tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69835254281702594502024-03-13T11:36:49.747-07:00PLEASE STAN BYStan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-39187416520118709122016-10-16T18:30:00.022-07:002022-03-08T08:20:48.631-08:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">WATERS OF THE WORLD</span></h2>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ph3fayDkGLw/WB0rB-IgUgI/AAAAAAAAA08/vQDomAjN9AYy-PRQYKVDVLiVXHZhslGqACLcB/s1600/Black%2BSea.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="118" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ph3fayDkGLw/WB0rB-IgUgI/AAAAAAAAA08/vQDomAjN9AYy-PRQYKVDVLiVXHZhslGqACLcB/w190-h118/Black%2BSea.jpg" width="190" /></a></span>The Black Sea. Was the water really black or was that just some name everybody agreed to before I </span></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">was born? And what about the Red Sea... well, you get it. These were the conundrums of my 9 year-old mind. I figured that someday the </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">only</i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> way I'd know for sure was to see for myself. And if it really was black I'd get a sample and start a collection of waters of the world. From all kinds of exotic places. The Nile. The Amazon.That sounded good to me at the time and then I forgot about it for fifty years or so.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I should mention that in one of those years I actually did get to the Black Sea. It seemed dark but not black, and I briefly remembered my childhood plan. Very briefly.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Everything changed when I was working in my garage one day in 2007. I was listening to the radio when 'Surfin' USA' by the Beach Boys came on. I must have heard the song thousands of times (even hearing it when it was a new release), but then the lyrics came to:</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b><i>Haggerties and Swamies</i></b></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b><i>Pacific Palisades</i></b></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><b>San Onofre and Sunset</b></i></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><b><span style="color: #cc0000;">Redondo Beach</span> L.A.</b></i></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><b>All over La Jolla</b></i></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i><b>At Waimea Bay...</b></i></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Redondo Beach! I could start my water 'collection' right here in <i>this</i> 'exotic' place. Yes. And even better, I could make a small surfboard with the waters from all the sites mentioned in the song. So I did.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small; text-align: left;">My friend Eric and I even went around to the local sites mentioned and collected water samples but later <br />we figured it would be better if who ever wound up with this would have to fill 'em themselves. </span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;">I also built a blue board:</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And then I thought it would be great to have small individual boards for water from famous surf breaks from all over the world:</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Malibu<br /></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Zombies<br /></div><div>
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<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span></span>Manhattan</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Narabeen<br /></div><div>
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Teahupo'o<br /></div>
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Haggerties<br /></div>
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Redondo Beach<br /></div>
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<span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Waikiki<br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">These were harder mainly because the wood 'rings' that held the tubes had to be from the same plank as the board so they aligned visually.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">By this time it made no sense to leave out a set for the oceans of the world:</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And they're great for a reason: The Great Lakes:</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And finally, the water that I always wanted to personally collect:</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span> </span><span> </span>LOCH NESS</span></h3><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">EPILOGUE</span></span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Maybe some people are disappointed that there is no water from Loch Ness in my piece. Well, I guess I am too. When I made this work many years ago I imagined myself on the foggy bank of that fabled loch with my test tube in hand smiling from ear to ear. But as happens with many plans, life got in the way. I got a lot older, my health isn’t what it used to be, this pandemic isn’t helping any and frankly other things became more important.</span><br /><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />So while it might not be me who fills up this tube, whoever acquires this piece is getting more than a little box. It’s a challenge. And in an age where many people spend their lives staring at screens, a trip to the Scottish highlands will be worth its weight in gold.<br /><br /> </span></span></span></h3><h3 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: times;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">There’s more of my work here:<br /><br />INSTAGRAM: StanRes<br />WEBSITE: www.stanresnicoff.com<br />BLOG: www.PleaseStanBy.blogspot.com<br />FACEBOOK: Stan Resnicoff<br /><br />E-Mail: SResnicoff@aol.com <br /></span></span></span></h3><span style="font-family: times;">
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</div></div>Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-56610717809345998992016-10-13T11:56:00.000-07:002022-02-20T21:01:25.831-08:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Originally published as a paperback by Random House, Eric and I made this flash movie which, among other things, was selected to be shown at Pratt's Alumni Day last year. </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;">The book is still available at Amazon at: </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;">https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Seal-Approval-Stan-Resnicoff-ebook/dp/B011ZCU93Y/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479671362&sr=8-3&keywords=STan+Resnicoff</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzhxeXekQD-7si3diIrBRk9I4PsTm6OeGh3G_zfxfGAVsBnlcAN7WQxCQqoQ_a0IvATeImPIW-VTf8PBbOVmw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-46208606943389519942016-10-09T11:27:00.000-07:002022-02-20T21:08:59.491-08:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> MY TO-DO LIST</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Copyright © 1997 Stan Resnicoff All Rights Reserved</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ve got a big agenda,</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Of the things I wanna do</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And I know I won’t be able</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">To see all of them through</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So listen very carefully</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">To everything I say</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">‘Cause here is my list of the things</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I wanna do today</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll have a conversation</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">With the dolphins in the sea</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll tell them everything I know</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">They’ll do the same for me</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And I’ll learn all their secrets</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And find out just what’s true</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And the day after today <i>maybe</i></span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll tell it all to you</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll photograph the wildlife</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">In the Amazonian Basin</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Then round-up all my good friends</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">For a little NASCAR racin’</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll sharpen all my pencils</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And e-mail every pal</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Then go out for a little swim</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Thru the Panama Canal</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Then I wanna chase a rainbow</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And find out where it ends</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And throw a giant party </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">For my very special friends</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And learn to speak a language</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">That I never spoke before </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And hit a grand-slam homer </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And win the final score</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I want to ride a raging river</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Shoot the rapids, that’d be fun</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Then I want to give a hundred dollars out</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">To each and every one</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I want to carve my initials in the clouds</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And paint the entire sky</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I might not get to all these things</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">But at least I’m gonna try</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll climb a giant mountain</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">In the Himalayan Range</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Then toss around some papers</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">At the New York Stock Exchange</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ll clean up all the rivers</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And straighten my sock drawer</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And with the time that I’ve got left</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I know what I’ll use that for</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I wanna feed the hungry</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">With turkey and desert</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And take away all of their pain</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And take away what hurts</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And turn their heads up to the sun</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And set everyone free</span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And win the Nobel Prize today for </span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OiM5kBkV9jU/WDc-2jadsmI/AAAAAAAAA68/5W2tJDqqXB42V1sR0t8h53cbJ4X4L0SSwCLcB/s1600/LIST.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OiM5kBkV9jU/WDc-2jadsmI/AAAAAAAAA68/5W2tJDqqXB42V1sR0t8h53cbJ4X4L0SSwCLcB/s640/LIST.jpeg" width="452" /></a></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-26275836278883349372016-10-08T11:15:00.000-07:002022-02-20T21:08:20.003-08:00<br />
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<b><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM PRE-VISIT KITS 1976</span></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Archeology Backpack<br /></td></tr>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-87426611251088614642016-10-07T09:18:00.005-07:002022-03-04T21:56:30.078-08:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>Here's what my exhibit looked like in Moscow in 1992. It was in the Designers Union Building which was right on famous Pushkin Square. This was still before capitalism had completely taken over their economic system and soon the biggest MacDonald's in the world would be built across the street.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">All my English descriptions were translated into Russian</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wGMs4rFbfc4/WGU8Qp-_TtI/AAAAAAAABIY/jbPdgXWVCn00zTsoRnYbPNK4VUWKBoK5wCLcB/s1600/004.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wGMs4rFbfc4/WGU8Qp-_TtI/AAAAAAAABIY/jbPdgXWVCn00zTsoRnYbPNK4VUWKBoK5wCLcB/s640/004.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Before the internet, this was the first glimpse of American design for some</span> . Admittedly it's not any representative </span><br />
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">cross-section, still it's the eclectic work of one first-generation American with a Russian surname...and somehow it </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">represents </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">the freedoms we enjoy.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">My museum projects as well as toy and art ideas were included.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Yuri Skokov, head of the Designer's Union explains my work</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The BarBEARian</span></div>
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The Brooklyn Museum Archeology Backpack was a big hit.</div>
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'Purposeful Writing' Game from the Hawaii Curriculum Center</div>
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Me with 'Leon Neon'</div>
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The BarBEARian with Hussein Abbo's wonderful drawings</div>
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The show was written up in their Design Magazine</div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-46495183069550207242016-09-12T16:56:00.000-07:002022-02-18T17:09:14.100-08:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> So if you got to this page from Facebook you've already seen this clip. It's from a very funny 'TRIBUTE PAGE' (If you can believe it) that a guy named Matt created to my 1986 Mattel toy...LEON NEON. There's a link later in this blog to his LEON NEON page.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Just so you get a quick idea of how this all worked.: In 1985 my job was to come up with some creative ideas and try to make prototypes any way I could to test and evaluate. Then I'd make a presentation and if the idea was good enough it would be 'taken-over' by engineering and marketing and it'd be out of my hands. I'd go on to other new ideas. Sometimes I'd see bits and pieces, prototype boxes or what have you when I'm walked thru the building but really I'm out of the loop until one Saturday morning I'm lying in bed watching cartoons when this <b>BLASTS</b> across my tv screen.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I didn't even know they were <i>making</i> a commercial. It was my first Mattel product and it's on TV. How cool is that. </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">It started with this new group I was now in...NBC (New Business Concepts). I thought it would be cool for kids to have something like neon for kids to be able to make themselves.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I gathered that the running joke in the toy business was that you added the glow-in-the-dark feature when product line was on it's last legs. That's one way to think about it but what if you made the glow-in-the-dark THE MAIN feature So my idea was a KID-NEON (I called it that), a 'wire-like toy that any kid could manipulate creatively and see glow. In the biz that's considered an activity toy.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">But I had no idea if this could be made, and at what cost and if anybody would even be interested. So I showed my idea to Susannah who sent me down to meet Wally Shapiro, a chemist in Mattel's Chem Lab. A Chem Lab. All this was new to me. Whereas back in New York nobody was ever happy to see you if you needed them to do something, Wally was both a pleasure and a treasure to work with. He reminded me about co-extrusion and suggested we start with an already available electrical wire since their industrial coverings would help us satisfy the wire safety requirements. He sent me off to shop and experiment. I bought and bent many different wires, imagining them surrounded with a layer of glow-in-the-dark soft plastic. I got the wire I liked best from a small hardware store in Long Beach. I gave my wire samples to Wally and a week or so later he's calling me to come down to the Chem Lab and when I do here are these fantastic industrial cardboard reels full of different color and wire KID NEONS. These are like some of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: left;">About this time I realized that the name KID-NEON came out sounding too much like KIDNEY-ON and I changed the name to LEON NEON. It really didn't matter what I called it because Mattel had a special group that came up with all the toy names. </span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I might have mentioned that our group shared a building with Mattel's A-V group so one day, after practicing all night to get the bending and the timing right, I asked my pal Clark Dugger to leave a camera and lights (and a footswitch) rolling on me while everyone went to lunch. I sat in the empty studio and I think it only took me a half-dozen takes until I got this. </span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And finally the 'PRESENTATION' day. Here's where all the people who'll decide on the fate of your toy will decide on the fate of your toy. And here's where, my friend the reader (you) are going to have to use your imagination. The fact is that Mattel's locked-down cameras at that time (1986) weren't good enough to let you see the 'glowing' part of the action so you'll just have to take my word for it. Also the sounds from the audience should give you a clue as to how it all went. Anyway as the lights went out an 'invisible' black curtain blocked the audience from seeing three 'dancers' (designers on our team) sneak in behind it. The center dancers body and arms were totally covered in LEON-NEON, but the two outer dancers only had <b>one hand each</b> covered with LEON-NEON. When the black curtain dropped the writhing three dancers appeared to be a </span><b style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">single</b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> lit-up person (that's the first scream) and then, as the music continues, the hands very slowly move farther away from the body than humanly possible (the second outburst). You'll just have to imagine (but it did look cool!)</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So it was accepted, taken out of my hands and put thru the Mattel machine that made it into a real product line ready for the whole American enterprise system.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Lord, my product even appeared on the back of boxes of Kellogg's Corn Pops. And it don't get much better than that in this U.S.of A! Better believe it!</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Oh, by the way the naming group couldn't come up with a better name than LEON-NEON (and they tried) so LEON-NEON it was AND because it was an extrusion (meaning little hand labor), they could and did make it here in America. And since theyb were making it here, somebody from Engineering called me up and wanted to know where the hardware store was where I bought the electrical wire I used.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">It made the back end of the toy 'TOP TEN' one month. It wasn't a big deal at Mattel. It was just a novelty item and lasted one year. But still the best, most creative and honest review can only be found at Matt's X-ENTERTAINMENT page here: </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I wasn't sure this was meant for me but it ws laying around so I took it. It's the in-store point-of-purchase display. I couldn't believe this stuff even existed for LEON-NEON.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And finally, because you never know where this stuff leads you, Mattel gets this letter from a Veternarian asking for samples and info on LEON-NEON because it seems to make good emergency splints for small animals. His letter took it's time getting to me but rest assured his cup runneth over.</span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-5077709533574497802016-09-02T16:13:00.000-07:002016-09-02T16:13:25.675-07:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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Where to begin? There’s a lot more to this story than I’ll have time for here but if I ever want to get to my point let’s start: Back in the 1980’s the President of Mattel, Ray Wagner set up a small group of creative types as a ‘think tank’ or what would later be known as an incubator. These were his words to our little group at our first meeting.<br />
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<i>“I want you to confuse the company!</i><br />
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<i>What I mean is this," he continued. “We already have very talented design groups in place to service and grow our existing core brands like Barbie, Hot Wheels and Masters, so if you come up with ideas that fit into their brands, you’re definitely NOT doing your job. What I want to hear is marketing saying This is a great idea.... but what do WE do with it?’ I’ll take it from there. Maybe we’ll form a new division, or maybe we’ll license the idea to someone else.</i><br />
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<i>And think of your mission as ‘fun’, not just ‘toys’. Grow our business. Your group won’t have rules or schedules, and maybe other design groups will be a little jealous of your freedoms, but your group will always report directly to me so your ideas will definitely be heard.” It was more than exciting to be one of those young designers listening to this. It was amazing.</i></blockquote>
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This was a fantastic mandate until about three months later when, in some kind of disagreement with the Board of Directors Ray was fired (and immediately hired by Hasbro). The new president was what we called a ‘bean counter’ who came from finance and his mantra was ‘Back to Basics’. For Mattel, basics were dolls and (hot) wheels and so now the <b>LAST</b> thing the company wanted was to ‘be confused’. Shit.
