Consumer Electronics Show 2012 Date: Jan 22, 2012 Number of Photos in Album: 6 View Album

from Sage Lewis’s Photo Gallery https://picasaweb.google.com/116437168519004876189/CES2012 https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FXIr52Zq0rw/TxwsBXNMOME/AAAAAAAAgxY/u9bmg2aoElg/s160-c/CES2012.jpg

As I sit around on January 1 appreciating all that I (we) have, I stopped over at Wikipedia to bask in its glow endless information that sits on my dining room table.

I thought I’d learn a little about social security (a system, btw, I totally support and believe will always be around (I just think we’ll be older before we get it (I’m thinking I’ll be 75 before I get it.))).

I learned two interesting things. 

First:

By dollars paid, the U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world and the single greatest expenditure in the federal budget, with 20.8% for social security, compared to 20.5% for discretionary defense and 20.1% for Medicare/Medicaid.

That makes me appreciate, a bit, the Republican stance of social programs. Almost 41% of all our U.S. money goes to helping those in need. That’s impressive, if you ask me. 

America often comes across as cold and uncaring. But clearly we care a pretty great deal. 41% seems like a generous percentage for social security and Medicare.

I’ve never asked, “What percentage should it be?”

If I was designing the system I probably would think I was making a pretty impressive system if our country gave 41% of revenue to those in need. 

What percentage do you think it should be?

So that was cool to think about.

Second, check this:

Social Security (United States) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The first monthly payment was issued on January 31, 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. In 1937, 1938 and 1939 she paid a total of $24.75 into the Social Security System. Her first check was for $22.54. After her second check, Fuller already had received more than she contributed over the three-year period. She lived to be 100 and collected a total of $22,888.92.

This strikes me as a symbolic story of difficult things to come. If the very first person got thousands and thousands more than she put in it stands to reason we might have been entering a system that would be difficult to sustain.

We actually have probably done pretty darn well with the system we have.

I really just think it’s hard to run a country.

I actually think Santa paid more for them because they where significantly more expensive at the school store. ($36 is the number that I think I heard tossed around.)

Who would pay even $21 for 16 crayons? Especially since you can get 64 crayons at Amazon for $6.36 here:

Amazon.com: Crayola 64 Ct Crayons: Toys & Games

Maybe it’s because of where they are manufactured. Maybe those lousy, no good Crayola people have outsourced yet another perfectly good American job to some third world country, just so I can get a cheap crayon.

According to Wikipedia

Crayola has manufacturing plants in Forks Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Mexico City, Mexico.

So at least some of their crayons are probably made right here in the U.S.A. All of them are made in North America.

The $21 crayons aren’t made here. In fact, I can’t tell where the hell they are made. I think it’s German on the box. I can’t read a word of it.

Maybe they color like silk with strikingly brilliant colors. Nope. Pretty much exactly like Crayola.

What they are is beautiful.

Stockmar Beeswax Block Crayons are beeswax, rectangular crayons that come in a beautiful tin box. They look like art supplies for a professional artist.

They have no paper wrapper. They are just beautiful, pure crayons.

They are an experience.

You have to open the metal box by holding the base with your thumb and middle finger as you carefully swing up the hinged top with your other hand. The box requires you to open the crayons like unveiling something special.

I’m too lazy to get out a ruler but each crayon appears to be the exact dimension of the golden rectangle:

Everything about these crayons is done with love and careful, careful attention to detail.

The end result is a box of 16 crayons for somewhere between $21 – $36.

Now, I guarantee Stockmar is not anywhere near the ballpark of doing the kind of business Crayola is doing. But I would not be surprised to learn that they are doing quite well in their own right. Why compete with Crayola? Your chances of winning are slim to none. These people realized they weren’t in the crayon business. They are in the beautiful world of a child’s creative mind. Crayola is in the crayon business.

I don’t want to lessen the beauty of these crayons, or any special product. But I think it’s important to call it what it is: It’s marketing.

Sure. They love their crayons. There is love all over them.

But the precision of how everything is laid out is no random act. This was done to stand out and be unique. It was a masterful plan of marketing.

Marketing was built into the crayon itself.

So often we bolt our marketing on to our product after the fact. The best marketing is baked right in.

This is actually both Thanksgiving and Christmas Date: Dec 26, 2011 Number of Photos in Album: 25 View Album

from Sage Lewis’s Photo Gallery https://picasaweb.google.com/116437168519004876189/Christmas2011 https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-9lmBnM_gLNo/Tvk1npHRw7E/AAAAAAAAgAY/g3QA-ELW3JI/s160-c/Christmas2011.jpg

Date: Dec 5, 2011 Number of Photos in Album: 1 View Album

from Sage Lewis’s Photo Gallery https://picasaweb.google.com/116437168519004876189/20111205 https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-MqFy_hlum_c/TtzZ6OLlOGE/AAAAAAAAf8U/gQSCIqSxF9M/s160-c/20111205.jpg

This is Rocky’s Birthday, Indy’s Birthday and Halloween Date: Nov 24, 2011 Number of Photos in Album: 18 View Album

from Sage Lewis’s Photo Gallery https://picasaweb.google.com/116437168519004876189/OctoberAndEarlyNovember2011 https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-HKcmfjGM9PY/Ts5hbGU3tkE/AAAAAAAAfnY/NeIkESRLXRs/s160-c/OctoberAndEarlyNovember2011.jpg