- There are just some constants in life that we don’t just want to count on; we NEED to be able to rely on them. No, I’m not referring to the supposed Earth-shaking announcement this week that there is supposedly a new Zodiac sign that is going to change everyone’s astrological symbol - assuming you believe in worthless, asinine crap like Zodiac symbols. Instead, I’m alluding to the disheartening news that, as of Friday and in the state of Missouri, Girl Scout cookies will be changing their long-standing names that cookie eaters have come to know and love them by. For example, Do-Si-Dos will now be called Peanut Butter Sandwich cookies. Tagalong cookies are now called Peanut Butter Patties and shortbreads are the new name for Trefoils. Oh, and Samoas will now be known as Caramel deLites. Why the change, you ask? Because the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri have switched bakeries from Little Brownie Bakers to ABC Bakers. Due to strict licensing agreements (yes, for Girl Scout cookies), those two companies are the only ones allowed to make Girl Scout cookies. However, the two bakeries have different recipes and cookie names. Additionally, licensed bakers can offer a maximum eight varieties of Girl Scout Cookies and three of them are mandatory: Thin Mints, Peanut Butter Sandwich, and Shortbread. One lone cookie escaped the name change frenzy: the Thin Mint. That makes sense because if you change the name of the best-seller of all Girl Scout cookies, then you’re really asking for a fight. The newly minted (pun intended) types of Missouri Girl Scout cookies went on sale this weekend and as always, the price of one box is $3.50. Just make sure you look closely at what you’re ordering because this time around, things have changed………
- Among all of the issues threatening to derail next season in the NFL by preventing players and owners from reaching a new collective bargaining agreement, suffice it to say that no one is pointing to the league mandating that all players wear thigh pads and knee pads as a major point of contention. Increasing the regular season to 18 games? Sure. A rookie salary scale? Yup. Implementing HGH testing? Absolutely. But whether or not players trying to increase their speed and agility by removing all leg pads? Not so much. As odd as it might seem, owners have lodged major complaints with the practice because players who remove those pads have shown a tendency to suffer injuries that cause them to miss playing time. Prime examples came late in the season, as Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson collided with quarterback Tavaris Jackson on a handoff and suffered a thigh injury that caused him to miss a game and Eagles quarterback Michael Vick needed special protection for a similar thigh injury when he played in his team’s wild-card playoff game against Green Bay. Currently, players have the choice of whether or not they wear knee and thigh pads, but speculation is that practice may end with this year's Super Bowl. According to league and team sources, the injury trends of quad injuries and knee bruises will be a major focal point of discussion for the competition committee when it makes a recommendation on the issue to the owners in March. Even if the owners elect not to make knee and thigh pads mandatory, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell could simply order the changes for next season without a vote of the owners - whenever that next season actually happens. In fact, the league has already commissioned equipment makers to produce uniform leg pants that would incorporate the lightest, safest thigh and knee pads -- with the pads stitched into the pants rather than inserted and removed by the players. Any change that is ultimately made will have ample evidence to support it, as injury research has focused heavily on thigh and knee pads. Assuming that there is a season that starts in the fall, all of this might actually matter some time soon…………
- Fanboys, you’ve proven your mettle once again. Comic book adaptations on the big screen received another vote of confidence this weekend as The Green Hornet debuted at No. 1 with a strong showing of $34 million. It bested fellow newcomer The Dilemma and last week’s top film, True Grit, as it opened in more theaters than any other top 10 movie. Speaking of Vince Vaughn’s latest lame, unimaginative and formulaic romantic “comedy,” The Dilemma finished second with a so-so showing of $17.4 million in its first weekend. That was enough to push it past True Grit, which dropped off a scant 23 percent in its fourth weekend and made an additional $11.2 million to boost its cumulative total to $126.4 million after an impressive first month in theaters. Contrasted with the film’s modest $38 million budget, that total seems even more impressive. Making the biggest jump of any top 10 film was the weekend’s fourth-place film, The King’s Speech, which added 785 theaters to its stable, more than doubling that number from last weekend and nearly doubling its earnings (a 42-percent increase) to $9.1 million. To have your earnings still trending upward after eight weeks in theaters is impressive, so don’t focus too much on Speech’s $44.6 million overall tally. Also trending upward was Black Swan, which remained fifth for a second straight weekend and increased its earnings by one-tenth of one percent by adding 744 theaters in its seventh week of release. For this frame, Swan made $8.2 million and has made $73 million overall. In the bottom half of the top 10 were: Little Fockers (No. 6 and dropping - just not fast enough to match its low quality - with $7.2 million and a four-week total of $134 million), Tron Legacy (No. 7 with $5.7 million, a 43-percent drop from last weekend and yet enough to elevate the film to $157 million through five weeks of release), Yogi Bear (No. 8 and slowing its descent a bit for one week by earning $5.4 million for $82 million and counting through five weeks), The Fighter (No. 9 with $5.2 million in its sixth week for a cumulative take of $65.7 million and counting) and Season of the Witch (free-falling from a disappointing third place in its opening weekend to No. 10 in its second frame with an embarrassing $4.5 million and a two-week total of $18 million). Dropping out of the top 10 from last weekend were Tangled (No. 11) and Country Strong (No. 12)………