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Anyway, the head of our group, Susannah Rosenthal was able to walk that fine line that gave the company the kind of products they wanted while still allowing us the freedom to explore new and exciting ideas: the future of fun.<br />
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Some of those ideas the company actually produced like the Nintendo Power Glove (the first<br />
commercial ‘gesture’ controller and Captain Power, a toy that interacted with regular broadcast television. But Mattel saw these products, not as new directions in play, but more as one-time novelties. Behind our closed doors geniuses like Rich Gold, Novak, Caleb Chung, Dave Hampton, Jeff Corsiglia and others had actually created a working Virtual Reality System and were exploring robotics and the first drones (remember this was about thirty years ago). Nevertheless in the then current corporate wisdom our group was unneeded and disbanded. We were all let go.<br />
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(A small footnote: The following year or so Caleb and Dave came up with a little product called 'Furby’ that became, and still is, a phenomenon, only now for Hasbro)<br />
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But that’s all just a precursor to what I want to talk about. One of the most amazing designers in the group was Jurgis Sapkus. He took the little wheel-lo toy that many of us played with as a kid<br />
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and from it conceived MagnaMan (code name”MAGOO). As you’ll see in the following video it was part construction set, part physical video game and part racing set. Here’s the actual 1986 Mattel presentation:<br />
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Jurgis’ first demo was controlled thru the track. Our summer intern from MIT, Eric Frische, added a remote control giving the player wireless individual control of his (or her) little robotic characters. Beyond being a 3-D buildable Pac-Man, the gaming possibilities were endless.<br />
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In our presentations we had the opportunity to also include what marketing called a ‘sizzle’ film showing the coolest features of the product. With Clark Dugger and our great Audio Visual Dept I made this video. I may have gone a bit too far interpreting the word 'sizzle'.<br />
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In any event the presentation was a ‘wow’. Our group’s job was to show ‘proof of concept’ and develop something to show kids for testing. You have to understand that we were limited to using off-the shelf components (not custom chips) which made our little prototype robots heavier and slower than they would be in an actual product. In fact, our Engineering group later made a ‘real’ production version of Magoo and the little robots were smaller, more colorful and zipped up and down that track really fast!<br />
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Magoo tested really well with kids. Of course it would, it was so cool. So what do you think happened to it. Nothing. Mattel just decided that it was too expensive or it just didn’t fit into their marketing plans. I’ll never know. The simple fact is that this was a fantastic toy that will never see the light of day.<br />
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We’re getting close to my point. I’m still on the list of approved designers who can submit ideas to Mattel on their portal. So here’s what I did. I showed them the videos, making sure I told them this was already their product, their ‘intellectual property'. I made no personal claim to it. I just wanted to bring it to their attention because probably none of the current staff even knew of its existence. I wondered whether this was a product that Mattel might reconsider, but if not, I offered two options. The first was that they license it to some company that might have the desire to market and produce it and the second was that they let Jurgis and I put the video and story up on Kickstarter and see if we could raise the money to develop and sell the product. Of course we’d be willing to work out<i> any </i>financial or strategic arrangements Mattel deemed appropriate.<br />
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Never have I gotten such a quick response from any company. No. Just No. No reason.<br />
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I’ve been to Mattel and listened to all the buzzwords about being disruptive and taking chances etc. etc. Here I was offering them a no risk opportunity to cash in on intellectual property they already owned. No risk, all reward. And thinking about this product (exactly) thirty years later makes my head explode with ideas. Sure, now you’d probably use your cell phone to control the games and the Maker movement would probably be designing new trick-tracks to augment their custom layouts and 'characters'. If I was Mattel maybe I’d have a meeting with Lionel, a company that has conceptually run out of track. I read where the average age of their Railroad Club member was something like 60. This might be their digital future, with royalties to Mattel.<br />
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But it's not my call. Not at all. I just think it’s a crime to let a beautiful piece of intellectual property (and fun) lie fallow. Ray would have understood.<br />
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<br />Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-24694043152647142912016-08-31T16:31:00.000-07:002022-02-21T08:18:40.396-08:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #38761d;">ALOHA NUI LOA (CONTINUED)</span></h2>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> So now that I had the US Government car firmly in my grasp ("for <i>official</i> business only") I</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> set out to get the materials to build my new home in the banana patch I'd 'rented'. First I figured that I'd need some big bamboo to use for the basic structure so I headed over to the Dept of Forestry and, after showing them my Official Government ID, told them I what I needed (I mentioned something about building playground equipment). They said they didn't have any big bamboo lying around but the best place to get some would probably be around their weather station at the top of Mount Tantalus. They gave me directions and also gave me a key to a locked gate that I'd need to use for the private roadway that led to the top. I had to promise that I'd bring the key back to them, which I did, both promise and bring it back, and I set out for Mt. Tantalus.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you look closely you can see the incredible road that lead <br />
up and down Mt. Tantalus</td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The drive up Mt. Tantalus was as luscious and exotic as the name suggests with a road that any sports car driver would love. Near the top I found the gate and after opening the lock I proceeded up to the mist covered mountain top. Beautiful. The top was a veritable forest of gigantic bamboo trees, most too big for my use but some smaller ones would do, but the thing I recall the most was this wonderful musical clacking sound of the bamboo</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">trees rubbing up against each other in the wind. I don't remember how I cut and hauled the bamboo I needed down that road but I did and before I returned the key to Forestry. I stopped by a locksmith to have a duplicate made for myself, just in case I ever want to go back again. This was perhaps going to be a little more difficult than it sounded because stamped clearly on the key were the words: Property of US Government DO NOT DUPLICATE.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> The locksmith could read and as his wide eyes looked up at me, probably ready to explain why he couldn't make my key, I had my Government ID out and ready for him, and without another word he proceeded to make my 'personal' key to the top of Mt. Tantalus.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> After I had procured the bamboo I wanted to get my floor off the ground since there were many life forms co-existing with me in the patch, most of them harmless (but large) insect varieties except for one species, the giant centipede which was poisonous. I generally like all insects but I put mosquito netting on my procurement list so at least I'd be fairly secure while I slept. 'Fairly secure' is appropriate as one night I jumped up as two giant 'things' ran across my face. I quickly got my flashlight and found two fist-sized spiders crawling on the inside of the mosquito netting. It took me a little while to get them safely outside, but I liked all those critters, so this is what I'd call a 'minor inconvenience'. </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Anyway my next acquisition turned out to also be free...used airplane tires that were scattered outside Honolulu International Airport would keep my floor off the ground. I did have to purchase some wood flooring that I got from a used building materials junkyard and with the final addition of some rope and clear plastic sheeting (for a roof) I was ready for construction.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here it is! VISTA, of course thought I was 'strange' but after Alaska this was 'cake'. You'll notice<br />
there is a tiered roof. That was so the wind coming down the valley could blow through the roof <br />
while the rain would cascade from the first tier to the second and flow off the roof behind my bed, <br />
while I stayed cozy and dry. And it actually worked, for a while....</td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Now all this time I was working at the Curriculum Center at the University and learning about their programs and figuring out ways that could help. I was in charge of about twenty student artists/designers so the first steps were getting to know them and their skills and also making sure they had the tools and supplies they needed to do heir jobs</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><i> My </i>boss, and head of all the creative services at the Center was Dr. Julius Yucker, Colonel, USAF, PhD. Ret., and as you can imagine, in many ways, we couldn't have been more different. Col. Yucker was military. Straight as an arrow, neat as a pin, wore a sport jacket and tie every day, had perfectly polished shoes, and hair short and probably trimmed to military specification. He had perfect posture. He arrived and left on time and was generally was the opposite of me.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> My dedication was to the specific project I was working on so there were weekends where I worked around the clock to get something ready for its deadline. This was 'normal' in the design world I came from. Everything else was secondary. I came and left when I felt like it (usually showing up late and leaving after everyone else). This was also Hawaii, man, so I never even owned shoes other than </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">those rubber zoris, certainly no tie, and I guess my hair was a bit longer than military spec would suggest. And we really don't have to discuss 'straight', do we?</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Nonetheless, I was apparently doing a good job by the results that were flowing out of my department and although we had our superficial differences, Dr. Yucker and I liked each other, either that or we both found each other entertaining. Actually everybody I met at the Curriculum Center was talented, dedicated and a pleasure to work with.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> One day, after a couple of months on the job, Col. Yucker called me into his office. "Listen Stanley", (I knew I was in trouble when people used my full name) he continued, I really don't care what clothes you wear, or the hours you keep, or how you comb your hair or the way you run your department." (What the hell was this leading up to I'm thinking) "I just have one favor to ask of you....(here it comes)...."just don't <i>exaggerate</i>!" Wow, my first thought was "I'm dead!". </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Actually I was relieved that this wasn't something serious and I immediately agreed with him, but at the same time I knew that when I got excited about the possibilities of what we, the Curriculum Center, was attempting to accomplish, I knew that an </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">optimistic</span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> view of the future could be misconstrued as an 'exaggeration'. Anyway, as far as I was concerned, nothing had changed.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> And what exactly was the Curriculum Center about anyway? Well, it seemed that a lot of Hawaiian kids who graduated High School on the islands and who went on to schools on the mainland had the experience of being teased about their 'accents', their use of the English language. The Center's goal was to teach (introduce) kids (grades 1-6) to Language, specifically English, and was divided into three sections SKILLS, LITERATURE, and SYSTEMS.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> SKILLS was what it sounded like: developing the basic reading, writing and comprehension skills to communicate. What I couldn't fully appreciate at the time was that the Center was developing unique 'peer teaching' materials so that, simply put, kids could teach each other. If you've read my blog here called 'APPLAUSE' you'd have a glimpse of the kind of creativity these educators were developing. Today we'd call these materials <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vrT_qFS-sCA/V_U9mSONGrI/AAAAAAAAAtk/ABU37jYhRwcS8UqF53V1EFrqNLnlKL6BQCLcB/s1600/HCC_1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vrT_qFS-sCA/V_U9mSONGrI/AAAAAAAAAtk/ABU37jYhRwcS8UqF53V1EFrqNLnlKL6BQCLcB/s200/HCC_1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Spelling Kit</td></tr>
