Tag / funny

Could this become one of the most famous photos in history?

squirrel crashes photo
Not that it ranks up there with that shot of the South Vietnamese guy paying out what he thought was righteous (and quick) justice, but I wonder, in this age of the Internet, if this might become just as well known. It will certainly be known by lots of people more quickly.

The story, in case you’re interested, is that Melissa Brandts and her husband were hiking in Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. They decided to take a portrait of themselves with Lake Minnewanka in the background (no doubt for the annual “look at the cool places we went and you didn’t” holiday letter). Melissa set up the camera and went back to pose, and her husband held the remote shutter release.

Meanwhile, attracted by the sounds of the autofocus, an inquisitive Columbian ground squirrel, common in the park, popped up to investigate. Click! “Self-Portrait With Ground Squirrel” was born.

Personally, I think it should still make the holiday card, even though by then, everyone will have already seen it.

"I can’t hear you!"


Char went down to Florida last week to help her mom get back on her feet after emergency appendectomy surgery. She flew down there with the twins and left Lily and Jack home with me. (Much to their chagrin, I can tell you. The week started with Abby bragging about getting to fly on an airplane before either of them.)

Apparently, Abby packed her attitude for the trip. While swimming, she hit Grace in the face with one of those foam noodles. Grace yelled, “Mom! Abby hit me with her noodle!”

Char turned and began to correct her. “Abby,” she started, “please don’t hit…”

At that moment, Abby put her head back to move her ears under the water and said, “I can’t hear you!”

[View more photos from their trip]

"I've been made into a stereotype."

By now, you’ve likely seen the Windows ads complaining about how Apple is stereotyping PC people. I think it’s admirable of Microsoft to “fight back,” though they seem to be missing a couple of obvious points.

First, I don’t think most PC people associate themselves with their computers like Mac people tend to. Neither good nor bad, just an assumption based on the people I know who use PCs. Therefore, without this personal association, most PC-using people don’t see themselves when they see the PC guy in the Apple ads. Thus, this whole campaign from Microsoft is kinda missing the point.

Second, since the advent of the Intel chip in Macs, most people know that you can run Windows and all of the related programs on your Mac. In fact, I can boot my laptop in native Windows mode, essentially turning it into a Windows PC. (Not that I would want to.) Thus, this whole campaign from Microsoft seems kind of… well, odd. Why not embrace all of these Mac people and sell them software, too?

Anyway, now that there’s a full stereotypical stereotyping war going on, there are a plethora of user-generated ads making the rounds on YouTube. Lots of fun stuff, but here’s one I really like (well done, Michael!)