Category: In the News

100 years of Oreos

Nom nom nom

This week the Oreo cookie turned 100 years old.  What a great invention it was!  Can you imagine how the inventor felt when he first created it?  And when he first dipped it in milk?

Here’s a “fact” about Oreos you may not know.  There are 3 rows of Oreos per package because there are actually just 3 servings per package.  That makes it easy to limit yourself to one serving per serving.  🙂

That may not pass intellectual muster, but here’s a true fact.  Sales of Oreos in 2011 were over $2 billion.  That’s a LOT of cookies!  On a semi-related note, Kraft Foods, who owns the Oreo brand, also sells Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, which is turning 75 this year.

I wonder what the next great food-related invention will be…  We tend to take great food for granted, but there are times in history when there was no such thing as chocolate-chip cookies, or Oreos, or Cheetos, or cheese dip.  (I can’t imagine life without cheese dip!)  There has to be some next great food out there just waiting to be discovered.

new Darwin Award nominee

There is no shortage of contestants for the annual Darwin Awards.  If you aren’t familiar with them, it’s a list of people who do incredibly stupid stuff that gets them killed.  I don’t keep up with it regularly, but I just heard about what will surely be an entry for 2012.

A man in North Carolina drank some gasoline and then smoked a cigarette.  You’d think common sense would apply, but it didn’t.  Also, somehow he made it to 43 years old.  The man was at a friend’s apartment when he apparently mistook a jar of gasoline sitting by the kitchen sink for a beverage.  Later, he went outside to smoke and burst into flame.

That’s about all the details in the news article, but it leaves so much to question.  Here’s what I immediately think of:

1) Did he not smell the gasoline before he drank it?
2) Why was a jar of gasoline by the kitchen sink?
3) Why wouldn’t he go to the hospital after drinking gasoline?
4) Shouldn’t he have realized gasoline is highly flammable and thus smoking would be really dangerous?

If you have any potential answers to those questions, feel free to leave a comment…

Occupy Denver elected dog as leader

If he could wield a lightsaber, maybe...

For a while the “occupy” movement was getting a lot of attention, with people camping out in city parks and such.  I figure there are valid points to be made, but some of them are hard to take seriously.  For example, the Occupy Denver movement elected a Border Collie to be its leader.  The dog’s owner was inspired to do this by a speech from Michael Moore.

That’s all I know about the story, and I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to know more.  I don’t know that more details would make it more intelligible…

I just don’t get it.  Is that supposed to make some statement?  What kind of message are they giving?  Are they begging for handouts / treats?

taking your pet to church

I heard there’s a church that lets you bring your pets to service now.  Apparently it’s been good for their attendance, but I have to wonder if they ever asked themselves: WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?  Seems like there’s quite a few potential issues, and by “potential” I mean likely will happen.  Let’s look at a couple of scenarios.

1) Animals like to explore and smell things.  So they’re going to want to wander around.  Not only would that be a distraction, but it would lead to #2.

2) Fighting.  Are cats and dogs going to suddenly get along because they’re in church?  I doubt it.  It’ll end up like a Looney Tunes episode where the dog is chasing Sylvester, who is chasing Tweety Bird.  It makes for a funny cartoon, but not so great in real life, especially during something as important as a church service.

3) Animals poop.  Well, to be fair, humans do too, but we usually go to a bathroom for such things.  It would be a huge distraction to have animals urinating and pooping all over the place.  Even if you had litter boxes, some indoor pets aren’t housebroken.  (I know, that seems inconceivable, but I know someone who keeps a dog inside who isn’t housebroken. I just don’t understand.)  Either way, poop is distracting, as well as unsanitary.

I could go on, but I figure that’s enough reasons why you wouldn’t allow people to bring their pets to church with them.  What do you think?