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'interactive'. The Curriculum Center was years ahead of it's time, and the materials were specifically targeted to the children of Hawaii. It was funded by grants from the "Great Society' of Lyndon Johnson, but where other school districts on the mainland might wind up with educators writing papers, the Legislature, Board of Education and College of Education at the University of Hawaii decided to do something concrete for the kids of Hawaii. It's not easy to know how visionary a project is when a) you're not an educator b) you've just spent a year living with the Eskimos and c) it's your first real design job, but looking back I believe the educators at the Honolulu Curriculum Center were way ahead of their time and were all brilliant.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Now the people I was working with were almost all PH's with credentials in education up the ying-yang and while I had a degree in Industrial Design from Pratt, the truth was this was still my first job and I was a bit intimidated by their knowledge and position. That all changed when I was handed an assignment from one of the PhD's to look over and make some design suggestions. I asked a question or two and she shrugged them off saying that the materials were self-explanatory. It was Friday so I had the weekend to look over the stuff and when I spoke to her on Monday I told her that there were things that I didn't understand. "What do you mean?" she said, "It's self-explanatory!", as if not understanding it was somehow <i>my </i>fault. Well, I just smiled and said ok or something like that but while walking away I thought this PhD was just not that smart because self-explanatory means <i>I</i> have to understand it. So rather than argue specifics I went ahead and changed some of the instructions <i>and the content</i> to match the design I was proposing simply to make the experience more 'self-explanatory'. Making those kinds of changes was perhaps outside of my 'rice bowl' but when I handed it in and after she saw how well it all worked together, my stock went up a bit (just a bit) and I think my content contributions were perhaps accepted a bit more. I still screwed up enough stuff to keep me realizing I still had a lot to learn.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> My favorite division at the Center was the LANGUAGE SYSTEMS group. They attempted to answer the question: "Why do we have to learn language anyway?" The group, led by Dr.Ted Rodgers had a brilliant answer for those kids. It was "Because language is used in a million ways <i>after</i> school like... in popular songs, in advertising, in animal communication, in sign language etc. etc. and they developed full multi-media educational kits (with creatively written subject guides,workbooks, records, films, examples, audiotapes etc.) on those different subjects that the kids could explore, investigate and create with for a couple of weeks when that particular subject kit was in their classroom. Genius.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> Take ADVERTISING for example. The kids studied how language was used in ads and of course wound up writing (and drawing) their own ads, some of which were reproduced and<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BSCFbjFJOoc/V_U96hAeOVI/AAAAAAAAAto/gQessPCZR6ETnRJT4Cqp_9zozIlubx2OgCLcB/s1600/LOGO.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BSCFbjFJOoc/V_U96hAeOVI/AAAAAAAAAto/gQessPCZR6ETnRJT4Cqp_9zozIlubx2OgCLcB/s1600/LOGO.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book Cover</td></tr>
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printed into the workbooks for the following years students to see. One of my favorites was "BUGS AND MUGS", one kid's ad for cups that came pre-printed with insects already on it, cause if you lived in Hawaii, you'd get the joke. And it was a great ad. We told advertising stories and gave kids an immersive experience that, again, I thought was brilliant. Here's some examples of the ads the kids developed:</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'Bugs and Mugs' and 'The Right Bright Shoe"</td></tr>
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Or when we were working on the SIGN LANGUAGE UNIT, it just so happened that the first Boeing 747 was soon going to be landing at Honolulu International Airport. I don't remember who made the contact for us (everybody knew everybody on Oahu, or they knew someone who did) and so, on that great day, my Government car full of my design team was allowed to drive right onto the tarmac to watch the signal man bring that behemoth to a complete stop. We also got pictures of all his 'signing' commands for our book: check it out:</div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> </span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And for ANIMAL COMMUNICATION we got permission to reprint and illustrate a current article from Psychology today on how Sarah, a chimpanzee was communicating with her human 'friends'. Great, great stuff.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> It's also pretty easy to see how these seminal experiences led me to have a pretty successful career as a designer of interactive museum exhibits and as a consultant to museum education departments developing 'kits' for places like The American Museum of Natural History, The Brooklyn Museum, The Bronx Zoo, The Detroit Institute of Arts and, by invitation, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> So you get the idea: the Curriculum Center was a great place to work. When my VISTA commitment ended, they hired me as a regular employee and it was my first real paid design job. I made a lot of mistakes, but also helped develop some cool projects and work with some great people. The worst part of leaving VISTA was that I had to surrender the car, and surrender was the right word here. I've had a lot of cars in my life but that Government grey Rambler American was the only car I actually kissed goodbye when I had to turn over the keys.</span></span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"> And my 'Banana home'?.... it was great for several months until the 'winter' (not to be confused with the Alaskan 'winter') came with its torrential rains and winds that drenched and shredded my 'home' (and me) back into the 'real' world, but by that time I could (just) afford a small place on the beach which, as everyone knows, is pretty much as good as it gets.</span><br />
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-21511850965367191452016-08-30T17:17:00.000-07:002016-08-31T06:04:03.759-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<b> "<i>Good morning, this is your captain speaking. If you'll look out of the right side </i></b></div>
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<i><b>of the airplane you'll notice that we're dumping fuel. There seems to be a minor </b></i></div>
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<i><b>problem that we'd like to have checked out before proceeding on to New York </b></i></div>
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<i><b>so we'll be headed back to Amsterdam. Nothing to worry about folks, so sit back </b></i></div>
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<i><b>and </b></i><i><b>we should be back on the ground in about 45 minutes".</b></i><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> So what was I doing in Amsterdam anyway? Well, it must have been around 1997 and I was working on a Mattel Compact Disc Project. We had a cool demo to show to the head of technology of Philips in Eindhoven, which was not far from Amsterdam. This was gonna be interesting because his engineers claimed that what we were were proposing was impossible. The demo went off without a hitch and the look on their faces was worth the trip. We were scheduled to fly back to Los Angeles that evening. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> But I had never been to Amsterdam and had heard about it all my life. I did have some vacation time accrued so I said goodbye to my companions and headed into the city. I checked into a really nice hotel and set out to explore. I loved everything about Amsterdam. Of course their attitude towards grass (tolerated not legalized) was one cool thing but their great canals with their unique houseboats and the general friendliness of the people made me feel right at home. Of course New York, where I grew up, used to be New Amsterdam, so much of the architecture was strangely familiar. The sidewalk cafes, the museums, the toy stores even the weather which one minute was beautiful, followed by a rainstorm sweeping thru and then blue sky again. I loved it. I just loved it all.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> I enjoyed Amsterdam fully for three days and then I started to feel a bit guilty about work so I reluctantly packed up my stuff, re-scheduled my ticket and headed to the airport. One of the great perks of working for Mattel was the ability to fly business class on international flights, which is just an incredible luxury. I flopped back into my window seat and it even looked like the seat next to me might be vacant-even better. But just as they were about to shut the door, in came an impeccably dressed Dutch businessman (I just assumed he was Dutch), and, of course headed for the last open seat next to me. I <i>might</i> have made some small sign of displeasure while removing some of my stuff from the seat, but it was nothing compared to the look he had on his face when he realized he was gonna have to sit next to this disheveled hippie for the duration of the flight. Hey - I was just wearing my usual jeans and teeshirt but compared to him I was a bum and I’m sure he wanted the stewardess to check my ticket to make sure I was in the right class. Anyway we were both courteous to each other and settled in for the long flight.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> After awhile we began chatting and he asked what I did and when I told him I was designer at Mattel Toys, I guess my status went up a bit and being an ‘artist’ bought me a little leeway with my dress code. Really, he was the kind of guy who, after an eight hour flight, would walk off the plane looking as fresh and neat as when he started his day. He asked me what I was doing in Amsterdam and when I told him and mentioned it was my first time, he asked me how I liked it. I told him I how I absolutely loved Amsterdam, which happened to be his home, and he was delighted and proud to hear of all my adventures. I told him I wished I had stayed a while longer.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> He then told me more about Amsterdam and about his job which I think was in finance and then he said this: “but when I leave on a business trip I demand of myself one hundred and twenty percent efficiency!” In my casual way I responded “that on my <i>best</i> day I was probably about sixty-five percent”. I’m not sure he was able to process that and we were quiet for a while until the captain came on with his message.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> After all my bush pilot flights in Alaska, nothing could scare me about flying and besides I remembered that when something like this happens, if you don’t feel like flying right away, the airline usually pays for an overnight stay. So I was relaxed and enjoying this but when I looked around the plane I saw that people were scared and many seemed to be praying. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> My neighbor turned, looked at me quite strangely, and said “It looks like you’re going to get your wish to return to Amsterdam”. “Looks that way” I replied. Then, after a while he said “Well, maybe eighty-five percent”. At first I had no idea what he was talking about and then it hit me. He thought that maybe the plane would crash and he didn’t want to ‘meet his maker’ with that ‘hundred and twenty percent’ lie on his lips. I just told him we’ll all be okay.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> And we were. The landing was smooth and silent and we all deplaned quietly. They announced that there was another plane at Gate 4 for us to continue our journey and the last I saw of my well-dressed friend was when I passed him waiting on that line as I headed to the SAS counter. We smiled and nodded at each other, both satisfied with the outcome of this particular venture.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> At the SAS counter I explained how I wasn’t prepared to fly again right now after this ‘harrowing’ ordeal and when they saw my business-class ticket they said they understood. They asked me where I wanted to stay and fortunately I had the receipt from the Sonesta Hotel which I passed onto her. “But this is a first-class hotel”, she seemed surprised. “But that’s where I’ve been staying”. She handed me a voucher and when I got to the hotel they remembered me saying ‘Didn’t think you’d be back so soon”. I asked how long the voucher was good for and when she checked it seemed that it was open-ended, and it was not only for lodging but for dining also. Imagine that. Open-ended. I probably could still be living at the Sonesta today.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> I just stayed in Amsterdam for another couple of days and had a great free time, even if it was at my best 65% efficiency.</span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-34328304865015017892016-08-29T19:26:00.002-07:002016-09-04T14:28:04.313-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We land. This was before the era of jetways so as we walked down the ramp we were greeted by our Hawaiian hosts with flower leis for us and as we left the airport our new Vista Supervisors had decided that the best introduction to Hawaii would be a picnic on the beach, and not just any beach. We got into these old grey government cars, Rambler Americans (fitting name), and drove for an hour or so up the coast to the legendary Makaha Beach. But we didn’t stop at the parking lot, no, we drove over the curb and parked the cars pretty much right at the water’s edge. Wow. We were the U.S. Government. We could do anything. What a day. Wow.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">After that fantastic experience they took us to where we’d be living. I was to have a room in a regular house in a neighborhood called Upper Kalihi. The homeowner, Hollis Chung, rented out rooms in his home, and there were three other renters, non Vistas, already there. We were all to share the bathroom. This was bad. After my space and freedom in Alaska I felt like a caged animal. Actually after Alaska I was a caged animal. I didn’t know what I could do about it that night but I didn’t think I could survive in that house and room. Not a chance. I went to sleep. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’m an early riser so with the dawn I wandered out to see where I was. Upper Kalihi, as you’d expect from the name, was on the side of one of the many lush mountain ridges rising up from the ocean and from the front door of the house you could see the whole panorama of Honolulu and the wide ocean beyond. Spectacular. I was still upset with my living conditions but soon Vista picked me up and took me to where I’d be working, so I have to figure that out later.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was assigned to the Hawaii Curriculum Center. It was on the beautiful grounds of the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus. I was introduced to everybody, but the truth was that they had already heard about me because of the ruckus I had caused in Alaska, but they were squarely on my side because they had wanted an industrial designer on their team for the past year and they seemed as genuinely happy for me to be there as I was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not only that but this group was a research team, tasked with developing creative curriculum materials specifically for the children of Hawaii. The people that they had assembled were incredibly talented and believed totally in their mission. They were a passionate group. My specific job was to oversee a group of about 12 student artists who created the ‘camera-ready’ art to be produce for testing, to design the materials so they looked and worked better and to get them out for bid to the printers on the island. Truth be told I had no idea what ‘camera-ready’ even meant (Pratt didn’t teach us everything) but I kept my mouth shut and quickly learned what I had to to make things work. The truth was it was fascinating work and it was in Hawaii. