Hotel Retreat, Day 5

This is a diorama I assembled out of the pinecone I picked up the other day, the contents of my DayQuil/NyQuil LiquiCaps Combo Pack, and the green scrubby mitts I got at the Korean spa.  It reminds me of the corporate parks in Culver City, tall trees, majestic office buildings, and manicured lawns.  Yes, I have a cold.  I enacted my typical trajectory with it, in that yesterday I went to Whole Foods and got all this natural immune support stuff that never works, and now that I'm sneezing and snot is dripping all over the place I went to the drug store and got poisonous symptom suppressors.  Haven't taken any yet, as I want to get a bit more work done before I fog my brain with a NyQuil.  One of my colleagues got excited when he heard I had a cold.  "Get NyQuil," he exclaimed in an Australian accent. "I love NyQuil, you take it and you pass out and you sleep for hours."  I guess I am looking forward to that.

On Wednesday I'm teaching a two hour seminar on brand names in contemporary writing.  The research has been entertaining.  I've found out wondrous things, such as:  In 1955, when Ford Motor Company was developing the a new car, David Wallace, manager of marketing research, asked poet Marianne Moore for suggestions on what to name it.  Car names Marianne Moore came up with included "Resilient Bullet", "Ford Silver Sword", "Mongoose Civique", "Varsity Stroke", "Pastelogram", "Turcotinga", "Andante con Moto," and "Utopian Turtletop."  Edsel, which they chose, wasn't on her list.

I think I'll name by diorama "NyQuil Towers."