nosh nook #178 - wednesday, november 18, 2009

leggo your eggo: there's a waffle shortage (link)
11.18.09 - cnn money - by julianne pepitone

holy calamity! scream "insanity!" will this american nightmare we're living in ever come to an end? we've got mutant flus floating around & health care plans complete with abortion provisions. the economy's spinning down the toilet bowl & last month, the yankees won the world series, essentially ruining baseball for the year. just yesterday, a certain right-wing nutjob from alaska released a brand new memoir & even though she's a bible-thumping crazypants, she's still being thought of as a 2012 presidential candidate, so the book's basically a guaranteed best seller. oh the horror! i thought having a young, smooth-talking black president who can kill flies with his bare hands was supposed to save us from ourselves, or at least from sarah palin. if that's what's supposed to happen, it needs to get to happening real quick.

...& it just gets worse as the word out of battle creek, michigan today is that kellogg is going to have a waffle shortage until some time in mid-2010. a lil neggo on the eggo, no? cnn money reports that because of "flooding at an atlanta bakery" & the need for repairs on "equipment at kellogg's largest waffle facility, based in rossville, tenn," kellogg is now forced to ration their existing waffle supplies. since the shortage "will also affect other eggo products, including pancakes, syrup and other breakfast food," kris charles, a kellogg spokesman, sent out an email telling folks to just chill out for a bit because they're "working around the clock to restore eggo store inventories to normal levels as quickly as possible." no need to panic. eggo is on it. they know how important frozen waffles & frozen waffle accessories are to your diet.

leave it to cnn to get to the heart of the matter with their in-depth coverage. as an example, i submit to you their conversation with "chad, a grocery manager at king soopers in denver who declined to give his last name" but did let them know that they were "seeing some shortage, but not much." the kroger in jackson, MS was seeing shortages, but the fairway here in brooklyn hasn't noticed any change. booyah, brooklyn! keepin them eggos flowin! so yeah, so glad that cnn let us know how three random stores in three random cities are doing eggowise. they also let us know that "eggo enthusiasts took to the internet to mourn the shortage" & provided two random examples from two random twitter accounts to back up their claims. thanks again, cnn. solid reporting.

nosh nook #177 - tuesday, november 17, 2009

does boston have room for more ice cream? (link)
11.16.09 - wbur - by monica brady-myerov

it's official. today marks thirty-five death-free years of life for me & as such, i'm making my way up the east coast via motorcoach for a celebratory evening of food & drinks & dirty projectors with friends in boston. it should be a radical way to pay tribute to my quickly approaching middle age. the best part? it's supposed to be below thirty degrees tonight. the temperature's going to be less than my age. how chilling!

it's obviously perfect ice cream weather, but how about fresh, custom made ice cream from a machine? can i get that? unless i want to trespass on the northeastern campus, i can't get it today, but as wbur reports, next month moobella, a taunton-based company who has developed an "ice cream shop on wheels," will be turning on 100 of their machines "in cafeterias, museums and food courts around new england." they already have one of their machines on the northeastern campus & according to one student "it's a really cool machine."

sure it 's a cool machine (what machine isn't cool?) that creates ice cream for you while you wait, but what sort of effect will it have on the overall ice cream experience? wbur spoke with lynda utterback, from the national ice cream retailers association & she's cool with it, since people aren't going to decide to "take the family to a machine" instead of hitting up mom & pop ice cream joints. plus, as she notes, "there's always room for more ice cream." you said it, ms utterback.

nosh nook #176 - monday, november 16, 2009

blogging moms wooed by food firms (link)
11.15.09 - l.a. times - by p.j. huffstutter & jerry hirsch

i have to admit. "food blogger" is a pretty sweet gig. since starting up eat!drink!snack! in the summer of 2008, the instant fame & celebrity that comes with being a food blogger has helped get me into countless hollywood premieres, backstage parties & supermodels' bedrooms. "oh yeah. eat!drink!snack! you're the guy who's obsessed with snacks, creates ridiculous themes around them & then writes about them all in lower-case letters. i read about you on the internet. come on in, sir. we've got a table with hookers & cristal waiting for you in the back." it's sort of like being a rock star, but with less coke-snorting talent required.

i thought i had it pretty sweet until i read about the l.a. times' article about all the perks that mommy bloggers receive. since moms are influential spenders & usually the target market for mommy bloggers, companies have been flying certain mommy bloggers around the country, introducing them to snacks & other mom-friendly products. in turn, they assume that the mommies will gush about their experiences on their blogs, essentially advertising for the companies. in response, the FTC recently set guidelines saying that starting on december 1st, bloggers have to disclose when companies give them free stuff or perks. thanks a lot, mommy bloggers. now i have to let the government know that doritos gave me a lifetime supply of cool ranch doritos in exchange for making them popular again via eat!drink!snack!

