Friday 14 July 2006

SAUCE FOR THE (57 YEAR OLD) GANDER...

For H J Heinz, 57 represents the essence of VARIETY…

For B D Sibley, 57 represents the result of CONTINUITY…

Fifty-seven YEARS....

20,805 days of inhabiting this body, operating its limbs, circulating its blood and tussling with its unpredictable psyche…

It is, of course, a cliché to say that 50 only feels like last week, 40 like some time last year and 21 no more than a decade ago, at most; because that’s how it goes - and, unfortunately, goes ON going as the needle begins to nudge towards the speed-limit…

Meanwhile, there is the Heinz recipe to offer inspiration: ‘variety’ being the widely acknowledged “spice of life”!


So, if you’ll kindly pass the ketchup, please... I’ll give it a damn good shake -- AFTER making very sure that the top is SECURELY TIGHTENED (I once had a unfortunate mishap in Miami airport, resulting in an eight-hour flight to Heathrow looking like a extra from ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’) -- and try adding a much-needed dollop of sauce to my daily life!

Historically speaking, by the way, there never were ‘57 Varieties’. By the time Mr H chose his mystic number in 1896 he was already producing more than 60 products! The truth is: one of the all-time famous advertising campaigns was selected simply because the numbers 5 and 7 had a “special significance” for Heinz and his wife.

Nowadays, it is sometimes claimed, Heinz sells 5,700 varieties worldwide - a convenient figure that should probably be taken with that other important spice of life --- a pinch of salt!

Never mind, I like Henry John Heinz, many of his myriad products and his down-home philosophy of life. This is the man who said: "To do a common thing uncommonly well brings success."

Would that we might all get a chance to prove that true…

[Images (and a useful ‘source’ for the history of the ‘sauce’ and those 57 varieties): Heinz]

4 comments:

David Weeks said...

"As long as you're supple there's nothing to fear;
Then she swung upside down from a glass chandelier~
I couldn't have liked it more."

Happy Birthday

Diva of Deception said...

May I be the first to wish you a happy and as painless as possible birthday - the first on this birthday dated blog anyway. I don't count the premature ones of yesterday's blog. That's not playing the game....

So the week ends well with your birthday, your next programme and Rob home safe and sound from hospital.

Meanwhile David and I will continue to earn a crust entertaining the urban offspring of the folk of London and its surrounds.

And I only got 'pupdlh' as security for your blog.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Brian!

May your 57th year have plenty of sauce, and if the bottle ever gets too difficult to shake, try the squeezy version instead.

Anna said...

Happy Birthday, Brian.

I hope the day had plenty of variety and spice.