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Let me start by saying this. Although I got what I wanted in the end, what VISTA put me thru, for no reason except total government inefficiency, left me with no respect for the organization's managers. Today, in 2016, I can appreciate their fuck-up gave me an experience living with the Eskimos that I treasure, but at that time I was in no mood to listen to anything Hawaii Vista said, and conversely, the last thing they needed was for me to complain (in writing) about anything so we co-existed. Besides, my job at the curriculum center was going well and as long as the University was happy with my work, so were they. Except:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I had these two little issues to solve. The first was my living conditions. So the morning of my first weekend off from work I started to scout the area around Upper Kalihi. I didn’t have to go far because in the back of Hollis Chung’s house was a big sloping yard. I followed it down to where he kept bees (he was very entrepreneurial) and there I saw a wall of overgrown foliage and an old weathered handmade sign that said ‘KAPU’. Figuring this was the Hawaiian version of ‘TABOO’ or ‘KEEP OUT’ I quickly parted the palm fronds to find a set of ancient giant stone steps that led down to a luscious patch of dwarf banana trees and at the end of the patch,beyond and below another old stone wall there was Kalihi Stream. This was amazing.This was real Hawaii. I knew right then that I’d be living here.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZG5wXA4PX4/V8RghUuouJI/AAAAAAAAAmY/dcrMdxhP9ow0EOIBrrNaJCR6NNHV-6SvgCLcB/s1600/UPPER%2BKALIHI%2BVALLEY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZG5wXA4PX4/V8RghUuouJI/AAAAAAAAAmY/dcrMdxhP9ow0EOIBrrNaJCR6NNHV-6SvgCLcB/s640/UPPER%2BKALIHI%2BVALLEY.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oWdVOlSXGT0/V8OLhMBc6RI/AAAAAAAAAl0/qD7tFZg4qX0EndBzXobcFgbRZEhGseTFACLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-28%2Bat%2B6.09.08%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oWdVOlSXGT0/V8OLhMBc6RI/AAAAAAAAAl0/qD7tFZg4qX0EndBzXobcFgbRZEhGseTFACLcB/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-28%2Bat%2B6.09.08%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I made a deal with Hollis. He could keep all the money Vista paid him for my room rent and he could rent the room out to someone else as long as he’d let me ‘camp’ down in the banana patch and use the shower occasionally. He, of course, thought I was crazy but couldn’t pass up a business offer like this so he agreed. Besides, he saw I was picked up by a government car all the time and I might have inferred this had something to do with the government. The deal was set. Only one piece left to put in place. Tomorrow. Sunday.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I mentioned VISTA had these cars to use for their business. There were I believe four or five Rambler Americans that were stored at the Marine motor-pool in Honolulu. The deal was we were supposed to fill out some form, days in advance, if we were going to need one for some official VISTA business and the head honcho would decide priorities. We all had been given these beautiful U.S. GOVERNMENT DRIVER’S LICENSES and GOVERNMENT GAS CREDIT CARDS (can you believe it?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, the next morning, being the early riser that I was, I headed to the motor-pool where I just took one of the cars without telling anybody. These cars didn’t have a radio so my first stop was a radio store where I bought and installed a Sony stereo tape cassette deck and multiple speakers. Next came the Stones and Zep and all the music that I hadn’t heard for a year in Alaska (because while I had a radio there, reception was incredibly poor and when you have no electricity, a battery is more important for your flashlight than for your radio). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that was that. I was now bombing around paradise, exploring this magnificent island, in a car that said U.S. GOVERNMENT FOR OFFICIAL BUSINESS ONLY with Mick telling me 'ya can’t always get what ya want, but if ya try sometime…..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">VISTA, of course, called me in for a lecture. I listened passively while they explained the proper procedures for requisitioning a car and why they needed the cars for their other obligations etc etc. They asked if I understood. I said I did, but after all I'd been through with VISTA I couldn't care less about any of their 'rules' and the next morning I got up, went to the motor-pool, filled the tank and was off. They really didn’t know what to do with me but after the third day they just gave up.The car was mine. Also I have to say that I was doing a good job designing educational materials at the Curriculum Center and I really did need a car occasionally to meet with printers or go to a bindery so maybe the Curriculum Center got involved. All I know was that the car was all mine and now I could go about building my new home in the banana patch.</span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-22525891746429240472016-08-27T14:49:00.000-07:002016-08-27T15:36:13.824-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ALOHA</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you’ve read my book ‘SLEETMUTE’ (a couple of bucks on Amazon and other booksellers…with pictures) then you know the following: I had just (1968) graduated from Pratt with a degree in Industrial Design and applied to VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America) and stated on the application that I wanted to ‘serve’ in Hawaii (I didn’t use that punctuation of course). I was accepted and assigned, you guessed it, to the very remote, very small, very rough Eskimo village of Sleetmute, Alaska. To my complete surprise, many in my volunteer group <i>wanted</i> to go to Alaska, in fact, for them it was a dream come true. They all saw Alaska, not as a State,but as a religion. The Vista ‘trainers’ were surprised that I had wanted to go to Hawaii, but the US Government being what it was said the best they could do was that, if I stuck out my year in Alaska, and did well, they’d transfer me to Hawaii. It was as good a deal as I was going to get so I agreed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You’ll have to read the book to see how a Brooklyn Jew survived the winter in the village of Sleetmute, Alaska. Just as a taste, the nearest road was 300 miles away, no electricity, no phones, no streets, no law. If you wanted to eat you had to hunt. My partner got his ribs broken in a drunken misunderstanding and left before the winter set in (and <i>he</i> was known as the ‘friendly’ Vista). 100 Eskimos (about 50 adults and 50 kids) and me. And while we arrived in Sleetmute in the summer, the winter, at more than 50 below zero and dark all day was…well you can read about that…or not..up to you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You also have to understand that I really had no idea how I was supposed to ‘help’ the Eskimos and the plain truth was if it wasn’t for them helping me survive I would have died. But I tried. And after the winter ‘broke’, Jim Holton, my ‘Area Supervisor’ was gonna fly in to see what I had ‘accomplished’. Now, I was sure that I had done nothing except survive (a big plus as far as I was concerned) but I figured I was doomed. Not only that, he was supposed to stay for a day and when the weather turned bad, no plane, he was with me for a whole week. Oh fuck. I took him around to every cabin and we sat and had tea and ‘talked story’. Still I thought I had really done nothing all year in terms of Vista’s mythical ‘community development’ and when Jim eventually flew off he seemed happy but I just figured that was because he was finally getting out of Sleetmute.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(A note: If you do happen to go on to Amazon’s SLEETMUTE page, </span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sleetmute-Story-Alaska-Stan-Resnicoff-ebook/dp/B00BQJZP2C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408031379&sr=8-1&keywords=sleetmute#nav-subnav">https://www.amazon.com/Sleetmute-Story-Alaska-Stan-Resnicoff-ebook/dp/B00BQJZP2C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408031379&sr=8-1&keywords=sleetmute#nav-subnav</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there’s a review of my book by Jim Holton. How we hooked up decades after Alaska is another tale but he told me stories of some of the other volunteers in my group actually having total mental and physical breakdowns because of the brutal conditions, and I don’t necessarily mean just the weather)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The upshot of all this is that Jim thought I had done a great job (I’m still surprised) but I was truly amazed when they offered me the promotion of Area Supervisor for next year in Alaska if I wanted to stay on. Unbelieveable. But of course I didn’t, I was promised Hawaii and a promise is a promise. Or so I thought.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>I’m waiting in my hotel room. A VISTA supervisor, Jack Prebis, is coming over to talk to me about my transfer to Hawaii. Wow! It’s really happening. Jack arrives. We’re sitting on the beds facing each other. “Stan”, he says, “this has nothing to do with you personally…” Every sensory cell in my body is alerted. This probably ONLY has to do with me personally. He continued. “I know VISTA made some promises to you but the reason you can’t go to Hawaii is that we need people there with special talents…they need a photographer, an industrial designer, an…..” Now when Jack said the words “can’t go to Hawaii” my mind buckled. Jack was not talking to the kid they had sent to Sleetmute a year ago. He was talking to the Eskimo in me. I was mad. Eskimo mad. This was fuckin’ government’s gussach lies, I thought. If I had my gun I might have shot him…just as a warning. But when he said the reason I wasn’t going was because they needed an ‘industrial designer’, I cracked. I stood up while he was talking. (he stopped). I walked over to my army duffel bag and began emptying it, like an animal, throwing my possessions all over the room. Jack watched this display in silence. I just had to make sure. It had been a long year after all. Finally I found it – at the bottom. It was the very first thing I had packed because it was the last thing I thought I would ever need in Alaska. My diploma. I opened the little leather folio. I read it. I WAS an industrial designer.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>I walked back over to Jack, holding the diploma up in the palm of my hand and held it up for him to read. Then with all the fury in my heart I pushed it hard into his face. Hard. He quickly left the room.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>I’m left sitting on the bed fuming but crushed by this turn of events when I hear laughing. Peeking in from the next room was Roger, another Vista Administrator, and he’s actually laughing at this whole scene. I was ready to kill him with my bare hands but he approached me with his palms outstretched to calm me.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>“Look – I saw the whole thing and I just gotta tell you a story.” You can imagine that I was in NO mood for a story, but he continued. “Do you know who Ken Kesey is?” I nodded I did. Confused. “Well a couple of years ago Kesey and me worked together at the Oregon State Psychiatric Hospital. We were both orderlies. Ken was there to do research for a book that he was writing called ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’. I was there because I really needed the job. Kesey would secretly change patient’s prescriptions and generally screw things up just to see what would happen. I kept warning him that sooner or later they’d catch him. He just laughed.”</b></span></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">One day Kesey got called into the office. They told him that they knew what he’d been doing and threatened him with jail before they fired him. As they were escorting him out of the building he yells to me, laughing ‘They fired my ass!’ ‘I told you they were gonna get you,’ I said. ‘Oh-yea,’ Kesey says, ‘and by the way they said they wanna see you next.' I got canned too. Just for being Kesey’s friend. I’m bewildered. Roger looks me straight in the eye and continued. “Look, you’re right about this whole Hawaii thing but it doesn’t matter. You’ve only got one chance to get what you deserve and that’s to sit down, right now, and write the best letter that you’ve ever written, about what’s just happened to you, and send it to everyone important you know”. I was stunned. Three days. I worked nonstop on the letter for three days. After Sleetmute, words, especially written words, came hard. They looked so permanent. And they were so important. Three days. I sent it off. To Jack, to his boss, to the heads of VISTA Alaska and VISTA Hawaii, to the Governor of Alaska, the Senators and Representatives of my home state of New York and Alaska and Hawaii and finally to the President of the United States.</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Several days went by. Then I got a call from VISTA Headquarters. I remember it well. “Stan! Stan! Good News! We’ve cleared everything up over here and guess what – You’re gonna go to Hawaii! Yea! That’s Great! Just what we all wanted! And hey Stan, just do us one favor OK? Yea..Well.. Uh..Just don’t write any more letters OK"? “Sure” I said. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>On August 20, 1970 I landed in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was paradise.</b></span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-66981924181114813132016-08-20T07:13:00.000-07:002016-08-20T07:13:03.592-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THE TRUE STORY OF YANG & YIN</span></h2>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-36822525421655247972016-08-19T09:52:00.001-07:002016-08-19T09:52:25.099-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-67110698429033227932016-08-18T07:55:00.004-07:002016-08-18T07:55:34.290-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT</span></h2>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-15488255499856510722016-08-10T06:14:00.000-07:002022-02-20T20:52:47.386-08:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So how was I involved with Physty? Here’s the story.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">When I first met Michael years earlier he reminded me of Bluto in the Popeye comic strips. He was big, bushy and an ex Vietnam Vet and Navy diver. These are the guys who were SEALS before there were SEALS. He was ‘military’ and perhaps as different from me as possible....except since the war he had devoted his life to stop whaling and to teach people, especially kids about whales, marine life and the oceans.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So all of a sudden we had a lot in common.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Over the years he had seen my museum projects and so one year when he decided to create a marine museum on City Island in New York, he asked me to come up with some ideas for exhibits. City Island in the Bronx was a unique place that, at the time, I don’t imagine most New Yorkers even knew existed. It was a little Island connected to the Bronx by a little bridge and pretty much devoted to boatyards and seafood places. Anyway he bought an old wooden house and started to make it into THE NORTHWIND MUSEUM.