I have had a surprisingly high number of inquiries about the dude in the upper-right corner of the header image. And by surprisingly high, I mean that I am surprised anyone asked me about him at all; let alone several people. So much so, that I am forced to really consider him now.
Origins: On my last revision to the look of this site, I went for a coffee theme…as you may have noticed. (I loves me the coffee like gold lamé wearin’ ladies love the Manilow.) Anyway, one of the things I always associate with coffee is the post-war, diner setting. One of my most favorite past times is getting coffee from a bona fide diner. (Recommended diners: Pann’s in Los Angeles, CA and Buffalo Wrangler in Custer, SD) Much of the art of that time was the 50’s advertisement art. The kind of art that showed America how much fun it was to be a white family in the suburbs, what with their giant-finned cars, space age vacuums, super duper refrigerators and other house-of-the-future gadgets. Hence, the 50’s ad coffee dude was added to the header. At one point, I toyed with animating a “gleam gleam” sparkle off his smile with sound effects, but later decided that this would become real annoying real quick.
Name: What is coffee dude’s name? I’ve never given a thought to this and have always referred to him as Coffee Guy. However, were I pressed to choose, I would either call him the obvious “Joe,” perhaps “Leighton” in a effort to give that name a resurgence, “The Honorable Filmore Cupps” for a more official take and “Mr. Monkeyfunkle” just because it’s hard to say. I would also consider a gender bending use of “Bea” for reasons I can not share with you.
Hats: If you are a non-Internet Explorer user, you will also be aware of Coffee Guy’s (how about “Cleatus’s?”) love of hats. He likes to wear hats themed to the seasons. (Unless of course you just ruined it for rest of us with the Manilow thing!) Currently he is donning his summer hat. Many have asked what those colored baubles decorating the hat are. Honestly, I don’t even know. But here are suggestions as submitted by lordleiter.com readers: wicker flowers, plastic fruit and skittles. Whatever the case, they are wicked awesome just on the merit that Coffee Guy (maybe “Foo Doodle Lee?”) is adorned with them.