Triscribe

Some weird trademark case involving the NY Mets; apparently this British meteorological group called “The Met Office” wasn’t happy about the British Patent Office (BTO) letting the NY Mets register the NY Mets logo in Britain. But, as the article indicated, BTO just didn’t see any likelihood of confusion (a real popular phrase, as I recalled from my trademarks class); seriously, who’d be confused that either group is associated with the other? Their logos are different, their line of businesses are different (unless you mean to tell me that a bunch of British meteorologists play baseball? right…), and even their geographical bases are different (NY v. London; the battle of the metropolises…).

Plus, as the article indicated, lots of other places/groups use “Met” in their name or nickname. There’s the London Metropolitan Police Force (aka Scotland Yard; methinks that “The Met Office” won’t want to mess with those chaps) and there’s the NY Metropolitan Opera. The article also forgot to mention NY’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (also called “The Met”; or, at least I admit to calling it that from time to time). So, for now, Mr. Met can walk around London with his head safely on his shoulders (and I don’t necessarily mean figuratively either, considering how wobbly looking the mascot’s baseball head is).

Travelocity.com has an amusing ad campaign in both print and tv forms. The little garden ceramic gnome is anthropomorphized in photographs about his vacation. His name is Bill and he’s sending postcards or photos home about his enjoying a Jacuzzi; luge; and assorted other activities. He has a cute little British accent and gently reminds us not to leave our hats home. He reminded me of the gnome from “The Full Monty” (wherein the lads accidentally broke the ceramic gnome of the recently-laid off middle manager whilst playing with it; thus probably explaining Bill’s accent). Very nice touch on Travelocity.com’s part. Nothing too abrasive and stays on point. Ironically, though, the local WB channel (WPIX Ch. 11) had an human interest news item awhile back about how this middle American family were upset that someone stole their ceramic gnome, who looked an awful lot like Travelocity’s Bill. Hmm…

Howard Dean’s outburst/ranting/raving/whatever you want to call it – it just seems to have a life of its own, considering how the local tabloids (NY Post and NY Daily News) have portrayed it and how the jokes are made about it. I mean, geez, the Daily News even had psychologists analyze the whole thing. More hmm. (I better stop with the hmm’s before I start sounding like Marge Simpson).

NY Times and Slate.com had contrasting takes on the Democratic response to the State of the Union address. I thought the Slate.com one was funnier (although, I’m still not sure if that was the intent; butWalter Saletan’s critique of Nancy Pelosi was amusing anyway). From what I saw of the Democratic response, I thought the duo presentation of the response made for jarring tv. Just pick one speaker and go with it; why have two? Daschle seemed more preferable (he is, after all, Senate minority leader who’s been a leader longer than Pelosi has, and he seemed better at critiquing while trying to still be good old loyal opposition without being total firebrand; Pelosi has some ways to go – made me miss Gephardt). Duo speakers aren’t the greatest of things. I felt the same way back when the Republicans had Sen. Frist and a woman GOP senator do a duo response to Clinton’s State of the Union (although, in that case, I thought both Frist and his colleague seemed very plastic).

Happy Lunar New Year….

You have to be a lawyer to figure out how to actually cash in on American Airlines’ buy 2 get 1 free offer. The deal is: fly twice to California or Florida from New York or Boston before April 15, and get one ticket anywhere AA flies. There are plenty of catches, though: you have to be an AA member, register before making the flights on their website, make sure the flight is a non-stop flight, fly on a published fare, and that the flight returns to the same airport that the flight originated (well, it says “same co-terminal”; I don’t know what that means). The award ticket has blackout dates, is in class “T”, which is bottom basement Economy, is non-upgradable, has a $100 penalty for changes, and must be used by April 15, 2005. That being said, it’s not a bad deal. I’m going to try to do it with P–.

The Lunar New Year begins very early this year — January 22. Chinese, Vietnamese and Koreans celebrate with even more gusto than in Times Square; definately with more food. There is a certain arbitrary way in which the end of an old year and the beginning of a new one is celebrated: the date of Western Civilization’s new year has ranged from January 1 to March 15. Some of the reason that new year celebrations go on for a week I think has to do with the possibility of not exactly knowing whether which day is truly the new moon. I can tell you outside is really dark!

Let’s have more Monkey business this year! Gung Hei Fat Choy!