An Ad with Unexpected Attachment

I just saw an ad for the Chevrolet Traverse that deeply disturbed me. I know it won’t disturb many people. But I know it will bother some. It may make some cry. It came very close to making me cry.

The ad features a downpour of shoes. What could possibly be upsetting about that?

After 9/11, a friend of mine went with his friend to the friend’s company, a paper supplier that had offices across from the World Trade Center. The paper guy had been given the opportunity to go to his offices for just a few hours to remove company records. My friend went with him.

When they got into the offices, the windows were all broken out, and the offices were covered in the fine gray dust we all remember from the collapse of the towers. And in the dust, on the windowsills and on the desks, and on the floor were shoes. Dust and shoes were all that was left of the towers.

So I suppose that now, every time I see a Chevy Traverse, I’ll think of the shoes in the paper company office. All that was left of the victims of 9/11. Probably not what Chevy was going for.

Donor’s Choose

There’s a wonderful blogger out there, Sars of Tomato Nation, who has been doing the Donor’s Choose blogger’s challenge for a number of years. I’ve seen her with a shaved head. And I’ve seen the very cute video of her dancing in a tomato costume at Rockefeller Center. And why would she do that? She does it because her great big heart makes her promise her readers amusing stunts in return for generosity. And it works. Imagine if you could ask you friends to donate to charity and it resulted in more than $100,000 going to classrooms across America.

Well, she does, and it does.

So, join her (and me) by going to Donor’s Choose and help Sars justify a trip to the White House, as a tomato.