Barley for Harley

December 28, 2005 12:38 PM

Mr. Gonopolis and his 12 Holsteins. It’s December 24th and Santa gets the measles. Mr. Gonopolis, a bumbling dairy farmer from Minnesota and member of the Emergency Substitute Santa Claus Corps, gets the call and hitches up his 12 Holstein cows. Following a custom of naming cows after people he admires, for the 20th anniversary edition of his children’s book Uncle Hyggly renamed one of the cows “Oprah” and got into some hot water. Even so, this book is a welcome alternative to other cow temptation (NSF Farmers).
posted by luckypozzo (15 comments total)

How is he in hot water? Nowhere is it suggested that any legal action has been made, or that Oprah has even noticed his book. In fact, your 'hot water' link is to his own press release hyping the book.

This sounds like pretty cut and dry piece of ugly advertising. Which is a shame, because the book looks cute.
posted by Simon! at 12:47 PM on December 28, 2005

Best grazed in Netscape 3.0?
posted by mr_crash_davis at 12:49 PM on December 28, 2005

and got into some hot water.

Nothing to see here, mooooove along.
posted by NationalKato at 12:53 PM on December 28, 2005

"Get the Christmas gift everyone is MOOing about!".

Pepsi Moo?
posted by ericb at 1:05 PM on December 28, 2005

ericb-If you can't do better than that we're going to have to put you out to pasture and bring in someone from the bullpen.
posted by OmieWise at 1:07 PM on December 28, 2005

Holy cow that last link raypzorzz'd my puter with pop-up ads. NSFPAWWHTUIE. not safe for people at work who have to use internet explorer.
posted by Baby_Balrog at 1:09 PM on December 28, 2005

It's Raining Cows.
posted by ericb at 1:16 PM on December 28, 2005

Ok, that latest link was udderly reprehensible. It crashed my Firefox. You seem to have a steak in this thread, so maybe if you spend some time ruminating you can come up with something to wow us.
posted by OmieWise at 1:32 PM on December 28, 2005

That last was to ericb.
posted by OmieWise at 1:44 PM on December 28, 2005

Mr. Gonopolis...

This is a pet peeve of mine-- every time people want to make a name "foreign sounding," they use a form that they've heard but have no ideal how it's spelled. E.g., Nick "Andopolis" from Freaks and Geeks and George "Papadapolis" from Webster. The suffix of the word (it's a patronym) is spelled -poulos. It should be Gonopoulos. Cripes.
posted by deanc at 2:21 PM on December 28, 2005

deanc: Maybe he's not only a farmer, but also a city? That could explain his calling up his "city friends".
posted by Captain_Tenille at 2:28 PM on December 28, 2005

"Oprah, divine,
Be my, bovine."
posted by stirfry at 2:33 PM on December 28, 2005

Fascinating post, luckypozzo.
posted by interrobang at 3:32 PM on December 28, 2005

clever but cheap marketing gimmick ... no more
posted by Dag Maggot at 3:50 PM on December 28, 2005

Dear Mr. Gonopolis
When the cows come home, stop by. I bet you could use some milking yourself.
Hugs
Goofyy
posted by Goofyy at 12:29 AM on December 29, 2005