Tuesday, November 02, 1999
Bicycle decks mark milestones
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Wellsir, says the ace of spades, the first atom bomb sure was a major event in history. So was the Titanic — big swim,says the ace of diamonds. As was the assassination of President Kennedy, adds the ace of clubs.
Hmmm. Seems Norwood's U.S. Playing Card's Bicycle 2000 deck of cards recounts 40 historical milestones on aces, face cards and four jokers. It's a double deck in a sepia-toned tin with sepia-toned photographs of the events in question.
What does that have to do with “Eye?” Well, we started wondering who got to pick the events? No one asked us, and heaven knows we were there the day God made water.
“It was an informal in-house committee,” says Mike Fruhling, new business development manager. “We identified areas — culture, technology, inventions, entertainment — and listed events within the area.” Then there were the practical considerations: “We also made sure we selected events we had good images of to put on the cards.”
Which is why U.S. calls them “significant” events, not the events.
They cards are on sale now, Fruhling says, and business is as brisk as it is for U.S. Cards' two biggest sellers: NASCAR and Harley-Davidson.
HEARD AROUND TOWN: “Can anyone tell me, what in the name of God was that food?”
That from attorney Ed Donnellon last week at the Cincinnati Bar Association's annual Senior Counselors' Luncheon honoring attorneys with 50 years of service.
Donnellon, one of 21 honored at the Cincinnati Club, spoke for the group, keeping with the tradition that one talks, the others eat.
His question, opening line of his anecdotal speech, reflected one asked by dozens of blue-suited attorneys at tables all over the room. The food was some kind of shredded chicken (we think) and spinach (we think) in a puff pastry.
He got another laugh when he remembered general wisdom from his law school days: A students become judges, B students become teachers, C students make money. “That's not true. I was a judge.”
Reuven Katz — attorney for Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Bob Trumpy — got a Lifetime Achievement Award and applause aplenty when he suggested they change it to “A part-lifetime achievement award. I'm just not finished yet.”
Despite his lifetime achievement, there was no indication he figured out the food either.
BE HAPPY: Keeping up with old friends, we find Pam Johnson celebrating indoor plumbing.
Johnson is the Dallas woman who in July petitioned Gov. Bob Taft to proclaim Aug. 8 National Admit You're Happy Day. He declined but announced through press secretary Scott Milburn that, “as a policy, we're in favor of happiness here.”
She also asked Cincinnatians (and people in dozens of other cities) to write her, voting on the 100 Happiest Events, Inventions and Social Changes of the century.
Which they did, more than 10,000, voting on everything from home pizza delivery to mood rings.
The top 10 were more serious. Counting from No. 10: PCs; personal health products; e-mail; Internet; TV; washers and dryers; women voting; medical advances; air conditioning; and, yeah, indoor plumbing.
Especially in mid-February.
Knip's Eye View appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513; fax: 768-8330.
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