Drinking whiskey clear!
How’s this for a stupid marketing move? It seems that Pepsi decided to give away tickets to a game at the new Yankee Stadium. For whatever reason, the company decided to give away the tickets at the game. Of course, far more people showed up than Pepsi had tickets for, so the company was treated to the sight of angry Yankees fans chanting “Pepsi sucks!” outside the stadium:
The company is continuing the promotion, but will now give the tickets away, in advance, at a third-party location.
Happy Easter to all my Orthodox brethren out there!
(I may be joining you soon!)
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“I know plenty of people who had poisoned bottles of rum in the trunks of their cars.”
OK, this one requires some explanation. A user on the Straight Dope Message Board created this post, which asks whether leaving out a “poisoned donut” (in hopes that a burglar would eat it and die) is a crime or not. In his opening post, the questioner asked the question, then wrote the quote above.
Several people replied to the original poster, discussing the legality of such booby traps. Eventually, however, curiosity got the better of one of the posters, and about 10 posts in, someone asked the OP to explain the above quote. Here’s his response:
The poisoned bottle in the trunk was a common “anti-theft device” on my youth years (80’s) in Venezuela. The rationale ranging from simple revenge to the hope of the guy dying and the car being abandoned to be found out.
The way it was normally done was to leave half a bottle of rum (rum being the cheap booze in Venezuela) with some poison which ranged from rat poison to medications to only-god-knows. Having half bottles of non-poisoned rum was very common as there were no open container laws. I normally had 5-6 bottles in my trunk at all times (along with a white shirt, a tie and a swimsuit).
The point of the bottle being only half full (or half empty) was first to avoid wastage, but also to give the impression of an already drunk bottle which made it look safer.
This was common enough that I have a whole series of first hand stories (not FOAF) of everything from actual “success” stories, to friendly fire casualties, to fights among friends trying to stop each other from drinking both safe and poisoned bottles.
Eventually this became so common that it stopped being effective as thieves just assumed all bottles to be poisoned and would then break them inside your car if they abandoned it (stolen for a robbery or the such).
Crazy times.
Crazy times indeed!
Time Warner Cable, stung by a barrage of criticism from everyone from customers to Congress, has (temporarily) abandoned plans for data caps on the company’s residential Internet service plans. Note the key word temporarily, however. TWC CEO Glenn Britt released a statement today that read, in part:
“It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal of misunderstanding about our plans to roll out additional tests on consumption based billing. As a result, we will not proceed with implementation of additional tests until further consultation with our customers and other interested parties, ensuring that community needs are being met.”
So apparently, the public is just “stupid” and needs to be “educated” as to why Time Warner increasing their broadband bills by 300% is actually a good thing. I have this awesome mental image of a 30-foot high razor wire fence encircling a “Time Warner Cable Re-Education Center”, with hoi polloi like myself shuffling around an exercise yard in a Seconal stupor, lobotomy scar prominent on my forehead.
As I’ve said to anyone who will listen, this is nothing but a blatant money grab by Time Warner, and just today I mailed letters to North Carolina governor Bev Perdue, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, my state legislator and senator, and the FCC – in addition to sending online letters to the President, Vice President, my two Senators and my Congresswhore (Sue Myrick – where’s the “puke smiley” when you need it?). I’m as serious as a fucking heart attack about opposing these caps, and while I’m happy about today’s victory, I’m sure those bastards at Time Warner will try to come up with some sort of end-around.
For this reason, you need to stay vigilant on this issue. Check out the following websites if you have some spare time:
http://droptwc.com/
http://stoptwc.info/
http://stopthecap.com/
For more information about today’s events, check out this article at Ars Technica, or this article at eWeek.
Faster than you can say, “Tough actin’ Tinactin,” NFL Hall of Famer John Madden, the legendary voice of Monday Night Football and the creator of EA Sports video game Madden NFL Football, has decided to take himself out of the game. Madden’s retiring from broadcasting. He’ll be leaving NBC’s Football Game of the Week as the color commentator; Al Michaels is continuing at the play by play voice.
This is a sad day! Even though people loved making fun of John Madden, it was still reassuring to hear his voice (and his bizarre non sequiturs) during football games. Madden was like that crazy uncle you had that spoke gibberish 90% of time, but you just couldn’t help but love. His voice was kind of like a warm, fuzzy blanket: comforting and reassuring. Even though he often pointed out things that even a novice football fan grasped several minutes before, it was always comforting to hear his booming voice. I, for one, will miss him!
This is Monica Bellucci:
Even if you don’t understand French, you can probably figure out the headline of this issue of French Elle magazine: Bellucci, and others like Sophie Marceau and Eva Herzigova, are shown without makeup, and without any Photoshopping or airbrushing whatsoever. That’s Monica Bellucci, 100%, completely au natural. Oh, and by the way, she’s 44.
