November 2011

    Happy Thanksgiving.....May the Holiday Season begin!

    I hope you all have many things to be thankful for. I think most of us often forget to do that.....to be thankful. Or for that matter, to even try to appreciate things as they are. But if you’re one of the many who might think things aren’t going that good for you right now, just remember that I’m sure there are a lot of people who have a heck of a lot more problems than you or I do....no matter what ya got goin’ on. And if THAT doesn’t matter to ya, one thing I’ve learned is that like it or not, nothing.....and I do mean ab-so-lutely NOTHING....good OR bad.....is permanent. So if ya have problems with how ya might be feeling about something or someone, about what you have or don’t have, or anything else that might now seem like it will be with you forever......well take my word for it, it won’t be. And dealing with whatever that problem is for the present could just be a matter of attitude adjustment.

    People are usually so damned concerned and obsessed about the oddest things: Power, Money and Possessions. Pardon my French here, but most of us struggle and maneuver so that someday we might be able to look back on things and see we’ve gotten our shit together.....only to find that all we really have is a pile of shit.

    And right now you’re probably thinking, What the f&%k does HE know about anything anyway?’ And you are so ab-so-lutely right. Hell, I’m so pathetic that I get thankful every time I walk or drive past a cop without getting busted. I feel like I’m getting away with something. And I haven’t even REALLY done anything wrong for some time now. Not really. So okay....enough of that....

    The other day I stopped into a place called “The Broken Leash Tavern”. I was just cruising down the road in the middle of nowhere on a wandering, afternoon putt, and as I passed the bar’s sign I thought, ‘Now that is a GREAT name for a bar!’ So I turned around and came back just to find out more about it. It was early in the afternoon and the only car in the parking lot obviously belonged to whoever was working. I pulled in, dismounted and locked up the bike, a habit I’m glad I developed long ago, and went on in. (I even lock it when I’m paying for gas.) Inside, a good looking woman who seemed to be in her early 30’s was just opening up for the day. She had given me a warm “Hello, c’mon in!” when I opened the door to peer in, so I gave her a hand as she finished pulling the stools down from the bar top. After we finished, she took her position behind the bar and asked what I’d have as she wiped it down......
        “Oh, just a 7/UP” Then I went on to say. “I just stopped in because I’ve never been by here before and was drawn in by your sign. What prompted that name?”
        “I bought this place as soon as my divorce was settled.”
        “Well that explains that LOL. How long have you had it?”
        “Just a few months.”

    Now, there was a time not too long ago that a hot, recently divorced woman who actually OWNED A BAR would have caused me to fall all over myself as I was hitting on her, but not these days. I don’t drink ANYwhere but home (where I have my own bar), I’m still too fat to impress anybody, and I’m sure that I’m way too old for her anyway. If not, I knew she was way too young for ME. We talked for a bit as she finished doing all the things necessary to open and she told me that the bar’s name often brings people in. After a while I paid up, thanked her, and we said our goodbyes before I walked out to fire up the scoot and continue on my way.

    Names can be so important for any business, or even any place.

    We have a beautiful large lake and state park smack dab in the geographic center of the county where I live. This lake, like most in the area, is the result of the government damming a little slow moving creek to create a municipal water reservoir in the 1930’s. The name of that creek was, and still is, Mosquito Creek... obviously because the area surrounding it used to be full of ‘skeeters. The funny thing is, once the dam was created and land around the north end of the creek was flooded into what became a good-sized and well-stocked lake, the major mosquito problem ceased.

    Of course because of the name of the creek, the lake became known as “Mosquito Lake”, and is truly a great place to swim, boat, camp, fish, ski or whatever. And there’s even a really cool huge wetlands bird sanctuary north of the lake full of ducks, geese, cranes and all kinds of things that fly and others that don’t. But the name “Mosquito Lake” turned off a lot of people from outside of the area who were intent on having a great time, so they decided to go other places instead. I mean, who the hell would wanna go camping at a place named “Mosquito” lake? So the Army Corps of Engineers decided to re-name the place “Kennedy Reservoir” in the mid-1960’s in honor of the then recently assassinated president and to bolster the drawing power of the park. The problem with that was that the locals hated the name change, so they petitioned, and soon it officially returned to being good old “Mosquito Lake”. The result of all this is that we now have a really great local lake and state park with camping and boat docks that isn’t too crowded with tourists just because of the name. So check it out if you’re interested and if yer ever in Trumbull county in the northeastern section of Ohio.

    I’ve seen restaurants and businesses called the weirdest things, often making me wonder WHAT in the hell were they thinking?! Others name their places something weird just BECAUSE it might be good for business. Here are just a few names of real shops and restaurants I’ve heard about: