eating too many colorful foods

I was perusing the Internet the other day, and I found a blog about food.  I like blogs, and I like food, so it just about has to be good, right?  Well, it was a good time.  But I found something that I had never heard of, and it’s gross, yet it’s intriguing, yet it’s gross…  Okay, if you keep reading, you have been forewarned.  Now onto the unusual comment…

Did you know that if you eat a whole bag of Oreos in one day your poo will be jet black?  Well if you didn’t, you do now.

I’ve eaten a lot of Oreos, but I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten a whole package at one time.  And turds are somewhat brown and blackish most times anyway, so it might be easy to overlook that phenomenon.  But this reminded me of a true story about a former roommate — he went to Cracker Barrel, got the 6 vegetables plate, chose all colla’ greens, and it turned his poop green.  He was excited about this, too…

a new promotional idea for restaurants

I thought of a great marketing scheme for restaurants that have foods with a particular olfactory “signature”.  By that, I mean they have a certain recognizable smell that makes people think of that restaurant.  The example I will provide is Arby’s, where I ate earlier this week with some of the Buffet o’ Blog staff.  Their curly fries are scrumptious, and even the smell of them is good.

So I think places like Arby’s should give promotional (read: free or discounted) meals to a few folks at each company in town every so often, around 11:15, with the restrictions that they eat it at their desk.  Imagine the smell of Arby’s curly fries wafting over the cubicle walls, causing co-workers to drool over the appealing aroma.  This would surely increase sales at Arby’s, because some people would go that day because “it just sounds good” (even though they were unknowingly coerced), and some people would get the idea in their head and start looking for the next convenient time to stop by there.

I think this would work.  They spend a lot of money on TV commercials and other ads, and they have their place, but the smell of curly fries and one of their famous roast beef sandwiches would bring in more people, I think.  It’s easy to overlook TV commercials and radio jingles, but it’s difficult to put aside the idea of Arby’s after smelling those curly fries.

I volunteer the services of the entire Buffet o’ Blog staff (all 3 of us) to participate in this venture.  We will conduct market research and report the effectiveness of our campaign.  Arby’s just needs to provide the food on a recurring basis.  (So if any Arby’s rep is reading this, have your people contact my people.)

What would life on Mars be like?

Could there be life on Mars?  Scientists have long speculated (and continue to do so), although there’s more hope than ever.  They also wonder if humans might ever have a colony there.  But now the question is more like, “Would we want to?”

One of the reasons it’s improbable to find life on Mars is that the atmosphere doesn’t contain oxygen.  And it was thought that all organic life requires oxygen.  But a few years ago an organism was found that can live without sunlight and oxygen.  It’s a methanogen.  They eat hydrogen, breathe carbon dioxide, and belch methane.  A group of these were found in Idaho, living 660 feet underground.  They also exist in the digestive tracts of humans, causing gas.  If these bacteria are what life might be like on Mars, it might be a stinky place.

But there’s more.  Mars stinks naturally.  The surface of the red planet contains a very high concentration of sulfur.  Combined with other acids and minerals on Mars, it forms hydrogen sulphide (H2S), which is that rotten egg smell you may have experienced before.  And not only does it stink immensely, but it can cause headaches, and it is also explosive and poisonous.  So if you were living on Mars, you might be tempted to light a candle to reduce the stench (as some people are accustomed to doing), and KA-BOOM!

I’m thinking I’ll just stay here on Earth.  While there’s a few bad smells to deal with here, it’s not nearly so bad as it would be on Mars.

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my trip to the 2007 Faulkner County Fair

I went to the Faulkner County Fair the other night, to see what-all was going on.  I’ve been to numerous small-town fairs and carnivals, so I expected this one to be bigger and better since it’s in a city of over 50,000 people.  But I was disappointed.  It wasn’t that much different, and everything has become so expensive.  I knew the food would be high, but the rides were even higher!  My wife and I were going to ride the Ferris Wheel, but then we discovered it costs $8 for the two of us, and it’s not that exciting.  Is that the typical going fare for carnival rides now?  It would get expensive real quick to participate in even a quarter of the rides and games there.

Now on to a few less-serious observations.  Seeing the kiddie rides brought back memories of years past.  There was a carousel horse ride, and I remembered riding on it as a kid.  Of course I don’t care about riding it now, but I imagined how it might struggle under my current weight.  Picture it going slow, the music dragging, smoke coming out from underneath…  🙂

There was a rock climbing / wall scaling attraction, and it was kinda funny to see some people try the expert side but then not even get off the first set of handles.  I knew better than to even try that…

We got a candy apple (covered in caramel) there, and it was really good.  Also saw where a concession stand was selling nachos, and I remembered seeing in Walmart a product that advertised itself as the nacho cheese featured in concession stands.  I’m not sure that’s a good way to market your product.  Although when I was a kid, I thought it was good.  But now that I’ve had much better nachos and cheese dip, that “fake” cheese just doesn’t seem so good anymore.  But to each their own…

We did get to see a lot of farm animals, like cows, goats, pigs, and chickens.  There’s nothing like that fresh, natural, barnyard scent, featuring lots of methane and manure.  I guess you get used to it if you work with them.

I was thinking the carnival could’ve been so much more.  I’m sure kids would enjoy it, but there wasn’t a lot of grown-ups.  I would’ve rode the bumper cars, but my long legs don’t fit in there too well anymore.  (I still remember the first time I realized I had become too tall to ride them.  It was a sad day, indeed.)

They should include some virtual reality rides there.  They could be built into a trailer that unpacks, so transport would be easier than the other stuff they had.  And I think a lot of people would be interested in it.  They could also have some state-of-the-art video games.  Maybe next year…

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