The Blaisdell Blog

When Clinton Odell needed to hype his new, brushless shaving cream he decided to sink $200 into roadside advertising.   He sponsored a series of folksy, humorous verses that all ended in the name of his product, “Burma Shave.”   Eighty-eight years later, and 43 years after Burma Shave stopped production, we still know the slogan.   Advertising is an interesting phenomenon.   At its best it informs and educates us.   At its worst it deceives and manipulates.   It can amuse.   It can entertain.   It can also irritate and offend.   But the truth is that whether someone is a politician or a peddler they are selling something.   What is more, whether it is your time, talent, vote or money that you part with, you, my friend, are a purchaser.   Advertising is the means by which producer and consumer come together at a mutually advantageous junction. The purpose of advertising is to move you to part with your most valued possessions...

The most, "handled," least engaged, most hyped, least qualified President since Warren G. Harding has decided that the growing Veterans Administration scandal is now worth media pronouncements.   He says he is outraged.   He says this will be examined and corrected.   He says he has faith in VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.   I do not feel assured.   This problem has only grown worse since 2008, and no one in a position to do something, least of all this President, seems to give a damn.   The problem goes back decades—and, yes, the Bush administration gets part of the blame.   But so do the Clinton , Reagan, and Carter administrations.   But none of those men are currently in power.   President Obama has had his hand at the tiller for six years now, and all it seems to firmly grasp is the shaft of a golf club!             The Obama-Biden transition team was alerted to the on-going prob...

The beach stretches a quarter of a mile from the shore.   It is sparkling white and gives easily underfoot, but it is not sand, you are walking only on tiny shells.   As you approach the shore the crystalline clarity of the water reveals the same brilliant white shells below the surface.   The breeze is cool; the peace is palpable.   This is Shell Beach on Shark Bay in Western Australia .   It is one of only two such places in the world.                When you stand on Shell Beach you are standing on some 30 feet of cockle shells.   Cockles are small, edible, saltwater clams.   In this particular area, the Indian Ocean regularly floods the pan, evaporates slowly, and leaves the water much saltier than the open ocean.   These particular cockles thrive in the same water that is too salty for their predators.   Having nothing to eat them, they flourish, completely ta...

I have unilaterally declared, “The Lazy Lizard” in Pine Creek , Northern Territories as Australia ’s best bar.   My totally unscientific determination is subjective, but, as Billy Graham once said about puppy love, “It may be puppy love, but it’s real to the puppy.”   In the very small (but tidy) town of Pine Creek, on the lonely road between Katherine and Darwin, the jumping off place for Kakadu National Park , sits The Lazy Lizard.   Part gas station, part grocery, part RV park it is also the biggest, best, most inviting, charming, can’t-get-enough-of-it bar in all of Australia.   The building is made of unfinished bricks cut from the ever-present termite mounds.   The décor is Western, with old photos of the, “stockmen” who tamed the horses and managed the cattle.   These are people who can recite Banjo Paterson’s great poem, “The Man From Snowy River” by heart.   The music is easy listening classic rock straight from the United States . ...

So the handbag designing business didn’t work out.   The guest speaking gigs fizzled.   Evidently, “Dancing With the Stars” hasn’t called either.   So Monica Lewinsky is writing the predictable, “tell all” memoir.   Never mind that Monica probably can’t compose a grammatically correct sentence if you spot her the noun and the verb, she thinks her thoughts on the subject plus a ghost writer will finally equal income.               Make no mistake; President Clinton behaved like a boar in rut.   But he’s a man.   I’ve said many times that while I love men, I just don’t understand them.   And we have all seen repeated evidence that a penis must be a heavy thing to carry around.   That doesn’t change the decisions that Monica Lewinsky made.   Nor does it change the fact that now, failing to marry well, she is hoping to make money off the salacious details of her affair.   Swe...

I recently compared the aftermath of Hurricane Tracy with Hurricane Katrina.   I love New Orleans : good jazz, great food, and Tulane University .   But, I believe that the people who govern the town have not acted ethically in their use of recovery dollars, and the people who elect those officials don’t seem to care.   But, let’s look at the numbers. The actual cost of the damage done by Hurricane Katrina is around 125 billion, with $66 billion in insured losses. In contrast the federal money allocated to rebuilding has been over $142 billion, not including any of the private and philanthropic monies donated to the rebuilding, which have been considerable.               According to the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, it has been money well spent.   According to their data, which is filled with subjective adjectives, New Orleans and its environs are, “…poised to become a safer, more ...

On December 20, 1974 the United States ESSA-8 environmental satellite recorded a large cloud mass centered over the Arafura Sea, about 230 miles northeast of Darwin , Australia .   Darwin is the biggest town in Australia ’s Northern Territories .   It is isolated, independent and proudly, “Outback.”   Like all coastal communities in the tropics (it is well inside the Tropic of Capricorn) it receives a great deal of violent weather.   Clouds building up in the Arafura Sea are business as usual.    Never-the-less, the Darwin Weather Bureau began tracking them.             On December 21 st , satellite evidence showed a newly formed circular center and senior meteorologist, Geoff Crane, issued the initial tropical cyclone alert.   Later that evening another U.S. satellite (NOAA-4) showed spiraling clouds around the eye and Cyclone (Hurricane) Tracy was officially named at 10 p.m. that eveni...