Month: October 2007

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Captain Obvious Strikes Again!

Captain ObviousRemember that post from a week or so ago when I linked to an MSN article about silly academic studies? Well it seems that Captain Obvious has struck again!

According to this study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, girls that post pictures of themselves on personal web pages or social networking sites are (wait for it…) far more likely to be contacted by strangers than either boys or girls that don’t post their pictures.

I suppose that researchers need actual hard evidence of this to confirm their studies or justify their budgets or whatnot… but come on people! You mean dirty old men might stop and leave a nasty\unwanted message on a teenage girl’s MySpace profile, but that same person would skip over boy’s profiles or profiles with no pictures? Really? Seriously?

Color me shocked. (/sarcasm)

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A sweet story…

As you are all too aware, customer service in this country sucks. Some companies simply grow too fast too quickly, and customer service gets lost in the shuffle. Some companies expand by buying other companies, and it simply takes a long time for the existing systems to be “connected” properly. Some companies simply grow too large for customer service to be effective. Other companies see customer service as a drain on profits and farm their support services out to the cheapest offshore company. And lots of companies just don’t care about customer service.

At one time or another, most of us have been trapped in a customer service nightmare of endless phone trees, service reps that offer ineffective solutions or try to get you off the phone as quickly as possible, repeating the same information over and over again… It’s like something Kafka might have dreamed up. But one company isn’t like that at all: Zappos.com.

Zappos.com is an Internet shoe store. I’ve ordered from them twice and found their service to be outstanding (although I never had reason to call them for anything). But then I read the story of Zaz Lamarr.

It seems that Ms. Lamarr bought a couple of pairs of shoes from Zappos and found that they didn’t fit. She arranged to return them, but sadly, her mother passed away and Zaz found herself busy with making funeral arrangements, settling her mom’s affairs, and well… mourning. After a few days had passed, Zappos emailed her to ask where the shoes were. Zaz emailed back telling them that her mom had died and that she would call UPS when she got the chance.

The next day, Zappos emailed her back, apologizing for her loss and informing her that they’d arranged for UPS to come out and pick them up – all she had to do was seal up the box and put the on her doorstep. And if that weren’t sweet enough, when Zaz came home the next day from running errands, Zaz says that “a florist delivery man was just leaving. It was a beautiful arrangement in a basket with white lilies and roses and carnations. Big and lush and fragrant. I opened the card, and it was from Zappos. I burst into tears.”

Now THAT’S customer service, people! Let’s hope that anyone from Comcast, US Air, Delta, Wal Mart and any of the other giant American companies read that article… soon!

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Mexican Hot Dogs!

OK, this isn’t so much a “recipe” as it is “something I came up with one night”. But it tastes pretty darn good, if I do say so myself!

Ingredients

1 pack of Johnsonville Chorizo sausages
6 large tortillas
Guacamole (or fresh avocados)
Shredded pepper jack cheese
Garnish for tacos (shredded lettuce, onions, tomatoes, etc.)

Hardware

1 skillet
1 microwave
1 knife
Tongs
Paper towels

Note: I rarely mention recipe ingredients by brand name, but Johnsonville’s chorizo sausages are a must for this recipe. The Johnsonville sausages taste pretty good, and are pretty close to what you’d get from a Mexican butcher or specialty store. Also – and this is crucial – the Johnsonville sausages have edible casings, which is a bit of a rarity in the chorizo world. Most of the chorizos you see at your local MegaMart have plastic casings which must be removed before cooking… and also result in a cooked product that’s more like ground beef than a link sausage.

Also, feel free to use (or not use) any type of veggies you’d garnish a taco with. If you don’t like onions or lettuce… just don’t use them!

1) Cook the sausages in a pan per the instructions on the package.

2) While the sausages are cooking, chop any lettuce, onion or tomatoes you might wish to use. If you’re using fresh avocados, cut the avocado meat into long strips (like an apple wedge). Also, now’s the time to shred some cheese if you aren’t using the pre-shredded stuff.

