Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Tip of the Cap to Someone Working Outside the System: Team Colors Party Mix

Team Colors Party Mix, as seen at Walgreens

Saw this in line at my neighborhood Walgreen's. This certainly is one way to sidestep licensing deals. (I'm guessing the Bears aren't getting a cut of the sales here. And it is packaged as generically and cheaply as possible. So whatever sales are made are going straight into some wily entrepreneur's pockets, helping pay the lease on his Nissan 350Z, no doubt.)

I don't know who would eat this crap, but I don't even want to think about the bare bones operation that must put this stuff together (I'm picturing bottom of the barrel pretzel remnants that other food processors can't make any use of and 100% liquid sugar coating applied with third-hand machinery), but I'm sure some suckers will buy this and whoever is behind it will laugh all the way to the bank.

An Incredulous Testimonial: My First Neti Pot Experience

I have been losing a battle with a sinus infection over the past few days, despite trying multiple over the counter remedies. I started with sudafed and dayquil / nyquil, which were largely ineffective for ~48 hours. I've now moved onto Tylenol Sinus and Theraflu, plus some antibiotics from my doctor that I have high hopes for. But what looks like it could be the clincher for me is something I was steered to by a colleague at the office - a neti pot.

I'd never heard of a neti pot before, and given the wording of the reco I received, I was actually kind of wary of it.

The initial reco:

"This is going to sound weird but the Neti Pot really does help clean out your sinuses. ... Hope that's not too much info but you should check it out during your next Walgreens pit stop..."

Hmm.

So I asked my doctor about it while she wrote my prescription and she said, "Yeah, I was thinking about that. It's kind of nasty, but some of the pulmonary guys (or maybe pediatric guys, either way, some of her colleagues) swear by it."

"Kind of nasty"? What is this thing?

More info from Wikipedia:

"Nasal irrigation is reputed to help prevent colds and otherwise promote good nasal health by cleaning out the nasal passages and helps alleviate stuffiness, dryness and the symptoms of allergies"
Note: the bolding is mine


When in doubt, check YouTube. Wow. 100 results for neti pot. I can't say I've watched them all, but I do have two early favorites.

The Martha Steward sound-alike 'how to'

(This woman is probably some local struggling actor somewhere, but, whoa - the look on her face makes me feel like she's someone's hostage, or maybe this is what the Heaven's Gate folks were up to before they cashed in their chips)



And the WTF random demo in one's kitchen



I have only performed one neti pot treatment, so I can't yet say it is delivering brilliant results for me personally. But I don't have any reservations about pronouncing it generally brilliant. Seriously, who thought of this for the first time?

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Brilliant TV show / commercial: The Chopper Show

During what was otherwise a somewhat lackluster trip to Vegas, I did discover something brilliant: The Chopper Show, which is Towbin Dodge's genius variation of the usually boring local car dealership ads. I seriously watched almost as much of this as I did coverage of presidential debates and NH primary.

Clip below is just a taste of the 30 minute entertainment-rich blocks that I absorbed:



For more of The Chopper, see these links:

* MySpace profile

* YouTube channel

"Tap the gas."