There is the first time for everything. Someone had to cook the first animal. Some one had to eat the first artichoke. Someone had to invent the first spear, light the first piece of coal, melt the first metal, build the first house. Tell a story of discovery. What would it be like to be a cave person discovering fire can be tamed?

Science fiction is entirely based upon extrapolation and what ifs. Take some human need and invent a technology to fill it. How would the technology effect change? Try reaching back into the past. Eliminate a technology. What if radio and television were never invented? Bring present technologies into the past. How would the cellular telephone have changed history? Tell some historical and sociological stories. What if the United States was founded by Karl Marx instead of the founding fathers?

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I recently attended a high school reunion where I ran into an old friend whom I have not seen or thought about since our senior year. High school reunions are a great place to learn how you were perceived in high school and before. I knew some classmates since pre-school. Yikes.

So this old friend and I reminisced about being in Little League together. He was a pitcher. I was a catcher. He was a superb athlete. I was not. And I carried decades of shame. He told me I wasn’t that bad. i think he was being kind.

Talking about Little League brought us to a discussion of how baseball was such an important part of our youth. He was a Yankee fan. I was a Brooklyn Dodger fanatic. We knew every player in the Major Leagues, their numbers, batting averages, etc. We collected, traded and flipped baseball cards. Those collections would be worth a fortune today.

Part of each one of my Think Tank Team Teleconferences, is to develop personal and group creative stretches. I was telling a group about the reunion when it occurred to me; What if photographers had trading cards? Thus this Idea Stimulator was conceived. I asked people to create a self-portrait for the front of the card. I asked each person to create a brief list of statistics representing what they would like other people to know about them. Each had to be proportioned to fit a 2.5″ X 3.5″ area.

Paul ‘Dino’ D’Innocenzo

Emmanuel Faure

Philip Mauro

Lauren Rutten

EJ Carr

Bruce Byers

I am planning to create a collection
of photographer trading cards.
Want to play?
Send them to me and I will post them for you.
Join us!

Some fun information about baseball cards:

For a brief history of baseball cards.

Baseball card games. Flipping, Tossing, Colors.

A real collector’s nostalgic look at baseball cards.

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When I was an elementary school student my grandmother prepared a brown bag lunch each day sparing me the cafeteria. Lunches included a healthy sandwich (roast beef, meatloaf, egg salad), a fun sandwich (peanut butter or cream cheese and jelly), a slice of homemade chocolate cake, a piece of fruit, and enough money for an ice cream and container of milk. I was not small. However if I knew someone had it, I would often trade my entire lunch for a Snickers Bar.

Snickers
The Best-Selling Candy Bar of All Time

Snickers was first introduced to the public in 1930 and is now the number one selling candy bar in the United States. In fact Snickers is the best selling candy bar of all time and has annual global sales of $2 billion. Snickers is made of peanut butter nougat, topped with caramel and roasted peanuts and covered with milk chocolate. The peanuts are crisp-textured special grade which have good flavor and keep well. Snickers is a global brand, however, in the U.S. they are made in Chicago, Illinois and Waco, Texas. Snickers was named after the Mars family’s favorite horse.

And while we are on candy bars, my Grandfather, Ruben Popkins always had a package of Walnetto’s in his pocket to share. Walnettos were a great tasting walnut chew. Remember the Artie Johnson – Ruth Buzzy skit on Laugh-in… “Want a Walnetto?”

Some discontinued brands include Beeman’s gum, Black Jack gum, Bonomo’s Turkish Taffy, Butternut, Clove gum, Forever Yours, Pepsin gum, Powerhouse, Regal Crown Sours, Reggie Bar, and how can one forget, Wax Mustaches, Pan Pipes and bloody Fingernails. What was your favorite candy bar? How did it fit into your life as a child? Do you eat candy today? What is your relationship with sweets?

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