Wednesday’s Random Stuff

– Corporations might sometimes seem like heartless, impersonal monoliths. But the fact is, even the largest corporations get their inspiration from little guys every now and then. You might know that the Big Mac and Egg McMuffin were invented by individual McDonalds franchisees. Well, you can now add Subway’s $5 footlongs to that list. The idea behind them was hatched by a struggling franchisee in Miami. Read the (surprisingly interesting) story of how $5 footlongs went from one guy’s crazy idea to save his business into a national sales model and annoying jingle at businessweek.com here.

– Speaking of business, Pabst Brewing Company – a “virtual brewer” who contracts all their actual brewing out to Molson – is up for sale. Although Pabst doesn’t brew their own beer any more, they do own a line of iconic beer brands, such as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Style, Ballantine, Lone Star, Olympia, Schaefer, Schmidt, and Stroh’s. PBR’s resurgence in the marketplace has led folks to tag the company’s worth at over $300 million!

– A big THANK YOU goes out to the Belmont Fire Department, whose swift action saved the lives of 8 puppies yesterday morning.

– Tibet is a mountainous country where the ground freezes too hard to bury people and the scarcity of firewood prevents cremation. So how do they get rid of the bodies of the deceased there? By paying monks to smash up the bodies and leaving them for the vultures! It’s called an “sky burial”, and you can read more about it here (warning: gruesome pictures included!).

– And lastly, if you like your humor with a side of intellectualism, you’ll probably enjoy the Nietzsche Family Circus, which pairs a random Family Circus cartoon with a quote from one of Germany’s most famous philosophers. The results are usually pretty funny (refresh the page to see a new one).

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