Showing posts with label bad ideas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bad ideas. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Reviews of New Cereals, Plus More Examples of the Taxing Life of Being a Cat that Sleeps All the Time

First, my brother and his girlfriend were in town this week, enjoying the rain, and we went to the Quarry House for some more pickles

then down the street to AFI for the Robert Mitchum retrospective, which was playing Thunder Road. If you haven't seen it, Mitchum plays a moonshine runner through the hills of Tennessee in the 50s. He is easily the toughest, most smooth-talking Tennessee moonshine runner I've ever seen on film, with nary a hint of a southern accent. Verdict: rent it, then go to DollyWood and ride Thunder Road: the Ride.


So. The other day at the grocery store I looked at the cereal aisle, which I never do because I never eat cereal. What I learned there was that the nation's cereal manufacturers have lost their damned minds. For serious, look: Froot Loops with Darkberries? What, did they run out of types of berries to add, so they just made up Darkberries? Or was it the fact that they're not berries at all, so you had to make up a new word that connotes berries but isn't tied to the idea that there is actually fruit in the cereal? Why not Goozleberries or Flibbleberries? Either of those names would be cooler and less ominous-sounding than Darkberries.


In other Froot Loops-makes-up-words-news, here is this thing called Froot Loops Smoothie, which includes "Yogurty-covered pieces," which might be the grossest thing I've ever heard about.


And Frosted Flakes has entered the small-but-growing energy drink/cereal crossover world.


And now the magazines in the grocery stores, they tell you what you think before you even think it. Like here where they tell me that I don't think Hilary Duff is edgy.









I got bored yesterday and played a free poker tournament online. I won a ticket to another tournament which if I win will give me a seat to this year's World Series of Poker. I predict that should be easy enough.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Good Ideas Gone Wrong

Last night we went to see a movie. Once, I enjoyed seeing intellectually stimulating, or sad, or enigmatic independent films, largely in other languages and with budgets around $6500 US. Later, I became an adult and realized that movies aren't about learning things; they're about being entertained with as little thought as possible.

So instead of There Will Be Blood's thought-provoking, nuanced portrayals of a tormented American archetype, we went to see Be Kind Rewind, where movie stars make their own versions of popular American movies. It was good. And don't be fooled! Making your own version of a movie is harder than it seems. Cf. their version of Rush Hour v. an amateur's version of Ghost. Hint: the amateur's version suxxx.

After the movie we went to Clyde's for their 1/2 price raw bar happy hour, at which point the bartender convinced us that in lieu of two dozen oysters and a lobster cocktail we could spend ten dollars more and get Clyde's ShellfishStravaganza, which includes a dozen oysters, a dozen clams, a dozen jumbo shrimp, a dozen crab claws, and a lobster. Why not? It's only midnight, right? Should sit well.


Iodine poisoning is a bummer, but the food was delicious.

In other versions of ideas that started in a good place and end in grotesque excess, here's a picture of my neighbor's van, which he repainted in his backyard a couple months ago:


In tiny letters, it says "Boycott" and "purveyors around "Veal."

BONUSBONUSBONUS Don't forget that March Madness® Selection Sunday® is on Sunday. Get ready for my purely speculative (in that I've only watched three games all season) bracket to win the whole shebang.

SUPERBONUS Everyone who starred in "Roadhouse" is dying of cancer. Please, the following should see a doctor:

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Don't Question My Judgement

Still waiting on new camera.
In the meantime, this seems like a spectacularly bad idea.

BONUSBONUSBONUS PJ WINKLEMAN SLUTTING IT UP