Product Placement

A couple of months ago I went to the store and saw this on sale. Remembering a friend who made chocolate peanut butter drizzled popcorn, I thought I would give it a try. And you know what? I absolutely love it. Really love it. I buy it every time I see it on sale. Even though I love it, for some reason I look at it and I think "something about this seems like it is targeted to the ladies and not dudes like me". I can't explain why, but it just seems that way to me. Well I googled Popcorn Indiana and was greeted in big letters by "125 BEST PACKAGED FOODS FOR WOMEN". Great, just as I suspected. They had a tab for buzz regarding their products so I clicked on it and found that this stuff has been praised in any number of magazines and news sites...for women. Terrific. Just terrific. You know what though? I don't care! I love this stuff and will tear through an entire bag in one sitting if I don't stop myself. Yep, I am standing by it...with all the ladies. Funny thing is that every girl I have offered it to has tried it and shrugged their shoulders saying with no excitement in their voice "it's pretty good" to which I respond with a blank stare as if they have no idea what is going on in the world.

*Popcorn Indiana, feel free to add any or all of this to your buzz and also feel free to send any samples or spare packages my way.

Corruption at the highest levels

This is Malachy, a Pekingese, and he just won the Westminster Dog Show. Congrats Malachy. Who bestowed this honor on Malachy? That would be judge Cindy Vogels, an owner of two Pekingese herself. Does no one else see the problem here? First of all, why is the biggest honor in dogdom determined by a single person? Secondly, why is an obvious Pekingese booster judging a contest between a Pekingese and other breeds? This is an obvious conflict of interest and a bigger judge would have stepped aside to allow for a less influenced official to make the call. How can we ever take the Westminster Dog Show seriously if they are going to allow such biases to exist within its system? I am not sure how else a Pekingese wins this thing. I mean they do look like little Wookies and they do have a storied history, but come on, they're a toy breed. I understand that Labradors can't win every year (even Michael Jordan didn't get the MVP every year he was in the NBA although he probably should have), but a toy breed? Toy breeds are like the Animated Feature of the Academy Awards. They're cute and fun and sure, you might even nominate them here and there for Best Picture, but they don't take home the Oscar. Ever. It would take a truly extraordinary cartoon to ever do that, and shoot, maybe Malachy is that extraordinary of a dog. I hope so. Shame his victory comes cloaked in controversy. I'm sorry what was that? What do you mean no one else is complaining about this?

Wait, what did they say? What was that? Jellicle? What the...?

This sucker was on Broadway for a long time, and even though my 8th grade show choir sang "Memories" once, I only just now saw it for the first time. Maybe its my old age or just the acoustics in that place, but I don't think I understood a word they sang. At first I thought they were saying jelly or maybe Jericho, but jellicle? What the heck is a jellicle anyway? Not to mention the cats' names themselves. I never picked up on any of them. Did you know that one of them was named Alonzo? I mean I understand misunderstanding Munkustrap or some of the other crazy names they have, but how did I miss Alonzo? Thats ordinary enough. Even when they worried about Macavity, I thought they were actually worried about being thrown in captivity. Fortunately there were some youthful ears there to clear this all up for me. Nevertheless despite my difficulties and also the apparent lack of any sort of plot whatsoever, this musical really captures the essence of what a cat is. It doesn't seem to care if you understand it or are even entertained by it and there may be no rhyme or reason to its actions. It just does its thing irregardless of you and that is just like a cat. Bravo, but I'm still a dog person.