Way, way back in the Surprise Central time machine, October 27, '06 to be exact, I explained the essence of this blog's logo, calling it:
"...the semblance of a face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed...the epitome of what we look like when we're Surprised."
Well, the brothers Heath--Chip and Dan--take this explanation a step further in their excellent tome Made To Stick. (Actually, it's their expansion of The Surprise Brow, a term coined by Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen in THEIR book "Unmasking The Face"...but hey, there's a limit to how much I can read.)
The Pow! logo is what we look like when Surprised; here's why we look like that:
"When our brows go up, it widens our eyes and gives us a broader field of vision--the Surprise brow is our body's way of forcing us to see more."
Surprise doesn't stop with the eyes, though.
"In addition, Surprise causes our jaws to drop and our mouths to gape. We're struck momentarily speechless."
You know what? This stuff doesn't merely vindicate the ramblings of this street marketer; it's actually quite interesting. So one last intellectual look at Surprise before I let you go. Go ahead, Heath bros., add some more importance to my beloved subject matter:
"If emotions have biological purposes, then what is the biological purpose of Surprise? Surprise jolts us to attention. (It is) triggered when our schemas fail, and it prepares us to understand why the failure occurred. When (they) fail, Surprise grabs our attention so that we can repair them for the future."
Pow!--Not just fun and games, but clinically proven to be important. And recommended by four out of five doctors.