Coke Bear Approves of the new drink

I bought a bottle of fairlife earlier this week. It is an 'improved' milk which has more protein and calcium and less sugar than regular milk.

Coca Cola, Inc. bought the company in early 2015 and has bringing the product to chain stores.

I had read about the product and the reviews were that the milk is more creamy than regular milk. From my tasting, this is true. The bottle in the image (about 52 ounces) cost about $4.50 at Shoppers.

The product should help us get thru the 'no meat' restrictions of the first part of Av which began last night and ends Sunday night the 26th.

Since it is very similar to chocolate milk, I didn't say the blessing for 'bringing me to this occasion'.

Back in Feb, a number of nutritionists had negative things to say about the product.

On our way back from Israel, we picked up some Mozart chocolates at the airport in Vienna, Austria.

We put the package on a table and our dachshund, Gretel, examined it. Gretel approved of our purchase since, as something of a German cultural supremacist, she considers products to be 'better' based on their German content.

A Lobster Disaster is Averted

A truck carrying 30,000 pounds of lobsters overturned on I-95 in Maine a few days ago (first image).

According to the reports, the lobsters were all in crates and, although they were jostled about, none of the lobsters were hurt (although how that is known is difficult for me to imagine).

The news article is here.

As lobby (lower image) would say, 

"Great. Now they can relax on their way to being eaten."

Lobby has been criticized for this by lobsters but he says that he is just making a livelihood for himself and he doesn't understand their problem with him.

Mikey on Pi Day at Ben Yehuda

It was pi day, that is 3-14 and super pi day because it was 3-14-15.



And to add to the excitement, one of the kosher pizza places opened after the sabbath on Saturday night.

Everybody celebrated at 9:26 pm when it could be (sort of) 3.1415926 (or possibly 3.1415927 if you wait another minute and round to the nearest whole number seven to the right of the decimal point). 


Mikey went with George and Justin Walls (aka Rabbi Gedaliah Walls) to the pizza place and tried to eat a 28" pizza in one hour. Ben Yehuda made the pizza with triple thick crust and the two eaters fell just short...

Nevertheless, Michelangelo proclaimed it awesome. Perhaps it made the day special for Mikey because the previous time George had brought him to a pizza place, George left Mikey in the car when getting pizza.

Michaelangelo has Awesome time on the Cruise to Hawaii

 For our cruise to Hawaii we brought along Michangelo. Gator wanted to go but I began reading about the various endangered animals on the Islands and decided that Gate might create an incident or at the least, would frighten people.  

One nice thing for Mikey was that one of the dining rooms was named for him (or possibly for that other guy, who did some paintings and sculpture).

They also had a Pizzeria on board. Of course Mikey found that awesome. 



 
We took Mikey on two off ship tours. One was the submarine ride, which is cross posted on the Hawaii trip blog.


 
Mikey liked staring out the window at the fishes and having him along side the submarine.


One day, our cabin steward made a towel dog who kept Mikey company while we were at supper.

Finally, we took Mikey into Ensenada to see the blowhole (La Bufadora). I will agree with Mikey that the blowhole was pretty awesome.        




       .

Coke Exec Presentation

Cross Posted on Weiss Chronicles (same date)

I was doing Mashgiach work at a conference downtown on Dec 5. 

It was an annual meeting of the Israel-US Chambers of Commerce.

The first plenary session (all the sessions were plenary) had executives from GE, Noble Energy and Coca Cola.

The Coke Exec mentioned Coke's long history in Israel (since 1966 or so) and the number of employees and the number of products, etc. He also made a statement that went something like this, "Our people in Israel use the marketing platform developed in the US to leverage its product innovation and our people in the US use the Israeli product innovation as a platform expedite marketing improvements in the US". The first image is a cool exec type Coke Bear and the second image, which I took back in 5772 has a Coke machine at the entrance to the Caro synagogue in Safed where someone had put the benediction "...whose word brings all things to be", aka the Shehakal, under the beverage selection buttons.

Vampy Has a Problem w Narcotics

I have, since my tooth extraction (see Weiss Chronicles blog for Nov 28, 2014), been taking some narcotics for pain.

