JSS: Dumb Commercials-- Calvin & Hobbes-- Butterflies & Humming Birds

JSS--  Just Some Stuff

1.  DUMB COMMERCIALS--

 How dumb is that Pepsi commercial with Nate and Kate as taste buds in your mouth?  Way too much flirting and stupid dialogue.  How much longer must we be subjected to it?

Plus, that weird little Prince-ish guy for Diet Dr. Pepper.

2.  CALVIN & HOBBES--  I sure wish the creator Bill Watterson would bring it back.  But, I go to Go Comics every day and see am old one.  On August 6, 2019, we see Calvin talking to his tiger, Hobbes, and saying:  "Dad might be a secret super hero but driving a car that isn't cool.  I know, ours doesn't even have a cassette deck."    Kind of dates the comic strip.

Today's kids wouldn't even know what a cassette deck is.  Shoot, in Chevrolets, you can't even get a CD deck anymore.  That will be a big problem when we buy our next Chevrolet.  I have to have at least a CD player.  Last year, we sold our '03 Malibu which had both a CD and a cassette player.  Now  that was a great sound system.  Our '11 Malibu at least still has a CD player.

3.  BUTTERFLIES & HUMMINGBIRDS--  Well, butterflies might be endangered now, but I sure have a lot out in the yard.  As a matter of fact, I usually have several fly into me whenever I'm outside.  I especially have a lot of monarch butterflies.  I also have several hummingbirds (even though I don't feed them) that scare me badly every time I see see them.  My first thought is, "Look at the size of that mosquito!!"

Just Some Stuff.  --RoadDog

STATE OF THE JOKE:  INDIANA--  What is the difference between Indiana sports fans and puppies?  Answer:  Eventually, the pups will grow up and stop whining.

Gettin' Respect

From the Yahoo! Finance, The Exchange "Coca-Cola, Pepsico Rank High in Brand Respect, But Delta Lags" by Chris Nichols.

From a survey by Core Brand, researching corporate branding, not specific products. These are the highest ranked for most respected:

PepsiCo and Coca-Cola- tied
Hershey's
Harley-Davidson
Bayer
Johnson & Johnson
Kellogg's
Campbell's Soup
Colgate-Palmolive
Estee Lauder.

--RoadDog

Now I Done Seen it ALL- $55 Bottled Water!!!

Who'd have figured that it would or could come to this. There is a bar in Chappaqua, New York, near NYC and hometown of the Clintons, that sells bottled water for prices from $3 for the common stuff, all the way to $55 for a 3/4 liter of Bling H2O. Yes the Yuppies now truly have their drink. You could save some money and ONLY spend $35 for a liter of 10,000 BC. Such a Deal!!!

Why these brands demand so much money is due to a wine term they call terroir. Don't ask me what it means. I'm not much of a wine drinker and I definitely wouldn't spend even $2 for a bottle of water. Why someone would charge the same amount for water as for a soda, where they actually had to do something with it is beyond me.

Business is so good, they're opening a second one.

Americans spend $15 billion a year on bottled water!! That's shocking. Has anyone ever heard of the tap or drinking fountains. While I was growing up, we'd drink right out of a hose. Nothing like that special taste, but when you were thirsty from playing ball, that was good enough. To my knowledge, no one has ever died by drinking out of a hose. But, I know people who think they'd die if they drink any sort of water other than bottled.

There is a big article in Wikipedia about bottled water. Some interesting things I found were that it should be at 55 degrees, kept out of the sun, and absolutely NO ice. You never know where the ice has been. Hey, until we took a trip through Europe back in 2000, I thought I could only drink iced down water, but did find I could drink it at room temperature on the bus. This was one of the hottest-ever summers on record. I'll never forget the 100 plus degrees it was in Venice the day we visited and the Death March along the River Arno in Florence.

Bottled water can be glacial, spring, well, or purified water. Sales are increasing 7 to 10% a year. In 2004, the US consumed 25.8 billion liters. Profits to the water bottling companies are at $11 billion a year (Hey, how much do they actually spend on the product. I imagine most of the cost is in packaging and delivery.).

Twenty-five percent of the bottled water sold is reprocessed municipal water. Pepsi has gotten into the fray with its Aquafina brand which debuted in Wichita, Kansas, in 1994. Coke's bottled water is Dasani which came out in 1999. One of the first bottled water was Evian mineral water from Lake Geneva, Switzerland. It was brought to the US in 1978.

What really galls me is that they usually sell a bottle of water for the same prices as a bottle of pop.

I know that more than a few members of my family are rarely seen without a bottle of water in their hand. You might even see me with a bottle of water out on the boat. but only because it eliminates the need for a cooler of ice to keep the pop cold. Again, I have learned that I can drink water at room temperature.

Water, Water, Everywhere, but How Much Do I Gotta Pay. --RoadDog

Dad Sure Would Have Been Proud

Dad spent most of his working life with Quaker Oats Company. As a matter of fact, that is how I ended up here in Illinois. He had been transferred to the home office located in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago back when I was about to start 6th grade, and I've been here ever since, except for a year in Georgia.

The May 29th Chicago Tribune (his favorite paper) Business section had an article titled "Quaker fills healthy role for PepsiCo. Unit vital in parent's effort to alter image" by John Schmeltzer.

Most people thought PepsiCo would quickly get rid of Quaker Oats when they bought it seven years ago, which they did mostly to acquire Gatorade. "The Chicago-based maker of oatmeal, breakfast cereals, and pasta is assuming the point position for PepsiCo's drive into the health and wellness food category."

This new role is expected to bring new growth to Quaker, whose biggest product continues to be oatmeal which it invented more than a century ago. Quaker provides only 5% of PepsoCo's revenue, but nearly 9% of its operating profit.

Quaker has evidently moved from the Merchandise Mart as the article goes on to say that there are 2000 employees at the 17-story West Loop office building and that number is up 800 from when the company was purchased. The building is dubbed the QTG Group for Quaker, Tropicana, and Gatorade. Tropicana moved there from Bradenton. Florida two years ago.

This year, more than half the products Quaker is introducing will carry the Smart Spot logo for health. All new products are being developed and tested in the Quaker/Gatorade research center in Barrington, Il.

This is where we got out Siamese cat, Sammie from back in the sixties. They had a lot of animals to test new food products.  Now that cat was quite the character. My scratched hands have finally healed.

Somewhere, Dad Must Be Smiling.  --RoadDog