You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Red-Lipped Batfish

This is how I look after napping on the couch and waking to find my daughters put makeup on me.

K

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I shouldn't fuss. Most of the names I come up with sound like "Baby Poop Green Metallic", "Highlighter Yellow" or "Beer Induced Vomit Tricoat". This is why I was never in marketing.

K

Perhaps I should translate them into a different language.

During the Denali/Escalade development we had to accommodate a new export regulation stating that, for vehicles destined for Canada, both the French and English language had to be displayed in equal prominence on warning labels.

The specific topic was the label on the trailer hitch. I offered, in my best Inspector Clouseau voice, that it should state: "EedioT!! Yah traileur - ees too heavEE"

My boss, an attractive younger lady, sighed and said wistfully "...the French language makes everything sound so romantic".

K

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

This is probably a good point to talk about color names.

You all already know that the different divisions would use the same color but give it their own noun name: ie Hugger Orange on a Chevy = Carousel Red on a Pontiac.

I was being facetious explaining this to a friend and made up the following example:

Chevy = "Black"
GMC = "Tuxedo Black"
Cadillac = "Black Diamond"

Sure enough, the next time I was in the studio I saw one of those storyboards talking about their big product intro, and who it was going to be marketed to (young male model types with two day stubble, apparently) and there it was: the car was offered in "Black Diamond" exterior paint.

For the Volt program we held a contest to name the signature color. The original working name escapes me - I recall it was at least helpful - but the winner was "Viridian Joule". I think the guy won the use of a car for a week or something.

Another non-helpful color name was "Silver Topaz" (= blue. That caused some problems while looking for a specific car in the parking lot). On my last program (not a Camaro) we consistently referred to the color - the same color was my Silverado - as "Camaro Black" (RPO U18, WA8555).

I shouldn't fuss. Most of the names I come up with sound like "Baby Poop Green Metallic", "Highlighter Yellow" or "Beer Induced Vomit Tricoat". This is why I was never in marketing.

K

1995 Toyota Camry in Platinum Metallic (RPO 1A0)

[Lee Stewart]

A rare Rolex made famous by Sean Connery in the very first James Bond movie, "Dr. No," is set to go under the hammer Wednesday (today).

And while the watch doesn't feature a laser cutter, detonator or any other hidden gadgets, it could still fetch up to $280,000, according to estimates.

[Lee Stewart]

A fully restored version of the Aston Martin DB5, made famous by suave spy James Bond in the 1964 film "Goldfinger," is going up for auction.

On Aug. 15, a DB5 with full Bond modifications, including a Browning .30 caliber machine gun in each fender and wheel-hub mounted tire-slashers, will go under the hammer in Monterey, California, according to a press release from auction house RM Sotheby's.

Auctioneers estimate the car, one of only three surviving examples of the Bond-modified DB5, could fetch between $4 million and $6 million. (A 1964 DB5 used in the filming of "Goldfinger" and the next Bond film, "Thunderball," sold for $4.6 million in 2010.)

This particular vehicle is one of two built in 1965 for a US tour to promote "Thunderball," and has had just three owners in over 50 years.

"No other car in history has played a more important leading role on film and in pop culture than the Aston Martin DB5," Barney Ruprecht, a car specialist at RM Sotheby's, said in a press release.

[Lee Stewart]

Wonton Food, the world’s largest fortune cookie manufacturing center, is located in New York. Periodically they place a help wanted ad: Fortune cookie writer

[Lee Stewart]

Vermont gets 99.6% of its electricity from renewable sources, by far the highest share in the nation.

[Lee Stewart]

Ayurveda is a holistic healing method from India that dates back thousands of years. The Ayurvedic Institute is located in Albuquerque, NM.

[Lee Stewart]

New Hampshire is home to studios like Terrapin Glassblowing and Art From Ashes that can take a deceased loved one’s ashes and turn it into a memorializing work of art.

[Lee Stewart]

Since dogs can’t tell us what they think of their food, humans are needed to make sure nothing is amiss before pet food is shipped to stores. Kansas is one of the largest producers of pet food in the country.

"So what do you do for a living?" "I'm a dog food taster."