November 9, 2004
-
Current AIM Status:
click HERE to IM me
The answer to Saturday’s “More Dirty Minds” was a COUNTRY CLUB. Here are the clues for today:
- I usually do it first thing in the morning.
- When I’m doing it, I’m breathing hard.
- When I do it alone, I usually do it to music.
As always, THINK CLEANLY and HAPPY GUESSING! xD
JUST IN TIME FOR THE HOLIDAYS…
By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer
SEATTLE – Jones Soda Co. takes the idea of a liquid diet to a new low. How does Green Bean Casserole Soda strike you? And how about an aggressively buttery-smelling Mashed Potato Soda?
AP Photo
Even the creators of the fizzy concoctions at this small Seattle soda company can hardly stomach the stuff. But last year’s unexpected success of the Turkey & Gravy Soda means another round of bizarre food-flavored soft drinks. As an added bonus — they’re calorie-free.
This week Jones Soda Co. launches a full meal deal of five Thanksgiving soda flavors, from the bile-colored Green Bean Casserole to the sweet — but slightly sickly — Fruitcake Soda. Last year’s Turkey & Gravy is also back on the menu.
If you think it sounds less than appetizing, you’re not alone.
“Oh, man, I can’t drink that!” cries out company chief executive Peter van Stolk, after pouring himself a drink of mashed potatoes.
To banish the buttery aftertaste, he recommends a chaser of Cranberry Soda, the only one of the holiday bunch that doesn’t make you want to pick up a toothbrush.
Drinking last year’s savory Turkey & Gravy was no picnic, either, but that didn’t stop people from clamoring for it, pushing bidding on auction site eBay Inc. up to $63 for a two-bottle set.
This year Jones plans to produce up to 15,000 five-packs of the 12-ounce bottles, which come complete with utensils (a straw and a toothpick). The sodas may not be as satisfying as a real holiday meal, but they can boast being both calorie- and carb-free, not to mention vegan and kosher.
Beginning Thursday, they’ll be on sale at some Target Corp. stores throughout the country, and at other retailers, for between $14.95 and $16.95, with proceeds benefiting Toys for Tots.
Known for its quirky ads and offbeat bottle designs, Jones traces its roots to a soda distribution operation that began in 1987. But it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the company began its own line of sodas, cultivating a following among skaters, surfers and snowboarders with unusual flavors like blue bubble gum, green apple and watermelon. These days, Jones soda, juice and energy drinks are available nationwide at stores including Target, Albertson’s and Safeway.
Five tasters were assigned to the task of perfecting the holiday flavors, although van Stolk said most other employees ended up trying the sodas sooner or later.
In the early stages, the staff grew deeply divided over mashed potato versus sweet potato: “It was like red versus blue,” van Stolk said, referring to the recent presidential election.
In the end, he called it for mashed potato, arguing it was the more familiar food.
Jones isn’t the only company to find that people have a certain fascination with foods that make you go “yuck.” There’s the real-life version of Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, made famous by the Harry Potter (news – web sites) books and featuring tastes like Vomit, Booger and Earthworm. And millions of Americans regularly tune in to reality shows to watch contestants eat things like spiders and snails.
Experts say part of the human fascination with such foods is the omnivore’s natural tendency to try a varied diet. But there’s also a certain group of people who are simply novelty seekers who get a thrill out of more extreme gastronomical adventures, said Virginia Utermohlen, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University.
For those people, she said, the thinking is, “So long as I know it’s not going to kill me, it might be just interesting.”
Barbara Rolls, nutritional sciences professor at Penn State University, said research shows young people are more likely to try new foods, but she speculates it’s not just nature.
“It’s that bravado factor,” she said.
And for some, Rolls added, the risk will have a reward.
“Who knows, maybe it really tastes good,” she said.
___
On the Net:
WHAAAAT?!?!?!
By Larry Fine
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York officials were red-faced on Friday after they discovered that clothing ads on city buses that appeared to promote reading suggested a love of books could be rewarded with oral sex.
The advertisements that ran on about 200 buses across the city in recent months carried posters displaying a suggestively posed woman in hot pants kneeling among a pile of books beside the snappy slogan “Read Books, Get Brain.”
What unhip, unsuspecting local transportation officials did not know was that “get brain” is street slang for oral sex.
The ads — from hip-hop clothing maker Akademiks, which intended the double-entendre — was stripped off New York buses on Friday after transportation officials discovered the street slang meaning.
Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Tom Kelly condemned the “vulgar street phrases” in the racy ads he said were “demeaning women.”
“To me and I believe to everyone else, while it was done by a clothing line, it would give the impression that it was also promoting reading and literacy,” Kelly told Reuters.
“It’s easy enough to understand how that would get by based upon someone not knowing the expression.”
A spokesman for the New York-based clothing maker noted the ad campaign had run since September and “we hadn’t had any complaints at all.”
New York officials may not be the only ones caught out.
Akademiks also placed the ads on buses and bus shelters in Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, San Francisco and Philadelphia, the company spokesman said.
Kelly, who said he was his 60s, said that after he was tipped to the hidden meaning of the phrase on Thursday he ran a test among some young MTA workers.
“I went downstairs to the mailroom and showed some of the young guys a copy of the ad,” he said. “I was watching their faces and they all start smirking.
“Apparently it’s on all the music, in music that’s how they refer to it,” Kelly said. “I didn’t know anything about it and I’m sure the people that approved the ad didn’t.”
Kelly said it was sad that “you can’t take things at face value any longer,” adding, “We’ll have to learn from experience before we accept ads.”
————
anyways…..
Enough of my craziness.. til tomorrow
LATERS GATORS! - I usually do it first thing in the morning.
Comments (12)
OOoooh! her name is ALLISON linn…anyway, she’s an idiot to be writing a story on thanksgiving soda flavors..for SHAME. walking on the good name of Allison.
man–i haven’t seen Muni or Samtrans with any ads like that. i wanna see! oh wait–only NY. oops.
read books get brain? eh??:wha: oh..is that supposed to mean head? yea–i’m not too quick on the read b/w the lines guessing game.
turkey and gravy soda? yuckkk
Less oral sex, more Eric!
I would not be surprised Jones Soda was run by a little kid.
is it brushing your teeth
i got a hankering for some clam chowder soda…mmmMmm!
see? reading IS fundamental
*sick*
omg …. i’d rather eat grass….
I want myJones customized sodas..
*hah*
my handwriting is sucky! lol
hehe you made my day tho!
i think the same goes for you too, just like jon… you need to talk more about you in your xanga… not all these stories… that’s why they’re online.. so we can search for it… what is up with eric?
this world is getting weirder as each day passes :fun:
ew man…nasty soder. though i would try it. hehe.
dudeeeeeeeeee…what the flip?! i’ve seen those ads and thought “that’s so ghetto.” not KNOWING the sexual innuendo. oh my