Stonington, Maine is a very cool place, with lots to see — and many interesting, masted boats for a dry-lander like me to ogle.
Archive for July 5th, 2012
Stonington Harbor, July 5
Posted in Photography, Travel, tagged Boats, Maine, Photography, Sailboats, Stonington, Travel on July 5, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Aptly Christened
Posted in Humor, Photography, Travel, tagged Boats, Humor, Maine, Photography, Stonington, Travel on July 5, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Kish, Richard and I visited scenic Stonington, Maine today. On our stroll around town, the name of this abandoned boat gave us a laugh. Could that truly be the original name given to this ill-fated dinghy?
An Odd Airport Ad
Posted in Humor, Travel, tagged advertisements, Airport ads, airports, Boxing, Humor, Rocky, Travel on July 5, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Normally I pay little attention to the ads on the walls of airport terminals. On Tuesday, however, an ad in the Philadelphia airport stopped me in my tracks.
It was for LA Boxing Gym, and it featured a guy readying the hands of a trim blonde woman for some boxing. She’s giving him a curious look. The text says: “Do your customers look this good? They would if you owned an LA Boxing Gym.”
Needless to say, this ad raised some questions.
Is it supposed to appeal to men who want to meet attractive women, don’t know how to do so, and have enough money to invest in starting up a franchise boxing operation to do so? If so, that seems like a pretty small target population to me. And are there really legions of attractive female boxers out there, looking for a gym? Most male boxers aren’t exactly paragons of classical Greek beauty — getting punched repeatedly in the face will do that for you — so how many gorgeous female boxers can there be? If you were a wealthy but lonely guy who wanted to start a business that would help you meet fit young women, wouldn’t you open a yoga clinic or pilates studio?
And if you were a female boxer looking for a gym, would this ad make you want to go to an LA Boxing Gym? Do female boxers want a real trainer at a real gym, or some desperate guy who started a business just so he could try to hang out with attractive women customers? Or, do most women boxers secretly hope to attract the romantic attention of their trainers?
And finally, why the Philadelphia airport? I’ve never seen this ad anywhere else. Is it some kind of special mecca for potential boxing gym owners? I guess Rocky Balboa would be proud.
Same Pose, Same Point
Posted in America, Photography, Travel, tagged America, Blue Hill, Civil War, Confederate Soldier Statue, Maine, Photography, Seaside Cemetery, Travel, Union Soldier Statue on July 5, 2012 | 2 Comments »
On our trip to the Homestead earlier this year, we saw the memorial to Confederate soldiers on the courthouse lawn in Warm Springs, Virginia. Yesterday, in Blue Hill, Maine, we saw a strikingly similar memorial to his Union counterpart located near the entrance to the Seaside Cemetery. Soldiers from Maine played a crucial role in the eventual Union victory, as any student of the Battle of Gettysburg will recall.
Interesting, isn’t it, how the statues of the Yankee and the Rebel feature nearly identical poses, with stolid soldiers standing erect, the butts of their rifles on the ground and the soldiers’ hands resting on the muzzle? No depictions of shooting or bayoneting or heroic charges; just silent soldiers standing guard. It’s as if, with the Civil War ended, neither side wanted a stone reminder of the violent reality of the bloodiest conflict in American history.