When I've been sleeping, just subsequent to the narcotic treatment, Vampy has been getting a 'snack' from me.

This has caused him to have some affinity for the narcotics themselves.

Strangely, he may have to go to a treatment house to go back on blood.

Sheep Vamp Tries Something - not successful

Sheep vamp took a jump out of my pocket yesterday morning when I was getting the paper. He was hiding under a tree awaiting our first snow (which came today) and hoping to get first dibs on the blood of some stranded motorists. 

However, it rained pretty hard before it changed to snow and he got wet and cold. I found him this am. getting the paper today

A Pumpkin Enhanced Conference

The Israel -American Council is having a conference over the weekend. The caterer is the one I am working with today.


About 700 people are eating there (several meals). The menu is pretty standard, i.e., many pastries, breads, meats, hummus, root vegetables, etc. Nothing particularly unusual. However, there is something different about this conference.


The dining area is to be decorated with a dozen large (20# of so) pumpkins and several dozen small (8 oz or so) pumpkins.

Red Lobster Hones its Core Compentancy

Red Lobster has been losing sales lately. The previous owner of the company, Darden Restaurants, Inc. (which also owns Olive Garden), had revised the menu to add non seafood dishes such as a tortilla dish and a grilled pork meal. However, new management, no doubt advised by a certain crustacean lobbyist who suggested a way to exceed their benchmarks (second image), now thinks that they should focus on seafood. The image of food is Red Lobster's  'Ultimate Seafood Feast" which has, shrimp, salmon and, of course lobster.

Interestingly, another change the company is making is that they are using slightly smaller plates with higher outside lips and piling the seafood on top of the rice instead of having a rice pilaf next to the seafood on bigger flatter plates. The reason is that the smaller plate protocol results in food staying hot longer and also passively spreads the seafood flavor to the rice.

Article from the Honolulu newspaper is here .

Pump has yet to save Canada

Pumpkin Spice oreos are, thankfully, available in the USA.

Canada also benefits from pumpkin lattes sold by Canadian franchises of Starbucks, Tim Horton's and Dunkin Donuts. Evidently Canada has a dearth of pumpkin flavored food products. An article in a Toronto newspaper implies that vendors haven't found Canadians interested in pumpkin food products (although actually, pumpkin flavoring has ginger and other products in it).

Anyway, the article is here

Pumpkin Season Hits a Snag

Keene New Hampshire has a Pumpkin festival annually.


Last year (2013) there were riots as the festival coincided with the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series (many rioters were students at Keene State).


It was thought that this year there would be less action. Unfortunately that was wrong.


This year there were 30+ injured, a dozen or so arrested (about 130 were arrested in 2013) and tear gas fired. 

Image is from the internet. 


Information is from the International Business Times has the story here. 

or

http://www.ibtimes.com/pumpkin-festival-riot-keene-state-college-new-hampshire-leads-arrests-injuries-1707518

Pumpkin Beer has apparently been around a long time: Pump not surprized

It's getting to be close to Halloween again. Pump gets very excited about this until Thanksgiving. Then he gets a bit down.



However, according to a recent article, pumpkin beer has been around for hundreds of years (although I never saw pumpkin beer for sale the many times we've been to Williamsburg, VA).


According to another recent article, there are some many pumpkin beers that somebody came up with a 21st best beer list. 


The article about the history of pumpkin beer is here

The article about the best pumpkin beers is here.

Gate Visits the VP residence

Gate visited the Residence of the Vice President at the Naval Observatory. 

The occasion was a Rosh Ha Shannah reception. It was the 4th year that this event has taken place during this administration at the same venue.

The food order is on the 8x11 paper (click on the image to read it better), the cocktail napkins are from the VP kitchen.

The kitchen is staffed by Naval Enlisted Aids who are a unit of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC).

Gate resisted the temptation to eat the guests or the staff or the VP. 

Also, the VP's weekly menus were posted in the kitchen. Almost no starch or sugar. Also the VP likes Diet Coke and Coke Zero in 6 ounce cans.

Vampy Aiming to Exceed Benchmarks

The selection process for first line manager in the underworld is still going slowly, after all, it is a hellish bureaucracy. Thus Vampy decided to try to hone his core competencies in order to exceed his benchmarks.

