Happy St. Patrick’s Day . May your island be free of snakes. Here’s a creepy-looking leprechaun little person to supplement your drinking excess…

Full name: Nayla Luna Millin.

I don’t know if my wife will approve, but I’m sticking with it until I am “forced” to change it. Nayla was her given name, she’s mostly Akita, and has a wonderful temperament.

I got her from late-night Mountain listener and family friend, the Northern Wizard, who needed to find an adoptive family A.S.A.P. due to a not-so-happy landlord.

Now Nayla is our family pet and seems pretty happy about it too.

I am a fairly avid homebrewer. I make no secret about the fact that one day, I’d love to have a little pub or brewery (or both), crafting fine pints of beer.

A friend of mine - the eternally-affable, pint-quaffing, fish & chips eating limey Alex Purkiss - has become a rather vocal mouthpiece for my kitchen concoctions, and has gone ahead with designing a logo for one possible public release….

I’ll let you know how that goes. Perhaps you might find a beer in a bottle (or drawn from a tap) emblazoned with the following logo at some point in the future…  

The stick was recently inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame.

I didn’t even know there was a toy hall of fame, let alone that an ordinary stick would end up in it. Well, there is, and it’s in The  Strong National Museum of Play.

Chris Bensch is the rather excited fellow in the picture below, holding the stick. He is the museum Curator of Collections. His enthusiasm is understood, when you consider that his job is to collect toys and put them in a museum. What kid wouldn’t want that job??? It reminds me of the movie Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium…

This induction business reminded me of some of my favorite things to play with as a young lad… The trusty rock - for skipping, fer example…..

Other favorites from my childhood that were ordinary objects turned into toys that I nominate for entry into the toy h.o.f……

-The cardboard box, which became the spaceship, race car, secret hideout, and when flattened - the perfect grass sled!!

-lawn furniture - especially the folding lawn chair… When placed on their side, and used in conjunction with other side-situated lawn chairs, one had a house of sorts…

-the cigarette lighter in my dad’s County Squire station wagon. great amusement pushing it in and watching it pop out while waiting for the folks to finish up their shopping…

-A table vice: For holding Estes model rocket engines so they could be hacksawed in half, their contents dumped into an ashtray and…

…Never mind. I did some DUMB things as a kid. Amazing I ever made it outta childhood.  

I’m no fashionista. I wear socks with sandals some of the time, and I think every man, woman and child should have a black turtleneck in their wardrobe, so take any insights I provide here with that in mind.

Fashion Czar Pierre Cardin showcased his fall 2008 through spring 2009 clothing lines recently and I had to comment on one garment in particular… No, I’m not a dedicated follower of fashion (thank you Ray Davies), I just happened to be caught in a moment of morbid fascination with this coat-thing, which frankly isn’t very fashion-forward at all, unless you intend to make your models and potential customers look like a bottom-feeding flatfish:

I personally think that if a garment makes you look like a fish, DO NOT - under any circumstances - wear it, UNLESS it’s Halloween!

(*Note that the fish and the model have nearly identical expressions…)

I’ll bet the coat probably retails for as much as a small condo in LoDo. Sheesh…

Somebody figured out a long time ago that if you want people to like something, attach a cute kid to it and it’ll sell. This works for politicians and laundry detergent, but might not work so well with other things, like vodka or cigarettes. When it comes to marketing a radio station, put a kid in some element, and BAM: You’ve got a winner… First, you start with a bike jersey. This one is from the Bob Cook Memorial Hill Climb at Mt. Evans back in July. It’s a pretty sharp bike jersey emblazoned with the logos of many participating sponsors, including The Mountain… The shirt itself is great, but it’s just a cool bike jersey. Lookee….

Sweet, huh? Then, you put my cherub into it, add a pair of ruby-red slippers (that glitter, by the way) and the shirt becomes “fabulous”!!