Bummer when your new slogan bears an uncanny resemblance to the title of a Will Smith movie, ain’t it? Well, I decided to combine the two for a faux movie poster with a North Dakota theme. I played around in Photoshop a bit tonight to rig up this cheesy imitation. It ain’t my best work, but it gave me a few chuckles. Now, on to some of my other year-old projects around the house…
The license plate reads “MOGWAI.” For those of you who don’t get that… you are obviously not children of the 1980s. That or you didn’t see this movie. In any case, I caught the reference instantly.
This was a pleasant surprise, because I already had the “4×4 Mongrel Trifecta” completed:
I figured my work was done with the trifecta. Then I found myself employing a term that doesn’t even exist in my dictionary as this fourth photo op presented itself. If I ever run into that pink/red El Camino 4×4 that used to sit in the used car lot over at Cedric Theel a long time ago, I’ll have the quintfecta! Ugh…I need to come up with better terminology. I could say something like “4×4 by four” I suppose, that’s got a nice ring to it…but what happens when I see a fifth?
I remember a time back in the early 90s when my car was hit by an inattentive driver on the capitol grounds. I had parked near the State Library to return some books, and came out to find my driver’s side door pushed in. They backed into it with their van, then accused me of parking illegally (thus making it my fault). I pointed out to the highway patrol officer writing the report that, due to the legislature being in session, I was not parked illegally and the guy should have been looking where he was backing up. The officer agreed and noted so in his report.
A short while later I got a call from the guy’s insurance company indicating that they were refusing to pay my damages because their insured told them I was parked illegally. I referred the person to the policy regarding parking during the session, and they agreed to pay to fix my car.
It’s a bit of an odd phenomenon to see signs bagged like this, but here’s the explanation. Two more interesting North Dakota facts: the parking meter was invented in North Dakota, and parking meters are illegal in North Dakota!