Category: Other

Lottery Ticket Design Was Awesome Back In The Day!

1858-full-1 1858-half-1 1858-quarter-1By David G. Firestone

I’m gonna go off topic today. When I wrote about the Lottery Ball back in July, I mentioned that “The history of the lottery in the United States dates back to the 1600’s, while Europe was colonizing North America. Many colonies saw gambling as harmless fun, but as English investors waned to profit from the New World, this changed quickly. As time went on, each of the 13 original colonies had a lottery system in place to help fund the colonies. It became a civic duty to play the lottery. Recessions, scandals, and corruption had almost eliminated the lottery in the United States by 1868.”

How these lotteries worked was much the same way as today. Tickets were sold with official stamps and endorsements and the proceeds would go to a certain charity, or group that needed funding. These tickets could be very lucrative, as the prizes, when adjusted for inflation, were quite good. A perfect example are these three lottery tickets from the Maryland Consolidated Lotteries for the benefit of the Patapsco Female Institute which was in Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland. All three tickets are from December 6, 1858.

One ticket is for one quarter, another for one half and the third for a full ticket. If one of these tickets was a winner and the winning amount was $10,000($269,586.38), the full ticket would bring the whole amount. For the half ticket, the winner would get $5,000($134,793.19). The quarter ticket would bring $2,500($67396.60). Each ticket has a Maryland State revenue stamp on it (not an actual paper stamp, but ink stamped). The half ticket has a little dent on the right. All three are in excellent condition. Real treasures of Maryland history. Like most of the early lottery tickets from Maryland, they shows Baltimore on them.

Looking at the designs, you can’t help but be impressed with the design. These are from 1858, the designs look impressive, and are even more impressive considering how much work had to go into something that seems so mundane. Even the rubber stamp designs look good, considering the era. I can’t help but be awed by the amount of work that went into them.

This is the full ticket:1858-full-1 1858-full-1 - Copy (1) 1858-full-1 - Copy (2) 1858-full-1 - Copy (3) 1858-full-2This is the half ticket:1858-half-1 1858-half-1 - Copy (2) 1858-half-1 - Copy (3) 1858-half-1 - Copy 1858-half-2This is the quarter ticket:1858-quarter-1 1858-quarter-1 - Copy (2) 1858-quarter-1 - Copy (3) 1858-quarter-1 - Copy 1858-quarter-2

I love vintage design, not just in race cars, but in a lot of things. Money, baseball cards, sports tickets, book and magazine covers, and sports programs just don’t look as good as they did back in the day. That’s why I love good throwback scheme.

My Thoughts on Non Sensical Advertising

By David G. Firestone

Sunoco is the official fuel of NASCAR, IndyCar and the NHRA. They’ve started doing a series of commercials based of perfume commercials. The perfume is called “Burnt Rubber” with a bit of a French accent to it. The website, Essence of Racing shows commercials and quotes about Burnt Rubber.

It’s meant to be a joke, but can I ask a real question? Why are perfume and cologne commercials so messed up? Is there some law stating that perfume commercials need to have needless symbolism, and artsy camera angles? Take this example, from a Chanel commercial. What in the world does any of this have to do with cologne? One commercial that I have grown to loath is this White Diamonds ad that I must have seen a million times in the 1990’s. Watch both of them, and then ask yourself the following question: This makes me want to buy this perfume…WHY?

A commercial should tell you that is is our product, and this is why you should buy it. Why would Elizabeth Taylor walking into a high stakes card game in the 1950’s make me want to buy perfume? Why would a series of nonsensical, non-connected scenes make me want to buy cologne? Most importantly, why would you make a commercial where the actors AREN’T USING THE PRODUCT? At the very least, imply that your product is being used in the commercial! Watch the Liz Taylor commercial again, and tell me specifically, where it is implied that she, or anyone else in the commercial is using White Diamonds?

