Today, August 13th, is International Left-Handers Day. It’s estimated that between seven and ten percent of the world’s population is so inclined. At H/M, southpaws constitute a full 25% of our staff, proof positive that our Business-to-Business agency is at least 250% above average. This is the type of statistic that only a left-hander could conceive, and I should know because I am one.

One more thing: It’s been scientifically proven that creativity resides in the right side of the brain, which controls the left side of the body. This explains why so many creative people are left-handed. Skeptical? Famous left-handers of the world include Einstein, Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Worcester, as in our own senior art director, Charlie.

Recently two new members joined our crew on the good ship Hodgson/Meyers. Along with their marketing bona fides the pair bring with them unusual ties to the animal kingdom.

Seattle native Rachel Omiliak joins our team as an Online Marketing Specialist. A graduate of Santa Clara University, Rachel lends her expertise to all of our search optimization projects, including work for the Applied Systems, CSG Systems. Quaero, Meydenbauer Conference Center and QuickMedical accounts.

While in college, Rachel expanded her worldview through the Semester at Sea program, where she traveled to 11 countries in 108 days. Among her adventures during the trip were holding a crocodile, hugging a seal, being attacked by a pelican larger than most people and—get this—catching three piranhas while fishing the Amazon River in Brazil.

As for Gonzaga grad Erin McNiff, she comes to us from Cole & Weber United. While there she helped manage the Washington Lottery, Livingston Cellars and TiVo accounts. Among her many accomplishments was directing the Lottery’s Dream Agents campaign that broke sales records by $1 million dollars. As one of our project managers, Erin will bring her talents to the Clark Nuber, CSG Systems and ISIS accounts.

Erin’s animal connections? She finds that wrangling her long-haired mini-Dachshund is good training for keeping creative types on task. And having sung as a waitress at a Red Robin Restaurant, she may well have been destined to work for us. After all, our CEO is a woodpecker named Spike. And from red-breasted robin to red-crested woodpecker is not that far a flight.

While our clients are sure to appreciate Rachel and Erin’s contributions to the marketing cause, we feel secure in knowing that we’re in good hands should we ever be attacked by crocodiles, piranhas or wiener dogs.

The Blue Angels buzzin’ around overhead and the sprinkle of boats waiting for the hydroplane races – we’re so ready to start the weekend. Here are the wonderful things Spikesters like this week.

Rachel Omiliak: Food52.  The best recipes come from home chefs- and all of those chefs posted them here.  Wondering what Spike liked best?

Willem Buys: The time suck of social media! Social networking now eats up twice as much of our online time as any other activity. According to new stats from Nielsen…

Erin McNiff: Leave the drama for the mama. I think Levi and Bristol just may be over, over.

Andrew Skirde: Shark Week!

Summer is here bringing the season of food festivals, outdoor movie screenings and farmer’s markets into full swing.  So here’s to a happy Friday, cheers to good weather (fingers crossed) and enjoy!

Jason Frummett: I like that for the first time since April, the oil leak in the Gulf has been successfully capped.

Robert Coats: 8-bit Cities. City maps for old school gamers.

Gary Graf: For lyrical virtuosity, and a darn good time, catch bare naked ladies. The band. I’m talking about the Canadian band. Who were you thinking of?

Lea Loya: OK Go’s marching band version of ‘This Too Shall Pass.’ Props again to these viral video darlings. Read lead singer’s brilliant NYT Op-ed piece from last February on the utilization and creativity of viral videos in the current stifling recording industry environment.

Jamie Bakun: Old Spice’s video tweet responses. This is quickly becoming my favorite ad campaign! Sadly, the video below is the last video tweet. To see the whole engagement go to http://twitter.com/oldspice. Be sure to read this article as well as watch the videos.

Willem Buys: A full-CGI animated piece by Alex Roman that illustrates architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces.

Sharan Ochsner: Transformer owl!

Last night, in a live televised media event, NBA superstar LeBron James announced his decision to leave his hometown team and city of Cleveland and head south to Miami. While this was major news in the sports world, another related story has had just as much play in the blogosphere and twitterverse:  a bitter, scathing letter blasting James written by Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert, and posted on the team website.

The amusing part? The letter was set in Comic Sans, a common Microsoft font usually reserved for birthday party announcements or “free puppies” posters.  Instead of taking the letter seriously, people everywhere are mocking Gilbert for his choice of font. Not since James Cameron’s use of the font Papyrus for his blockbuster movie Avatar, has a font received so much notoriety.