Here he is reading some stories that, as Vampy tells it, provide both motivational and technical information that can be readily integrated into procedures that increase operational efficiency.

(much of the management jargon above comes from blog posts by Darth Vader, e.g., this one) 

Vampy didn't like the flash I used when I took this but otherwise considers this post to be part of his overall marketing plan.

Coke Bear and Soccer Bear discuss the upcoming FIFA event

Coca Cola is sponsoring the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) annual tournament for 2014 (commonly called the 'World Cup) which this year takes place in Brazil from mid June to mid July. 

Coke has been connected with the soccor tournament for many years. According to Coca Cola's website there has been some sort of sponsorship since 1974.  Coke has a contract with the FIFA to sponsor the world cup through 2022.

This year, Coke and FIFA has the song, "The World is Ours" as the theme of the tournament. Coke perhaps thinks the song means something more than just being about soccer but he did not let Soccer bear in on it. 

The song is seen at youtube here.

A Roadrunner to look up to

Las Cruses, New Mexico has a 20' tall road runner. It was recently refurbished and will be installed near a highway rest stop near I-10.

Apparently the road runner was constructed of recycled material but now has ruby slippers (like Dorothy in Wizard of Oz).

Article: 

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_25788405/beep-beep-giant-las-cruces-roadrunner-is-homewardhttp://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_25788405/beep-beep-giant-las-cruces-roadrunner-is-homeward

Dogs Detect Cancer

I saw an article that some researchers are working to use dogs as cancer detectors (less expensive than current procedures with comparable error rates).

I told UGA and Gretel about it and they went to the internet.

Sure enough, there is even a web site dedicated solely to this issue. The web site is called 

http://www.dogsdetectcancer.org/

although it credits other canines as having the ability to detect, other canines aren't so easily 'trained'.

Evidently the people doing the blog for that site expect a near term breakthrough in having dogs detect breast cancer via smelling the breath of subjects.

Meeting on Executive compensation

There was a labor clause in the Coke Union contract which required management to consult before implementing a change in executive compensation.

Thus Coke Bear invited Labor Bear to a briefing at which Coke noted the world wide Coke production situation stressing the many countries that Coke could be produced without using union labor. Naturally Labor bear wasn't too pleased. 

Somehow, Hard Rock Bear and Graduation bear got to be spectators. Hard Rock reminded everyone that he was 'very unique' and Grad was interested in what type of beverage would be served (and was disappointed when none was).

This was all occasioned by developments in the 2014 Executive compensation program for Coca Cola. That issue is briefly discussed here.

Paternity Negotiations

This is a story line from some time ago (see the post here, and here and here) There was a potential for some trouble among the animals. 

A medium size panda came to the house and said he was young panda's real father. Of course Mrs. Coke said he wasn't. The big Panda demanded a paternity test and also wanted rights to the young Panda's inheritance (mostly stock in the Coca Cola Company).

Surprisingly perhaps, young panda took the lead in negotiating some terms.

The terms were that big Panda lives in China (where young Panda has been for a few years now studying Panda environments and very successfully representing Coca Cola to the Chinese). Big Panda will also draw a consultant salary from Coca Cola with no actual work required and Coke Bear will privately acknowledge that big Panda is probably the father of young Panda without any public acknowledgement required. Mrs. Coke will continue to have sufficient 'me time' and that will include an ample travel allowance for making trips to visit young Panda in China.

Vampy has a great night

Vampy has a great night 

A lot of stranded, stopped and slow moving motorists were out last night during a big snowstorm (dubbed 'Snowchi' by the local weather group Capital Weather Gang and 'Pax' by the Weather Channel). We had about 10" of reasonably powdery snow but then it began to drizzle and the snow became wet and heavy.

Vampy had a lot to drink and also filled a few bottles with his favorite liquid.

Speaking of the liquid, here is what Harmony (who drinks human blood she gets from the living) says to Angel in episode 17 of season 2 of Angel (who drinks pig's blood he gets commercially),

Harmony: "I mean how do you stand everything? Being what you are, how can you deprive yourself of the taste? The sensation of rich, warm, human blood (Angel's eyes glaze over) flowing into your mouth - bathing your tongue - caressing your throat with its sweet, sticky..."

posted by Martin Weiss  # 12:23 PM

SheepVamp enjoys a snack

Previously Vampy placed some blood in our freezer.

