I was out earlier today picking up food from Chili’s and as I pulled up to the To-Go entrance, I saw the signs above the spaces and cracked up laughing. I just had to capture it, in case it’s something local to this particular Chili’s. Here it is:

To whoever decided to have these signs made up with this copy text, I salute you.

Tags: Chili’s, marketing, funny, sign

Last year, on April 5th, it snowed in Butler, NJ. Wouldn’t you know it, but this year, it snowed again–even though it isn’t sticking and by 9:26 AM, it seems to have stopped. Here’s a satellite image of the area with the radar overlay showing snow:

Tags: Butler, NJ, weather, snow

Scott Adams blogs about the marvels of the modern airplane cockpit, speculating that airplane manufacturers include many unnecessary controls not connected to anything in order to charge more … and I think he’s absolutely right.

Several years ago, we bought a Sony VCR that had a “Reality Regenerator” button and light on it. I don’t think I want to admit that we chose this VCR over the others because it had this Reality Regenerator, but maybe it played into the decision making. (Congratulations, Sony marketing geniuses.)

So, we were amazed that, no lie, this VCR claims to regenerate reality. I mean, it’s like Jesus in a set-top box. But, exactly what does regenerated reality look like? I’ve owned several VCR’s before this one and several after and let me tell you, Sony’s regenerated reality looks just like the reality of all my other VCR’s. I largely suspect that this was just an unnecessary control that was nothing more than a button connected to a light. Push the button, the light goes on. Push the button, the light goes off. In either state, reality as rendered on the television looked the same. But, we bought the VCR.

I sure hope we didn’t pay more for the VCR than the VCR’s that couldn’t regenerate reality.

Tags:
airplane cockpit,
marketing genius,
Sony,
VCR,
Reality Regenerator,
Scott Adams

So, apparently Chris Rock’s mom, Rose Rock, is newsworthy today: she’s alleging that Cracker Barrel racially discriminated against her.

All I have to say is: what do you expect from a place called “Cracker Barrel”? I mean, I’m not saying it’s okay to racially discriminate–being that I’m not white, either, it sucks when you’re “on the outside, looking in.” But, what, do they need to rename the place “Chez Whiteys” for people to figure it out?

Don’t even get me started on the “Cheesecake Factory” …

Tags:
news,
racism,
Rose Rock,
Cracker Barrel

… I learned from fortune cookies. I have one taped to a monitor sitting on my desk that reads:

“A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he gives up.”

I don’t know why I had to blog this, but I just wanted to remind myself of it and share it with all of you. True wisdom in only 15 words. Word.

Tags:
fortune cookies,
wisdom,
success,
failure

Jason blogs about the evils of Splenda at Netscape. It’s unfortunate that the safety of artificial sweeteners such as Aspartame and Sucralose (Splenda) is still uncertain today.

Here’s the petition to the FDA from July 2002 to recall Aspartame as a neurotoxic drug: Docket 2002P-0317. Here’s a link to an FDA statement from May 2006 on the European Aspartame Study, where the FDA still claims “[…] the agency has not been presented with scientific information that would support a change in our conclusions about the safety of aspartame.”

Here’s the petition to the FDA from April 2006 to revoke regulations that allow Sucralose as a non-nutritive sweetener in food: Docket 2006P-0158. There’s recent studies from earlier this year that suggest Sucralose may be a trigger for migraines: Migraine triggered by sucralose–a case report, Popular sweetner sucralose as a migraine trigger. I suspect there plenty of opportunity to further study Sucralose than has already been performed.

To see a list of scary things that are “safe” to put in foods, check out 21CFR172: Food and Drugs: Food additives permitted for direct addition to food for human consumption. It’s quite scary how many artificial ingredients can be “safely” glommed onto food products.

Remember Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)? Remember how everyone said all sorts of bad things about it? Here’s an article from the FDA about it from August 1995: FDA and Monosodium Glutamate (MSG). It’s a natural flavor enhancer that people tried to create a scare around and spread a lot of FUD about. Fortunately, the FDA still recognizes it as safe.

I’m sympathetic to people who may have been harmed by artificial sweeteners. By explicit preference, in our household, we do not purchase products that contain artificial sweetners: yes, that means my kids get sugar–real sugar–and I’m okay with that, in moderation. I do, however, realize that all these claims (and until there’s scientific proof, that’s all they are) may not be true and I would really hate to see the FDA buckle under pressure of popular opinion and wrongly remove these sweeteners from the market. I also realize that there’s a big difference between scientific information being inconclusive and there being enough evidence to determine safety. I want what everyone should want: foods that are safe to eat. The FDA has the difficult task of trying to provide this.

Tags:
food,
health,
FDA,
Aspartame,
Sucralose,
Splenda

Apparently, the Morris County DOT received a $150K grant from the NJ Transportation and Planning Authority to teach kids to walk to school in Wharton, NJ.

Twenty-three seventh-grade students from a pre-algebra class at MacKinnon Middle School took part in a “walkability” study in March to evaluate three routes to school that were designated safe by the borough police department.

Is this for real? I really want to see what the other routes that weren’t designated safe actually look like. What, are there potholes at the crosswalks or something?

This kind of modern parenting is making me sick to my stomach. If you can’t adequately teach your child to navigate reasonable risk: crossing streets, walking less than 3 miles to school, etc., then how do you ever expect to teach them to handle dangerous risks, like drugs and violence? I’m in favor of reducing unnecessary risks, but you also have a responsibility to teach kids respect for danger and risk by exposing them to it in safe and controlled ways. If you make generally safe activities too safe, you reduce the opportunities for your children to develop the emotional and intellectual tools required to handle danger in situations where it really matters.

I am ashamed of being a parent today, watching what is ridiculous stupidity become “normal.” When it takes $150K to teach a school full of kids to walk less than 3 miles to school safely, we have failed them as parents and educators.

Tags:
education,
child,
safety

Today marks the start of me playing guitar with the children in Sunday school at my church. My guitar-fu is weak, but the only way to get better is to practice, right?

The idea is that the kids have been singing songs in Sunday school a capella, but it’s more fun to sing along to an instrument, right? So, I volunteered to play along on my guitar. Today, I played “Hallelu, Hallelujah!” and the kids sang! I think I played it a little too fast … and the voices of the 20-odd kids really drowned out my unamplified acoustic guitar, anyway. But, it was still lots of fun and I’m looking forward to doing it again next week.

Tags:
church,
music,
guitar