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">One of the first things he did was to find an old obsolete wooden tugboat in one of the Islands boatyards, bought it and proceeded to take a chainsaw and saw it right in half, from port to starboard. Then he somehow managed to transport the bow half down the main street of City Island to his museum where the plan was to </span><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">graft it onto the front of the building. These Navy guys can do anything. It turned out great when it was finished.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">One day I was trying to think of something creative and interactive to do with those big beautiful brass diving helmets that Michael had and I came up with this idea for fishtanks where the helmets could be attached to openings in the bottom and kids could get their heads inside. Michael came in, saw these drawings, literally ripped them off the wall with pushpins flying everywhere and said....”Let’s go build it!”</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The next thing I know we’re standing in some junkyard with Michael buying a giant metal oil tank that he then started to cut and weld and make into the ‘DRY DIVE’ exhibit. It was great.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">That’s what was going on when one evening on the nightly news there was a story about a ‘small’ whale that had almost come ashore at Coney Island in Brooklyn. There was some video of a police boat pushing something in the water back out to sea but it was at night and it was hard to actually see anything. The whole story seemed ridiculous. Whales beached themselves in Australia or Chile but not New York City. It was a short story and would have been easily forgotten except over the next couple of days the whale was sighted near shore again. Eventually the Coast Guard had managed to get a rope around its tail and tow it to a small empty marina on Fire Island. The sick baby whale was on the news for the next couple of days as marine vets and others tried to save its life.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">The next day when I came to work at the museum I see everybody loading up the trucks with diving tanks and wet suits and everything else. What’s up?, I ask. My friend, co-worker and film maker Jimmy Callanan (that’s Jimmy’s film at the beginning of this story) throws me a windbreaker with NORTHWIND emblazoned across the back and says...."We’re going to check out the whale. Come-on."</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I didn’t know it at the time but later Jimmy told me what had happened. It’s important for you to know that a whale coming to shore and being cared for isn’t a haphazard operation. It’s immediately a Federal Issue covered under the Marine Mammals Protection Act. And the Feds don’t fool around. In addition to the Feds and Coast Guard controlling the whole thing the State and Local Police were involved and of course veterinarians with marine experience and members of the Okeanos Ocean Research Foundation who were certified to deal with marine mammal stranding issues. Although Michael, like all of us, had seen the whale on the news and wanted to help, he felt that his presence might be unwanted by the ‘certified’ groups there. He just had a lifetime of experience, not printed credentials. That all changed when that night Dr. Jay Hyman, the lead vet on the scene called Michael and said....”Michael, why aren’t you here?”</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So we arrive and there it is. A baby sperm whale. Clicking away. Look, you’ve seen the video so you already know Physty survives but at that moment I knew no such thing. In fact I don’t think I ever heard of a ‘beached’ whale surviving. For me to be this close to a real whale, a sperm whale at that, an animal of legend, and a baby to boot was a unexpected unique experience but I was aware that it might end up being very very sad. </span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The whole rescue was an absolutely incredible effort by everyone there but the night Michael swam out, in the dark, to try to feed Physty that medicated squid was magical. I sat on the dock watching. The crowds had all gone home and there was only a few of us around. We had no idea what was happening under the water until Michael’s hand broke the surface with a thumbs-up.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I really had no particular ‘job’ there so I kind of got to be that ‘fly on the wall’ that people always talk about. I busied myself documenting things and collecting artifacts like the hypodermic needle that bent when they tried to take Physty’s blood sample. Depending upon how this turned out, this whole experience could be an interesting exhibit back at the museum and I wanted to be prepared.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Like I’ve said, you’ve seen the video so you know the Physty rescue was successful. However there’s a little part of the story that you haven’t heard before, and it probably started with that ride that Michael got on the back of the whale....</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">You see, even Michael realized later that that was the wrong thing to do. With Physty’s rapidly improving condition, the last thing the Feds wanted was for the whale to want continued human contact when they try to return it to the open sea. The surprise decision was made to release the whale the next morning. Michael thought this might be premature but it wasn't his decision.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">That evening we all stayed in one room at a motel in the area. My job that night, under Michael's direction, was to draw up these plans to show where all the boats were to be stationed in the morning and the course the whale had to follow if it was to make it successfully back to the open ocean. There were a lot of sand bars on which the whale might beach itself on its way to the sea. Nobody thought this would be easy.</span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">We, of course, didn't have the benefit of Google Earth at the time but now when I see the path the whale had to negotiate and the many sandbars that there were in its path I would have been even more worried. Here's how it looks from the satellite.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Dawn. We head over to the building where the Feds and Coast Guard were having their final planning session. Michael went in as Jimmy and I waited outside. By the way, I had stayed up all night finishing up the charts and was very tired but I had nothing else to do so it didn’t matter. Or so I thought. Anyway when Michael came out he had this very strange look on his face. </span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;">“What?” I asked.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">“They’re putting me in charge of the operation" he answered.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">“That’s great.” I said.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">“No, you don’t understand.” Michael said. “The military never puts a civilian in charge of an operation. It’s because they’ve decided that if the whale beaches itself on a sandbar again, they are going to run it over with the (Coast Guard) Cutter, drown it, and say that the whale didn’t make it.” </span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">The people in power had decided that they were not going to repeat another very expensive week like this. It would end today, one way or another.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Michael thought he was being set up and then he said "I’m not going!"</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">Wow! This day suddenly had taken a big quick ugly turn for the worse. I was stunned. I just said ‘Michael, no matter what, the whale has a better chance with you there than without you.” He looked at me and said “You’re right." He turned around and went back in.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">I didn’t have time to figure out what had just happened because right then they all came out and the whole operation began. Everyone was moving. This next part is a bit embarrassing personally but so what. Like I said I was really tired so when Michael told me I’d be piloting the boat he’d be on, I promptly stalled the outboard a couple of times and was immediately replaced. The gate to the marina was opened and the boats and the whale all headed away. I had expected to be on the big Coast Guard Cutter but it too was already pulling away. I wound up standing on the dock watching them all move away frustrated, tired and alone. </span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">I figured we wouldn’t know about the whale for some time so, dejected and exhausted I headed back with the crowd to my car in the parking lot and ran into the last thing I wanted at that moment, the biggest traffic jam ever. The little causeway could’t possibly accommodate all the cars that had come to see the whale released. We sat bumper to bumper inching along when suddenly the radio announcer burst in with the bulletin that Physty the whale had successfully been returned to the open sea and was now on his way ‘home’.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">I swear, one by one every horn in every car went off and as I looked around every one was smiling and shouting as kids hung out of their car windows waving and cheering their little heads off.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">And just then it seemed that the traffic started to move again and I too was on my way home, laughing out loud, happy as a clam.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">In the days following Physty’s release Michael got a lot of press including being on a currently hit tv show called ‘That’s Incredible’. I took a couple of days off and on one of those days I got this invitation from the Smithsonian Institution. They had seen my museum projects and they were inviting me to discuss something they thought we might create together. The Smithsonian! I didn’t know it at the time but soon I’d be designing a gallery game for them about marine archeology called ‘Fathom’.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">A couple of days later when I showed up at Northwind Michael did something I never would have expected. He apologized to me. He said we should have practiced with the pilot boat before the last morning because that’s what the military does...practice. I really appreciated that but at that moment I was more interested in showing him my letter. He read it and then grasped my shoulders. I think he may have actually picked me off the ground a little. “Stanny, the museum of the country...and they want you! I’m so proud of you." Michael, the ultimate patriot.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">So that was that. I went off to Washington D.C. but not before I designed a Physty exhibit for Northwind. Its centerpiece was a full size, tactically accurate model of Physty that we kept wet for everyone to touch. It was built in two parts. If you imagine the floor as the waterline, the head emerged as one section and twelve feet behind it the tail emerged. It was the called ‘Braille Whale'.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">I may have wandered a bit off track here but let me tell you this. I had a front row seat to an amazing relationship between a man and a whale. It was based on touch and trust and it was simply beautiful.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;">So I say here, Bravo! Michael Sandlofer, bravo!”</span></span></div>
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Unfortunately, this year Michael passed away. I had a chance to talk with him when he was in the hospital and to tell him again how much I cared for him and how beautiful his work with animals was. I treasured my time with him. He was very complimentary too, telling me how I was always there to whisper some smart idea into his ear but, truth be told, he had more real ‘smarts’ in his little finger than I have in my whole head. Physty was only one of the episodes in Michael’s life. There were many others. The animals have lost a great friend.</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">But his work goes on. Thru Sharon, his wonderful wife and his daughter his dream of building a sanctuary for wolves in South Carolina continues. They continue to educate people, most of all kids about the truth and value of these misunderstood animals. You should check out their website at <b>www.wolfpackproject.com</b> and please, if you can help support Michael’s vision please do so by contributing to:</span></span></span><br />
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<span face=""helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">One final thought. Since this episode Physty has been spotted far offshore at various times healthy and swimming strongly. He’s easily identified by those rope scars on his tail. You’ve seen Jimmy’s movie and read my story but if you believe that whales are intelligent creatures that can communicate with each other then you have to believe that Physty, the sperm whale, has one hell off a story to tell, and while he might not know Michael’s name, he sure will never forget him. </span></span></span><br />
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-77933178863006310872016-08-09T19:07:00.001-07:002017-04-25T09:16:45.835-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">MY LIFE AS A <span style="color: red;">TRAFFIC CONE</span></span></h2>
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I’m sure that many of you consider traffic cones to be just pieces of some orange plastic material thrown up when and where someone thinks they are necessary. Well, the truth is, like any item approved for use on our public highways and streets, they must conform to strict Department of Transportation (DOT) specifications.</div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">What few people are aware of is that in order to meet those requirements, new traffic cones are required to attend rigorous classes to learn exactly what’s expected of them and to properly prepare them for their important and dangerous profession.</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Recently I was priviliged to be invited to sit in on a ceremony for graduating cones and here on my blog I’ve reprinted the commencement address from one of the oldest and most decorated cones to those young cones headed out on their road to service and safety</span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(It seemed to me that much of the advice he delivered might also apply to young humans too)</span></span></h2>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-66928928560537072632016-08-09T13:00:00.000-07:002022-02-20T20:54:13.489-08:00GEOSAFARI® CD-ROMS (1995)<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">GEOSAFARI<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">®</span> </span>CD-ROM (1995)</span></h2>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><b>by EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS</b></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Original GeoSafari</span></td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The GeoSafari CD-ROM series was based on the original multiple award-winning 'plastic/electronic' GeoSafari introduced in 1987. It was an extraordinary educational experience and was hugely successful in the school and specialty educational store market. I believe it sold over a million copies. My group's challenge was to transform this experience into the new multi-media CD-ROM format, adding all the digital features it offered: voice, animations, video, record-keeping and much more: Simply put, we wanted to bring GeoSafari into the coming digital age.</span></div>
