve done and forwards to what they want to do. Don’t forget to enjoy the here and now.

I’ve been to two museums this week which included an Acoustiguide with the price of admission. These are pretty common nowadays; you may have used one. It’s a long handset with a keypad, LCD, and speaker; the unit is self contained (no radio or other networking). You punch in the number displayed next to the exhibit and it plays a recorded description. I’ve enjoyed using it, especially in crowded areas where it’s difficult to read what’s posted. Often I would go wandering off to another display or painting, still listening to the previous recording, maximizing my learning time. And of course I’d often punch in random numbers to see what I’d get. My only complaint is that it turns museums into more of an introverted activity. It’s harder to converse with the people you are with and point things out as you listen to your own guides. Maybe that can be worked around as people get accustomed to them. And some people go off on their own regardless. But it is altering the interaction that I enjoy when visiting museums with others.

The following sums up my mom pretty well:

I had borrowed my mom’s gloves and was on my way out the door when she said the following: “Don’t lose my gloves! If you do, lose both of them together so someone else can use them!”

Guilt, practicality and consideration for others all wrapped into one package. You gotta love it.