Mess With The Bull...

I am a huge fan of horns. Not all of them. Saxophones, for instance, are the coolest thing going, especially when coupled with a sharp suit jacket and sunglasses at night, but I'm not much for most brass or woodwinds. I refer primarily to signal horns of days gone by. Most of them I imagine to look something like this:

This whole fascination was kicked off in my work cubicle about 2 years ago when this commercial for Snickers came out. Pure genius. Of course, every time somebody sat down to eat lunch or drink a caffeinated beverage, and imaginary feast horn was sounded. We actually got pretty good at imitating it. Well, turnover at work being what it is (or was, I should say, since attrition has dropped virtually to zero in the current economy), I found myself surrounded at work by new guys who didn't have the proper knowledge or respect for the significance of the horn's call. That's where the brilliance of the Internet ("now on computers!") came in. Check this out (sorry, you have to cut & past into your browser, no linking):

http://www.audiblebeauty.net/do-not-link/king/hardhrim_horn.wav
http://www.audiblebeauty.net/do-not-link/fellowship/horngondor.wav
http://www.audiblebeauty.net/do-not-link/king/rohan_horn.wav
http://www.audiblebeauty.net/do-not-link/towers/eldarhorn.wav

All the guys I sit with are now on board, now that I have these files to play at-will while working, and often when somebody enters or exits our cubicle an appropriate horn is sounded.

Oh, and did I mention that Warhammer: Dark Omen has a horn as a butt-kicking item for your armies to use? I still have to write about that game. One day soon...