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<span face=""\22 arial\22 " , "\22 helvetica\22 " , sans-serif">We created four GeoSafari CD-ROM titles. GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, SCIENCE and ANIMALS. To give you an idea of the fun, learning and gameplay here is an ANIMALS game called 'Animal Sound-Off'. Now, GeoSafari was designed for ages 8 and up, as reading was required for almost every game, but as you'll see here Stephanie Ortiz, age 5, found a game where reading wasn't required and got pretty good at it. In this game she's playing against her older brother Jasson, age 22, who has never seen the game before and she's 'showing him the ropes'....</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">Ok.Hopefully that will give you some idea of the fun and learning in the GeoSafari CD-ROM series. I didn't even mention the educational 'GeoFacts' that popped up for </span><i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">every</i><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;"> question or the medals you earned in your medal case if you answered all the questions in a game correctly on the first try or the digital trophy you earned if you completed all the games perfectly. And most importantly, GeoSafari was designed to be played by families as well as individuals. The 'answer clock' could be set for shorter times to 'handicap' older players. Learning and fun (for everyone) was guaranteed with the GeoSafari CD-ROMs.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Next I've selected a couple of questions each from the SCIENCE, HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY titles to give you just a small taste of the content, gameplay and fun we've included.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">“It was the best of jobs, it was the worst of jobs”</b><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: left;">….that’s the way I felt trying to put together the product that was to become the award winning GeoSafari CD-ROM series. You see, this was the early days of the CD-ROM revolution and what I didn’t realize was that while the original plastic GeoSafari was a great, great product and a huge hit, Educational Insights’ markets were the schools and ‘specialty’ toy and education stores….not the mass market (Toys R US)… and not digital products at all. So while some schools had Apple computers at this time (1991), a pitiful few had CD-ROMS attached to them. The only way to make a product like this successful was to get it into the mass market which meant Apple and Microsoft Windows versions available at Best Buy, Comp USA and other mass market retailers… and this just wasn’t anywhere near Educational Insights’ 'comfort zone'.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">So although I had a ‘go-ahead’ to develop the CD-ROM, it was with a certain shall I say, lack of support, or at least apprehension from the company. And rather than start directly on the project, I was directed to work on other, non-digital products while the CD-ROM project was ‘discussed’. A year was lost.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Now I had a vision of what the game would look and feel like and the technology was around so that we could have a human voice talking to to kids by their own name as they played. I also knew that in a ‘general education’ game like GeoSafari, we’d probably have to be telling kids that their answers were wrong more than once before they got it right. I needed a voice that could tell you that you were mistaken without turning you off, one that could actually encourage you to try again. So one day I’m driving on the 405 Freeway when a song comes on the radio by Richie Havens. Richie Havens! Yes! Now Richie and I go way back. We’re both Brooklyn boys and every so often our paths would cross on something amazing. The previous time was in 1981 when we helped our mutual friend Capt. Michael Sandlofer rescue Physty, a baby sperm whale that came ashore in New York. (You can read about this below in the blog entry PHYSTY and even see Jimmy Callanan’s great movie there). But I digress. </span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="text-align: justify;">I found Richie’s agent in NYC and flew in to see if he’d be willing to be the voice of GeoSafari. I honestly didn’t know if he’d even remember me but when he walked into the room he gave me the biggest bear hug and smile….”Stanley, Stanley, Stanley every ten years or so you come into my life with something wonderful….” I was so happy. Richie </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Richie Havens, R.I. P.</span></i></td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">loved the GeoSafari idea even though his part was initially to be in the recording booth for hours on end recording thousands of kids names and other comments and questions for the game, while back in California we were assembling all the programming elements and photos, animations and videos that would make up the total experience. That was still more than a year away.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Lots of people know Richie from his legendary Woodstock performance and from his great music but he always was doing something positive for kids and even had started his own environmental group called the NATURAL GUARD in Connecticut. </span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">One anecdote: I had Richie’s office send me a cassette of some of Richie’s commercial ‘voice-overs’ to play for my boss and owner of the company (it was a family-owned company) Bert Cutler. I expected him to love my selection and see how great Richie’s voice could be for GeoSafari. His response? “It’s terrible! You can’t even understand what he says.” and he walked away. We were stunned. My team members asked me what we were gonna do now. “****-him” I said. He’s just wrong. We’re using Richie.” That’s all I knew. Fortunately Bert’s son, Jay, the VP, knew of Richie and maybe he convinced his dad of his greatness. I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I would have quit if I couldn’t have used Richie. His voice was the glue that held GeoSafari together and also made it beautiful.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Look. I made many, many mistakes in putting together GeoSafari, It was a lot harder than I thought it would be and maybe I should have made the games simpler. I also initially put all the subjects on one CD-ROM (technically easy but a big marketing mistake) but maybe mistakes are the price you pay for trying to do something great. I certainly paid ‘em. My team Marcia Shank, Pat May, Denise Heyl, Erin Rosenthal, Krista Santacroce, David Liebowitz, Dennis Kerr and many others were so committed to the product that they worked endless hours on it.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Finally we had working demos: GeoSafari Geography, History, Science and Animals. One thing I didn’t know but soon learned was that Educational Insights now wanted to become a public company and to do that successfully, you had to convince the Wall Street types that your company had a ‘future in the future’. So all of a sudden these well-dressed young business men were paraded into my little basement area to see our entry in the new digital world. One look at our rag-tag team and they were all skeptical. “Why do you think you can put out a product that can compete with Electronic Arts?” they all asked, in one way or another.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">“Well, I don’t know if we can.” I answered, “let’s let you play GeoSafari and see what you think, OK?” “Oh and, by the way, we had Richie Havens record over 2000, names so GeoSafari will talk to the kids by their name. Lets try it, what’s your name?" The Wall Street guy answered “Ahmed”, as he turned around smirking to his cohorts, sure that that name wouldn’t be in our game. “Gee. I don’t know…..until I clicked on it and Richie’s beautiful voice rang out with “Ahmed, Is that you? Click on OK to use this name.” By this time his mouth was open and as we played the game and Richie would say things like “Ahmed, that’s three right in a row, keep it up” or “no, that’s not it but don’t worry, you still get two more tries.” We had ‘em. They all left impressed and the IPO was a success. And so was our project. We got great reviews and were even featured on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America”.</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">But things were changing. The 'world wide web' was just becoming popular and was replacing CD-ROM sales just by it’s scope and uniqueness. Also Educational Insights was sold to a bigger educational company, Learning Resources and that was pretty much the end of the line for me and for a digital version of GeoSafari.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">One more thing I want to mention. GeoSafari CD-ROM was never only for kids. It’s most beautiful use was when families got together to play. It did more than teach you about Gila Monsters or who Emma Lazarus was. It brought families together.</span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">And when I finally got to show Richie Havens the final product, after he played with it for awhile he said to me, and I quote, “<b>I think this is the most important thing I’ve ever done</b>.”</span><br />
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Well, It’s 25 years later and since our 1995 discs don’t play on current computers this was all ancient history and resumé material for me until just recently. I now have a 5 year-old running around my house and I realized I’d like to see if an obsolete computer could be ‘hacked’ so that she might try the GeoSafari CD-ROM experience. I was curious. My friend and engineer Pat May (who was part of the original design team) was able to find a vintage Mac and with some creative work-arounds install an obsolete operating system and boom! there was GeoSafari again. You’ll see Stephanie’s reaction in the blog. If nothing else comes of this I’ll have given her a valuable gift that has already made her (and her friends) smarter and will continue to do so in a most enjoyable way.</span></span></div>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">I’ve also drafted an e-mail to the heads of Educational Insights and Learning Resources to let them know about my blog and, while it’s only my opinion, I think a modern web version of their GeoSafari franchise would be both a wonderful educational experience and a profitable venture, far into our digital future. What do you think?</span><br />
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-79681095355742516232016-08-08T08:26:00.000-07:002016-08-15T06:33:58.316-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SLEETMUTE </span></h2>
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The Eskimos never hunted for sport. They hunted to eat; for subsistence. There were no 'trophys' in any eskimo cabin. Nonetheless they were subject to the State hunting laws. They said the Game Wardens occasionally fly over and if they’re caught hunting out-of-season they were in big trouble.</div>
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It was late March. Many families in the village had run out of meat. Some men had illegally killed a moose an hour or so away from the village and hid and camouflaged it because they didn’t want to transport it in daylight. This moose would be enough meat for the whole village until the salmon returned. </div>
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After dark, two snowmobiles set out to retrieve the moose. Jack Egnaty, a cautious and competent Eskimo drove the first and for some reason I was selected to drive the second. We crossed the frozen river and went up a stream valley at speed. It was dark and only the snowmobile’s headlights lit our path. We were going faster than I felt comfortable going but I was determined not to fall behind or, God forbid, get lost again. I stayed close behind. The valley narrowed and the walls got steeper and soon we were zipping along a narrow ledge, not much wider than the snowmobile’s track and we’re 30 feet above the valley floor. The trail twisted and turned. Jack didn’t slow down and I stayed right on his ass. He was the Eskimo. He knew where we are going and why we’re on that ledge and why the hell we have to be going so fast.</div>
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Then, without warning, Jack peels off the ledge, racing furiously down the steep slope and into the valley. I’m right behind. Maybe the trail was out ahead. We zip along the frozen stream bed for a little while and then Jack guns his snowmobile up the slope, having enough momentum to JUST make it back to the ledge. My heart’s in my mouth as I climbed behind him, barely thinking of not making it up to the trail and falling backwards, snowmobile and all into the valley. I made it.</div>
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We sped along the ledge for another ten minutes or so and then Wham! Jack’s banking into the valley again and we repeat the whole harrowing sequence. Finally we’re back on the ledge. I’m covered with sweat. Jack stops his snowmobile. He gets off and walks back. He looks at me strangely and says, “When I fall off the trail you don’t have to follow me."</div>
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<i style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Reprinted from my book 'SLEETMUTE, A true story of Alaska' available on Amazon, Apple iBooks and other fine </i><span style="font-family: "arial", "helvetica", sans-serif;"><i>booksellers </i></span><br />
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<i>Today the school in Sleetmute is named after Jack Egnaty.</i></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-58893234109430635572016-08-07T07:21:00.001-07:002016-09-03T18:34:40.399-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BATTERY MAKERS</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What do Elon Musk and this fine young lad have in common? Right! They're both owners </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">of a Battery Making Factory. Here's Elon's...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And here's the fine young lad's</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;"> Ok, Ok, admittedly one is a giga-factory and the other is, well, I guess 'nano' in size, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">but still i</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">t's great to remember the good old days, before all those pesky safety and compliance </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: left;">regulations and words like 'hazmat' came into the vocabulary and kids could still 'roll their </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> On the other hand maybe that fine young lad <b><i>WAS</i></b> Elon Musk.</span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-9241015964172288242016-08-06T07:43:00.000-07:002016-08-17T14:51:34.959-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> After my year in Sleetmute, Alaska I was transferred
to Hawaii where I worked as the designer of the
Hawaii Curriculum Center. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> The Center was a joint
venture of the University of Hawaii’s School of
Education and the State Department of Education.