Hatred of Comic Sans is not new. In fact there are entire websites (bancomicsans.com, flickr.com/groups/comicsans/) dedicated towards the eradication of the typeface. The font itself was conceived at Microsoft in 1994 for use in a software program aimed at children, and featuring a cartoon dog. A year later, it was included as one of the few standard typefaces in the Windows operating system, and has been a fixture ever since. Comic Sans can now be seen in everything from warning signs to official documents.

Here are some examples of questionable uses of the font:

It’s time for you to weigh in. Tell us what you think about the font, the letter and the drama around the trade of King James.

To say Hodgson/Meyers’ account manager Gina Auffant is a quick study is just the half of it. Or to be more accurate, just the halfathon of it.

Sure, Gina got quickly up to speed on the Fluke clamp meter, calibration and network accounts, not to mention Douglass Interior Products and Webasto truck parts. But she also fast tracked the Seattle Rock and Roll Halfathon, helping to benefit the American Cancer Society in the process.

Competing against more than 17,500 other runners, Gina clocked a rapid 1:32:32 over the 13.1-mile course, good enough for 44th place among all women finishers, and 192nd overall.

Gina first found her stride playing soccer at Lewis & Clark High School (Spokane, WA) as an outside midfielder. Seeing her speed down the sidelines, the school’s track coach recruited her for his girl’s team. Smart move. By the time Gina was a senior she regularly qualified for the state track meet in the 400 meters. And more than 10 years later, still holds a number of the school’s top marks in the 400 and 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 relays.

“I just love to run,” says the trim 5’6” Auffant. “My competitive juices get going and I just can’t help trying to pass the runners ahead of me one by one.”

After passing thousands of runners in Seattle, Gina was so encouraged by the experience that she’s planning to run the Girlfriends’ Half in Vancouver WA later this year to support breast caner awareness. Seems not only is Ms. Auffant a quick study, she’s quick to support worthy causes, too.

Welcome to our special edition of Spike Likes Friday. We will be out tomorrow and Monday celebrating the 4th of July so enjoy this Thursday edition.

Gary Meyers: United Airlines 1K status

Jason Frummet: The eternal optimism of Seattlites about their weather. One good day among 30 grey days is enough to lift the spirits and make people thankful for the Summer that will eventually arrive.

Robert Coats: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Lea Loya: The NPR story of the man who inspired Monet, Eugene Boudin, takes you right to Normandy, France.

Jamie Bakun: What the Font? Can’t figure out what typeface something is? Here’s the solution:  http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Gina Auffaunt: A drop in by Lenny Kravitz. My friend’s cousin is the guitar player up front. It was “one of the best experiences of his life.”

B team wins championship playoffs, A team upset in semifinals!

My “Chips” team won the Seattle B Spring League 2010 Darts Championship; this follows our Fall/Winter League Championship. It was a great match at Cooper’s Ale House. We were down 9-6 (first team to 11 wins) and ended up prevailing 11-9 over “Who Darted.” See our photos here. Individually, I ended the season ranked #14 of 31 players. Overall a great clutch team effort, led by captain Kirbie Predmore and fellow arrow slingers Russell Nash, Tim Hannon, Frank Martel, and Rob Schwenn.

Meanwhile, Gary Meyers’ A team, “Dartmatter” (Gary, Bill Baltra, Andy Baker, and Taylor Callaway) got whipped in the semi-finals by the “Roach Motels,” whom “Dartmatter” had handily beaten twice in the regular season. I asked Gary what happened, and he said, “Those Roaches kicked our butts.” Gary finished up at #9 of 46, individually.

Summer League Doubles starts July 8.

Spike is the first bird to travel by BOAT! He visited Fort Lauderdale, Georgetown in Grand Cayman, Cozumel & Puerto Costa Maya in Mexico as well as Roatan, Honduras. He lived the life in the sun and enjoyed some drinks. He even went as far as to visit Hell in Grand Cayman. Don’t worry, Hell is just a washed up coral reef that has turned black in the sun!

Cruising

Grand Cayman Pirate

Having a Drink (it was non-alcoholic. . . . I swear)

Practicing Safe Sun-bathing

To see more images of Spike’s fun in the sun, go to our Flickr album. Cheers to a relaxing vacation!