your moment of "huh?"

[jazzfish]

Seen on a white panel van this morning:

POND ROOFING CO.

. . . what, your koi might get sunburnt? Or rained on?

Comments

[jazzfish]

Sadly, this is likely to be the more or less correct explanation. Although I'd thought Mr Pond was a detective,not a roofer.

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Obviously it's his cousin. One (or both, I suppose) got tired of the family business and decided to branch out.

[scraun23.livejournal.com]

"Mr. Pond's Estimable Roofing Company" was founded in 1907 with the invention of asphalt shingles. They quickly became ubiquitous, but fell on hard times in the Great Depression due to market shrinkage. The company managed to stay afloat by dipping deep into it's stock of capital, and laying off 80% of it's employees. In the 50s, under new direction, they branched out into the exciting and new field of chemicals, spinning off a successful cosmetics company. Sadly, R&D costs became too high to continue, and stagnation set in. The business talent moved to greener pastures in the 70s and 80s, and the succession of mediocre management decisions(including the shortening of the name) led to the eventual shrinkage of the company to a sole proprietorship, now owned by the former floor manager who considers himself retired, but still drives the company van around to impress middle-aged bar floozies with his entrepreneurial stories and "blue collar charm."

Ok, somehow I still don't think I'm playing this game correctly.