I’ve been letting these consumer interest stories pile up for a while now, so let’s get right through these, shall we?
– The FDA is urging consumers not to use Zicam Nasal Gel or Zicam Nasal Swabs, as there have been “more than 130” reports of people losing their sense of smell (sometimes permanently!) after using the product. I reported on this a year or two ago, but the FDA’s “official report” urging consumers not to use the product only came out recently.
– The people that run Molson, Canada’s version of Budweiser, are just jerks! For ages, the company has had a policy of giving three free cases of beer per month to their retirees. But now the company is discontinuing that policy, in hopes of saving a lousy $900,000 a year. What cockgobblers! Couldn’t they just not run commercials during one sporting event and pay for that program all year?
– Microsoft is discontinuing Microsoft Money, the company’s popular personal finance software. No reason was given for the announcement.
– A Chicago-area man named Tom Feddor “owns” an Illinois license plate that just says “0” (zero). It’s supposedly been in his family for over 40 years. Since 1997, Feddor’s mailbox has filled with parking tickets, speeding tickets, tickets for red light violations, and even a ticket for parking his taxi on a residential street (note: he doesn’t own a taxi). This is because the Chicago Department of Revenue has been using the “zero plate” for testing out various automated technologies, all the while oblivious to the fact that the “zero plate” was an active, registered plate in Illinois! For the past 12 years, Feddor has complained to the Revenue Department and the Department of Administrative Hearings, but the tickets kept piling up… until recently, when the Chicago Tribune ran a story about Feddor’s woes. Read more about it here.
– And lastly… from the “It’s not a bug, it’s a feature” department: a man in Northern Ireland bought a loaf of bread back in 2007… and found a dead rat in it:
The man hasn’t received any compensation from the bread company thus far, although a judge fined the bakery £1000 and court costs last week.
thats rats asshole, Don. Makes a helluva fondue….YIKES
Now THERE’S a Carlin line I remember!