Posted on 08/27/2007 1:25:17 PM PDT by Congressman Billybob
My readers are well-read folks. So, y’all know that there really was a streetcar named Desire that ran to a down-at-the-heels neighborhood in New Orleans, where Tennessee Williams’ set his play. So, even though most streetcars have, alas, done the way of the Dodo, you might have surmised that Goats on the Roof is real.
Ding. Ding. Ding. No more calls, please. There IS a place called Goats on the Roof.
At the time that “Flashdance” came out, with it came a phrase, “high concept.” What that meant was the whole idea – remember charades, when you’d make a global gesture with your hands to tell the audience you were going for the whole idea? – the whole idea could be expressed in a very few words.
The story behind “Flashdance” was well beyond absurd. A petite, very attractive young woman was working her way through a dancing career by working as a welder by day. And at night she’d do nearly erotic chair dances in a club that ended with a pail of water being dumped on her? Tell me you don’t have a vivid memory of the water-dumping dance finale.
Anyway, the idea of “high concept” has nothing whatever to do with the quality of the product. In fact, the relation might be inverse. The lower the quality of the product, the more likely it will be reduced to a high concept. The top award for doing that has to be the B-movie, “Snakes on a Plane.” It’s self-evident that the producer was sitting by his pool, said to himself “What would be really scary?” Answered his own question with snakes on a plane, and manufactured a movie to fit that title.
That brings us to Goats on the Roof. Michelle and I were on an errand to North Georgia, pounding down Route 441 towards Atlanta, when we passed a brand-new business on the right side of the highway. She said, “Oh look, Goats on the Roof?” I said, “You’re kidding.” She said, “You’ll see if on the way back.”
We stopped on the way back. There were, in fact, goats on the roof. Several of them. Since I know about sod-roofed houses, I noted how the roof was constructed. Corrugated steel covered with thick sod, sloped just slightly so water wouldn’t puddle on the sod. Light in the middle was a goat shelter, containing goats. They weren’t old ones, teenagers, I surmised.
What kind of establishment would have goats on its roof, and use that as its name? It was a kind of establishment that is common in North Georgia and Western Carolina. A produce stand that also sold some prepared and packaged foods, plus, of course, assorted nicknacks. The produce was seasonal. The jams and jellies were local, with a house brand. Right on each label it said, “Goats on the Roof.”
You cannot have young goats around without some way for young children to interact with them, and even the dimmest attorney or insurance agent would put the kabosh on a concept that included “children on the roof.” So, there wasn’t any way that children to climb up to visit with the goats. On the other hand, there was a hand-crank device which had a cup into which a child could place some goat food from a dispenser. (25 cents to dispense a handful. Being still, in part, a child, I got some.)
Crank the handle and the cup goes up to the roof, down a track, and empties into a bowl. As soon as the crank starts moving, the goats saunter over to the business end of the contraption to snarf down the food on arrival. These goats were veterans. The lady behind the counter said that the shop had been open for “one month and five days.”
Why go on and on about high concept? Business is about competition. When you are in a business that’s the same as a few hundred other people, something has to distinguish you from the crowd. Location is critical. Matching quality with price is critical. But how about a masterstroke which guarantees that everyone in your market area knows that you have opened, and has a unique incentive to come see your store? What if that method has a special appeal to every vehicle containing one or more childen, that travel on a major highway all summer, plus late spring and early fall?
In this area, travel drops off to almost nothing in the winter time. But I don’t think the goats are going to be real happy about staying on the roof then, either.
I’ve gone this far without making a serious comment about politics. So here ‘tis, at the end. Is there any high concept about any of the candidates for President in 2008? To paraphrase the late, great Clara Peller, “Where are the goats on the roof?”
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About the Author: John Armor practiced in the US Supreme Court for 33 years. John_Armor@aya.yale.edu He lives in the 11th District of North Carolina.
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John / Billybob
“Flashdance” was the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I saw it at the “free” show in college, but it wasn’t worth the opportunity cost. I wasted two hours that I could have spent lying in my dorm room staring at the ceiling!
A goat once bit my sister
It was kinda hokey, but the water scene was worth it......but then I’m a guy...........
Who hasn’t seen a woman in a bathing suit?
Everyone has his own perspective, of course. I was mainly making a point about economics.
Only thing better than a goat on a roof, is goat on a roof enjoying a tin can dinner.
All the goat jokes I know I learned from my daaaaad.
That’s the right crowd for a thread about goats, definitely.
I wonder whatever happened to that actress? She seems to have just faded from the scene...........
In reality "Desire" is a proper noun and is actually pronounced as "dez'-array".
* I had phonics in school back in the 50's, but I don't remember much about phonetic spelling, so if you're a member of the phonetics "Oh-Oh Squad", be advised that I already know it's wrong.
Working steadily, it appears, mainly in TV shows:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000884/
(Cursed with a retentive memory, I am.)
So it’s a streetcar named after a man.
No, then it would have been a streetcar named Lust...........
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