- Welcome to the side of good in the proverbial battle of good vs. evil, Serbia. After years of shelling towns in Croatia and Bosnia and supporting Serb rebels when they attacked civilians in those newly independent nations and cultivating a reputation as international a-holes in many corners of the globe under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia is looking to turn things around and repair their tarnished image by participating in overseas peacekeeping missions. Instead of nationalism, aggression and war crimes, Serbs are trying to build an image as international guardians of peace. The paradigm shift as apparent at an army center on the outskirts of Belgrade that was once a training ground for soldiers fighting in the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo is now a place where Serbian soldiers are preparing to be guardians of the peace in places like Chad, Cyprus, Lebanon and Somalia. Trainers from the United States and other members of NATO are in Belgrade dispensing guidance in the same city their forces bombarded back in 1999 to halt Serbia’s military crackdown on the secessionist province of Kosovo. In fact, Serbian soldiers are already serving in U.N. units in Congo, Chad, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Cyprus and Lebanon. Serbian leaders eventually plan to expand their efforts into 40-member platoons, to be followed by companies of 180 soldiers and even larger units. "We are the first soldiers from our country. We hope that after this mission the image of Serbia will be better," said Staff Sgt. Alexander Beocanin, part of a seven-man Serb unit serving with the U.N. force on the divided island of Cyprus. Beocanin and his men patrol the U.N.-controlled buffer zone separating the Greek Cypriot south from the Turkish Cypriot north, monitoring and observing the zone and preventing anyone from straying into it. "We have so much experience in war; now we want peace," Beocanin said. Serbia’s ambitions are certainly lofty, including joining the 12,500-strong U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, which has monitored the border with Israel for the past 32 years. Imagining former warmongers as proponents of peace may be difficult and time some time to get used to for the world, with many still possessing vivid memories of Milosevic's reign of terror in the 1990s that included sheltering war crimes suspects, allegations of genocide and senseless brutality across several countries. President Boris Tadic is behind the push to clean up Serbia’s image and another key part of those efforts is the quest to join the European Union, which recently received a major boost when the bloc agreed to review Serbia's candidacy. Regardless of whether you buy into all of this new image talk or not, it is nice to see someone trending the other way when it comes to the whole war/peace dynamic…………
- Irony, thy name is chewy snack bars. This story comes in the form of a warning to anyone who has purchased a Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Cherry Chew Bar, Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Sour Apple Chew Bar or Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Blue Raspberry Chew Bar from Circle City Marketing and Distributors, which trades as Candy Dynamics, Indianapolis. Buying any food product with the label Toxic Waste should be a hint, but clearly it was not enough of a deterrent because the company and Food and Drug Administration have announced a “voluntary” recall of Toxic Waste Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars because one lot was found to have high levels of lead - 0.24 parts per million, as opposed to the FDA tolerance of 0.1ppm. The recall applies to all flavors of Toxic Waste brand Nuclear Sludge Chew Bars in a net weight 0.7oz package. I do so love it when these “voluntary” recalls take place because calling them voluntary is akin to calling NFL offseason team activities voluntary; they are such in name only. But before you get all up in arms about an American company putting out products heavy in lead, just know that the blame for that isn’t on us……it’s on Pakistan, where the bars were made. According to the California Department of Public Health, lot number 8288A (cherry flavor) had levels of lead which have the potential to cause health problems, especially among small children, infants and pregnant mothers - the same groups that are warned against riding roller coasters at major amusement parks. If you’re the type who actually buys disingenuous corporate bullsh*t, then you’ll be happen to know that Candy Dynamics is recalling all lots and flavors distributed since 2007 "out of an abundance of caution.” A company spokesman was quick to point out that other Toxic Waste brands are not affected by this recall and that the FDA, CDPH or the company itself have not received any reports of illnesses or adverse events linked to these recalled products. Even though the recall is centered in California, consumers affected by it could be anywhere in the United States, as Nuclear Sludge Chew Barswere sold and distributed throughout the country to retail outlets and via mail order. Just a fun note to wrap up your weekend on in case you needed a pick-me-up………
No comments:
Post a Comment