My friend Nancy has had a contest with her sister for years: they’ve been trying to outdo each other in giving the other some kind of “Hello Kitty”-themed gift. In this contest, there are only two criteria for a qualifying gift:
There’s even an airline — EVA Air — that’s adopted Hello Kitty as a mascot. EVA Air use the Hello Kitty brand everywhere. And I mean everywhere, even on their air sickness bags:
Last weekend, Wendy and I attended the Good Food Festival, an annual showcase of food vendors and cooking instructors sponsored by Food Network Canada. It features samples galore, either for free or a very low price, which means that you can get a complete lunch simply by “grazing”. Here are some photos I took at the festival.
I can’t resist a photo op with a mascot:
My Favourites
My favourite stall at the festival was Kozlik’s Mustard, who provided peameal bacon (that’s “Canadian bacon” to my American readers) sandwiches made with very nice ciabatta bread and a spread made with one of their spicy mustards.
Another favourite of ours were the sauces by the relatively new Redhead Pantry:
They make some tasty sauces! We got their barbecue sauce and their honey peach jalapeno sipping sauce, which I used to baste some chicken thighs for Sunday dinner. It’s really good stuff, and I hope this stuff finds its way to a store near us soon.
Under the “ready-made” category, my hand-down favourites: Key Lime Tofutti Cuties. Damn, they’re good!
An Engrish Encounter
Check out this banner we saw beside the barley tea stand:
Here’s a closer look at the text:
“Drinkable Magazine?” I have no idea what they’re trying to say.
Here’s a photo I’ve been meaning to take for a while: it’s a poster of the “ionCleanse” treatment being offered at a chiropractor’s office not far from my house. The treatment is purported to remove toxins from the body through the feet:
I’d love to see this device in action. I want to know how it muddies up your foot bath to make it appear as if “toxins” are being excreted from your feet. I also want to know what the brown goop is. Clay? Paint? Nestle Quik?
Albert Hoffman, discoverer of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and the man personally responsible for a lot of lost weekends (and possibly Burning Man), died yesterday at the age of 102.
Here’s the quick version of the story of his discovery of LSD, excerpted from Wired News:
Hofmann’s most famous discovery happened on April 16, 1943. He was researching the synthesis of a lysergic acid compound, LSD-25, when he inadvertently absorbed a bit through his fingertips. Intrigued by the effect it had on his perception, Hofmann decided further exploration was warranted. Three days later, on April 19, he ingested 250 micrograms of LSD, embarking on the first full-fledged acid trip. That day became known among LSD fans as “bicycle day” because Hofmann began experiencing the drug’s intense effects on his bicycle trip home from the lab.
For more on Dr. Hofmann’s life and passing, here are some links:
In tribute to Dr. Hofmann, here’s an excellent video treatment of William Shatner’s cover of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, complete with kitschy Star Trek and I Love Lucy graphics:
I’d like to wish Mark Kuznicki, Accordion City’s greatest policy wonk, organizer of events like Metronauts and member of the Toronto Tech Community in good standing, a very happy birthday! I’ll see you at the SummerCamp party tonight, Mark!
Here’s a photo of the line outside my local EB Games (the Runnymede/St. Clair location in Toronto) for Grand Theft Auto IV, taken last night at midnight:
The 30-car parking lot behind the store was full of cars that I could’ve sworn were lifted right from the previous game in the series, Grand Theft Auto: San [...]
I took the photo below in High Park station this morning:
This photo is a sign of two things:
The Toronto Transit Commission is back in action (and running smoothly from most accounts).
Grand Theft Auto IV gets released at midnight! All branches of Future Shop (except in Quebec and Sudbury) and EB Games as well as the [...]
Here’s a video that does a pretty good job (and funny!) of summarizing what happened with Accordion City’s transit system and their strike. As an added bonus, it provides a breezy baedeker for Canadian and Toronto politics:
I give this video bonus points for its consistent message of “Nobody listens to the NDP” (and with good [...]
Accordion City is waking up this fine Saturday morning to…a transit strike!
For those of you not from here, here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening:
The threat of a strike has been looming for the past little while. The union — Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 — promised to give at least 48 hours’ notice [...]
Here’s a fun little exercise — can you identify the cartoon characters by their silhouettes in the illustration below?
Click the image to see it at full size.Image courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
[This was also posted in Global Nerdy.]
If you showed the ad below for Arrow menswear to an advertising exec today, s/he’d probably say: “Too wordy! You can’t see the real product! The illustrations are too small!” It’s a shame, because I rather like the style of these old ads:
Click the ad to see it at full size.Image courtesy of Miss Fipi [...]
Photo courtesy of Miss Fipi Lele.
Rotten Tomatoes, which takes all sorts of reviews for movies and computes an overall score, gave The Other Boleyn Girl a 40% rating.
“Even has a clip-on ketchup cup!”
The French Fry Holder pictured above is in Improvements’ catalog. It’s currently not in stock, but I’m sure with enough demand, they’ll restock this life-changing apparatus!
Here’s the description from the catalog:
French Fry Holder
Hold Your Fries In Your Car’s Cup Holder And Make Driving Safer.
Cars now come with several cup holders, [...]
Back in high school, after reading Space-Time and Beyond for the umpteenth time and drinking one too many zombies with my friend Henry, we came up with a theory:
In the infinite set of universes, there had to exist a particular universe in which the events in our lives were being watched as a TV show.
We then made a solemn vow to live the kind of life that got high ratings.
