Package Sizes

The POD has had it up to here with food and other manufacturers that ignore "normal" sizes. I do not know if it was the Yogurt Makers or the Ice Cream makers that struck first. Yogurt was sold in a regular recognized size, 8 ounces or a cup. This is a standard measure. Then, one day, the yogurt makers started selling Yogurt in 6 ounce measures. That's not a standard size. The only reason that they got away with it is that the Yogurt makers realized that the sheep that are the American consumer would not notice the change. (I complained to them and they said that it was a "consumer preference" as the result of surveys. To that I say that one can write a survey question to get support for just about any proposition).

The Ice Cream makers were even more brazen. They advertised the "space saver" package which took less space in the Freezer. Of course it took less space in the freezer. It contained only 1.75 quarts of ice cream, not a full half gallon. And this "size creep" continues to occur just about every time a manufacturer "repackages" a product in some "fancy" new box or container.

Starbucks is the latest to do this. Do you know what a "venti" stands for? Venti means "twenty". It is the size of the drink. Well not at Starbucks.... Venti no longer means twenty.....


Does this happen in the rest of the world? No, not really. Much of the rest of the world has specific regulations about important consumer products. In Italy, for example, all pasta must be sold in packages of set weights (250 and 500 gram, 1 kilo and 2.5 kilo).

Let's all start to say "no" to this practice and tell the manufacturers to stick to standard sizes.

You Say Torino and I say Turin

The current Winter Olympics coverage is making me mad. Every time the commentators talk about the "lovely city of Torino" or the "Torino Games" or the like. The name of the City in English, the language in which I am watching the games is Turin. Just as the Italians say Napoli, Roma, Fierenze, and Milano, the English names for these Cities are Naples, Rome, Florence, and Milan. Do the Mediots say welcome to "Torino, Italia" or talk about the team from "Italia". No. Its Tornio, Italy or the team from Italy.

Its affected, its an attempt to pretend to be "sophisticated", and its stupid.

Just as the comment that Shani Davis is the first "African American" to win an individual gold medal at the Winter Games. Assuming that the degree of skin pigmentation is relevant, which may well be a bit of an assumption, that is understating his accomplishment. He is the first person of African descent to win a Gold Medal at the Winter Games.

As for the actual coverage, NBC has chosen to bring us the X-Games, not the Olympics. And not all of us are focused solely on whether this or that American won the medal.

Functionally Illiterate, Stupid or Arrogant?

It seems to the POD that society is quickly becoming either functionally illiterate, stupid or arrogant or a combination thereof. The "perfect" example of this occured yesterday at the Grocery Store. My local grocery store, in an effort to "elminate" Customer service has added numerous self check outs (in which you do most of the work which used to be performed by the employees of the store and don't get a discount for doing so), has eliminated lanes, and completely eliminated "express" lanes operated by real people. So the POD was standing in a self-check express lane (actually a lane that lead to TWO self-check express lanes). Sadly in front of POD were two individuals who were funcionally illiterate, stupid, arrogant or a combination thereof. Both had well more than the 10 items in their basket (POD counted 43 unique items in one of the baskets (and numerous multiscan non-unique items like cat food) and 65 in the other. Both had it pointed out to them that it was an "express lane", both of them said that they had not seen the sign... and continued to check out. Neither of them understood how to use a self checkout. Both would scan an item and then not put it in the bags on the other side (the weight verifiers) and would then stand there looking irritated at the self checkout until an employee arrived to punch in a "store code" and tell them to put it in the bag. And then, not being single trial learners, they would repeat the same process a few items later. One of them put Bananas on the scanner and waited for the Bananas to "magically" be scaned. POD went up and showed this person that she had to hit the right buttons. Then it came time to pay.... and again.... no concept of how to do it. Finally payment was made and the change was dispensed. And clueless stood there waiting to put the bags back in her cart and slowly and carefully counting her change (and blocking the scanner (and the now very long line of irritated people with fewer than 10 items) from the POD).

If you do not know how to use a self checker, don't use it when the lines are long. Learn to use a simple piece of machinery like this on your own time, not on my time.

Right Turns on Red and the Destruction of Society

Is allowing a right turn on red a major contributor to the breakdown of society?
Yes, I realize at first glance, that this sounds silly, but I hope that you will bear with me and listen to my argument.

The other day, when I was driving the car, my daughter asked me why I had gone through a red light. I asked what she meant, and she referred to the fact that I had turned right at a red light. She told me that "red meant stop". I tried to explain the concept of "red" and it quickly dawned on me that she was thinking that I was telling her that red was a "conditional" concept... and that Red meant stop, except when it did not. And I quickly noticed throughout the rest of the day that at least some of her behavior was impacted by this. My command of "no, don't do that" was less respected and so forth. What it appears that we are doing is teaching our children that laws do not represent absolutes, but rather are there to be obeyed or ignored at our pleasure. The concept of "right on red", as a nationwide concept, is now about 35 years old. (Its older in California). We now have whole generations that have been "taught" to conditionally obey the law.

And, of course, adding to all of this are "silly" new laws in which we regulate (or overregulate) just about everything.... from overly complex food and nutrition labels which bury real information in a morass of information to ridiculous no smoking policies which unfairly stigmitize smokers.... what's next....

Welcome to a New Blogger

Welcome to a new blogger -- http://recessbooks.blogspot.com/ who will be posting about books from an interesting perspective.

Farewell Sweet Prince...

Walter Mitty, great big Kitty, has now been lovingly laid to rest. And after he was laid to rest, we gathered together and remembered some of the wonderful times that we had with this very special kitty. The last week or so has been pretty rough on everyone as we keep coming across little things that remind us of Walter and how much he was an active presence in our lives. It is finally, slowly, beginning to sink in that we will never again see that big tummy flapping in the breeze, nor hear that plaintive little mew of hunger (even if we really did not believe it). But hopefully, as we move on, we will remember the good times more and more, and the pain will further recede.