Women’s World Cup – It’s Awesome!!

In case you have been living under a rock for the past two weeks, the Women’s World Cup is going on. I’m so excited I wanted to dedicate a whole blog post to them. So enjoy all the great stuff I have to say about it!

Kraft Cheese and Macaroni Rocks!

I love macaroni-and-cheese. I know – I’m 30 and am supposed to stop liking that processed stuff. What can I say; adding in that yellow powder – that chemical engineered, yellow 5-infused crack – takes me back to much simpler days.

I saw that the Easy Mac microwave packs now come with a little bacon bits package that you can shake in and mix up. That’s awesome. For a long time I have thought how cool it would be if mac-n-cheese came with flavored powder. You know, like ketchup, BBQ, ranch, heck, even a spicy cheese. Admit it, we’ve all slopped up the sauce from our hot dog or chicken fingers that always accompany the guilty cheese pleasure. And we all have our favorites. I of course like the ketchup and BBQ sauce. But now that I actually write it, I kind of like the thought of a spicy cheese.

What flavors do you like with yours? I’ll send any responses on to Kraft. It’s not out of the question that they might listen. They’re doing more co-marketing (Spiderman, Batman, Shrek, Scooby-Doo, Spongebob shaped macaroni, although the Scooby shapes are probably the best consistency) so why wouldn’t they at least listen? Let me know.

Your (B)ass Looks Good in Those Jeans

Proving that there is a thin line between intelligence and irrelevancy, the BBC News posted an article on how men with a bass voice are more likely to have more kids.

The article goes on to claim that this is mainly because women could perceive men with lower voices to be better hunters and better providers, thus being more attracted to them. The findings being reported in the article are also based on observations of the Hadza tribe in Tanzania. (Do with that what you will.)

I have a deep voice and let me be the first to tell you that this does not attract any more women to you than if you had an average voice. Nor will anyone ever consider me a superior hunter or gatherer. What the study is failing to report is that you have to have a bass voice – and look like George Clooney for this to actually work.

Speaking of manly men, I can’t believe I missed this, but I talked to my friend John Booth today and told me about his mention in my favorite pop culture blog, USA Today’s Whitney Matheson Pop Candy. He was reporting on the opening of Chrissy Hynde’s new restaurant in Akron, Ohio, named VegiTerrannean. She linked to his Crain’s Cleveland Business page. I thought that was awesome and I am so proud and jealous of him!

Don’t forget, you can read his blog by clicking here or on his entry on the blog roll.

Jesus Needs ‘Props’ Too

I was unaware of this, but I just read that Kathy Griffin made this statement, in reference to how people traditionally ‘thank God or Jesus’ after winning an Emmy for her show ‘My Life on the D List’:

“Suck it Jesus. This award is my God now.”

Ok. I cringed a little when I read it. But I also cringe when people use the term so loosely at awards show. The real point of why I’m posting this is that the Christian right is using this as an excuse to beat the censorship / civil drum some more.

To no surprise, they were outraged. They went on news shows, wrote articles, made public outcries–one Christian theater company even took out two ads in USA Today (at $90,000 a pop – that could’ve fed a lot of homeless people) protesting her comments. I don’t really care what she said. I do care that people are using it to encourage censorship. We have a little too much of that these days.

If you want to support Kathy Griffin you can do so by clicking here and visiting suckitjesus.com, an on-line petition. Not sure what good this does, but if it makes you feel better….

Gd Wrtng? Frgt Abt It!

 

I have a degree in public relations. Fortunately I was lucky enough to go to a college – Kent State - that ran its PR program through the journalism school, teaching us that writing is the foundation of all effective communications. It’s because of this that Kent PR graduates are sometimes classified as marketing snobs, thinking our writing is better than others. I don’t deny this. And today, I was happy about it as I heard a report on the radio about SAT writing tests not carrying the weight they used to.

Now, I’m not a proponent of the SATs – I never took them – but I am a proponent of good writing, even though sometimes it doesn’t show here. But as I listened to the report, I can’t say I was surprised. Look at our society; we don’t write nearly as much as we used to. In fact, we spend time developing methods so we don’t have to write. Instead we IM, opting to communicate through code and emoticons (happy 25th by the way); we text, opting to make up our own versions of words; we e-mail and butcher the language beyond recognition; we embrace slang and actually add to it through devices such as the Urban dictionary; we have optimal cell service / plans that let us talk at ALL times (again, guilty) instead of writing anything. Maybe they should replace the written part of the SAT with a text interpretation – just a quick look at the text dictionary shows that most of us would fail.

