DarrenBarefoot.com

Dr. Ruth, Elite Sniper - July 16th, 2009

Yesterday I posted a link to an NPR segment on MetaFilter. It’s some kind of quiz shtick called “Not My Job” and features, hilariously, Neko Case talking about Necco wafers. I read about it on Kennedy’s blog. I figured that Ms. Case was, as one commenter put it, “precisely calibrated for the MetaFilter demographics.”

I learned that this “Not My Job” segment, on a show called “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, is quite popular, and has featured all sorts of celebrities. Another MetaFilter commenter remarked on a previous piece with sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer, where she remarked that, in her youth, she’d been a sniper in the Israeli army. Could that be true? Apparently.

“When I was in my routine training for the Israeli army as a teenager, they discovered completely by chance that I was a lethal sniper. I could hit the target smack in the center further away than anyone could believe. Not just that, even though I was tiny and not even much of an athlete, I was incredibly accurate throwing hand grenades too. Even today I can load a Sten automatic rifle in a single minute, blindfolded.”

I’d like to see her load that rifle.

Brand Tags: Ad Hoc Market Research - May 12th, 2008

Seth points us at Brand Tags, a site with a simple premise. It shows you a brand, and you enter one word or phrase which pops into your head that’s associated with that brand. It’s a kind of brand association, and makes for a amusing snapshot of a brand’s health and welfare.

Consider, for example, the prominence of ‘crap’ and ‘lame’ on MySpace’s results page. Or the happy coincidence of ‘awesome’ and ‘boring’ on NPR’s page. Playboy produces the kind of terms you’d expect.

Are the results actually useful to marketers? Probably not, though I could see somebody wielding them as evidence in an internal discussion about brand perceptions. Maybe, for example, your boss at Volkswagen believes that everybody’s over the associations with Hitler. Not so much.

If, like me, you just want to browse some brands, I lifted this list of links to the results pages for each brand:

ABC // Absolut // Adidas // Adobe // AIM // Allstate // Amazon // American Airlines // American Express // American Idol // AOL // Apple // AT&T // Audi // Bacardi // Banana Republic // Band-Aid // Bank of America // BBC // Beijing 2008 // Best Buy // Bic // BlackBerry // Blockbuster // Bloomingdales // BMW // BP // Bravo // British Airways // Bud Light // Budweiser // Burger King // Burt’s Bees // Burton // Cadillac // Capital One // Casio // Chase // Chevron // Citibank // Clorox // CNN // Coca-Cola // Comcast // Continental Airlines // Converse // Corona // Crest // Dell // Delta // Diesel // Digg // Discovery Channel // Disney // Dodge // Doritos // Dyson // eBay // ESPN // Evian // Exxon // Facebook // FedEx // Ferrari // Firefox // Flickr // Ford // Gap // Gatorade // GE // Geek Squad // Geico // Google // Guinness // H & M // Harley-Davidson // Heineken // Hilton // Holiday Inn // Home Depot // HP // Hyundai // IBM // Ikea // Intel // Internet Explorer // Jaguar // JetBlue // Johnnie Walker // Johnson & Johnson // Jordan // Kmart // Kodak // Lacoste // Levis // LG // London 2012 // Louis Vuitton // Marriott // Mastercard // McDonalds // Mercedes // Microsoft // Miller Lite // Motorola // MSN // MTV // MySpace // NASA // Nautica // NBC // Netflix // Neutrogena // New Balance // Nike // Nintendo // Nissan // North Face // NPR // Pabst // Patagonia // PBS // Pepsi // Pfizer // Pizza Hut // Playboy // Playstation // Poland Spring // Porsche // Progressive // Puma // Red Bull // Red Lobster // Rolex // Saab // Safeway // Samsung // Sears // Second Life // Sephora // Sharper Image // Shell // Skype // Sony // Southwest Airlines // Splenda // Sprite // Staples // Starbucks // Subway // T-Mobile // Taco Bell // Target // Tommy Hilfiger // Toyota // Twitter // Umbro // United States Postal Service // UPS // USA Today // Verizon // VH1 // Virgin // Visa // Volkswagen // Wachovia // Wal Mart // Whole Foods // Wikipedia // Wordpress // Xbox // Yahoo! // YouTube //

I’m Not Much For Christmas… - December 10th, 2007

But one Christmas tradition I love is watching my favourite Saturday Night Live sketch:

It’s just such a wonderful distillation of comedy. A single idea, played for just the right length of time, with note-perfect performances. We see the climactic joke coming from a mile away, but it’s still the funniest moment in the piece. Thanks to YesButNoButYes for the reminder.

Carrie Brownstein Has a Pretty Good Blog - November 30th, 2007

Carrie Brownstein is the guitarist and vocalist for Sleater-Kinney, “a critically acclaimed, politically charged indie rock band”. The band’s on hiatus, and one of her current gigs is writing a blog on NPR’s site. It’s pretty entertaining.

I learned about her blog via Waxy, who links to Ms. Brownstein’s verbose review of Rock Band on Slate:

Brad wanted to make sure everything was working, so he got on drums, I picked up a guitar, and we started the game. I quickly discovered, as other real guitarists have, that knowing how to play guitar in no way qualifies you to play Rock Band (or Guitar Hero). It’s the same way that being a doctor doesn’t make you good at the game Operation.

I’ve always had a bit of a crush on Ms. Brownstein, because she’s my wife Julie’s celebrity doppleganger. I’m not alone in thinking this–a couple of people have mistaken her for the musician. Check it out: