Have you ever wondered what eternity actually looks like?

Can you ask for a more captive audience than drivers waiting for a freight train to pass? How about putting together a complex ad running from car to car? How about a stop-action “movie” with a scene on each car? Riddles which are answered on a later train car? A count-down of how many cars are left in the train? A comic book series?

In two minutes I could think of all sorts of cool designs that would take advantage of the captive audience, and relieve the boredom of waiting for the freight train to pass. Now you have a potential customer who you’ve already made happy just by providing them with entertainment (unlike TV commercials where you start by making potential customers unhappy by interrupting the program they are trying to watch).

Of course there may be logistical and design challenges with running ads down the side of a long train, for example:

What can you do about train car size variance?

How do you deal with the fact that the order of the cars get switched around over time?

How can you best serve the people who do not arrive in time to see the entire train pass by?

What can you do to make the designs simple to attach, remove, and update?

But all of these sound like fun challenges to try and resolve!

One issue it presented however, was that the handle was difficult to reach even when you are on the inside of the gate.

It would also be difficult to operate whenever you’re holding something in your hand or if perhaps your arm was too big to fit into the tube!

Any other concerns?

As I was sitting in the office, it struck me that the dental practice must be a tough one to keep your clients happy in. Beyond the folks that absolutely fear the dentist, there are a lot of people who are happy to visit the dentist, but still walk in and receive an ego-bashing.

• The dentist tells you that you have a cavity (or tooth-decay, or gum disease, or some other dental issue)
• The dentist tells you you don’t floss enough (or you are brushing wrong, or some doing some other incorrect hygiene practice)
• The dentist tells you that you’re doing a great job of brushing and flossing! Then you feel great, until you realize that despite following all the doctor’s recommendations, you still can’t keep your teeth as clean as the dentist can make them. (This, despite the use of a tricked-out home dental system!)

So in the interest of running a better business, how can a dentist counteract these rather subtle actions which might make an exiting client feel worse about herself/himself than when she/he arrived?

Cruising up the Chicago River.

Bridge repair in progress above.

Traffic safety cones hanging from the bridge.

Cones suspended by lengths of rope.

Several different kinds of cones (although not in this picture).

Several different lengths of rope.

Meant to keep boat traffic from passing under certain areas of the bridge?

Are these the best tools for the job?

Are these just the best tools on hand?

Other questions I have:

What was removed?

Why was the target removed, but the instruction to remove left behind?

Did the person who wrote “remove” consider the relative permanence of his/her message?