6 September: Pet Rock Day

The first Sunday in September is Pet Rock Day: the perfect opportunity to pamper and spoil the special stone in your life. 10 things you might not know about pet rocks.

1. Pet rocks were the brainchild of an advertising executive called Gary Dahl.
2. The rocks are smooth stones from a beach in Rosarito, Mexico, about 10 miles/16km south of the US border. The resort is a popular holiday destination for young Americans on holiday weekends.
3. The idea started as a joke. Gary was out drinking with his friends in April 1975 and listened to them complaining about pets which had destroyed things at home. He joked that he had the perfect pet which never destroyed anything and never had to be walked, groomed, or taken to the vet – a rock.
4. Gary decided there might be something in this, and so he sourced the rocks for a cent each, had boxes made, complete with air holes and packed with straw, and an instruction manual about how to care for a pet rock.
5. He sold the stones for two dollars each and became a millionaire.
6. The craze didn’t last long – after Christmas of 1975 sales plummeted and Dahl found himself giving unsold stones away to charity – but the short lived craze had made him enough money to retire and buy himself a bar in Los Gatos, California, which he called Carry Nations (a reference to temperance activist Carrie Nation).
7. According to the instructions, pet rocks can be taught to obey simple commands. “Sit” and “stay” are easy. They’d need some help with “Roll over”, however, and they’d never get the hang of "come," "stand" or "shake hands". “Attack” was also possible, with some help from the owner!
8. The manual also tells you what to do if your pet rock gets too excited – place it on a pile of Newspaper, because “The rock will know what the paper is for and will require no further instruction. It will remain on the paper until you remove it.”
9. All pet rocks came with a pedigree which suggested that many of them had been part of The Pyramids in Egypt or the Great Wall of China.
10. Dahl called his company “Rock Bottom” so he could have another joke with anyone who called in – the receptionist was instructed to answer the phone with “You’ve reached Rock Bottom”.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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