The Pet Rock

[DW Simpson]

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-gmhTo...EmXW5fMf?p=113

For those of you that missed the cheap gift nostalgia epidemic of 1975 here is a little lesson in history about the Pet Rock.

The brilliant mind behind this moronic craze is Gary Dahl. Gary was a California based advertising executive. Gary conceived the idea for the Pet Rock one evening in 1975 while sitting around at a bar with his drinking buddies talking about the hassles of owning a pet and jokingly proposing rocks as the perfect low maintenance pet to own. Still amused about the idea the next morning, Gary decided to create a prototype, complete with carrying case and a Pet Rock Training Manual.

In August of that year, he took the kit with him to the annual gift show (then in New York City), where Neiman Marcus immediately snatched up 500 of them. By the end of October, Dahl was shipping out 10,000 pet rocks a day. By the end of the 1975 Christmas season, he had used up several tons of stone from Rosarita Beach in Baja, Mexico, and had made a few million dollars.

So, when the Pet Rock fad had died down early in 1976, he had only man’s second best friend to keep him smiling – a stack of money.

I recently went to a lecture by a couple of internationally-known jazz trumpeters. One of them told a story about meeting Gary Dahl and asking him whether there's one secret to success. Dahl said there is. He said, "Don't ever stop drinking. And when you do drink, make sure a notepad is nearby to write down your thoughts. Then act on those thoughts."

So there you have it, the secret to success.

[SirVLCIV]

Originally Posted by D.W. Simpson Webmaster

I recently went to a lecture by a couple of internationally-known jazz trumpeters. One of them told a story about meeting Gary Dahl and asking him whether there's one secret to success. Dahl said there is. He said, "Don't ever stop drinking. And when you do drink, make sure a notepad is nearby to write down your thoughts. Then act on those thoughts."

So there you have it, the secret to success.

I've heard the same thing about art and writing.

I wish I could remember the anecdote more clearly, but there was an artist who would lay in his chair with his keys in hand, and when he crashed, he'd drop the keys into a pan, which would wake him up, and all of those bizarre just-before-falling-asleep thoughts would still be clear in his mind.

[fantonim]

Originally Posted by SirVLCIV

I've heard the same thing about art and writing.

I wish I could remember the anecdote more clearly, but there was an artist who would lay in his chair with his keys in hand, and when he crashed, he'd drop the keys into a pan, which would wake him up, and all of those bizarre just-before-falling-asleep thoughts would still be clear in his mind.

That is not an anecdote - that was Salvador Dali

[SirVLCIV]

Originally Posted by fantonim

That is not an anecdote - that was Salvador Dali

Well, it's an anecdote -about- Dali then - I didn't recall who it was, just having heard the story. Mind giving me a link?

[JMO]

According to a book at home, Dali (in translation, I assume) explained:
The difference between a madman and Dali is that Dali is not mad.

[careerchanger]

#3 -- http://web.doverpublications.com/cgi....pl/0486271323

and http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/ra.../00059028.html

Surrealist cultivation of dreams found its ultimate expression with Salvador Dali. In a delightfully eccentric volume, Fifty Secrets of Master Craftsmanship, Dali dispensed advice to aspiring artists. His wisdom ranged from mundane recommendations on brush types to frequency of sexual activity (advocating celibacy while awaiting inspiration but intercourse at least daily once painting -- a formula B. F. Skinner would have admired). Dali claimed that the greatest potential inspiration lay in the dream.

"What you prevent yourself from doing and force yourself not to do, the dream will do with all the lucidity of desire," he advised. Dali focused first on the vivid dreams that seize us just as we're beginning to fall asleep, or what psychologists call "hypnagogic imagery," with his technique of "slumber with a key." His tone was whimsical, but his intent serious as he instructed novices to sit in a comfortable armchair, "preferably Spanish":

In this posture, you must hold a heavy key which you keep suspended, delicately pressed between the extremities of the thumb and forefinger of your left hand. Under the key you will previously have placed a plate upside down on the floor. Having made these preparations, you will have merely to let yourself be progressively invaded by a serene afternoon sleep, like the spiritual drop of anisette of your soul rising in the cube of sugar of your body. The moment the key drops from your fingers, you may be sure that the noise of its fall on the upside-down plate will awaken you. . . .

[Old Actuary]

It took a lot of training, but I was able to get my pet rock to play dead.

[dec0y]

Originally Posted by Old Actuary

It took a lot of training, but I was able to get my pet rock to play dead.

That's funny because I was able to get mine to play alive.

[JMO]

I released my pet rock into the wild.

[SirVLCIV]

Originally Posted by careerchanger

#3 -- http://web.doverpublications.com/cgi....pl/0486271323

and http://www.loc.gov/catdir/samples/ra.../00059028.html

Awesome - thanks!