Everybody has certain expressions that make them cringe. I probably have a few, but the one on my mind lately is “Brand Recognition.” I can’t decide if it’s marketing nonsense or corporate nonsense, but to my dismay, I have come to realize there are a few brands out there that seem to have more “recognition” than others. I learned this a long time ago. I had a friend who told me he was going to savin (can’t be capitalized because I didn’t know it was a “proper name” at the time of the story) repair school. I asked what that was. He said a school to fix a savin machine. I told him I understood the repair and school part, but what was a savin? He said it was a copy machine. I said how is that different a xerox machine? You must sense by now that I ask a lot of questions, so my friends are usually very patient people. He went on to explain that it was like Coke and Pepsi, but they were different; Savin and Xerox were brand names. I might ask someone for a xerox, but what I am really asking someone for is a “ photocopy.” Xerox just happens to be the brand name of the machine. America uses many of these, and often, the name is still trademarked; Aspirin, Q-tips, Zipper, Dumpster, Popsicle, Super Glue, and Zamboni.

The state of Texas seems to have a strange variation on the brand game. If you go to lunch with a few people, the conversation goes like this; Waitress; “how all-yawl doing?” Before we can even get to the brand name story, you must know that “all-yawl” is plural for “yawl” which is an entirely different blog. Waitress; “what would you like to drink?” Customer; “I’ll have a Coke.” Waitress; “OK, what flavor?” Customer; “Root Beer.” Waitress; “OK”. Apparently, all carbonated drinks in Texas are Cokes. I guess in Texas the wait staff doesn’t give you that exasperated look and say “Is Pepsi OK? Then you say “sure…….I’ll have an ice tea!”

Today’s blog is “brought to you” by the letter X, so I want to leave you a few quick notes about X……….

1. The stock exchange ticker symbol for United States Steel Corporation is; X……that’s all.
2. X was a rock n’ roll band out of Los Angeles. They had a song called “Fourth of July” which I will leave you a clip for. One of the great lines in the lyrics is “she gives me her cheek, when I want her lips, oh but I don’t have the strength to go.” One of the founders of X was a man named John Doe. He also happened to play Liz Parker’s father Jeff on the TV series Roswell which I never “discovered” until it was long gone off the air, but…..what a GREAT show it was!