3) Just before the sausages are done, place the tortillas in paper towels and microwave for 10-20 seconds, or whatever the package indicates.

4) Assemble the “hot dogs” by placing a chorizo in the middle of a warmed tortilla. Add guacamole\avocado, cheese and garnish, then roll up like a burrito. I prefer the “California method” (folding the right and left side over and rolling up the middle) over the “Texas method” (folding the bottom first, then the sides, which results in one open end) for these dogs.

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SONGS I LOVE: “Theme from ‘Harry’s Game'”

Today’s “Songs I Love” is a two-fer: a new song for you to listen to, and some trivia about the band that wrote it!

The 1982 British TV mini-series Harry’s Game was notable for two things. Firstly, many people consider Harry’s Game to be the best film depiction of “The Troubles” (the issues that plague Northern Ireland to this day) ever made. Secondly, the series’ theme song – “The Theme to Harry’s Game” – was a worldwide smash hit, and propelled the band behind it to worldwide recognition. The song has been used in countless movies, TV shows and commercials. Americans might be familiar with the song from the opening scenes of the Harrison Ford film Patriot Games, or a popular Volkswagen commercial on the late 80s. Have a listen and see if you remember it:

[audio:clannad.mp3]

Clannad is the band behind the song. The band was founded in a remote part of Ireland in the early 1970s by members Máire Ní Bhraonáin (Moya Brennan), Ciarán Ó Braonáin (Ciarán Brennan), Pól Ó Braonáin (Pól Brennan), Noel Ó Dúgáin (Noel Duggan), and Pádraig Ó Dúgáin (Pádraig Duggan). Máire’s sister Eithne would later join the band on a part-time basis, then enjoy a brief stint as a full-time member, before striking out on her own using the Anglicized version of her name: Enya.

The name “Clannad” is an abbreviation of the Irish phrase “An Clann As Dobhar”, which means “the family from Dore” (Clannad hail from Gweedore, a remote district in County Donegal, Ireland; interestingly, Irish is the predominant language in this area). Amusingly, the band were approached by a policeman one day, and the members feared that they were in trouble for some reason. In fact, the policeman was bringing them an entry form for a local “Battle of the Bands” type of contest. The band hadn’t even thought about a name for themselves yet, so someone proposed “Clann As Dobha”, which someone else abbreviated as Clannad. And the name stuck.

“The Theme to Harry’s Game” is also notable in that it’s the only song sung entirely in Irish (Gaelic) to ever hit the British music charts.

Continue reading “SONGS I LOVE: “Theme from ‘Harry’s Game’””

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What’s wrong with Don Draper?

Mad Men is a new original TV series airing on American Movie Classics. Created by The Sopranos writer and executive producer Matthew Weiner, the show, set in 1960, focuses on the lives of the employees of Sterling Cooper, a fictional New York advertising agency. The contrast between the behavior of Sterling Cooper’s employees and the folkways of any modern office could not be more striking: Sterling Cooper is run like a Good Old Boy’s club. Employees chain-smoke at their desks or in meetings, swill whiskey and scotch at every given opportunity (they even have Bloody Mary “eyeopeners” in the breakroom on occasion!), and treat the women in the office more like an escort service than a steno pool. What’s more, the women even seem to put up with it! The things these guys do on a normal day in 1960 could get you fired instantly in 2007.

The protagonist of the show is Don Draper (played by John Hamm). Don is the creative director of Sterling Cooper. He has the respect and admiration of most of the firm’s employees. He is frequently courted by rival firms offering him huge raises and other perks. He even has a huge house in the suburbs and two beautiful kids. In almost every way, Don appears to lead the perfect life. But Don isn’t happy. Don’s harboring a dark secret. We don’t know much about his past, and Don’s not giving us any reason why.