the times writes about one mommy blogger in particular, andrea deckard, who runs the mommy snacks blog. "earlier this year, frito-lay flew her to los angeles to meet celebrities such as model brooke burke and the spice girls' mel b, while pitching her on its latest snack ad campaign." on another occasion, nestle put her & a bunch of other mommy bloggers up in a sweet hotel in pasadena, wined & dined them & sent omaha steaks to their families. deckard notes that "people have accused (mommy bloggers) of being corporate shills," but added that "it's not like (she) sold (her) soul for a chocolate bar." that's true. you didn't sell your soul for a chocolate bar. you sold your integrity for a few trips to cali.

nosh nook #175 - friday, november 13, 2009

'jersey fresh' a mantra in school cafeterias (link)
11.12.09 - philly.com - by james osborne

are you "jersey fresh?" do you possess slicked, oily hair, a shirt half-unbuttoned & a general aura of douchebaggery? do you want to fight me and/or kick my ass? you sir, are jersey fresh. you have enormous hair, overwhelming perfume & orange, leathery skin and/or fake boobs? do your friends call you a "skank?" yeah? sounds like you're a jersey fresh lady, lady. are you stuck between a rock (nyc) & a hard place (philly)? does your turnpike smell funny down around exit 13? you're totally jersey fresh. get down with your mirrortastic bad self. please don't get mad at my depiction of you, jersey. i mock because i love.

according to philly.com, "jersey fresh" has recently become a mantra in school cafeterias. that mantra has nothing to do with AXE body spray & a longing to get laid down at the shore though. this mantra is all about jersey's tubby youth eating healthier. it's a trend in schools these days & if any state's trendy, it's jersey, so they're on board. philly.com's article focuses on one township in particular--cherry hill--where they're going nuts promoting locally grown fruits & veggies to their students. instead of letting them loose on bags of cheetos, they have to worry about students mobbing the fruit cart.

cherry hill's a suburb where the median family income's just under six figures, so i guess they're the perfect demographic for creating an anti-junk food program in the schools. the program puts an emphasis on being a locavore (or as osborne calls it-- "localvore") & gets kids pumped about all jersey-grown fruits & veggies. philly.com asked dittmar gagnon, a senior football player, what he thought about the changes. "i think I'm eating healthier now than in middle school. back then, it was all reheated tacos and other junk. just today, they added cherry tomatoes." cherry tomatoes! they have football players talking about cherry tomatoes! that's the sort of thing that's going to get the cougars crushed in next week's game against atlantic city. i'm not a gambling man, but i'd put money on it.

nosh nook #174 - thursday, november 12, 2009

school safety: 'zero tolerance' policies common sense? (link)
11.12.09 - abc news - by barbara pinto & devin dwyer

back in my day, when there was a fight at school, it was no big thing. a few punches would be thrown, teachers would eventually break it up & the participants would end up suspended or in detention the next day. nobody died or had an eye poked out? no big whoop. we're living in a different time now though. kids bring guns to school & shoot up the place & the buildings have metal detectors & as a result, a bunch of schools have adopted zero tolerance policies for violence in the school. you did some creative writing with a violent scene in it? who do you think you are? stephen king? time to visit the school psychiatrist, chester. welcome to the next millennium.

in chicago last thursday, administrators flexed their zero tolerance muscles when, after a food fight in the cafeteria, "more than two dozen students, ages 11 to 15, were rounded up by police, arrested and charged with misdemeanor reckless conduct." arrested? really? were they throwing knives too? abc news decided to take a look at the incident from the "are some punishments for kids too severe?" angle, wondering "why weren't the students just given detention?" zero tolerance, that's why.

cassandra russell, a thirteen-year old involved in the food fight, believes that the punishment was too severe. she told abc news that "they took us to jail, fingerprinted us, mugshotted us, or whatever, all because of a food fight...i was arrested. handcuffs on." you hear that? they mugshotted her or whatever. plus, she was suspended for three days. her mother was all "who does that? lock children up for throwing a carrot, a biscuit, milk, jello, who does that?" apparently the good people of perspectives charter middle school & the chicago p.d. do that. they don't take kindly to jello tossing. so yeah, it's a good thing that charles gibson took a bigger look at the issue. food fights should get more press. they friggin rule, or at least the ones where you don't end up in jail do.