Fritinancy

Mister, Mister, Mister

It’s time once again for a round of mister-y brand names!

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Mr. Tomato Bloody Mary mix (“the mix with an attitude”) is distributed by Crosby Lake Spirits Company.

I haven’t been able to enlarge the mascot sufficiently to tell whether it’s a smirking tomato or a sneering pepper.

Hat tip to Jessica Stone Levy, who blogged recently about another brand from Crosby Lake Spirits: Kinky Liqueur. (“To enter this site you must be of legal drinking age. And irresistibly fabulous.”)

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No cutesy mascot or winking copy for Mr.Beer (spacing sic). No About Us or FAQ, either. Just kits and gear for the home-brewing aficionado, who – if the community forum is an accurate guide – is likely to answer to “mister” himself.

 

Mr.Beer was acquired last April by 150-year-old Coopers Brewery, Australia’s largest brewery and the world’s largest maker of home-brew beer.

(Via MJF.)

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If you like your upcycled products with a Scandinavian aesthetic and a dash of cuuuute, you’ll love mr Tedi. If you care about writing and editing ... not so much.

Available for $80 each on Etsy.

Charming design. Lovely photography. But that word is spelled “lovable” (or “re-lovable”) …

… and this word is spelled “huggable” …

… and there’s an apostrophe in “Valentine’s Day.”

mr Tedi (capitalization and punctuation sic) is made by a company called mrs [sic] Jermyn. The company’s founder, Annika, is from Finland; perhaps she wrote her own copy and isn’t 100 percent fluent in English, but that doesn’t explain the failure to hire a proofreader. (Penny wise, Euro foolish.) And it definitely doesn’t excuse the biggest error of all: misspelling your own company’s name:

Here’s my standard rant: Polishing your copy is not optional. Language is every bit as much a part of your brand identity as your name, your logo, your website, and your product design. Carelessly written, unedited copy tells me you’re not serious about your professional image.

Betty James, 1918-2008

In 1943, when her husband Richard asked her to name a toy he'd created from a piece of coiled metal, Betty James consulted a dictionary and discovered slinky, which means sleek and sinuous. Twenty-seven years later, after the Slinky toy had become a nationwide success, Richard James abandoned his family to join a religious cult in Bolivia. Left with six young children and "a business in shambles," according to her obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Betty James mortgaged her house and gambled everything she had to attend a toy show in New York in 1963. When orders began pouring in, she moved the James Industries factory to Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, near her Altoona home, and guided the company until she retired in 1998. Upon retiring she sold James Industries to Michigan-based Poof Products.

Betty James died in Philadelphia last Thursday at age 90.

The Slinky was named the Official State Toy of Pennsylvania in 2001. Last year, Wired Magazine named the Slinky toy No. 1 on its list of "10 Things We Love": "One patent, a 400-unit debut in a Philadelphia department store, and 300 million toys later, we still can't take our hands off the awesomely simple, mesmerizing little benders."

According to this Wikipedia article, "one or more Slinkys used together can form the basis of a shortwave radio antenna." The Slinky can also be used as a solenoid to induce a magnetic field.

Watch a Slinky TV commercial from the 1960s and sing along (EARWORM ALERT):

Who walks the stair without a care/and makes the happiest sound? /Bounce up and down, just like a clown/ Everyone knows it's Slinky!

(Hat tip: Judith K.) 

UPDATE: And speaking of walking the stair (CAT VIDEO ALERT).