nosh nook #160 - friday, october 23, 2009

to complete your day, the windows 7 whopper (link)
10.22.09 - cnet - by scott stein

it's official, geek faces. yesterday, microsoft finally unleashed windows 7, their latest & greatest operating system, on the world. from what i've read, this time, rather than adding a bunch of useless, buggy crap to their new release, they focused on improving & streamlining what they had. that's right. as of yesterday, if you wanted to upgrade your pc's OS, all you had to do was hop on a torrent site & grab yourself a free copy. thanks, technology! we need to get excited people! this weekend, you should throw a windows 7 torrenting party to celebrate!

since they love new technology in japan, they're wicked excited about windows 7. according to cnet, to commemorate the release, japan's burger kings started selling "windows 7 whoppers" yesterday. the sandwich is seven patties & five inches tall & when they introduced it, it was "for a special price of 777 yen ($8.50); at least, for the first 30 customers." burger king's been known for pulling some slightly inappropro promo stunts over the last decade or so & this one has to be up there in the top three.

as cnet points out, it's interesting that they're pairing an OS "touted as 'leaner and meaner'" with a gut-busting sandwich. seriously, i don't see how anyone but kobaishi could eat this thing. as it is, a triple whopper has 1160 calories, so the windows 7 whopper has to be somewhere in the 2500 calorie range. that's like a whole day's worth of calories for a salary man. on a related note, the this is why you're fat book comes out next tuesday. i guess the windows 7 whopper won't be featured until their next book.

nosh nook #159 - thursday, october 22, 2009

pending approval, snyder's to acquire utz (link)
10.22.09 - york daily record - by sean adkins

one summer, when i was but a prepubescent boy, my family rented a caravan & drove down to hershey, PA to visit hershey park. we never did disney world or land, but we did do busch gardens (virginia) as part of a joint colonial williamsburg trip one summer & hershey another summer...deliciously fun. besides hershey, pennsylvania's home to some of the prominent snack food manufacturers. there's utz, which has been around since the harding administration. there's wise potato chips, which is surprisingly not owned by some food conglomerate. there are the two snyders--snyder of berlin & snyder's of hanover. twizzlers (now owned by hershey) & planters (now owned by kraft) both got their start there. snackwise, it's pretty much the best state.

as the york daily record reports, the big news in the PA snack world this week is that, pending FTC approval, two of the hanover businesses--utz & snyder's--are becoming one, as snyder has gobbled up utz. luckily for the town of hanover, carl e lee, jr (president/CEO of snyder's) "doesn't anticipate any job losses as a result of the sale." in fact, combining the two companies will "lead to additional sales and manufacturing jobs...as (they) grow both brands and expand the new company." one worker noted that it would help them better compete with frito-lay. i'm all for that.

at the moment, utz is primarily based on the east coast, but snyder's is a nationwide brand with four times more sales than utz & has been around for over a decade longer. i know all this because in the article, the york daily record does a darn good job of breaking down what the deal means for both companies & their workers. they even include a little "at a glance" segment at the end to reinforce the key points of the deal. from what they tell me, it looks like it's a good deal for all involved. anyway, some solid reporting there, mr adkins. snack on, hanover.

nosh nook #158 - wednesday, october 21, 2009

britney spears ditches junk food (link)
10.20.09 - metro

hey, did you know that britney spears is still relevant? apparently she is because she's been all over the gossip columns the past few days. unfortunately for her, it's because of the media's infatuation with her weight & not because of her music. i guess the upside is that this time it's because she's looking all skinny hot & not because she's put on a few pounds...& she's not shaving her head or going batshit crazy these days, so i guess that's good too.

the metro is just one of the many news outlets who decided to pick up a story about how britney's been down in mexico rocking the bikini bod. her secret? a change in diet. britney used to enjoy "feasting on fried chicken, mashed potato and frappuccinos but has now found a taste for low calorie fish." that's right, folks. britney has fallen in love with sushi & the results are apparently outstanding. according to the stylist from her latest music video, a song about threesomes, she was energetic & "even sang live with the words." good for her.

here's what i don't get though. she's been a mega-star for how long & she's just now discovering sushi? it's not as bad as madonna never trying pizza, but it's pretty surprising nonetheless. i guess she didn't have many opportunities to eat sushi growing up in louisiana, but doesn't she live in l.a. now? there are approximately one bazillion sushi joints there. hasn't she hung out with jeremy pivens at least once? oh well. at least she has control of her junk food habit. that's more than she can say for her "music."

