Today I’m writing, on request, about the long and illustrious history of spoons. To clear things up, spoons are distinctly different from shovels, which are larger and used to move dirt and debris short distances. People use spoons to shovel food into their mouths.


No one knows who invented the spoon, since they’ve been around since the Paleolithic era. I think we can assume that a Paleolithic cave lady, tired of having berry stains on her hands, created the first spoon.

The word spoon was derived from the Greek and Latin term for a spiral snail shell; so most ancient spoons were scoops full of snail guts. During the 1st Century, Romans classed-up spoons by adding a handle, creating the spoon form that lives on today.

Only rich people could afford spoons up until the 14th Century, which brought about the saying, “Born with a spoon in his mouth.” This was later replaced by the saying, “Born with a silver spoon in his mouth,” when the use of pewter made cheap spoons available to the masses.

Spoons have not always been used for good. From the 1890s to the 1920s the
Silver Souvenir Spoon company produced a line of stereotyped and, in some cases, racist spoons. These spoons underwent diversity training and now they’re much more sensitive to today’s multicultural environment.

Modern spoons come in dozens of forms, such as tea, iced tea, soup, table, dessert, grapefruit, caviar, slotted, and absinthe. The world’s largest spoon is located in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden in Minnesota. This massive spoon is 52 feet long and it’s used as a bridge across a small pond. The whimsical sculptors Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen placed a giant cherry fountain on the tip of the spoon.

From its grubby beginnings as a crusty snail shell to the glamor of caviar and absinthe, the spoon has made an impact on all of our lives. If you’re ever in doubt, try to eat your soup with a knife.

“Only the spoon knows what is stirring in the pot.” - Italian Proverb

David Lynch’s works are intense masterpieces. They are optical illusions that loose their shape if you stare at them too long.

Mulholland Drive is about a young lady whose promising career as a jitterbug dancer fails to propel her to Hollywood stardom. She’s a wreaked shell of a starlet, but she dreams a pretty dream that makes up the bulk of the film.

 Inland Empire has a much fuzzier plot, but it revolves around an out-of-work and aging actress who secures a role in a film about infidelity. She’s absorbed by her role as both her and the audience lose touch with what’s real and what’s part of her film.

Both of these movies comment on the harshness of Hollywood, with particular jabs at the industry’s treatment of women. The message and the labyrinthine plots are secondary to the delivery. Lynch’s vignettes swing from ethereal to spooky, digging at the intellect with dream logic.

Lynch tells his stories to the subconscious mind and is unapologetic when reasoning fails. He’s film’s abstract artist.

Social media often reduces everything to a few words or a single image.  Ideas, products, and even the vast, mostly unchartered terrain of someone’s personality, becomes so condensed that it disappears almost entirely under the weight of the 50-character blurb.

For my clients, I’ve become an expert at reducing products and ideas down to New Media digestible bites that still retain the original essence. But, I’m not sure that’s the right choice for whole people. People are not bite-sized - although some are delicious.

When someone can post “?” on Twitter and receive dozens of responses, we’ve reached endgame with how small we can cut language and retain coherence. I’m doing my part to bring back the long and messy tradition of extended personal expression. I hope you enjoy my blog.

    With its realistic violence and cringe-inducing themes, the South Koren revenge film "Old Boy" isn't for sissies. Drunken cad, Oh Dae-Su is kidnapped and locked up for 15 years. He's drugged throughout his captivity, and the audience is privy to his vivid hallucinations.

    When he's set free, Oh Dae-Su swears revenge on his captor, soon discovering that he's the victim of a man named Woo-jin's own monstrous revenge plot. I can't tell you why this movie is so sick without ruining one of the twists, but I promise that you will gasp and/or hold your hand over your mouth at least once during the film.

    This Cannes Film Grand Prix winner is loosely based on a manga, and I could see the influence. In one scene, Dae-Su uses his hammer to beat down about 20 thugs in a narrow ally. This super-human feet is shown so hyper real, that it's actually believable. "Old Boy" swings from these instances of urgent brutality to dizzy, point-of-view trances, keeping you guessing  all the way to it's queasy culmination.

    I live in Upstate New York, so there aren't a lot of Chick-Fil As around. I've never even eaten at one, but I know all about them because of this week's media blitz.

    I'm pro gay marriage and gayness in general, but I do think that Chick-Fil A CEO Dan Cathy can say whatever he wants. And, no one should be be surprised that an uber-religious company donates to questionable, conservative causes.

    The mayor of Boston (Thomas Menino) went too far. If we want free speech we're going have to protect opinions that we don't like. The government should stay out of it whenever possible.

    The general population and government officials can also stand up and say that they don't like someone's opinion without it becoming a free speech issue. Dan Cathy doesn't support gay marriage - so people don't support Chick Fil A - both are valid.

    It’s unfortunate that Menino actually harmed his cause through his actions. Now, all the bigots are rallying for Chic-Fil A under the guise of free speech. I'm not saying that everyone supporting Chick-Fil A is a bigot, I understand that a lot of folks are just standing up for freedom of speech, but there's a lot of hate involved as well. If Menino just stated his opinion instead of promising government intervention, the gay haters would have no leg to stand on.

    On a related note - Dan Cathy wants to deny gays their rights, I wonder how he feels to be on the other end of the deal. Discrimination sucks for everyone. Imagine Cathy stood up and said that he was against civil rights for other minorities, like women, the disabled, or African Americans. The backlash would have been way worse and that’s still free speech.