Somebunny has a warped sense of humour

This morning, while wandering outside and having my first cuppa java, I spotted a rabbit rushing across the field beyond the property boundary. I found myself willing it to turn back and not find a way through the fence, as on this side there are two giant dogs and a pretty agro little one.  It came through anyway, but managed to cross the acres unmolested, so I guess it had lucky rabbit feet!

It got me to thinking about bunnies in general… How one boiled bunny spread fear and horror through the male population in the late 80′s. How we think they are cute and cuddly (the Japanese think so anyway), but really they can be twitchy and snappy. And in some people they trigger strange behaviour.

Friends of mine in America were bunny people. They had a pair who predictably copulated like..well, er…rabbits. They unpredictably only produced two babies in the litter. One was given to an enthusiastic home and the other was kept by the family. For no reason that anyone could fathom, this particular bunny was in the incarnation of Bunnicular. Unlike its parents, it hated people and benevolent actions like the arrival of food were greeted with attacks. Nips are okay…biting an adult thumb down to the bone is just scary.

I decided that my kids with their little fingers were no longer available for bunny sitting when the family went away. One adult thumb to the bone = one child finger severed.

After much soul-searching, the family decided that the bunny was too much of a liability.Visions of lawsuits danced in their heads…no sugar plums in sight. The problem was letting go… Despite its tendency to amputate fingers, the bunny had a beautiful coat, it was the much anticipated child to their two cuddly bunnies – somehow just ending was not going to do. The thought that perhaps keeping the pelt would be okay crossed someone’s mind… But that someone had laryngitis… so that someone came to me and asked me to call the taxidermist to find out how much it would cost to skin a rabbit…

The phone call was somewhat like being plunged into the heart of Deliverance. The creature on the other end assured me it would be his pleasure to take the pelt off the rabbit. He somewhat ghoulishly suggested that he would throw in the euthanasia for free… having been somewhat perturbed when I explained that it would be delivered to him fresh from the needle at the vet’s office. I was suddenly very glad that my friend had laryngitus, that she could not deal with this hick from the backwoods of the Appalachians. I had hideous visions of pet turned pot roast (which was why he probably wanted it sans the drugs). Seems Alan Alda was right - Never have your dog stuffed.

I am not a sales person – but I believe I reached previously unknown heights of persuasion after I terminated that call.   So bunny came back from the vet and because it was no longer going to the skinning scary guy, there was state of limbo. So bunny was carefully wrapped in a towel and several plastic bags and given a freezer shelf to itself…

It became a little too much for my bizarre sense of humour. The giggles always threatened to erupt every time an item from the freezer was offered. Ice cream? As long as it’s not Bunnilla flavour!

Eventually it was decided that the frozen fuzzball would be given a proper burial in the back yard – unfortunately winter had set in and the ground was as hard as a rock. Eventually the bunny left the freezer in the spring time and was laid to rest with due care, attention and ceremony.

RIP Bunnicular – I hope there are hosts of heavenly thumbs to hew in the hereafter… In retrospect – I think you were put on this planet as retribution for all the people who own “lucky” rabbits’ feet. You just never got a chance to complete your rabbity revenge!

We have a host of bunny vinyls available for Easter decorations. Email us at sales(at)themoon(dot)co(dot)za

The write stuff

Have you ever wondered how pencils and pens are made? Have you ever wondered what happens to the little stubs or the pen that ran out of ink and you trashed?

We have clients who swear by the pen as the most popular giveaway item for their clients. These are not fabulously posh pens, but pretty cheap functional pens. The kinds you can lose and not worry about too much. In fact I think our pen crazy clients have clients of their own who are somewhat careless with their pens – after all, they can always go back and get another one for free! There are huge drawbacks – branded pens have to go to the printers and have names printed on them. Lots of carbon footprints in the form of delivery to the printers, delivery back to us to check the job, delivery to the clients and a bunch of nasty solvents for the ink.

I have recently been contemplating the life cycle of the average ball point and all I keep thinking of is the billions of little plastic tubes that are filling up the landfills of the world (along with all our other junk). Without a doubt, the inexpensive ballpoint pen has become one of those everyday objects that we just don’t really think about until some ratfink takes the one next to the phone.

