A Night In Minneapolis, With Pictures!

I'm in Minneapolis for the night. I have a business meeting tomorrow, but tonight I had the opportunity Minnesota had to offer. That is, all Minneapolis had to offer on a Sunday night with 8 inches of snow on the ground and when you are by yourself because your coworker is stranded in Dallas.

But, lucky for me, there is a real great jazz club just a few blocks away called Dakotas, and tonight I had the pleasure of enjoying the beautiful sounds of Saxophonist Frank Morgan and pianist Joanne Brackeen perform together. It was a real treat. Here are some pictures I took between the hotel and the club:
(click images for larger views)















Minneapolis with 8 inches+ of snow on the ground




















The Wells Fargo Center




















Mary Tyler Moore in the snow

Oh, Snap! Isn't That Annoying?

If you visit any websites where when you scroll over a link, a picture of the website it links to is displayed by Snap Preview, and you're like me and find that really annoying, there is a really simple way to disable the feature: Just go to this page and Click Where it says to disable Snap Preview Anywhere. Then, when you go back to the offending site, you'll have to click refresh to get rid of the function.

And there you have it.

Helping Hershey

Last week, after reading that Hershey announced plans to cut their workforce by 1,500 people, I immediately posted an angry article on this blog, and called for a boycott of Hershey products.

The next day, I embarked on a business trip, and while at the airport I stopped to grab a magazine and a bottle of water. At the counter, were limited edition Hershey's Dark Chocolate bars with Macadamia and Raspberries called "Mauna Loa." I am a total sucker for limited edition candy bars, and really, any new flavor of junk food. So I impulsively bought the bar, and as I'm munching on it, I suddenly realized I had just bought a Hershey's product, mere hours after I called for a boycott!

"Whatever," I thought,"nobody would listen to me anyway." I caught myself, and realized that was just a defense mechanism, trying to make up for my hypocritical action. Then I thought, that maybe a boycott would hurt Hershey sales, and that would only justify their reason for scaling back U.S. production. And, maybe a boycott was the complete opposite way to go aboput this. Instead, we should persuade everyone to "eat more chocolate," and promise Hershey that we would continue to support the company, if they would in turn promise not to go forward with the layoff plans.

My wife and I have set up a website, www.kissesforhershey.com, where we've laid out our plans, and set up a petition for people to sign. We plan on sending one Hershey's Kiss to CEO Richard Lenny for every person who signs the petition by July 7th (Chocolate Day). We also hope to start a letter writing campaign, where people send letters to Richard Lenny, pledging our support as a valued customer, enclosing a Hershey's proof of purchase, and asking him not to go forward with the layoffs.

Please check out the site, sign the petition, and tell five friends about this movement. It turns out 3,000 jobs are at stake!!

It's Electric! Boogie uggie uggie

The creator of the electric slide, Richard Silver, says that party goers at weddings and bar mitzvahs, etc. are doing the dance, all wrong. He says the dance he created has 22 steps, and that people are only doing 18. Specifically, dancers should be touching their toes twice, in succession, instead of just once, and he's considering legal action! You need to listen to this nutjob get interviewed on NPR. Seeing people at parties dance incorrectly gets him very upset, and he's hired a lawyer to explore all options.

After paying my way through college as a wedding DJ, I am permanently scarred from enjoying "The Electric Slide." I can no longer bring myself to do this dance at parties, in fact just hearing the song gives me painful flashbacks, so news that the creator wants to have people who dance it be fined is actually music to my ears! Ric Silver (official website) is out of his gourd but he's got my support.

Now, what can we have done about that cha cha slide or the chicken dance?

Happy Banks and Post Offices Are Closed Day!

According to an article in The New Yorker, officially today is not President's Day, Presidents' Day, or even Presidents Day, but actually only (officially) is George Washington's Birthday Day. See for yourself: http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/2007.asp !

Other things I learned from reading The New Yorker on flights to and fro Miami this weekend:

*The creator and driving force behind '24' is a self-proclaimed "right-wing nut job,"

*The former owner of the Detroit Tigers and creator of the Domino's empire is on a Catholic crusade. He sold Domino's, in part so he could build what he envisions as a truly great, Catholic university.

*Grey Goose has a new pear flavored vodka called La Poire.

Milton Hershey Just Rolled Over In His Grave

Hershey Co. is cutting 1,500 jobs over three years as part of a plan to scale back production lines and move some manufacturing to Mexico, the candy maker announced Thursday.

During The Great Depression, instead of laying off workers, Milton Hershey employed workers to build such structures such as The Hotel Hershey, a community center, a theatre, a sports arena and a stadium in the chocolate factory's town in Pennsylvania.

To mark this sad day, I suggest everyone go out and buy an American-made chocolate product, such as from Ghirardelli or The San Francisco Chocolate Factory.

Politics As Unususal

Self-loathing black man? South Carolina state senator Robert Ford, who is black, says that if Barack Obama won the presidential primary, “Every Democratic candidate running on that ticket would lose because he’s black and he’s at the top of the ticket — we’d lose the House, the Senate and the governors and everything.” Way to fight the power, Bobby.

Meanwhile, Obama issues his first apology of his campaign for the White House. He's also going to have to apologize to Oprah at some point. He promised her he's announce his campaign intentions on her show, and instead chose the Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, the same place where Lincoln delivered a famous anti-slavery speech. My guess is that Oprah will forgive, but she'll expect a spot in his cabinet.

Stuart Smalley is running for the Senate.

Stephen Colbert is trying to correct the "well known liberal agenda" that exists in desserts, with his Americone Dream ice cream. My wife doesn't think she'd like the flavor, vanilla with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel. I would love Ben & Jerry's to come out with a mint ice cream with coconut, chocolate and puffed rice.

Speaking of mint, the U.S. Mint will try one more time to get the public to accept a $1.00 coin. These new coins will be the same shape, color and metal content as the last failed version, but apparently the gov't is blaming Sacagawea's image for the failure, and instead they're trusting that presidential images on the coins will be better received. The first coins, available tomorrow, will feature George Washington on the head side. Brilliant. One of the most common complaints about the dollar coin is that it is too similar to a quarter, so the geniuses decided to stick Washington's face on it. That should do it. Every three months though, a new president will be honored (in the order they served) - a series that as of now will run into 2016. Can't wait for that Taft coin. Our leaders prove once again that they've got more dollars than sense.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Preview

Mookie Of The Month - February 2007

Mookie during her blue period