3 posts tagged “culture”

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Michigan in Pictures

Jan 5, 2009
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A website I visit daily that has quickly become on of my favorite blogs. If you have ever wondered what can possibly happen in Michigan or what else this state is comprised of besides the automakers, then please check out this blog. It is updated regularly and features beautiful photos, mostly from Flickr, that express the beauty and uniqueness of my home state. Oftentimes, background information and links to other resources for further reading are also included, which enriches the viewing experience and brings another depth to the photos.

Michigan in Pictures

http://michpics.wordpress.com/

A family friendly blog by Absolute Michigan that showcases Michigan through photographs. They also provide history, insightful commentary, and news on upcoming film projects located in the state.

Evolution of the Starbucks Logo

Feb 27, 2008
17 comments

I personally prefer the current incarnation of the circular logo featuring a closeup shot of the double tailed siren (sans breasts and navel). We shall see if, when and how the Starbucks logo continues to evolve over time.

clipped from brandautopsy.typepad.com

The Deadprogrammer's Cafe Blog did some expert sleuthing to show the evolution of the Starbucks logo from the old school brown Nordic-inspired woodcut to the slicker, more contemporary logo we know today.

However, this logo evolution story failed to highlight the significant role the Il Giornale logo played in the evolution of the Starbucks logo.

Il Giornarle was the espresso café Howard Schultz opened up in 1986 after failing to convince the original owners of Starbucks to focus on serving espresso beverages. By 1987, the two remaining original owners of Starbucks decided to sell the business and Howard jumped at the chance to buy Starbucks and remake it into the espresso bar concept he had just begun at Il Giornale.

clipped from www.deadprogrammer.com

two-tailed mermaid sometimes called a Melusine

clipped from brandautopsy.typepad.com

clipped from www.deadprogrammer.com

The brown Siren logo can still be found on merchandize sold at the original Pike Place Market Starbucks in Seattle. The logo is altered though - instead of a "cigar band" design it uses just a circle logo.

Etymology of Dord - a Ghost Word

Jan 14, 2008
2 comments

This is amusing and very believable. I wonder how often this has occurred throughout the publication of printed dictionaries.

clipped from www.snopes.com

For five years, Webster's New International Dictionary mistakenly included an entry for dord, a word which did not exist.

dord was truly a ghost word

no etymology or example of use

abbreviations were supposed to be collected in a separate section at the back of the dictionary. In 1931, a card had been prepared bearing the notation "D or d, cont/ density" to indicate that the next edition of the dictionary should include additional definitions for D and d as abbreviations of the word density. Somehow the card became misdirected during the editorial process and landed in the "words" pile rather than the "abbreviations" pile. The "D or d" notation ended up being set as the single word dord, a synonym for density.

The ghost word was banished from Webster's with hardly anyone's having noticed its presence, but it continued to rematerialize in the dictionaries of careless compilers for years afterwards.