The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep

OK, OK, one hint. The host of The Squirrel's Nest went on to be very, very famous.

And you probably haven't heard of the organization itself. Although it is a real, and quite thriving one.

wombat, I have a few extra commas if you're running short: ,,,

1. Alan King
2. acorn
3. The Bourne Identity
4. The Iowa Threshers

Your olde-tyme printer's marks are dead to me!

And no x 4.

1. Soupy Sales
2. Salt Cellar
3. The DaVinci Code Trailer
4. Log Cabin Republicans

Nope. Messrs. Sales and King are relative unknowns compared to the man we're looking for. "Acorn" is a lot closer than "Salt Cellar." The movie was a comedy-drama and the organization in question was the erstwhile employer of the main character.

Well, Ronald Reagan was already famous by 1949. But still...WOW.

(-TV).

1. Ronald Reagan
2. corn ear
3. too late for Pokemon 2000, too early for Yu-Gi-Oh! - what movies did I see in 2002? Finding Nemo?
4. The Grand Order of Occidental Nighthawks

Nope. As far as famousness goes, he might well be said to be up there with Reagan (at least in this country).

Is the movie the Harry Shearer-directed Teddy Bears' Picnic?

No -- the film is a work of fiction, *very* loosely adapted from a novel about a New York lawyer; for the film the the setting was changed to the Midwest and the storyline was heavily altered.

1) Bob Hope
2) Astrolabe
3) You've Got Mail
4) Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

1. James Dean
2. oak leaf
3. Napoleon Dynamite
4. The Prudential Club

1. Johnny Carson
2. Lion's Head
3. Wild Kingdom
4. Mutual of Omaha

2. beehive?

Art gets #1, and the "Mutual of Omaha" guess is not too far off. It's Omaha where this group is headquartered (and thus where the 2002 is partially set).

About Schmidt?

Shananan gets #4! Wouldn't you know it, LumberJack Nicholson is the man among men.

This is interesting, although I haven't seen the movie and have no idea. I just like the question.

Another random shot at the headstone shape: a bundle of wheat.

Lumberjack?

Shoot, I mean chop, I cannot recall name of insurance co. where Schmidt worked.

But!

I suspect a clue. Axe in headstone?

Oh, would I give a clue? Oh, man, would I! I wouldn't want to have a question that nobody could answer. What would call such a thing?

Okay, Woody Woodpecker, it's wood-something.

Woodman?

We actually stopped in Omaha and visited the Children's Museum this summer, and I'll bet the company is listed on the wall of benefactors that I didn't stare at. A certain American Girl Bitty Baby of our acquaintance actually spent a lot more time in Omaha at a coffee house down the street, but came home safely in a box.
Normally I'd guess Berkshire Hathaway as the company and a box of frozen steaks as the headstone, but I'll just take a whack at the headstone being a log. Woodsman, spare that headstone!

TIMBERRRRRRRRR!

Shananan's persistence, and Jonathan's American Girl-ish travails have paid off. I'm going to give them joint credit for getting about as close as can reasonably be expected. The organization, Woodmen of the World, originally drew its name from founder Joseph Cullen Root’s veneration for the tree-cutting work of American pioneers:

http://www.woodmen.org/inside.cfm?main_menu_id=1&sub_menu_id=3&Page_id=126

For its first few decades, it was notable for tree-stump shaped tombstones that commemorated the lives of members:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crankydragon/1126409225/

Thanks for staying with me...

WOW, clearcut legacy.

If all graveyards bristled with tree stump headstones, would that be an environmental message or just... ironic?