Could you imagine if other products were advertised like that? Imagine if you made a commercial for Coca Cola, Nike, McDonald’s, Ford, or PS4 and you don’t show the product, and don’t imply the product is being used? You would be fired, and laughed out of the industry! This hearkens back to BASF commercials, but more on that later.

I’m not sophisticated, I freely admit that. Anyone who wants to call me out by saying stuff like “you’re not sophisticated, you don’t understand…” can just shut it. I’m sick of nonsensical advertising for perfume. What scares me is that I’ve done focus groups for commercials, and every second of the 30 second commercial is studied, talked over, looked over, and not left to chance. So what that tells me is that one of two things is happening. Either these commercials are produced in-house, and given no review at all, or people are having focus groups on these, and deciding that they like them.

I mentioned BASF because their commercials in the 1990’s were even worse. Watch one here, and ask yourself this question:Based on this commercial, what does BASF do as a company? The commercial gives no information other that “We don’t make the ______,we make it _____, We don’t make a lot of the products you buy, we make a lot of the products you buy better. BASF, The spirit of innovation” That doesn’t tell me anything. I saw an updated on that ended with “BASF, The Chemical Company.” OK, now that makes sense. Is there any reason it took 20 years to add those 3 words to the commercial and make it make sense? Remember, these came out before we had access to the internet and Google, so finding this information out was much harder.

The bottom line is: advertising shouldn’t be this difficult. Tell me what your product is, and why I should buy it. Don’t over complicate commercials to the point of absurdity for the sake of artistry!

My Thoughts on Selfies

By David G. Firestone

It went unnoticed by many people, but at the French Open a few weeks ago, a fan jumped a barrier and ran up to Roger Federer and asked to take a selfie on the court. This obvious breach of security brings back to mind the stabbing of Monica Seles by Günter Parche in Hamburg, Germany in 1993. In both instances there was little security intervention until it was too late. While Günter Parche was a whack job, this kid created a breach of security to take a picture

With the rise of smart phones came the rise of selfies. I don’t understand this at all. This is a picture of myself, look at me! It’s just irritating. With the rise of Facebook came the rise of selfies on the internet. With this rise came the way people want to out do each other with selfies. You’ve had cases where people have shot themselves in the head, fallen of cliffs, gotten arrested, and imprisoned for trying to take selfies. IT’S NOT WORTH IT!

I get taking selfies when they are worth it, like if you are visiting somewhere significant. If you go to a concert, museum, or sporting event, and want to take a selfie and share it, I’m fine with that. If you are going out to dinner with a friend or relative you haven’t seen in a long time and want to take a selfie, that’s fine. If, on the other hand, you take seflies in line at the grocery store, or at the bus stop, then you are an idiot.

I work at a retail store, and I see this shit all the time. Why would you want to take a status while buying eggs and toilet paper? It just annoys me to no end. I hate having to deal with this kind of nonsense. There is no reason to take selfies at a store, none whatsoever. One of the reasons, I don’t go on Facebook all that much is because there are too many selfies.

The sad thing is that now, because selfies are a thing, they are only going to get bigger. I can’t see selfies going away in the foreseeable future. I can only hope they will go away, as I am getting sick of them. I don’t take them unless there is a reason for it anymore. I wish they would just go away and never come back.

A Funny Car Design Quirk I Never Noticed Before.

capps-12By David G. Firestone
Just a quick post, I didn’t want to rewrite the My Thoughts On article for tomorrow, so I’d just cover it today. So I committed a sin on Sunday…I fell asleep during the NHRA Lucas Oil Kansas Nationals. It was at about 1:30 in the morning, and I was tired. I had it on the DVR, so no big loss. I was watching it this afternoon, and I noticed something about funny cars I had never noticed before. It is an interesting design tick that proves that people really are paying attention to all aspects of car design, especially when it comes to sponsors.
This is an older model Ron Capps NAPA Dodge from a few years ago. capps-12Pay specific attention to the rear end of the car. capps-12 - CopyWhy in the world would those decals be diagonal? What sense does that make? It makes perfect sense. Funny cars don’t have doors or hoods, the only way to access the engine on the track is to lift the body up like so: capps-13 - CopyNow let’s zoom in on those decals. capps-13Now that makes sense. Interestingly, every funny car team in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series uses this design tick. It is pretty cool. Here is some video proof from the Kansas Nationals…


Come back tomorrow when I discuss how awesome the institution of pizza is!

