This would make Don Draper proud

This story was on ’60 Minutes’ last night, and it’s timely because the president of Colombia was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Christmas (and the love of sport and mothers) sure are a powerful motivating factor.

Advertising to sell peace, not products – When a Colombian ad executive launched a campaign to end his country’s 52-year war, he found that soccer, Christmas, and humanity were key

In December 2010, they launched “Operation Christmas” which they filmed for commercials that played on local TV. At great risk, Black Hawk helicopters carried two of Sokoloff’s colleagues — led by Colombian Special Forces — into rebel territory. They found nine, 75-foot trees near guerilla strongholds and decorated them with Christmas lights. Each tree was rigged with a motion detector that lit up the tree and a banner when the guerillas walked by at night. It read: “If Christmas can come to the jungle, you can come home. Demobilize. At Christmas, everything is possible.”

Jose Miguel Sokoloff: What we did was try to make coming back home for Christmas an important thing. And we knew that if we put up these Christmas trees with that sign up there, we would touch the hearts of the guerrillas, ‘cause my heart was touched. And they went and they did it.

Lara Logan: And it worked?

Jose Miguel Sokoloff: And it worked incredibly well.

Full Story

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Bag of Randomness for Monday, December 12, 2016

  • I don’t think I’ve noticed a Coca-Cola Christmas commercial this year.
  • There’s nothing like seeing your child react in the most confusing of ways to watching the “Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer” video for the first time.
  • I took the wife and kids to place poinsettias and an American flag on my parents’ grave at Dallas–Fort Worth National Cemetery.
    • BoyGeeding shares the same first and last name of my father. When he got out of the car to find the grave, he ran yelling, “I’M GOING TO FIND MY NAME!” I’ll admit it was a bit macabre, but I was touched that the four-year-old remembered the meaning behind his name without being prompted or reminded.
    • Not to be outdone, but DaughterGeeding has the same middle name as my mother, and her name is on the back of the headstone. She had to inform her brother that one of her names was also on the gravestone.
    • My father was among the first buried at the cemetery, he was in the ground before the official opening ceremony. He, like many others buried around him, died before it was finished being built in the year 2000, so you see many date of deaths on gravestones that predate the opening by a handful of years.
    • I’ll never forget and will always be appreciative of the cemetery representative who met with us after MomGeeding’s death. DadGeeding was already buried there, but MomGeeding was cremated. I asked about having her ashes spread over his grave and she stated it went against policy, but ended her answer by telling me she didn’t hear me ask the question.
    • A little bit of sports trivia for you, it’s also Pat Summerall’s final resting place.
    • This area has gone from being referred to DFW to North Texas, that I wouldn’t be surprised if the commentary changes its name to North Texas National Cemetery sometime before I die.
    • After I asked FianceGeeding’s parents for their permission to marry their daughter, this was the first place I visited on my way home from East Texas. One of the more touching things my mother-in-law has done was tell me she stopped by the cemetery to visit my father, this was before my mother’s death. She stopped at the visitor’s center and took the time to look up the location of the grave.
    • When it first opened, I was talking to a WWII vet who told me it wouldn’t be until the end of my life that this cemetery would fill up and start to majesty. I think he underestimated the number of vets in the area and their age. Every year when I visit, I always drive around the entire complex and amazed at how many more markers are added.
  • A diagram of Mick Jagger’s family tree
  • Army/Navy
    • My eyes may have moistened up a bit watching Verne Lundquist sign off the air for his final college football game broadcast, and it was fitting that it was for a great Army/Navy game. One item worth mentioning, just when Navy was about to sing their alma mater first in fourteen years, his broadcast partner was trying to ask him a question. In typical Verne fashion, he replied by saying they should just listen to Navy sing. Like he should, he turned the attention away from him.
    • The One Person Taking A Knee At Army-Navy Game Was The West Point Chaplain, His Reason is a Powerful One
      • West Point Chaplain Matthew Pawlikowski could be found on his knees, feet from the field, fiercely praying the Rosary for at least the last ten minutes of the game. The spinning silver Rosary never left Pawlikowski’s hands as he kissed it and kept his eyes shut tight, even as his team made crucial play after play and the audience roared.
      • “I began the game praying that no one on either side would get hurt and that God would protect all of us and those who sacrifice for our great nation. Now I’m just praying for an Army victory.”

