Music City moment: On the way to-and-from the Tuesday-evening mandolin lessons of the 14-year-old in my house, he and I lately have been listening to Vanderbilt’s student radio station, WRVU. The station’s eclectic programming means that on the way to the lesson, we listen to obscure late-80s punk music and on the way home, bluegrass. In an “only-in-Nashville” experience, tonight when we got into the car to head home, on the radio, WRVU was playing a recording of the bluegrass song my son had just been working on with his instructor — and it was his instructor — Butch Baldassri, one of the greatest — playing on the radio. Talk about making an impression on a 14-year-old.

A prediction: If Russell Beattie is correct in his prediction that Apple will have a mobile phone within 18 months, then I’m sure some of the folks I hang out with every day will predict I’ll be waiting at the Sprint store for the delivery truck to arrive. (via: Steve Kirks who’s betting $20 Russell is right.)

Word up: The word “blog” would like to thank all the little people who have helped it become Merriam-Webster’s word of the year, 2004. I will not make any predictions about Time’s “little people of the year” going in a similar direction, however, if A-List bloggers on opposite coasts start mentioning similar photo shoots, then I’ll start spreading conspiracy theories.

(via: Steve Rubel)

Make mine a no-fat triple-shot weasle snot latte (no foam): Language logger Mark Libermann serves up the tall and venti on Starbucks lingo, including Dave Barry’s guess at the meaning of the word venti (weasle snot) which I think we all should start using at Starbucks.

Custom publishing update: Here’s an interesting brand extension. Direct Marketer, Penzeys Spices, is launching a magazine, Penzeys One.

Quote from Bill Penzeys’s introduction letter:

Another key difference is who gets to be the hero of our magazine. It won’t be some celebrity chef who spends his evenings away from the people he cares about. The hero will not be some professional writer who claims to know the exact correct way to do everything. The hero of our magazine will be you the reader. You are the one putting forth the effort of cooking to better the lives of the people around you. You deserve the spotlight. I have never understood why magazines that are supposed to be for cooks make people who cook look vaguely like bumpkins who just fell off the turnip truck and are somehow living in the past. I have met you guys and you are bright, charming engaged people. The warmth inside you that drives you to want to enrich the lives around you shines through. You are our future. You are my heroes and the magazine will do its best to show people who cook as the truly cool people they are.

Trivia: The very first magazine published by Hammock Publishing (back in 1991) was an employee publication called “One” for a large corporate client.

Stop it, already: Man, I can’t stand it when people like these blogblox jokers come up with really cool, free, open source stuff I can add to my weblog. I’m tired of folks like them messing up my evenings by enticing me to play around with their clever ideas. Man, that really ticks me off.

(via: Seth Godin.)

Speaking of Rexes: Theories related to narcissistic behavior aside, it has come with the territory of having the name Rex (see previous post) that when friends or family members see a product with the brand “Rex” on it, they sometimes get one and give it to me as a souvenir. Not knowing what else to do, several years ago, I started displaying those Rex gifts on an office bookshelf. The next thing I knew, I had a “collection.” I am no authority in the history of Brand Rex, but am forever surprised by what it has appeared on in the past (beer, cigarettes, rivets) and in other countries (in Argentina, there’s a Ritz cracker knock-off carrying the Rex brand). At left is a shelf of some of the Rex items people have been nice enough to give me.

My collection includes the books from the science fiction series, Anonymous Rex, which one of this weblog’s seven readers informs me is now a made-for-TV movie premiering Saturday, December 4, on the SciFi Channel. While I haven’t read the entire series (nor have I smoked any Rex cigarettes), the premise is absurd, but witty: that living among us is a highly evolved “race” of dinosaurs (the private eye protagonist being one) who have survived by wearing fake suits that make them appear like human beings. Funniest of all, the book names real people (Donald Trump, for instance), who are actually dinosaurs who, at night, zip out of their human disguise. (Obviously, that part’s based on fact.)

Anyway, as always, I’m happy to promote the randomly Rex brand. I sort of think of it as my accidental Lovemark (and here).

Update: Doc says my last name “isn’t exactly unpopular.” However, I think of it as accidental product category rather than as a brand. However, he’s got me thinking, I could use the URL RexHammock.com or Rex.Hammock.com to sell Rex® Brand hammocks.

(Thanks, Barbara.)