Horizon Air has a very clever radio advertising campaign going on right now that involves conversations between Lewis and Clark (you know, of the Lewis and Clark expedition). When I was driving back from dropping some stuff off at Goodwill today one of the ads came on the radio.
It involved Lewis and Clark talking about the plesiosaur they found in Montana on their journey (yes, they really did find a plesiosaur) and how Horizon air was definitely not a dinosaur or in danger of going extinct any time soon. I was listening to the ad absentmindedly until they got to the very end. This is when they make a cheesy joke about why the plesiosaur was petrified. I'm paraphrasing here, but basically the dialogue went something like:
"I bet he was petrified because of T-Rex! There he was, just eating some berries and thinking "Hey, I like Montana!" when all of the sudden behind him-- bam! It was T-Rex!"
Really the ad was funny, I swear. However, I spent the next fifteen minutes composing a letter in my head to the company about how plesiosaurs were carnivorous and aquatic, with a diet composed primarily of fish. So unless these were underwater meat berries and T-Rex was snorkeling, this couldn't have happened. Also plesiosaurs aren't actually classified as dinosaurs, though they lived during the same time period.
This is a big part of why I don't have television reception, folks. If a radio ad does this to me, you can only imagine what effect crime shows (where all of the evidence magically appears the same day you send it in and the criminal always makes a full confession), law shows (where the lawyer is leading the witness all over the place), or medical shows (where a patient codes and is then completely fine and talking fifteen minutes later) have on me. When I do watch I spend a lot of time rolling my eyes at the television.
What can I say? I'm a stickler for accurate information. And while I'm well aware that the Lewis and Clark ad thing was a joke, it still bothers me for some unfathomable reason. Perhaps it's all those dinosaur facts my younger brother drilled into me when I was a kid (he was a dinosaur fanatic). Perhaps it's because I am weird. At any rate what this led to was an extensive lecture delivered by me to Connor about the nature of the plesiosaur once I returned home. Ever tried to fingerspell plesiosaur to a toddler with a thirty second attention span? It doesn't work out so well.
Oh well.
~Jess
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5 years ago
9 comments:
Seems to me a sign for plesiosaur could be devised if it doesn't already exist. Something that communicates teeth, swimming, and awesomeness.
I am woefully undereducated about dinosaurs. My knowledge comes primarily from reading Jurassic Park and whatever the seven year old across the street spouts off... I'm impressed with your amazing ability to retain that kind of information!
Nolan already loves dinosaurs, but doesn't know their names yet.. though he does try to say "Stegosaurus." He wants to be a dinosaur when he grows up.
The story of how Lewis & Clark found the plesiosaur (which they called a "monstrous large fish") is actually pretty amazing. I blogged about it recently on my Lewis & Clark blog; anybody interested in the story behind the ad can check it out at: http://franceshunter.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/lewis-clark-and-the-monstrous-large-fish/
Ha! I loved this. I have the same tendency, although I admit you seem to have a more acute version of the condition. I watch too much TV for my taste, because my husband grew up watching a lot and I've gradually slided in that direction. I've had to deaden some nerve-endings for this purpose, as otherwise I would spend all of my time composing corrective epistles like yours.
That is so funny! We adopted a daughter who is deaf when she was 7. My ASL was rusty, but I knew how to finger spell well, (from working with people who are deaf/blind.) I figured if I didn't know the sign, I could always spell it. Well, guess what, at the age of 7, she wasn't even at a kindergarten level of spelling, so most the time she didn't have clue what I was trying to say!!! (Had to take ASL lessons quickly!!)
Lindsey Petersen
http://5kidswdisabilities.wordpress.com
Oooh *said in a whine*, I want to be a dinosaur when I grow up. That sounds like such a cool idea. Much better than a tax accountant, lawyer, or a high school principal. Ya know, now that I think about it, our principal may have been a dinosaur...
nice post. thanks.
My husband is EXACTLY like this and that is why I try to never watch anything with him in the room. This is probably why we do not have TV at our house--only DVDs.
I'm way more anal about grammar and song lyrics. For example, Destiny's Child made a song for the Charlie's Angels movie: "Question - Tell me what you think about this."
Um.... that's not a question.
Also, whoever does S.O.S.: "Y-O-U-R making this hard."
Do the guy own a "making this hard"? Actually, that might be pretty valuable. I bet lots of people want a "making this hard."
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