Tom Mollerus' Weblog

While browsing the web tonight my wife came across what is the first enjoyable advertisement I've ever seen on the web (those fun Orbitz games don't count-- while I like to play with the baseball or putt-putt golf widgets, I didn't like the ads themselves). And the great thing about it is that it's more than just an interactive game and more than a running commercial-- it's an entertaining combination of both, almost like an example of that semi-mythical idea of "interactive TV" that pundits have written about for the last decade.

On HGTV's web site, a Flash ad showed up for Sears showing a static picture of some guy dressed up as a dandelion. Beneath him there's a button requesting that you "Roll over the weed". If you do, that's when the commercial gets hilarious.

From a poster that was above our table in the local Irish pub last night:

A MOTHER'S LETTER

Dear Son,
    Just a few lines to let you know that I am still alive. I am writing this slowly because I know you can't read fast. You won't know the house when you come home, we've moved.
    About your father, he has got a lovely new job. He has 500 men under him, he cuts grass at the cemetery. Your sister Mary had a baby this morning. I haven't found out yet whether it's a boy or a girl, so I don't know if you're an aunt or an uncle.
    I went to the doctor's on Thursday and your father came with me. The doctor put a small tube in my mouth and told me not to talk for 10 minutes. Your father offered to buy it from him.
    Your uncle Patrick drowned last week in a vat of Irish whiskey at the Dublin brewery. Some of his workmates tried to save him but he fought them off bravely. They cremated him and it took 3 days to put the fire out.
    It only rained twice this week, first for 3 days then for 4 days. We had a letter from the undertaker. He said that if the last payment on your grandmother's plot wasn't paid in 7 days, up she comes.

Your loving mother

P.S. I was going to send you 5 pounds, but I have already sealed the envelope.