crocs story from zach and wisdom teeth

Hi everyone.

I got my wisdom teeth out this morning. It was interesting! I spent most of my morning pretty drugged up. Want to see the text messages I sent Kate right after the surgery? Yes you do!

"Done. I was axxajjk tge whole tgme."

"Iwedfeel weaqp. Gt 's so"

"My mouth is edul ofblood. I feddl good. I takej to everybeey."

I have absolutely no idea what the second text message means. Not a single clue. Anyway, I'm no longer drugged out of my mind, because they didn't give me a prescription for the good stuff, just ibuprofen. Lame. Although it does make the spaces where teeth used to be less painful. For this, I am thankful.

Zach sent in a crocs story for us! Check it out:

So, I am heading south on New Ballas Road, trying to make a left onto Ladue. I am first in a left-turning red light. It is 2:30pm on a Tuesday, and I am waiting for this light to turn green, so I can get to the office. I hate waiting. All Israelis...Boom...do. What the heck was that? I hear a noise, a bang, and am quite shaken. Could someone just hit me from behind? Shit... I go out of the car, and a guy walks out of his car. He is in his mid-forties, greyish hair, sloppy dress, total mess in his 2-door silver Mercedes. Several large cups of Lion's Den (or whatever that fast food chain is called) are sitting in the passenger seat on a pile of lots and lots of paper. I wonder what is in these cups...

The guy apologizes for hitting me. Apparently, this is a new car, and he says that he is not used to the breaks. The Green crocs he is so proudly wearing, i think to myself, do not press the pedal well. I truly feel bad for him. I ask him to pull aside into a driveway on Ladue so we can talk this out. We get there and I look down to check my bumper. Despite the flashes from his lime-green crocs I see that my bumper is cracked. He, again, apologizes. He tells me his name and asks me that we settle it without involving the insurance company.

"You have kids?" he asks.
"No, I do not.".
"My four-year-old took my wallet. You know, they do these things when they are that age."

I recall all the wallets I took from my parents when I was four. Those were some days. My brother used to do that when he was a kid, too.

"Anyway, I do not have my license or my insurance information. I am willing to pay you $100 for the damages right now."
"$100 is not going to cover this damage." I immediately reply.

This is definitely one of those what-to-do moments. My students are familiar with those, in a different context of course.

"You know, the dealer is just up the street. Let's go there and get an estimate for the damage." I reply.
"Well, I have a meeting at 3pm. I'd hate to miss it." he says.
"You will have to miss it, man, I have some meetings myself, and it does not look i will make them either."

So, he agrees, shakes my hand, telling me how great I am. How the heck did he figure it out, I ponder.

Off we go. I take a quick glance at his license plate, get into my car, and write it down. Two minutes later, we are approaching the dealership. He is behind me, and I am watching so that he will not bump into me again. I signal to make a left into the dealership. And....off he goes, turning to the right lane, and getting away!!!! Wow, now i gotta think fast. I immediately think that you do not mess with the Zohan.

So, I switch to the right lane, carefully, making sure I do not hit the other cars. It is quite heavy traffic and I see him turning right onto Olive. I am after him, dialing 911 on my cell phone. Luckily, I have a blue-tooth enabled phone. Gosh, I love gadgets. My Garmin GPS is not yet working. It is sitting in its box in the trunk, unopened, as I have just received it the day before, but did not have time to activate yet.

The runaway man presses his lime-green-croced foot onto the pedal and drives away. "I am in a chase, yay!", I think. But immediately have to calm myself and think what to do next.

"Creve Coeur Poilce Department. If you are in a car chase after a green- croced-man, do not press anything, just speak"
"Hi, I am on Olive, driving east, and I am chasing a car that hit me earlier and is now running away. His license plate is YYY-111" (Unfortunately, I cannot reveal this information)"
"Ok, stay calm, I am on the case. What is the cross-street?"
"Craig Road"
"OK, stay behind..."
"He is turning right on Graeser. I am behind him"
"Ok. it looks like he is going home. Park your car and wait for the officers to get there"

I do as I am told. In the meantime, I lose him. Two minutes later, the officers get there. 3 cars. One of them stays with me. The other two, I assume, go to look for the green-croced man. I tell my officer the entire story, and about 10 minutes later he says:
"They have the guy. They want you to join me in my car and do a drive-by so that you could identify the person."

Wow, me in a police car. That is a first.

"Sure, I will join you."

I have to sit in the back, because a police volunteer is sitting in the front. "Buckle up."
"Oh, right.."
So, I am in a police car now, heading south.

"So, what were some distinctive features of the person?" The officer asks.
"He was white, mid-forties, grey hair, little belly, and he had neon-green crocs on."

The car is turning right. It is a well-to-do subdivision, full of trees. And there is an aurora in the horizon. A green shade lights up the sky. Two police cars are parked in the distance. It seems that the green shade is emanating from the ground, the driveway. Oh, right. It is the green crocs, and there is that man in them!!! He is trying to walk straight to the orders of the officer who is standing next to him. He is very shaking, poor guy. I did not know that the material from this gross plastic can quickly impact one's mental demeanor.

"That's him" I tell the officer.
"How do you know?"
"Well, can't you see? the green Aurora...the little smiling alligator, that annoying two-position buckle that you can place either to the front of your foot or pressed against the back of it? That's him!!!"

"We have a positive ID." The officer says in the walkie-talkie to the other officer.
"The green crocs?" The other officer replies.
"Oh, yeah, they did another one in".

There you have it.

back from new york

OK, so I've been back from New York for AWHILE. I just haven't updated. So, New York was awesome and my visit to the Mad Magazine offices were a dream come true, since I've been wanting to visit those offices since I was a kid. I've been reading Mad Magazine since my mother would let me. And to be shown around by Dick DeBartolo, a living legend, was just amazing. But you probably don't care about that! If you do, there are pictures of my trip at my personal journal, HERE.