SheepVamp didn't feel like getting his own victim so he decided to have some of Vampy's supply. It took some doing because the bottle was taller than SheepVamp but with the help of some office supplies, he was able to get some.

Of course the other problem was that he had to wait for the blood to thaw.

Vampy Marketing and Adding Inventory

 Our stuffed vampire, had a great evening. It was cold and icy (note first image) outside and plenty of stranded motorists were within a few miles (and no competition from our stuffed alligator, Gate, because of the weather).

After some considerable activity, Vampy put some bottles of blood in the freezer. The blood came from stranded motorists  and from companions and/or passengers  of stranded motorists. Notice he kept some air at the top of the bottle to allow for the expansion that happens when blood is frozen. Smart little undead guy.

Scientists Realize Gators Use Tools

The Washington Post had an article today about the evolving consensus that alligators (and yes, also crocs) use tools.

An investigation in Louisiana (in one of the 127 counties and parishes probably), showed that alligators who resided under trees seemed to use sticks to lure egrets (the gator in the image is eating one) to the water surface but alligators in open areas did not.

Anyway, the consensus still doesn't recognize that alligators can change commas to semi colons to effect legal policy.

The Wapo article is here.http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/crocodiles-and-their-ilk-may-be-smarter-than-they-look/2013/12/06/1084cf28-5d2c-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html

Labor Bear Objects to part of Hannukah

Labor Bear was with us as we were eating potato pancakes tonight.

We asked him to comment and he said he thought the 'Al Ha Nissim' paragraph was missing a line. The existing Al Ha Nissim thanks God for putting the wicked into the hands of the righteous, the idolaters into the hands of torah scholars, etc. but not the capitalists into the hands of workers.

But then I explained to Labor Bear (Ann calls him Trotsky) that the word 'Nissim' means miracles ("Al Ha' means "on the"). Labor then said that actually the unalterable forces of history will place the means of production into the hands of the workers and thus no miracles are needed.

Lobby's Expansive Business

I asked Lobby yesterday if he does lobbying in the underworld as well as in the Legislative and Executive branches of the USA.



His answer was, "Potato, Potaato".


He then elaborated saying, "Actually, the lobbying in the underworld is a more pleasant experience because they are more up front with their agenda."

Pumpkins On the Rise

Mr. Pumpkin was in a good mood today.

In the financial news was an article that sales of pumpkin flavored food was up 200%+ since 2008.

This doesn't require much actual pumpkin since, apparently, a little pumpkin spice goes a long way. However, the pumpkin harvest was good the past few years and also prices have held up. 

Article on pumpkin flavored food is here.

Report on pumpkin harvest is here.

Mr. Pumpkin Farmer out to admire the neighborhood

Mr.  Pumpkin Farmer gets very excited this time of the year.

The beverage stores are selling pumpkin latte (I had some butternut squash soup yesterday that had the pumpkin look to it).

Better yet, many people place pumpkins in their yards. 

In the image, Mr PF is admiring one of them. 

Vampy Out to Look at pre Halloween sights

 I went out with Vampy today to look at some of the decorations people had done to get ready for Halloween.

The umbrella was to protect Vampy from the Sun (because he is sort of a vampire, he might burn up)

The first image shows Vampy looking at some shrunken heads on posts.


The second image shows Vampy looking at a scary ghost.

Of course Vampy is not a big fan of Halloween. Quite to the contrary. Vampy feels that Halloween has become to commercialized and detracts from its true meaning. He says something like, "it should be about our father below".

Soft Drink Decision Day

 

For some time, we've struggled to keep both caffeine free Coke and regular Coke in the house at the same time; the former, for George, the latter for Ann.

It got to the point that Ann worried that we would be out of the w/caffeine product and began labeling it.

George agreed to give up the no caffeine brand so that will make the inventory work less difficult.

This is a cross over post with the weiss chronology blog.

 

Yes, that's the Coke Bear on the left admiring his products.