The mission: to develop creative educational
materials specifically for the children of the State of Hawaii.
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> This was actually my first design job, and while I had
a degree in Industrial Design, I really had no
experience in actually designing anything. But the
Center was a wonderful place, full of very smart educators and psychologists totally dedicated to creating great new ideas for the
classroom. I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time but the products we were developing were based on 'peer-teaching' (kids learning from each other using our materials) were what we’d call
‘interactive’ today.
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> One of my jobs was to take some rough prototype and
make it so it looked and worked better. ‘Classroom
management’ was also a big deal and if I could make it
easier for the teacher to keep things together, I tried
to incorporate that into the design. One of my most
interesting experiences was with a product called
PURPOSEFUL WRITING.
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> PURPOSEFUL WRITING was a communication game
where two kids would sit on either side of a divider on
the table. There was a pocket on each side with cards
that asked each kid to WRITE a message to the other </span><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15pt;">kid and if that other kid could read, understand and
do the requested task, the kid who wrote the
message was therefore successful and would proceed
to the next (more difficult) card.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15pt;"> I made the divider into colored rainbows, blue on one
side, red on the other and the cards had little colored
stripes which </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15pt;">corresponded to the side they were
supposed to be on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15pt;"> The way things worked at the Center was
that my design would be approved, made into a technical
specification and bid package and sent out to the
local printers for competitive bids. </span><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15pt;">Eventually a vendor would
be selected and production began. We usually made a hundred or so 'prototypes' to test in our pilot schools all over the state. Usually the
process took at least a couple of months and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15pt;">I went on to my next project and pretty much forgot about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> Now The University of Hawaii had an Elementary School
on its campus and one day, several months later, I
happened to be walking by it and when I looked in,
there on a table was ‘my’ PURPOSEFUL WRITING
game being played by a group of tiny first graders.
This was the very first time I saw a product that I
had designed being actually used and without
thinking I walked into the classroom and just stood there smiling, watching those kids writing, learning and enjoying themselves.
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> The teacher, seeing this strange guy just standing
there, was concerned and came over to me. “Can I
help you?” she asked. Realizing that I had just
intruded into her class I apologized and quickly
introduced myself and explained that I worked at
the Curriculum Center and that I had designed
PURPOSEFUL WRITING and had never seen it in
action before.
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> The teacher smiled and nodded and, addressing the
kids said, “Class, this is Stanley Resnicoff and he
designed PURPOSEFUL WRITING.”
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> These little kids all turned, looked up at me and then
started to applaud with hands that were actually too
small to make any sounds.
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> I teared up. </span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-46027263099477483452016-08-05T07:57:00.000-07:002016-08-05T09:22:12.575-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In 1964 my brother got me a summer job driving a truck for Friendship Dairies. It was a big truck, air brakes and all that stuff and I had to get a special license to drive it. The job? Every night the truck would be loaded up with<i> fifty thousand pounds</i> of farmer cheese, pot cheese and other cheeses and at midnight I would set out from the markets in lower Manhattan and unload different orders at various locations throughout Brooklyn and Queens. I had keys, (many, many keys), to refrigerated lockers or warehouses at all of these locations as they were all closed and abandoned as I made my rounds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> For the first week on the job I went out with Jimmy, the regular driver, to learn the route and the different things I had to know about each specific delivery. The driving was relatively easy at night, no traffic, but the physical unloading was pretty tough and all the while I kept realizing that I’d be doing this all alone next week.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> So finally it’s my first day, I mean night, on the job. In addition to my normal anxiety of driving and remembering the route and the various peculiarities of each delivery, I had one new big extra thing to worry about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> It seems that a white cop had shot a black kid in Harlem that day and it had set off sporadic race riots in the city. The word around the market drivers was that there was trouble in Brooklyn and the cops were holding up trucks before they crossed the Williamsburg Bridge until they had five trucks and then they sent them across in a convoy for their safety.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> A CONVOY! Holy Shit! A convoy! My first night on the job and I’m gonna be in a fuckin' convoy. Besides, I’m thinking, what good is a convoy gonna be? All the drivers would be heading in different directions after we left the bridge. Well, I didn’t have much of a choice so I headed to the bridge.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Midnight. The cops were there and I got on line behind several other trucks, waited and watched as the cops counted off five trucks and waved them across. Finally I was first on line and by chance there’s nobody behind me yet, so I hit the brakes to wait. But no. The cop is waving me across. “What about MY convoy?” I yelled at him. He spread his hands palms out, cocked his head to the side, smirked like only a New York cop can and said “Ya Got Cheese! YA GOT CHEESE! and forcefully waved me on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> I guess he figured that no rioters would bother with cheese. I hoped he was right as I rumbled on into the dark Brooklyn night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> He was.</span>Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-30893129683961989362016-08-04T07:24:00.000-07:002016-09-07T12:46:59.241-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">SLEETMUTE</span></h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KQDjEOTPiS0/V6NDsayhIAI/AAAAAAAAAfw/FO2bJ4zTgPQx7eeQoUqjMzaQqEdGWNTeQCLcB/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-04%2Bat%2B6.28.25%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KQDjEOTPiS0/V6NDsayhIAI/AAAAAAAAAfw/FO2bJ4zTgPQx7eeQoUqjMzaQqEdGWNTeQCLcB/s640/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-04%2Bat%2B6.28.25%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sleetmute,Alaska 1969 </i><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Page 96</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">“THE TIN MAN</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It was probably January when I decided to move a short distance into an abandoned log cabin right on the riverbank. Now there were two things I didn’t know. First, it was abandoned because it’s too cold right on the river, and if that wasn’t enough, this cabin had been lifted up in a flood and rotated so now its front door faced north. Right into the wind. I didn’t know. I thought it looked good. It was impossible to heat.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">That night, with no warning, I got sick. Really sick. I became very weak. I had a fever and I was burning up. I felt terrible and to top it off I had to take a wicked shit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I can’t claim to have been thinking clearly but the only thing on my mind was to make it to the little outhouse near my previous cabin. It wasn’t far. Maybe 2 football fields away. I already had on two pairs of thermal woven cotton long-johns. I put on sweaters. I got on my parka. I opened the door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It was brutal. Maybe 40 below. It was 4 am. The moon lit the snow. It was very quiet. I shuffled </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KTyb-x5odyo/V6NHhOWZT1I/AAAAAAAAAf8/ogpofA7p-xEJ26VyKOW9NLJp2jsrpwxmwCEw/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-04%2Bat%2B6.24.29%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KTyb-x5odyo/V6NHhOWZT1I/AAAAAAAAAf8/ogpofA7p-xEJ26VyKOW9NLJp2jsrpwxmwCEw/s200/Screen%2BShot%2B2016-08-04%2Bat%2B6.24.29%2BAM.png" width="134" /></a></span></div>
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ahead, the only thought on my mind was the relief that was waiting for me inside the outhouse. My steps got shorter. I was holding it in. Occasionally I had to stop. The outhouse was only fifty feet away. I thought I could make it. I was wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I lost control. Diarrhea, hot diarrhea blasted from me completely soaking the fabric of my long-johns, enveloping me momentarily in comforting warmth – and then – one second later –everything froze solid.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">So now I’m sick, it’s 40 below, I just shit in my pants and I’m immobilized with my legs encased in frozen excrement encrusted long-johns. I couldn’t move. I was the tin man. I quietly started to sob. And then I fell, face first, stiff as a board into the snow. I’m laughing as I write this. I wasn’t laughing then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I crawled into the empty community center building. I remember it took me a long time to somehow open the door. I crawled behind a cold stove. I got into the fetal position. I fell asleep. I remember hearing kids find me in the morning. I remember them calling their moms.</span></div>
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The next thing I remember is being poked. I’m waking up. It’s dark. I’m in my bed. I’m naked. I’m clean. Something is hurting me. There’s laughing. I open my eyes to see three Eskimo women poking me with willow brush branches. They’re actually prodding me with branches and laughing at me. I was delirious. I remember trying to sweep them away with my arm. “Get the fuck away from me!” They kept laughing and poking. It was like a nightmare, laughing witch-like women torturing me all illuminated by the flickering fire. Mercifully everything finally went black.</div>
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The next day I was better. The fever had broken. I was very tired and weak. I remembered the outhouse, and the tin man and the women and the branches. They all seemed very far away. What seemed like one night to me then may have been more. I think those women saved my life.</div>
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We never talked about that night.</div>
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<b>SLEETMUTE, A True Story of Alaska</b> is available on Amazon, Apple iBooks and other fine booksellers.</div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-41478251991939338142016-08-02T10:35:00.000-07:002016-08-02T10:35:19.631-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">MUGS</span></h2>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7IpkTsZGEg/V6CtpYQU9UI/AAAAAAAAAY0/j9L_Cl2bLggWSusG5tbw9uNqzaJxZCSMQCEw/s1600/Carl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y7IpkTsZGEg/V6CtpYQU9UI/AAAAAAAAAY0/j9L_Cl2bLggWSusG5tbw9uNqzaJxZCSMQCEw/s400/Carl.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>The complete MUGS book is at the end of this blog</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> 1983.....With the advent of the personal computer, the kind of
games and experiences that I had been creating for
museums turned into a real profession and I was offered
a position as a junior software designer at Mattel Toys. It
was California, the beach and computers. I loved my new
job.