People were worried about my generation because we used Word that automatically corrected our spelling; at least we were held to a standard of correct spelling. Now it seems that the more mispelled the word, the hipper it is. For those of you not in a profession that requires you to demonstrate intelligence through your ability to write, this won’t interest you. However, for those of you who do or are considering going into one – trust me, look at a school that teaches you do do it the right way. And look for ways to keep your writing sharp. Trust me, your cell phone and IM program might not care, but your clients will be watching (or reading).

Tuesday with Maculan’s Pinot & Toi

 Back in July I was lucky enough to be a part of my client’s quarterly sales meeting dinner. Lucky because I really like this client and the restaurant was a well kept secret in Canton that I had never heard of – Fedeli’s. They have a great menu with daily fresh seafood specials. My favorite dish is the pork chops – you cannot go wrong with this.

Anyway, during this dinner I experienced a wine that I just couldn’t forget, no matter how hard I tried – Maculan’s Pinot & Toi. It’s a three pinot grape blend that is incredible. You don’t know you’re even drinking it until you’re about 80 percent through the bottle. My client and I liked it so much we both took pictures on our phones (see above).

Why am I writing about this now in September? Because shame on me that’s how long it took me to get back and experience the wine again. And I’m happy to report that it wasn’t a one night stand; this wine was as good if not better than I remembered. I was with a different client this time and he and my boss agreed that this was indeed a ‘damn fine wine’.

So, do yourself a favor – well, a couple of favors: 1.) check out Fedeli’s, 2.) have some Pinot & Toi (c’mon – you can buy it here for $9!)

Look at my ‘Garden’

 I try to keep work out of the Burger, however, every now and then something so cool comes along that I just have to brag on it.

One of our clients is a partner in the Portraits of Hope: Garden in Transit program. Garden in Transit works with kids to paint flowers on adhesive-backed vinyl panels that will then be applied to New York City Yellow Taxi cabs. I am really proud to work with our client on this cool project – and even more proud of my co-worker Tanika who went to New York and wrapped some cabs herself as part of the launch, which featured a mayoral press conference and resulted in this New York Times article.

Look for the cabs if you hit New York. We wrapped 13,000 so it shouldn’t be hard to miss.

The Important Stuff

I have frequently referenced Whitney Matheson’s Pop Candy blog. Hopefully you’re reading it or having your RSS feeder pick it up. But, if not, that’s why I read it – so I can fill you in on the important stuff:

 Jennifer Hudson has been cast in the upcoming Sex in the City movie. (source: LA Times)

They are making a new Tron movie. (source: The Hollywood Reporter)

Coldplay is working on a new album. (source: Billboard)

Indiana Jones IV has been named: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (source: USA Today) 

Uh-oh! Looks like Uncle Jesse forgot to discuss the birds and the bees — Stephanie is pregnant! How rude. (source: TMZ)

American Gladiators is back. (source: NPR)

A celebrity Apprentice - oh geez. (source: BuddyTV)

Finally, Jack Nicholson’s new movie – The Bucket List – looks pretty good. See the trailer.

Hopefully this encourages you to read Whitney’s blog. There’s a lot more awesome stuff than I have time or room to list.

Fe, Man

I’m really pressed for time tonight, but fortunately the Iron Man trailer says it all. If you haven’t seen it, you are in for a treat. If you have seen it, well, you know you want to see it again.

If you are really geeked up you can follow the production on director Jon Favreau’s MySpace page.

Now that’s handy!

I just saw this infomercial. Can you believe it? Gloves that act as a peeler–the Handy Peel! For $10 you can peel vegetables with your hands – literally! These gloves are awesome. Sure I’m stuck eating a week’s worth of potatoes, but they’re so much fun.

Be sure to remove them before scratching your head or wiping sweat from your eyes. These gloves can turn even the most mild-mannered chef into a violent individual that just shreds the skin off of some poor, unsuspecting vegetable. Can you image if OJ had gotten his hands on these gloves? I’m going to use mine to strip the lead paint off my kid’s toys.