My Thoughts on Why I HATE The Craft Beer Market.

By David G. Firestone

I’m going to say something that I guarantee will tick people off, but I don’t care. I’ve put up with this for quite some time, and I’m sick of it. I HATE the craft beer market. Yup, I said it, I hate the craft beer marker. “But Dave,” I can hear you saying, “You are a sports uniform blogger! You have to like it!” First off, no I don’t, second off, it has given birth to beer snobs. You know the kind of people I’m talking about. They only drink craft beer. They have their favorite beer, and if you don’t like that kind, you are an imbecile and a philistine.

That isn’t what beer is supposed to be! Beer is supposed to UNITE us, not divide us! The pilgrims got off the Mayflower to make a beer run! Many great leaders not only drank beer, but brewed beer. The neighborhood tavern was and is the place for people to get together after work, have a few beers, forget about the problems of life for a little while, and have a good time. The classic neighborhood get together, especially the ones in my neighborhood, always have to have beer, and there is always a lot of fun at them.

I hate the craft beer market because it took everything beer really is supposed to be, and ruined it. What I would like to say to the beer snobs is that nobody likes that attitude. I call it Lisa Simpson Syndrome. Lisa Simpson has a high IQ, is a talented musician, and is a vegetarian and as a result she thinks that it makes her better than most of the people. The problem is that this attitude makes her come across as snobby and stuck up, when she is a very likeable person. If you accept the fact that everyone has their favorite kind of beer, and they like theirs as much as you like yours, I would have no problem with the craft beer market. If there were no snobs, I would embrace the craft beer market, but due to the snobs, I can’t stand the craft beer market.

My Thoughts on The 2014-2015 NFL Season

By David G. Firestone

Another long one, got a lot of ground to cover. The NFL season is over, and the New England Patriots are the champions. I can only say, thank God! I am so sick of hearing about all the crap concerning the NFL this season. Every sport has its controversies in a season, but the NFL has had more disasters this year, that the Kennedy Family has had in the last 50.

The huge story was, of course, Ray Freakin’ Rice! He beat his wife unconscious in an elevator, and then dragged her out of said elevator. He received a suspension of…wait for it…two games?!?!? Once the story went viral, the NFL reluctantly issued an apology for the lax penalty. Roger Goodell, who, when he took over as commissioner, made it clear he would clean up the league and not tolerate anything lets a wife beater basically miss two weeks of work. Then he tried to say that the NFL never saw the video of the incident, which is laughable at best. The Ravens released him, and it’s safe to say, he’s seen his last NFL game.

The ink wasn’t fully dry on Ray Rice, when Adrian Peterson got arrested and charged with child abuse. The charges in question stem from an incident where he hit his son with a switch to punish him. For those who don’t know, a switch is a long thin stick used as a spanking tool on an unruly child. For a while it looked looked like the NFL was going to go easy on him, but thanks to sponsors threatening to pull money, Peterson was suspended for the remainder of the season. I also have to call out the Vikings on this one, because the fact that he openly showed a lack of remorse, and wasn’t as willing to work with the NFL as he should have been. He made himself look very guilty with the attitude and the whole “not attending a meeting” matter. Dump him and find someone better.