Anyway, what is new in the world of Crocs? Well, we've got this story that Coral emailed us. Check it out.

(Email removed by request)

Thanks for writing, Coral.

The European Championship is going on! GO ITALY.

out of office autoreply

I'm off to New York, everybody. Heading off to the airport in a couple hours. Hold down the fort, OK? Don't burn the carpet.

people who enjoy crocs are perplexing

Hey guys,

I'm heading to New York in five days, which should be fun. In addition to the usual touristy things, I'm going to visit the Mad Magazine offices. I'm pretty pleased about that. Anyway, I recently received a strange email. The perplexing email is from a man named Michael Peacock, which is a pretty sweet name.

I absolutely love what you are doing for Crocs wearers everywhere. I hate following trends and, although I don't go out of my way to be "counterculture", when I like something it is disappointing to find that everyone else is doing it. I must, therefore, extend my deepest gratitude to you for discouraging the masses who cannot think for themselves from wearing my favorite shoes. I happen to love them; the uglier the better. They're more comfortable than Birkenstocks and a third the price. What do they look good with? Absolutely nothing, so I never have to worry about whether my shoes go with my outfit. The charms thing? It's just so lame I love it. And now I don't have to worry about anyone thinking I'm gay, because if I was I would never be seen wearing something so atrocious.

So keep up the good work! And if you have lots of extra time on your hands (and clearly you do) maybe you should start a website about how lame mutton-chop sideburns are. That used to be my thing, and now everyone else is doing it.

You're welcome, Michael Peacock. Keep up the good work. Very perplexing.

Anyway, that's all for now.

See you in New York.

***

You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.

drip drip drop little april showers

From The Financial Post:

Crocs aren't hip anymore - news that may make you ecstatic or depressed, depending on your fashion sense - and workers at a Quebec City factory are paying the price.

The namesake shoe of Colorado-based Crocs Inc. isn't bringing in the same rush of people as in their peak in 2004, forcing the company to ship its Canadian manufacturing south to Mexico after less than six years in operation, putting more than 600 employees out of work.

It only took two years for the company to go from the largest footwear IPO in history to back-of-the-closet obscurity.

"Crocs bites the dust," Robert Samuels, an analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., said in a note.

Crocs CEO Ron Snyder blames the slowdown in demand on poor Croc-wearing weather and a dismal retail climate, but the more obvious answer, as with any of-the-moment trend, is that people are shunning the shoes many feel are just plain ugly.

"The brand's popularity is in sharp decline, and it is tough to argue otherwise," Mr. Samuels wrote.

It begins. It took a bit longer than we'd expected, but it is happening, inevitably. The full story is HERE.

The seasons are changing here in good ole Halifax. It has been quite warm the past few days, which I rather enjoy. I went to the mall today and saw an old lady wearing one sneaker and one yellow Croc. It struck me as strange. Very unusual. Typically, people wear shoes that match. Perhaps it is this summer's new trend?

In any case, the company that produces our t-shirts, Spreadshirt is running a promotion for springtime! For this weekend only, if you live in the States and you're ordering something from our store, you can get free shipping by entering the coupon code 'SPRINGFREE' when you're checking out. If you're Canadian (like me), you can enter the coupon code 'CADSPRINGFREE' and get five dollars off your shipping. Not a bad deal, especially if you were planning on ordering something anyway. You can get to the shop by clicking HERE.

april brings the crocs out

I forgot to mention in the last post, but we were mentioned on Norwegian TV during some kind of Crocs debate. Thanks to everyone that wrote in to let us know!

I realize I haven't been posting that much lately, but I have a couple reasons for this! Firstly, here in Canada, it has just stopped being winter. Thankfully, Crocs tend to hibernate during the winter. Except for the especially stupid Crocs, but what can you do, right? My second reason for posting only about once a month is that second year journalism is insane. The amount of work in Radio Broadcasting and Reporting Techniques is quite huge, let me tell you. And of course, I have a great many other classes.

Anyway, look! This is the second post I've written for April! And they're so close to each other! Incredible! This is because I am very close to being done school. I've just got two more days of classes and then a couple exams. And then I'm done! Joyous.

And it is my birthday on the 9th! Hooray.

Here's an email we got:

I thought you guys might appreciate this video.

http://www.ourstage.com/video/channel/66-cmf/RZSAPPULOVNR-crocs-pit-of-despair

If you guys enjoy it, I would appreciate it if you could post the link on your site!

Thanks,

Kevin Franklin

The video is pretty funny. Alright, have a good one guys.

vincenzo's shoes

Hi everyone!

As promised, I bring to you pictures of my shoes. Now, the first couple are old shoes and, naturally, they are a bit beat up. I don't wear them that much anymore because... well, they're beat up. The last two, I wear more often. They're newer and less beat up. There you have it.









Alright. There you go. My shoes. What do you think? Am I the person who ought to be ashamed? How dare I make fun of people in Crocs when I'm wearing these monstrosities? Is that the consensus? I don't know! This is the first time I've given you ammo. Well, there you go. Have fun.

Also, if you've ever wondered what's inside my wallet, BOY HAVE I GOT A WEBSITE FOR YOU. Yes, www.WalletMuseum.com is the home of the Wallet Museum, which is usually located in my back pocket and contains an abundance of flat or mostly flat objects. When my wallet gets too thick, the objects get moved to a box in my closet. As such, I've been collecting flat or mostly flat objects for several years now. I decided to begin the rather daunting task of converting the various pieces in the museum over to a digital format. CLICK HERE to check it out.