Double take

Just in case you all thought the art department was slacking. . . well, that's still the case. .  .this is from one of the owners who caught this snap a few years back. Yes, we are going through the archives.

Staff picture time. . .

Yep, it's that time of year when we all get together (with serious grumping and groaning) to update pictures on the Web site.

Here's a shot of everyone that works at Tree Houses. This, of course, will be followed by more pictures as the art department wanted to make sure there were plenty to choose from.

Judging on the various facial expressions in the other pictures, that was an excellent call.

Moon River. . .

Of course, is one of the songs that Mercer wrote; made famous by Andy Williams and others. Mercer did write the song about a river (it would be more like a slough where the editorial department grew up) though it was not called the Moon River. (Apologies, we can't remember the original name of the river).

For some reason, the name of the song was already copyrighted, so Mercer changed it to Moon River ("Wider than a mile," etc.).

That river is still near Savannah, though it was only changed to Moon River after Mercer's death, to honor the lyricist.

Lest you think. . .

That we were ghouls on our trip to Savannah and visiting Johnny Mercer's plot, this is what Wikipedia has to say about the famed scribe:

He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others. From the mid-1930s through the mid-1950s, many of the songs Mercer wrote and performed were among the most popular hits of the time. He wrote the lyrics to more than fifteen hundred songs, including compositions for movies and Broadway shows. He received nineteen Academy Award nominations, and won four.

Still on vacation mode. . .

While in Savannah, we went to the Bonaventure Cemetery which is really pretty cool for a cemetery. Got to see Johnny Mercer and his family's plot (if you don't know who Johnny Mercer is, then you're really young -- even younger than the art and editorial department -- and haven't watched too many old movies.

Mercer did a lot of great, old songs that you probably don't even realize until you hear them. His family is still in Savannah and there is still plenty of room in the Mercer family plot for more.

Soccer fever--please let it end. . .

Ever since the U.S. beat Costa Rica in March in a CONCACAF match for the world cup in a snow-filled stadium in Colorado, the entire country of Costa Rica has been waiting for a rematch. The prevailing thought was that the U.S. cooked up the snowstorm that resulted in a 1-0 win for the U.S.

The rematch was last weekend and pretty much everything came to a standstill in the country. Schools let out a bit early (the pre-game analysis started about 8 hours before the match) and according to news reports, downtown San Jose near the stadium was completely closed off with 500 additional police officers around.

Costa Rica got its revenge, cruising to a 3-1 victory.

The three loyal readers of the blog do know that the editorial department considers soccer a poor substitute to American football, and all of the fields down here would be better put to use for baseball or grazing.

Back. . .

From a trip and took a while to get back into the groove. We were in Savannah, Ga., which is a fantastic place.

Lot of history there, though it was really put on the map by the book "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" which was a movie with Kevin Spacey and John Cusack. The book was better than the movie.

The house that we stayed in for the week is actually across the street from one of the most "haunted" houses in all of Georgia (and Savannah bills itself as a haunted city).

Savannah is also the hometown of Johnny Mercer, and we got to check out some of his old haunts, as well.