We Are Not Alone: The Other Bill and Daves’

categories: Cocktail Hour

4 comments


Bill and Dave During the War Years

We’re tired here at the Bill and Dave’s Lit Shop.  Weary.  Perhaps you can tell…..the summer doldrums have set in.  I blame the string of near 100 degree days, but a thousand miles to the North Bill reports the same symptoms. Suddenly writing–that thing I do all the time–is not happening, and the projects that come relatively easily during the rest of the year now seem daunting, stripped as I am of the super power of momentum.  Or maybe I’m just resting…..

But don’t fret.  Soon enough we will once again be delivering those crisp and brilliant posts that help you make it through your day.  But, just this once, we are going to lean on others.  Like pro-wrestlers tagging out, we are, for today only, going to hand you off to the other Bill and Daves.  Because, as it turns out, we are not the only Bill and Dave out there.  And we are confident that these fine websites can fill your void:

* First and foremost, as anyone who has ever tried to google us knows, there’s Bill and Dave’s Smokin’ Pit.  True, they don’t quip much and rarely make fancy highbrow comments about lit-er-rat-ture, but they do grill pork and beef daily on hickory smoked pits in Tell City, Indiana.  And it sounds like they do this very well.  Yum.

* Then there’s Bill and Dave’s Landscaping, serving, according to their website, Orange and Riverside Counties.  (They don’t mention a state but there are palm trees in one picture.)

Oddly, they use the same exact language in their About Us section as we do in ours:

“Bill & Dave’s personnel are trended in professionalism, quality control & safety. Personnel are in neat, clean uniforms identified with the Bill & Dave’s Logo.”

“Our professional office staff is here to assist you with any customer service or account information. They are also in contact with all of our specialist in the field, this enables them to get an answer to your field related questions within minutes.”

As anyone who has visited Cocktail Hour knows, we are also trended in professionalism and always happy to answer lit questions in the field.

* Next up is the enigmatic Bill and Dave’s Are Dead.  I was too scared to open the site, but will listen if anyone wants to report back on what it’s all about on our comments page.

* Finally, there’s the truly famous Bill and Dave.  It wasn’t until we started this website that I learned that these were the respective first names of Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard.  If you’re bored, these two have lots of Bill and Dave’s stuff  to browse, including a museum dedicated to them and a bestselling book, Bill and Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company.   And there’s also this line from the museum website, which sounds like it could have been lifted straight out of our Bill’s biography:

“As a boy, Bill developed a keen interest in science. He loved to tinker and had he chosen differently, he might have followed his father into medicine. Bill also struggled with dyslexia. This handicap forced him to develop a very strong memory. Like Dave, Bill majored in electrical engineering and received his BA degree in 1934.”

 

 

 



  1. Bill writes:

    David, we really have to get a couple of those neat, clean uniforms identified with the Bill and Dave’s logo! How’s the budget looking?

  2. Noah writes:

    Bill and Dave Are Dead is actually a pretty funny project idea. It’s a blog memoir, covering twelve years, written by someone who works in the electronics business. The title also refers to the famous Mr. Hewlitt and Mr. Packard. It’s a lament to the state of the business today. The writer is saying that when the two businessmen died, their code of sound business practices and superior ethics died with them. In the writer’s words: “Sometimes the sheer stupidity of situations that developed from idiot coworkers’ actions and totally retarded management staff drove me to the brink of sanity. Writing about it has helped me stay out of the loonie bin.”

    I only skimmed a few of the blog posts, but from what I can tell it’s an epic catalogue of complaints about his job, his relationships, his parents, etc.

    • Dave writes:

      Thanks for the research. Sounds like that Bill and Dave’s is not such a scary place after all…..or maybe it is…..

  3. john lane writes:

    I’m tired too. I thought it was just me. I guess my relentless quest for that Nobel will have to wait a few weeks until the heat breaks.