I am a bit of a pen snob. I like to find a writing instrument that works well for my style. One with which I can doodle successfully while soothing the shattered psyches of clients who forgot to order their printing until the very last minute. Good pens and pencils are comforting. But then that little Jiminy Cricket conscience kicks in….”where do dead pens and pencils go?”

And why should I care about pencils – they are made of wood aren’t they? They will eventually biodegrade after the paint and varnish has worn away. But what about the tree they originally came from? Pencils are not made from just any old wood. In the beginning of pencil manufacturing, the favoured timber for pencils was Red Cedar as it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened. In the early 1900s supplies of Red Cedar were dwindling so that pencil manufacturers were forced to recycle the wood from cedar fences and barns to maintain supply.  It was soon discovered that Incense Cedar,  was a suitable alternative and most pencils today are made from this timber which is grown in managed forests. Over 14 billion pencils are manufactured worldwide annually.

Okay, so the forests are managed, but what if there were alternatives?

There are…

Recycled paper pencils are avaliable. The part that is usually made of wood in conventional pencils is made from compressed recycled paper. It works just as well and you can even recycle the shavings when you sharpen the pencil. They are nice pencils to use – softish, but not smudgy.

And…

Biodegradable pens! These fabulously inventive writing instruments are made from cardboard and biodegradable plastic. The only bit that is going to last forever is the metal tip! I have tested them. The cardboard is sturdy – as study as the plastic pens and they are avaliable in a variety of different coloured tops and bottoms. They write perfectly well and we can brand them with a lazer engraver!  In other words the client’s logo gets burned into the pen. Yes the lazer engraver uses electricity – but compare 10 seconds of engrave per pen to kilometers of delivery gas plus ink solvents and the moral dilemma is solved. The paper pencils can be branded the same way too.

Jiminy Cricket can go and bug someone else!

Jeremy Mansfield mugs Whackhead and we mug him back

Those of you who listen to 94.7 Highveld Stereo will have heard Jeremy Mansfield throw a coffee mug at Whackhead Simpson‘s head on Thursday morning.

This excellent demonstration of a mugging technique was part of an on going battle between Jeremy and his team. They insist on torturing him with the sound of a dentists drill and he retaliates.

Hostilities started some months ago when Jeremy had a dental malfunction and was talking about having to go to the dentist. Paul continually played the drill sound, ignoring Jeremy’s pleas for a cease fire and eventually  Jeremy stormed out of the studio. As a result of this mini-drama, one of the listeners nominated “Dental Assistant” as the  job she wanted Jeremy to perform as part of the MNet “I wanna be” reality TV series.

On Thursday, this listener was in the studio as her nomination had won and a very unhappy Jeremy was interviewing her.  Paul threatened to play the drill sound effect again and Jeremy threatened to throw a coffee mug at him. Whackhead Simpson, safely on the sideline, was urging Paul to press the button…. Jeremy decided to switch the game around and told Paul that if he pushed the button, he would throw the mug at Whackhead.

Paul pushed the button.

Whackhead got mugged.

Jeremy broke a coffee mug.

We had an idea….

We designed it, made it and sent it to Jeremy Mansfield…. and asked him if he wanted to have the sales of these Mugger Mugs go to charity… watch this space.

Howlingmad is a state of mind

When choosing a name for our company, going with something that exemplifies our general state of mind was a no-brainer. We are considered slightly off-the-wall by most people who know us.

Maybe because we regularly ambush our accountant,  have office wars with nerf guns, or test out potato cannons on a Friday afternoon. Reading this, you might think there is an unhealthy prevalence for violence in the howlingmad world. In reality, it is an addiction to laughing and not wanting to lose the inner child. Let’s face it, kids just love a good bit of destruction.

Wearing t-shirts with social commentary or silly comments on them is a particularly child-like activity.  Whether you are being offensive, commenting on current affairs or just wearing your own art because you can.  For those who want to send a daily message to the world – coffee mugs are the way to go. My particular favourite at the moment is the super zombie club  design… a must for all the corporate worker bees out there who are teetering on the edge of redundancy while working like slaves to keep their bosses in greedilicious bonuses.