One of those surprises came during a visit to Eglin Air Force Base on the Florida panhandle, where he went to see the old-growth long-leaf pine forest.

CNN: Trekking 5,000 miles to connect man and wildlife

And a lot of those gardeners use pollution-spewing leaf blowers all year long.

NPR: L.A. Looks to Cut Smog with Leaf Blower Trade-In

With all due respect to Nissan and its nifty electric Leaf, BMW, long aligned with the idea of performance, decided it needed to understand more about driver behavior before introducing its own battery-powered electric vehicle.

FORBES: Volkswagen, BMW Understand What It Takes To Stand Out

On Leaf Cay, for example, yard-long rock iguanas sun themselves with a languor unbecoming an endangered species.

FORBES: Blackbeard's Beach

So, on this bit of tea-leaf reading, we're off to the races so long as shares don't fall more than that 2.5% today.

BBC: Will 2013 be a bull year for shares?

For inspiration, McCann staffers could scrounge up, for example, a link to a recent long-form video produced for Nissan last fall as a promotion for Leaf.

FORBES: Memo To McCann, Mahoney: Come Up With Better Volt Ads

Kenneth Cobonpue, who has long worked in a nautical vernacular, weaving abaca onto pebble- and leaf-shaped steel frames, now produces seating and tables inspired by fishermen's nets.

WSJ: Nautical Home Design: D��cor Takes to the Seas

Giganotosaurus hunted Argentinosaurus in packs, stalking and felling the giant leaf-eater on the open savannah before ripping its flesh apart with serrated teeth eight inches long - teeth which protruded from a skull bigger in size than a modern-day bathtub.

BBC: The dinosaur route of northwest Patagonia