I have a special intention for the Christmas Novena, which begins today. Will you join in? Pray More Novenas has a handy site and will even send you emails, if that helps you remember to pray.
Now that I’ve been Catholic for ten years (ten years! ten years?), I find myself recognizing things, and it’s a great delight. I talk more about it, and tie it into Chesterton and the Blessed Mother, during my Mary Minute with Chesterton on the latest episode of Uncommon Sense.
This week, I finished Fatima for Today, by Fr. Andrew Apostoli. I had done quite a bit of research about Our Lady of Fatima previously for various writing I’ve done, but I hadn’t ever read a full-length book about her. This book made me want to read more. It also made me feel a personal call to Our Lady’s requests at Fatima: it made them real to me in a way that reading about the apparitions before hadn’t. Highly recommended!
In the “playing on Youtube for hours at a time” category, my husband introduced me to some commercials that made me go into Marketing Mode.
First, I found everything by this company.
Second, I watched a few of them over and over and over, laughing hysterically.
Third, I went to the company website and spent at least an hour (maybe more like two) tooling around.
Are you wondering what the company is? Duluth Trading.
I’ve seen their ads on the hunting programming my husband and his stepdad watch in my father-in-law’s basement, but it wasn’t until I spent all that time on Youtube, wiping tears from my eyes as I laughed and roared, that I really started investigating them.
Says my husband, who rarely laughs out loud at anything on TV but who starts positively giggling when I reference this or this in any fashion, the company got its start by inventing the little tool-thingy that contractors use in five gallon buckets. (More company lore, with pictures, here.)
Now, from what I can tell, they specialize in making high-quality and ingenious clothing. For example, their Longtail Ts have an extra three inches, so that when you bend over, there’s shirt to spare. And, get this, they make them for women, too! In pretty styles! (Or maybe I just need a new belt? I did order a pretty cool-looking belt from them, though I haven’t gotten it yet.)
I’m not getting anything from Duluth for posting all this about them. I’m just so stinkin’ amused and maybe impressed that I can’t help but go on and on and on.
So, here three of my favorites, though they require a two-fold warning. First, DO NOT drink while you watch these. Your computer may not appreciate the shower that may result if you have the same laughing response that I did. Second, you might want to watch them first before you let your young children watch them.
This is the video that got our evening of Duluth entertainment started:
This audio (though it’s a video, the image doesn’t change) is something I may end up memorizing from listening to it so often. It’s like that speech Chevy Chase gives in Christmas vacation (which I once found and printed and hung in my office, back in the days of working in marketing–and yes, there’s a language warning with that link).
And finally, here’s another radio ad promoting their Longtail Ts:
And, if you missed it, be sure to visit the Advent Wreath Carnival. I’ve had some late entries that I’ve posted at the end. I’ve gotten a lot of good ideas from next year and, even better, inspiration and encouragement to continue my Advent!
Here’s hoping you enjoy the rest of YOUR Advent! Have a great weekend!
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Here at Snoring Scholar, you'll find marriage and motherhood, book talk and rambling remarks, observations and distractions, in the midst of life in rural Ohio on a farm, with kids, critters, and Catholic flair.
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