pumpktoberfest #10 - and we all shine on.

pumpktoberfest #10 - and we all shine on.
film: the shining
beer: jack's pumpkin spice ale



man, jack nicholson used to be such a friggin awesome actor. easy rider? loved it. five easy pieces? outstanding. one flew over the cuckoos nest? batman? the shining? all brilliant performances. with nicholson, the last film of his that i can stand him in is a few good men. everything after that can suck it. i don't care if he won an oscar for as good as it gets or was uproariously funny in anger management. he's been a caricature of himself for some time now, giving us more of a "jack crazy" shtick than actual acting. i find it kind of sad, really. he used to be so good back when he didn't feel the need to tear down the curtains to make a scene work.

the shining, released in 1980, is our second steven king film this pumpktoberfest season & arguably the best film out of all that have come from king's books. it's a good story, but it helped that the film was directed by stanley kubrick, who for the most part rules & that jack nicholson didn't suck yet. in the film, he plays jack torrance, a writer & the husband of a family acting as caretakers at a hotel for the winter. we learn that their son has something called "the shining" that lets him see into the future & past & because of it, he sees a bunch of murdered people at the hotel. eventually, jack goes crazy because they're holed up in the hotel & he tries to murder his family. it's got creepy kids, an elevator with a bunch of blood in it & lots of "jack crazy," but in a good way...a classic horror film.

have you ever thought about what it might be like to have somebody take a leak right into your mouth? i hadn't either, but then i tried jack's pumpkin spice ale, put out by michelob & i got a pretty good idea what the experience would be like. this stuff is just absolutely awful. as a pumpkin beer, i just...i mean did they even try to make it taste like pumpkin? there are definitely spices in the beer, but they're very weak. as it is, michelob is an awful beer. it's just plain terrible. they could've put a TON of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger & clove in & tried to mask the pure evilness that is tasting a michelob, but they didn't.

i guess i can't fault michelob for trying to come out with different beers, but i'm baffled as to how they could have thought that somebody would drink their pumpkin beer & go "wow. this tastes really good." it's just unfathomable. since they realized that people sometimes like it when their beer tastes good, michelob now brews almost twenty different kinds of beers, including a seasonal series (which the pumpkin atrocity is part of), a marzen & a dunkel weisse. i've tried their shock top wheat beer & that at least tasted like a wheat beer, so i guess there's a chance that one of their other beers is worthy of drinking, but after trying the pumpkin spice ale, i'm not holding my breath until i find it.

nosh nook #157 - tuesday, october 20, 2009

a new coke? well, it's smaller (link)
10.19.09 - the washington post - by jane black

aren't tiny things TOTALLY THE BEST? babies? usually cuter than regular humans. pygmy pot bellied pigs? best pet ever. the mini me guy? one of the great actors of our time. frosted mini wheats? shit. do they even make non-mini wheats any more? it's just a fact of life. tinier = awesomer. trust me, nobody would have paid any attention to gary coleman if he was 6'2". it's indisputable. coca-cola's no dummy, so later this year, they're bringing their version of tiny to the world of soda.

the washington post reports that in december, coca-cola will be releasing 7.5 ounce cans of coke in nyc & d.c. before releasing them nationwide in march & rolling out 7.5 ounce versions of their other products. since we americans are a bunchy of fatties, it's coca-cola's way of helping us "manage (our) calorie intake while still enjoying the beverages (we) love," with only 90 calories per can. that's less than half the calories of a regular can of coke. btw, coca-cola, you can use that line in your ad campaigns if you like, free of charge from eat!drink!snack!

in addition to the tiny lil cans, coca-cola's doing a number of things to encourage healthy lifestyles among their consumers. just a few days ago, they "joined other food manufacturers to launch the healthy weight commitment foundation, which aims to educate parents, teachers and children about 'energy balance.'" i can see the literature now..."it's ok if your child drinks fifty cans of coke a day because they'll be so full of energy that they'll run those calories right off. sponsored by coca-cola." the day after setting up the foundation, coca-cola "announced a partnership with the american academy of family physicians 'to develop consumer education content on beverages and sweeteners.'" i remain skeptical about how genuine they are about people's health. maybe if they took HFCS out of their american beverages, i'd could start taking them seriously.