She’s almost too beautiful for words!
Read more about it (and see pictures of some of the other women) here.
Cool news from Egypt:
Archaeologists are to search three sites in Egypt that they say may contain the tomb of doomed lovers Anthony and Cleopatra.
Excavation at the sites, which are near a temple west of the coastal city of Alexandria, is due to begin next week.
Teams working in the area said the recent discovery of tombs containing 10 mummies suggested that Anthony and Cleopatra might be buried close by.
I find this absolutely fascinating. The story of Anthony and Cleopatra is a tale of doomed love that puts Romeo and Juliet to shame.
Heads-up: the 2010-11 calendar is here.
The NFL released the official 2009-2010 schedule yesterday… and for the SIXTH YEAR IN A ROW I’m proud to offer the Pittsburgh Steelers Schedule for Microsoft Outlook!
The jimcofer.com “Pittsburgh Steelers 2009 Schedule For Outlook” is compatible with Microsoft Outlook 98 or later. It might also work with Google Calendar or any other program that can import calendar events from CSV files. It has only been tested with Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007, however.
The schedule contains all preseason and regular season Steelers games as well as the name of the network airing the game. All times are for the Eastern (USA) time zone. A reminder is also scheduled for 8:00PM the day before each game. Fans of other (lesser) teams can also download the file and use it as a template to create a schedule for their favorite team using any spreadsheet app that supports CSV files.
There are three editions of the schedule available for download: the Steelers 2009-10 schedule only, the 2009-10 Steelers schedule with the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl, and a calendar with the playoffs and Super Bowl only. Pick your poison by clicking the appropriate link below:
Steelers 2009-2010 Schedule
Steelers 2009-2010 Schedule with NFL Playoffs
NFL 2009-2010 Playoff Schedule only
*Â Â Â Â *Â Â Â Â *
To import the calendar, follow these simple instructions. Make sure to read the all the directions below carefully before you begin:
DISABLING REMINDERS: If you wish to disable the reminders, open the CSV file and change the value of “reminder on/off” (column G) to FALSE for each game before you import the Calendar into Outlook.
CHANGING “SHOW TIME AS”: By default, the entries will display their time as “Free” on your calendar. If you wish to change this to something else, open the file in your favorite spreadsheet app and change the value of each entry in Column V (“Show Time As”) from FREE to “1” (Tentative), “2” (Busy), “3” (Free) or “4” (Out of the Office) – without the quotes.
TROUBLESHOOTING: If you try to import the schedule but don’t see any of the games listed in your calendar (especially if you do not get any kind of error message), shut Outlook down completely (open Task Manager to make sure that OUTLOOK.EXE is not running) and re-open Outlook and try the import again.
VERSION INFORMATION: This file was tested on 15 April 2009 on a Windows Vista x64 machine running Office 2007 and a virtual machine running Windows XP Professional and Office 2003. It was scanned with AVG 8.5 (8.5.287) and found to be virus-free. It’s the exact same file I’ve used for all prior versions of the schedule, so it should work for just about everyone.
Back in the late 80s, I was a huge fan of a British program called The South Bank Show. It was kind of like a “Charlie Rose for musicians and artists” – each week there’d be a long, in-depth interview with a notable British musician or artist. There were no distractions – just the artist talking about his or her work.
One episode I remember in particular featured Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys. The interviewer asked him something along the lines of “you are obviously a homosexual. How come you haven’t done more ‘overtly gay’ music?” Tennant said that PSB tried to not do “gay songs” because they didn’t want to alienate any part of their fan base; that, generally speaking, he felt that pop music was no forum for politics; and that he didn’t feel it was his place to “preach” to people.
I had a newfound respect for Tennant after seeing that interview. So many celebrities these days think it’s their mission to bring news of some “cause” to the “little people” out there, and Tennant specifically addressed how those celebs often come out looking like jackasses, and how he wanted no part of it.
It seems that Tennant still has his head on straight, as the Pet Shop Boys recently declined an offer from PETA to to change their name to the “Rescue Shelter Boys”:
The organization, the People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals (PETA), sent a letter to Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe acknowledging that its request, at first blush, might appear “bizarre.”
But, by changing its name, the band could raise awareness at every tour stop of the “cramped, filthy conditions” that breeders keep animals in before selling them to pet stores, PETA said in its letter.
The duo, which has performed under its current name for more than 20 years, reproduced PETA’s written request in full on its Web site.
The musicians said they were “unable to agree” to the request “but nonetheless think (it) raises an issue worth thinking about.”