    • He doesn’t hold back . . .
        • “I just love the armed forces,” Trump told Lundquist and Danielson. “Love the folks. The spirit is so incredible. I mean, I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best football, but it’s very good. But, boy, do they have a spirit. More than anybody. It’s beautiful.”

  • I had this bourbon at the wedding I was a part of last week and wasn’t sure why everyone was making a big deal out of, had no idea the bottle wouldn’t even be sold for another week – That time 1,000 people lined up to buy bourbon … and barely drank a drop
    • A distillery rep said they had to cap the line at 750, and turned away about 250 late-comers because in their wildest dreams they thought at most 300 people would show up. But people just kept coming, which is even more amazing considering TX Bourbon will be available at Fort Worth stores by mid-week.I had no idea of this tradition.
  • NBC has a new gameshow called “The Wall”. Wouldn’t it be great of Donald Trump was the executive producer?
  • Jerry Jones’ grandson is the quarterback for a team which will be playing for a state championship. I have no idea about his potential, but WifeGeeding brought up an interesting point – wouldn’t it be funny if the grandson has a great college career and gets drafted by a rival team?
    • I heard a local news reporter joke that Jerry Jones will finally be motivated to put up curtains at AT&T Stadium because his grandson will be playing in a state championship game there.
  • I had no idea this was a tradition.
  • Been saying for years they should be feeding this guy the ball.
  • Granted it was raining and the ball was slick, but that’s one of the worst pass attempts in NFL history.
  • I was listening to a bunch of teens talk about what kind of super power they’d like to have. One stated she would like to have the power of sleep but be able to retain everything going on in her surroundings.
  • This means Cowboys fans won’t be beaten down with Jerry Jones in Duncan Donuts commercials similar to those Papa John’s – With Jerry Jones’ deal now toast, Dunkin’ Donuts plans North Texas growth with franchisees
  • When I think of Christmas commercials, these are the first two that come to mind. I’m glad the Kisses one is still aired on television.

Posted in Personal | 4 Comments

Bag of Randomness for Friday, December 9, 2016

  • In yesterday’s Bag of Randomness, someone asked if our outdoor lights were as big as softballs. They are slightly larger, closer to bunny size. Here are our pets for scale.
  • In case you weren’t aware, but one of John Glenn’s co-pilots in the Korean War was the greatest hitter that ever lived.
    • He followed that up with another 90 combat missions in the Korean War, where his co-pilot on many of them happened to be another American legend in baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Ted Williams.
  • The joy about a Trump presidency is he doesn’t care about precedent – Donald Trump to Remain Executive Producer on ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ 
    • In the credit sequence, Trump’s name will air after that of “Apprentice” creator Mark Burnett and before Schwarzenegger, who is also an exec producer of the new incarnation.
      • I wonder if it will read Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Donald Trump?
    • The larger issue for MGM, NBC, and the White House is the payment that Trump will receive for the series. It’s unclear what his per-episode fee is, but it is likely to be in the low five-figures, at minimum.
  • While not a dog, we did name our bunny, Buno, after him, and this is a UK based article – The year’s top dog names revealed
    • Leading the pack is Max, which takes top spot for another year, with Bono, after the U2 frontman, a close second. A more regal sounding Charlie is the third most popular name among the nation’s 8.5 million dogs.
  • This news story is from earlier this week, a ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant died from cancer a week before her episode aired. She wanted any of her winnings to go to cancer charities.
  • Baylor introduced their new head coach at a celebratory press conference on Wednesday. The next day, it was reported Art Briles is going to sue three school regents and a vice president for libel and slander. I wonder if Briles tried to time the announcement of his lawsuit, and if it had anything to do with his son, a current assistant, not coming back because of the new head coach, which had to be a foregone conclusion.
  • Smithsonian – From the Telegram to Twitter, How Presidents Make Contact With Foreign Leaders – Does faster communication cause more problems than it solves
    • Abraham Lincoln only sent about one telegram per month. 
    • President Rutherford B. Hayes was actually one of the new technology’s earliest adopters. He installed a phone in the White House, which could be reached by dialing “1.”
  • In my first job out of college and in Dallas, the person who sat next to me told me to “always sh-t on company time” – In an act of mild corporate rebellion, dudes are using apps like Poop Salary to track how much their jobs pay them to sh-t
  • The death of local attorney Brian Loncar got me to thinking . . . when local attorney R.A. Gabrial dies, he’s going to get a lot of flowers . . . but guess what, he’s already dead . . . he died by falling off a mountain.
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