Gnome Week: Day 5

Gnome Saying of the Day:   "Look around you. There are many things to see, that some would say could never be. These things I know. It's true and I will tell you so. They are there to see, if you believe. Trolls and wizards and fairy kings, birds that talk and fish that sing. And if your heart is true, then you will find them, too. In every wish and dream and happy home, you will find a kingdom of the Gnomes. "  Excerpt from David the Gnome

Gnome of the Day:  Mannheim

I know what you're thinking, "isn't that the Travelocity gnome?"  In fact this is his distant cousin Mannheim "Manny"  who is also a travel expert.  Manny is the Roaming gnome's cousin from Germany.  Once and a while he will be a stand in for his cousin on the Travelocity commercials.  He is much shorter than his cousin in real life but on the TV screen, height doesn't matter much.  One day he would like to host his own traveling show about the gardens he has visited around the world.  Right now he is living in my backyard but he won't be here for long.  Every few months he packs up his things and hitch hikes to a new location he hasn't explored yet.  He mentioned to me that he wanted head back to Germany next month to visit his parents.  The last time he was home was 63 year ago. 

 Here he is practicing his TV hosting skills to prepare for his own show one day

He is using the bird feeder as a backdrop for a scene he is rehearsing for a clip of Aspen, Colorado

Gnome Lesson of the Day:  Famous Gnomes through History

Lampy: Lampy was created in the mid-1800's by Phillip Griebel, the original gnome sculpture of Germany. The popularity of gnomes spread in 1847 when Sir Charles Isham brought 21 of these gnome sculptures back to his home in England.  After Sir Isham's death his daughters, who were not a fan of the garden art, smashed every gnome they found.  Lampy was the only one to survive and is now on display and insured for one million pounds.

This is a song clip from Pink Floyd and the song, The Gnome

 In Harry Potter, wizards found garden gnomes to be a pest.  The Weasley household decorated one unfortunate gnome in a tutu and used it as an angel on top of their Christmas tree.  Pictured above on the left is an illustration of the gnome in the book.  On the right is the Schmidt's version that appeared in our newsletter last Christmas when the elves took over the store.

The travel website Travelocity has their own Roaming Gnome which helps customers book flights and hotels. Here is a cute clip from one of their commercials.

Eugene has come up with their own gnomes.  The Naked Gnome was on the cover of the Eugene Weekly 2010 Earth Day newspaper edition.  Eugene also brews a winter ale beer titled the ill tempered gnome.

February 2011, the Touchstone Pictures movie Gnomeo and Juliet put gnomes front and center of the public eye