Like a lot of the boys at Sterling Cooper, Don is unabashedly having affairs. One was with Midge Daniels (Rosemarie DeWitt from Fox’s Standoff), a pot-smoking, beatnik-type. The other is with Rachel Menken (Maggie Siff), the owner of a department store and one of Don’s clients. What I don’t get is… why? Have you seen his wife?

Mad Men - Betty Draper

What a moron! Betty Draper (played by January Jones) is, like, so much hotter than those other chicks!

Anyway, Mad Men is a great show – one of the best on TV right now. Here’s a link to AMC’s official site, and here’s a link to Wikipedia’s Mad Men page (warning: Wikipedia’s page has spoilers!). The show starts off kind of slowly, but if you can make it through the first two episodes, I promise that you’ll be hooked!

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Creed!!!

As you probably know, the character “Creed” in the American version of The Office is played by a man named Creed Bratton. Bratton was a member of the 60s group The Grass Roots. He plays an exaggerated parody of himself on the show. Just for kicks, here’s a YouTube video of Creed and the rest of The Grass Roots from an appearance on The Jimmy Durante Show. Creed is on the left, in the back and white striped sweater. Check out his solo!

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Mmmmm.. Tortilla Chips!

Wikipedia sez:

The tortilla chip was invented by Rebecca Webb Carranza as a way to make use of misshapen tortillas rejected from the automated tortilla manufacturing machine that she and her husband used at their Mexican delicatessen and tortilla factory in southwest Los Angeles. Carranza found that the discarded tortillas, cut into triangles and fried, were a popular snack, and she sold them for a dime a bag at the El Zarape Tortilla Factory. In 1994 Carranza received the Golden Tortilla award for her contribution to the Mexican food industry. She died in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 19, 2006, at the age of 98.

The inspiration behind this post was an entry at Last Night’s Garbage, a website that posts pictures of the garbage piled up on the streets of New York City. It find sound lame, but the site is really interesting. Check it out!

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Are you “Damaged” yet?

DamagesThe FX original series Damages is kind of like Lost, only it takes place in law offices instead of a tropical island.

The basics of the show are thus: billionaire Arthur Frobisher (Ted Danson) has been cleared by the Feds in the “Enron-style” meltdown of his company. A prominent New York attorney (Patty Hewes, played by Glenn Close) is leading a civil case against Frobisher on behalf of his former employees. We enter the show as a young, “just out of law school” attorney (Ellen Parsons, played by Rose Byrne) is entertaining offers from Hewes and Ellis Nye, another New York attorney. Ellen takes the job with Hewes… and her life is changed forever.

This might sound fairly straightforward so far… but soon lies are told, conspiracies are hatched, and no one is as good or honest as they seem. Double-crosses pile up and turn in to triple-crosses and quadruple-crosses. People you think are the good guys turn out to be bad. And the people you initially want to hate turn out to be kind of nice. Like Lost, the show poses questions, and then answers them the next week… only to ask 50 more questions in return. And you have to pay attention when you watch this show: questions may be answered in subtle ways, such as seemly innocent phone calls, peices of paper left here or there… or a single drop of blood.

The show is nearing the end of season 1, but you can still catch up if you’d like. FX is running a 12-hour marathon on October 20th beginning at 8PM. So fire up the DVR and catch one of the best new shows on TV!

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Do you know this idiot?

Pictured below is a man that published pictures on the Internet of himself sexually abusing children. This idiot used a “swirl”-type feature to obscure his face in the photographs… only he was too stupid to know that investigators could simply load the picture into Photoshop and reverse the effect… thus his picture here:

Euro-molester

This guy is apparently German. The photos, “involving 12 different young boys” are believed to have been taken in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2002 or 2003. Germany’s federal police force, the Bundeskriminalamt, undid the photoshopping to reveal the man’s face to the world. I don’t suspect I’ll see the guy around Belmont, NC, but if any jimcofer.com readers are in Euroland… keep your eyes peeled for this moron.

Read the official Interpol notice here.