Ask-Steve.com

Fred Phelps is the Wicked Witch

I guess that's a pretty mean thing to say about the Wicked Witch.

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Richard Crowson Cartoons  at The Wichita Eagle

(Thanks, Darci!)

Portland Barista Personality Index 2007

Lest there be any confusion, Fresh Pot sits in the just right area of the index. They're not plastic perma-grin baristabots, but they're not more-crema-than-thou jerks, either. They're just cool peeps who know their stuff.

NOTE: "Espresso Nazi" is a reference to The Soup Nazi:

"The Soup Nazi" is the title of the 116th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which was the 6th episode of the 7th season. It first aired in the United States on November 2, 1995.

The Soup Nazi is also the name of the character played by Larry Thomas. The term "Nazi" is used as an exaggeration of the over-regimentation he constantly demands of his patrons.

The Soup Nazi | Wikipedia

(I suppose the over-regimentation he constantly demands of his patrons would actually be more true of Starbucks... I'm always impressed by how when I ask for a double tall americano with room the bilingual cashier instantly translates it from English into Starbuck-speak so the apparently monolingual Starista can understand and make the drink...)

Overheard: Number one or number two?

Powell's guy: Number one or number two? I have to clean the bathroom.
Customer: Uh... Number one. I'll hurry.

I was coming out of the bathroom at Powell's Books on Hawthorne yesterday evening and a guy who'd been waiting started to go in. A Powell's employee came up and said the above. I nearly tipped over. I've seen them turn people away before, but I've never heard them ask for the particulars of someone's intended activities.

Technorati Tags: overheard

Overheard: Now no more singing!

I'm sitting at a coffee shop in Southeast Portland and there's a guy with a guitar playing and singing. When he finished the song he was playing a little kid at one of the tables shouted—to the now silent coffee shop:

Now, no more singing!

Awkward silence. Then he started playing and singing again.

I don't want to encourage public bathroom mischief, but...

This one is just too funny to pass up. How could Rubbermaid have not seen this coming?

Or maybe it's one of those situations where the designer did see it coming.

Maybe the name was coined by a bored marketing person who knew it would make it safely through the internal hoops at Rubbermaid—and then give people some great laughs when clever bathroom visitors inevitably discovered the hidden gem and took artistic license with it.

Or perhaps it was devised this way from the start. Think online viral marketing carried to the most mundane level: a diaper changing table in a public restroom. It's certainly not something I thought I'd ever be blogging about, and yet here I am giving Rubbermaid some publicity and product promotion on Ask-Steve.com.

I do have to say that I wouldn't have written about this, though, if there weren't a very direct political tie in. That being the fact that the revised name of the Sturdy Station applies just as accurately to the current White House as it does to the diaper changing station.

[This photo was taken at the McMenamin's Bagdad Pub restroom on SE 37th & Hawthorne in Portland, Oregon]

Technorati Tags: advertising, Bush, graffiti, neoconservatism, Oregon, politics, Portland, public art

A brilliant comic for geeks and those who love us

I typically don't post entries that do nothing more than riff off someone else's blog entry. And certainly not entries that do nothing more than riff off someone else's blog entry talking about another website. But I'm going to do just that.

A huge thank you to PAgent over at PAgent’s Progress for the heads up on xkcd, an absolutely brilliant webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

If you have any kind of geek streak in you at all—or know someone who does—I predict you'll appreciate it.

Okay, enough from me. Go check it out!

xkcd - webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language

Overheard: We have Starubucks in Atlanta, but nothing like Tiny's

Overheard at Tiny's Coffee on SE 12th in Portland:

Customer: Is Tiny's a chain?

Barista: There are two locations in Portland.

Customer: Well I'm from Atlanta, Georgia -- as you can tell by the accent -- and we have the Starbucks and Caribou, but nothing like Tiny's. This is so neat!

Barista: Well welcome to Tiny's!

[Editor: Note to self: Never, ever go to Atlanta, Georgia. If forced at gunpoint to go, insist on being allowed to pack a french press. And a pound of Hairbender blend.]

Overheard: Why so... black?

I'm sitting in a coffee shop on Southeast Belmont (Portland, Oregon). I was working on my laptop, engrossed in my project, when I sensed someone approaching me. It was a white-haired man who appeared to be in his seventies. He was grinning from ear to ear and said,

"What happened?! Everyone is wearing black! It looks like you're all in mourning or something!"

With that he chuckled and headed for the door. He was wearing white pants and a red and white sweatshirt.

I turned to look around. Sure enough—all 15 or so of us in the coffee shop were wearing all or mostly black, from head to toe. Three more people came in over the next 10 minutes or so—all wearing black.

Borat star punched repeatedly on New York street

I suppose it was inevitable. When you make a movie (and have a years-long history of making comedy) that is both brilliantly funny and completely offensive, you're going to have the occasional mishap.

From a story on Monsters & Critics entitled, 'Borat whacked, New Yorkers live up to their rep':

The comedian - who created the fake sexist and racist Kazakhstan reporter Borat - approached a man in New York and said: "I like your clothes. Are nice! Please may I buying? I want have sex with it."

The man didn't find his comments funny and punched Cohen in the face. Cohen cried out for help, but his pleas were ignored and he was repeatedly hit. Hello, he was in New York! Fellow British actor Hugh Laurie finally rushed to Cohen's aid, managing to push the man away and drag the comedian to his feet... Cohen was not seriously injured.

Film bosses are pleading with Cohen, 35, to stop posing as Borat on US streets to avoid further violent attacks.

Other stories in the news tell of Cohen being sued by some of his Borat movie 'co-stars' for the humiliation of looking like idiots in the movie.

Incidentally, I first heard of Cohen—his Ali G character specifically—about six years ago when the CEO of our company walked into the boardroom in Hong Kong delivering his remarks in Ali G speak. I think most everyone in the room thought he was nuts as we'd never heard of Ali G. He gave us each a video tape, telling us that Cohen was a comedic genius that we'd be seeing a lot more of. (Unfortunately I couldn't watch it as it was in PAL format, which won't play in U.S. VCRs). Little did he know that Cohen would go on to make a movie that is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing comedy of all time.

Borat whacked, New Yorkers live up to their rep | Monsters & Critics

A little secret about taxis that will save you time and frustration

I'm in San Francisco today and saw a woman on the street do something that took me back a few years to a time when I was in Manhattan, mid-dotcom boom.

I was in New York City visiting a client and arranged to meet a friend for dinner. He'd been living there for at least two or three years. We decided to catch a cab to a favorite restaurant. He stepped out to the curb and started waving, whistling and hollering at every single cab that came down the street. And as you can imagine with it being Manhattan—perhaps the taxi capital of the world—there were quite a few. He grew more and more frustrated when none of them pulled over, now waving both arms ever more frantically.

Living in the smaller, public-transit utopia that is Portland, Oregon, I don't have occasion to take cabs much. And he knows this. So I just didn't have the heart to risk embarrassing him by sharing my little secret: If the light on top of the cab isn't lit, it means it's not available!