#8 - got crabs?

for the holiday weekend, high school pals chris leduc (boston) & todd martin (virginia/d.c.) decided to meet in the middle at my apartment & catch the july 4th yankees-sox game at yankee stadium.

their travels were a vicious display of contrasts. chris took the day off, sailed down relatively traffic-free from boston around noon & got here around 5pm. todd got on a bus at around 2pm and arrived in nyc after a seven-hour ride in a non-air-conditioned environment that featured an incident where a trail of urine freed itself from the bathroom & rolled its way across the floor all the way to the front of the bus.

in a gesture of friendship/blog prodding, todd brought some snack gifts up with him. the first snack was a moon pie. unfortunately, the moon pie did not hold up through the seven-hour bus ride & now sits in my fridge next to the melted & rehardened snickers charged bar i bought a few weekends ago at a trip to the beach...a chocolate graveyard of sorts. the second snack was a bag of sour gummi bears. the third snack was a bag of utz crab chips.

#8 - got crabs?
snack: utz crab chips
drink: coca-cola classic

saturday night, after two days of nh-style debauchery that included shared glasses of non-wormwood absinthe at the library, there was no way i was doing anything other than sitting at home on my duff...me & my bag of crab chips and a full schedule of the last few days' npr shows.

i tried to come up with a maryland-themed beverage to pair with my bag of crab chips ("potato chips with chesapeake bay crab seasoning"). todd & chris suggested natty boh, a beer that was originally from baltimore & even became the official beer of the city in the 60s before being sold to strohs & then eventually, pabst. it runs in the same crowd as natty light or genese ice. ick. i considered creating a the wire-themed angle, since there are a couple instances in the show when characters are eating crab chips, but the first & only drink that came to mind when i thought of the wire was whiskey. both involved alcohol, which i wanted no part of & the first likely involved leaving the state.

instead, i decided that to commemorate the july 4th weekend, i should just have a cool glass of america's favorite beverage...the beverage produced by a company who shares a rich history with our great nation...coca-cola...of course, by "rich history" i am referring to the rich history of third-party violence in latin america shared by this great nation & coca-cola. land of the free...home of the brave.

#3 - XTREME PROMOTION!!!

back in nh for the evening, i went for a quick drive with my mother down the street to the windham shaw's supermarket. growing up & until less than ten years ago, the area where the shaw's is was forest next to the commuter parking lot. now it is another version of the most well known new england grocery store with its organic/health food section & great deals & fresh produce tips & whatnot.

after perusing a number of aisles for snacks, we eventually ended up at the organic food section, where i picked up a bag of eden organic spicy pumpkin dry roasted seeds. each serving of these organic bad boys contains 16g of fat, but amongst that fat, there are oodles of omegas & poly & mono fats & junk of that nature..."good fats."

on top of this most spicy & healthy purchase, an end cap display caught my attention near the back of the store, a display that featured a snack that paired a certain swashbuckling doctor with a certain candy mainstay...

#3 - EXTREME PROMOTION!!!
snack: adventures of indiana jones mint crisp m&ms
drink: mountain dew voltage

over the years, i've really become more of a nuts man when it comes to m&ms, with almond emerging as my clear favorite amongst the flavors. even in the basic setup, where the candy display features only plain & peanut, peanut wins 99 out of 100 times.

there have been a number of m&m incarnations through the years & there have been a number of mint editions amongst these. these indiana jones mint ones bring a little crunch bar action into the mix & some of them are branded with cute little indiana jones symbols, like ones where the "m's" printed on the candy shell are wearing an indy hat or the evil ones, where the "m" is inside of a CRYSTAL SKULL! these ones are slightly spooky & probably haunted. as told by the legend on their website (which i highly recommend going to so that m&m/mars can claim higher click-thru rates & charge more $ for their online promotions)...

many centuries ago, mayan rulers discovered a minty snack so deliciously crispy that it was hidden in a secret room deep in an underground maze, never to be tasted again...until now.

SPOO. KEY. anyhow, i was always more of a star wars man, so i'm not going to see the movie anyhow...but i will listen to the theme song on constant loop as i type this post.

to wash down my m&ms, i went to the fridge, which my mother had stocked with two twelve packs of mountain dew for my soon-to-be-driving younger brother. the two flavors--voltage & revolution--are part of a promotion that plays off of the current presidential campaign by creating what is cleverly known as a DEWmocracy. get it? i went with voltage, since it seemed more amp'd & i like that in a soft drink.

the story behind the DEWmocracy is that fans of this pepsi beverage get to vote on their favorite of three brand new flavors (all of which contain ginseng, absolutely beloved by the kids these days). at the completion of the campaign (which comes in only 46 days as of today), the most voted-on flavor joins the mountain dew canon. this is all explained quite clearly on the website, which you should go to so that pepsi co can claim higher click-thru rates & charge more $ for their online promotions, etc...

another fun fact...more people will likely vote in this campaign than in the general election. right now, voltage is the clear front-runner in the race. it makes me feel good to have picked a beverage that, if this trend continues, will stand tall as the clear winner on august 1st...voting is totally EXTREME TO THE MAX!!!