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;"> One day while driving I saw a large garage sale. New
Yorkers are not exactly familiar with garage sales (the
first time I saw one I thought it was an eviction) but I
stopped anyway just to check things out. While I was
looking around I saw a couple of stuffed animals lying
face down in the grass. They looked so sad. Now maybe it
was because I now knew how much work went into
creating those characters or maybe it was because I
knew that each of those animals had helped bring up
some kid, I bought both of them. I think it cost me 20
cents. On my way home I stopped at several more garage
sales and by the time I got home I had about 25
different very well-loved stuffed animals in my
“collection."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"> I set them all up around my living room, and then went about my day. Later, when by chance I happened to look over at them, I could swear that they were all now smiling.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"> I was hooked. Every weekend I set out with the newspaper and Thomas Guide hitting every garage sale I could find and buying up every dejected, rejected stuffed animal. And every garage sale had them. I carefully numbered and tagged each one and kept records of where and when I had rescued them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 20px;"> Soon I had over 2000. I didn’t know exactly why I was doing this. At one time I thought that I’d create big ‘MUG’ books and have kids in hospitals pick one to adopt, but health and cleanliness rules made that impossible. In any event my house was quickly filling up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"> Now it just so happened that I had to leave the place I was renting and I was able to buy a nice little house in Redondo Beach. It was a California Craftsman cottage, built in 1910, up on a small hill with a tiny ocean view. It was beautiful. </span></span><span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 20px;">It was also Christmas time and I noticed that my new neighbors had adorned their homes with lights and displays for the holiday season. The first Sunday in my new house I got up at dawn, went to the garage where all my stuffed animals were stored in garbage bags and began to set them up on my front steps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 20px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;"> A couple of minutes later a little kid came up to me. “What are you doing?" he said. “I’m just setting these stuffed animals up on my stairs so each of them has an ocean view," I answered.</span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: 20px;">“He thought about it. “Can I help?”, he said. Shades of Tom Sawyer, I saw some free labor appear. Soon he was busy planning each animal’s place and position. Not five minutes later a little girl showed up. “What are you doing?” she asked me. “Ask him," I said pointing to the little boy, and when she did his answer was "Settin' 'em up...ocean view.”</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Srq1CbB31Qg/V6CwjQV2nAI/AAAAAAAAAZI/hWMfPffEaTcrVuTBV4r2YfMKge79g2DRwCLcB/s1600/MUGS%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="472" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Srq1CbB31Qg/V6CwjQV2nAI/AAAAAAAAAZI/hWMfPffEaTcrVuTBV4r2YfMKge79g2DRwCLcB/s640/MUGS%2B3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="font-family: 'american typewriter'; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;">And then somebody called the L.A. Times....</span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RpeTQR7GWA0/V6DDr_WMD6I/AAAAAAAAAa0/YDpkMVywGMwrDg5_L65lcvRMosE6SwA7wCLcB/s1600/Times_Final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RpeTQR7GWA0/V6DDr_WMD6I/AAAAAAAAAa0/YDpkMVywGMwrDg5_L65lcvRMosE6SwA7wCLcB/s640/Times_Final.jpg" width="538" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter"; font-size: 15.000000pt;">After the article was published in the Times it
seemed as if everyone at Mattel knew who I was. I
also received letters from people about their stuffed
animals.</span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V8y-dufYQgc/V6DJB_F9tYI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/45Ago7jOSxcUn7EWUcd1Zf5UVpeXycnsACLcB/s1600/Crumpacker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V8y-dufYQgc/V6DJB_F9tYI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/45Ago7jOSxcUn7EWUcd1Zf5UVpeXycnsACLcB/s640/Crumpacker.jpg" width="460" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "americantypewriter";"><span style="font-size: small;">The stuffed animals remained on my steps for a week
or so. Even though a lot of people drove by and took
pictures, not one animal was ever taken. I wouldn’t
have minded because I was already wondering what I
was now going to do with them. Then I received a call
from the sister cities program of Redondo Beach.
Every year they formed a ‘caravan of cars’ that drove
to their sister city, La Paz, Baja, Mexico, to bring toys
to children who might otherwise not get anything for
Christmas. They wanted to know if I might have
something to contribute. I did. I definitely did. </span></span></div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-59286109606863953362016-08-01T16:02:00.000-07:002016-08-01T16:02:16.182-07:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">THE ZEN OF THE MAGIC 8 BALL <span style="font-size: xx-small;">TM<span id="goog_2119711295"></span><span id="goog_2119711296"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a></span></span></h2>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983525428170259450.post-63758727198426264762016-07-31T06:54:00.001-07:002016-07-31T15:33:34.767-07:00<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BALLS</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> In 1980 I had a job as exhibits designer for the New York Hall of Science. it was kind of a strange museum, because while other ciies like Toronto and San Francisco had world-class Science Centers, The NY Hall of Science was, honestly, patheic. It was housed in the Science building in Flushing Park, Queens, constructed for the 1964 world’s fair with a few ‘left-over’ exhibits and while plans were discussed to make it a truly great center, any actual funding or construction was still years away. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> Nevertheless I had a small dedicated staff and an even smaller budget and it was our job to make the place ‘work’, so rather than deal with abstract science concepts, I decided to, as best I could, teach science that would be relevant to what was currently in the news.</span></div>
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For example, the whole country was at that time going thru an energy crisis and the idea of fireplaces and burning wood for heat was becoming a subject that people were discussing so I designed an exhibit called ‘POTBELLY’. We had dozens of different wood and coal burning stoves on display and we were able to teach some great principles of combustion and heat distribution by using the different techniques that each stove employed. The show was so popular that we even got to be on NBC’s TODAY show! More about POTBELLY later.</div>
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The Science Center being in Queens instead of Manhattan had its disadvantages and advantages. Because I lived in Manhattan the greatest advantage for me was driving to work every day going in the empty and opposite direction of everyone else. But a serious advantage, and the reason for this blog is that we were right across from the National Tennis Center (NTS) where every year the U.S. Open was held, and it was coming up soon.</div>
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My idea: Micro-Tennis: An Exhibit of Tennis through the microscope! With our limited budget we put on a photographic, but scientific examination of tennis equipment as seen thru the microscope. Our researcher Dr.Larry Rosen had some connection with a hospital in the Bronx that let us use their Electron Scanning Microscope at night. It was fantastic. Shots of plastic racquet strings look like cables that held up a bridge while those same strings of natural material looked like pieces of meat complete with ‘marbelling’.</div>
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To display our photos we built giant tennis rackets out of plywood and sandwiched concrete reinforcement wire to look like the strings and then clamped our photos on the grid. We hung the tennis rackets from the ceiling and their slow natural rotation made a rather limited exhibition look actually exciting. You can see the tennis rackets in the background of the photo.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HtDqyF_PJuE/V54ABCfBvwI/AAAAAAAAAUc/Z5_ik7rYspA_8A57kJBrUlzjJf-BdZ70wCLcB/s1600/Hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HtDqyF_PJuE/V54ABCfBvwI/AAAAAAAAAUc/Z5_ik7rYspA_8A57kJBrUlzjJf-BdZ70wCLcB/s400/Hair.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hair on a tennis ball as seen on the Scanning Electron Microscope</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;"> I walked over and showed the folks at the NTS what we had i mind and they loved it. They let us put up our posters and promoted our exhibit in any way they could. They even gave us some expensive ($325) tickets to the Open. How cool was that!</span></div>
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Now here’s where it gets interesting. I wanted to build a giant microscope out of used tennis balls and have a guess-the-number-of tennis-balls contest with some prize for the winner. I knew the picture of it would get us a lot of publicity (it did). I didn’t think it would be to hard to round up used tennis balls. First I called the nearby National Tennis Center who told me that they had JUST donated lots of used balls to the Girls and Boys Clubs in the area. Damn. I don’t recall how many calls we made but nobody seemed to have a lot of used tennis balls for us. It was getting close to the opening of the show and of course I was starting to panic. I needed those balls ‘now’ if we were to have any chance of building the ‘scope’ in time.</div>
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I don’t remember the details but I do remember making some rough calculation of the number of balls I thought we might need and that if you crammed them all together they would fill a 8 foot x 6 foot crate. </div>
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Now desperate, I thought of calling the manufacturers. My first call was to Wilson Sporting Goods in Chicago, who I knew supplied the US Open. I managed to connect with a marketing guy and when I explained what I was doing, and where I was located he thought the idea was great. He said unfortunately they don’t have any used tennis balls but he’d be willing to send us new balls for our project at no cost. Wow. I told him that would be great and, because I needed them right away, I volunteered to pay for them being air shipped to us. Done!</div>
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So now it’s Friday afternoon and still no balls. The exhibit opening reception is on Wednesday.. Three o’ clock and four o’ clock came and went. And then, right at 5 o’ clock I see a forty-foot tractor trailer pulling towards our loading dock. Finally.</div>
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“Got some tennis balls for ya!” The driver shouts from the cab and as he opens the back doors I see that the truck is packed full of big Wilson Tennis Ball boxes. Full. Wall to wall. The driver starts to unload. “Wait there must be some mistake, that’s a lot tennis balls, are you sure youre at the right place?” “Hall of Science!” he says as he hands me the invoice. He’s still unloading. I said “maybe you better take them back until we get this figured out.” “Look pal,” says the driver probably already pissed having to work late on Friday, “if we have to reload and take these back they’re going into some warehouse and you’ll be lucky if you ever see them again”. Ya gotta love New York. “Besides”, he says, “there’s another tractor with more balls coming behind me”. I signed the receipt.</div>
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I’m just stunned as I watch all these boxes being unloaded. I opened a box to find brand new Tennis Balls in their cans. 3 balls per can. And to top it off I see the museum maintenence guys loading boxes into their car trunks like it’s Christmas. Finally the trucks leave. Everybody heads home. I’m standing there with two tractor traier loads of tennis balls. And then it hits me.</div>
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I volunteered to pay for the air freight for this. I am totally screwed!</div>
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That weekend was one of the worst in my life. I imagined what a Boing 747 full of tennis balls was going to cost. How was I ever gonna explain this. I was dead.</div>
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Finally Monday came. Wilson was in Chicago so I had to wait for the time zones to catch up to call. Finally I got thru to the guy I was dealing with and told him what happened. I held my breath. He just laughed and I heard him tell somebody in his office ‘oh that’s where those balls wound up’. Seems that THEY screwed up the shipping and he told me not to worry about it (a little too late). He said that we could use what we needed and they’d send a truck to pick up the rest later today. Oh man what a relief.</div>
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The rest of Monday and Tuesday was spent hot gluing those tennis balls together. You know it really was a crime to ruin all those new balls, used balls would have looked and been so much more sensible but I had no choice. I think we even lost count of how many we used so we counted the used cans and made up a number and gave out some good prizes anyway.</div>
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The show was a big success with many tennis industry pros as well as spectators from the US Open walking over to the Hall of Science to see Micro-Tennis and learn some interesting science facts about their sport.</div>
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But I wouldn’t want to ever go thru a weekend like that again.</div>
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Stan Resnicoffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02751820615606571329noreply@blogger.com0