You know what, let’s get the player issues out of the way, Josh Gordon was suspended for violating the substance abuse policy, specifically, for testing positive for marijuana. Marijuana is legal in 2 states, medicinally legal in over 20 states, and yet Josh Gordon got a harsher suspension than Ray Rice. Greg Hardy and Jonathan Dwyer were both accused of domestic abuse, Hardy dragging his ex girlfriend around and throwing her onto a sofa, Dwyer headbutted his wife, and broke her nose. The playoffs had one of these, Marshawn Lynch had to be threatened with a $500,000 fine to talk to the media on media day.

The worst offender, by far, was Aaron Hernandez. Accused of three murders, one in Connecticut, and two in Massachusetts. He is the accused, not a witness, not a bystander, not an accomplice, but the man who pulled the trigger. He went from respected NFL player to murder suspect. He was released by the New England Patriots, who were so embarrassed, they held a jersey exchange, later copied by the Ravens with Ray Rice.

Team front offices had their share of issues too. The Michael Sam issue is a perfect example. He is an openly gay player, who was eligible for the draft. He was picked in the 7th round by the Rams, though he was released before the season started. Sources later leaked a series of comments of anti-gay comments that were attributed to team front offices. It is clear from these statements that many team owners don’t want to accept the fact that gays are people, and that players can have talent, no matter what their sexual orientation is. It’s pretty archaic, to say the least.

Colts owner Jim Irsay was arrested for DUI in October. In addition to $29,000 cash, he had numerous prescription bottles in his car. He later was found to have hydrocodone, oxycodone, and Xanax in his system at the time of his arrest. Already an outspoken owner, the league suspended him for six games, four more than Ray Rice, and fined him $500,000, $500,000 more than Ray Rice was penalized.

Someone please explain to me how the NFL can be a non-profit organization…how can that be? This is obviously a group dedicated to profits, and yet, they don’t pay taxes. Roger Goodell makes $44.5 million PER YEAR, and this season has been embarrassing to say the least. At least the teams could pay cheerleaders more, and treat them with some respect. I know it’s radical, bit it works.

The one aspect which I personally covered was the fact that Washington has a football team called “Redskins.” It is a pure racial slur. Many Native American groups have demanded that the slur not be used by the team. Many other groups are demanding the same thing, yet Dan Snyder refuses to change the name of the team. He claims that the name is a tribute, and that it’s tradition, both of which are total nonsense. It offends people, stop using it.

I saved the best for last, Delfategate! During the AFC Championship, it was discovered that 11 of the 12 footballs on the Patriots side were deflated. Deflated footballs are easier to throw and catch, and clearly it seemed to give the Patriots an advantage. So it can be said that they did cheat. Above and beyond that, the rule is that the officials inspect the footballs, and then sign off, and give them to the trainers, which seems shady by itself, but it came to light that the footballs were never inspected for the AFC Championship. Way to let everyone down! Openly cheating to win games really is the Patriot way.

It seems as though when one PR disaster struck the NFL, Goodell find room to put another foot in his mouth. Either he under-reacts or doesn’t react at all. It is amazing that the NFL is willing to keep him on. He is clearly not focused on the right things, he doesn’t properly address programs, won’t admit he made mistakes, or does admit it, albeit reluctantly, and has been equated with Gary Bettman for incompetent sports commissioners. Get rid of him, save $44.5 million a year, and get someone better.

I’m not done being mad, because I’m mad at something else. Since the middle of December, I haven’t been able to write about driver suits or racing memorabilia as I’ve been covering these news stories that come out at this time of year. I’m sick of not writing about what I want to as opposed to what I think I have to write about. So, I’m making an immediate change. From this point forward, only season previews, recaps, and paint scheme awards will be on Fridays. Mondays will feature My Thoughts On, and News and Notes, which will cover these stories. Fridays will feature memorabilia articles and driver suit articles. I want to write about these, and I’m going to. Also, there will be, in a few weeks, a new season of Introduction To Sports Memorabilia will start, and there will be new episodes on Thursday. Non-racing videos will be features on DGF2099, and racing videos will be on both The Driver Suit Blog and DGF2099. They will run on Thursday.