Seal Steals Hearts in Middletown

Apparently, we've had a Harp Seal hanging around Middletown, CT the last week or so. Cute little thing isn't it? Looks suspiciously like one of my cats...

Smitten By The Seal
Whiskered Harp Basks In Sun Brightening Eyes Of Curious
By ALAINE GRIFFIN
Courant Staff Writer

March 8 2006

MIDDLETOWN -- A young, whiskered harp seal that somehow made its way to the city entertained Harbor Park Restaurant employees Monday with its frolicking in the frigid Connecticut River.

By noon Tuesday, when it appeared the show was over, the playful-but-shy seal beached itself on the Wesleyan crew team dock, causing concerned spectators to call police. But the seal was still performing.

"He was playing possum," Gail Petras, Middletown's animal control officer, said. "He was [lying] there like a dead weight, hoping people would go away."

But they didn't.

Police officers stood guard. Bicyclists took a break from their rides. Middletown's fire chief and deputy fire chief stopped by to get a look. For two days, the seal had an audience.

While seals traditionally migrate into southern New England waters in the winter, officials said it's unusual to spot a seal from the Arrigoni Bridge. Onlookers said they were concerned the seal was out of its element.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, the seal picked itself up, shuffled to the end of the dock, stuck its head in the water and instantly shook off the drops. It then slid into the river.

"He was probably nice and warm and dry by then and decided it was time to go back in the water," Petras said.

The seal show and similar seal sightings along the Connecticut River recently were enough to get the attention of Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration officials, who traveled to Middletown Tuesday.

"We don't get seals normally this far north in the river," Petras said. "They have had a lot of calls in the past week or two about sightings along the river."

Aquarium officials noted the seal's whereabouts and are planning to erect a sign in Harbor Park with information about seals that includes safety warnings about the dangers of coming in contact with a seal and outlining laws against harming them.

Petras said harp seals are known to have a nasty bite when they become scared.

"They do bite, so people should not disturb them if they see them," Petras said. "Mystic Aquarium wants to try and educate people here because they said he could come back."

And that's OK with Petras.

"He was adorable, absolutely adorable," she said.

Dummies in Advertising

Send In The Clowns
Plastic Statues, Masks And Other Inanimate Mascots Are The New Fixed-Grin Faces Of Popular Advertising
By GREG MORAGO
The Hartford Courant

March 8 2006

Look at all the shiny, happy people on TV. Look again. They indeed may be shiny and happy, but not all are people. Enter the plastic (or metal or whatever) dummy currently seen on a number of television commercials. There's the big Burger King head (a real person wearing an oversize plastic head); the plastic McDonald's clown; a composite Quaker Oats statue; the probably plaster Travelocity gnome.

What gives with all these inanimate or semi-animate characters doing big corporate pitching on TV? Why is immovable plastic more convincing than human hucksters?

"One, you can do anything to them and not worry about anyone being offended," says Patrick Dugan, senior copywriter for Adams & Knight advertising in Avon. "Humor always gets attention in TV commercials, but the problem with it is that usually someone's got to be the target. And in today's PC world, that means someone's going to be offended. Dummies and other mascots easily solve that problem. You can make fun of them, bash them over the head, kick them in the crotch, and they just stand there with their frozen grins, which makes the joke even funnier - not to mention creepier."
( Read more... )

The height of creepy for me are those denim commercials, where the guy takes the last pair of jeans in the store - the ones on the dummy... Then we see, throughout the rest of the commercial, the dummy following the guy home, stalking him, and finally, while the man is asleep and vulnerable... there's the dummy, standing over him. I can't even remember the brand name of the jeans, just the commercial. Creep factor of 10 folks.

What other inanimate object commercials do you remember? What about movies? Wasn't there one called Mannikin, where a dummy comes to life to become the fantasy sex-object of desire for some guy who worked nights in the store dressing the dummies up? Yeah, they may have covered it up with jokes and whatnot, but the basic message of that movie is totally creepy.