Some deep-rooted part of my Wisconsin upbringing has me fascinated by this Canadian dish.
Poutine is a French-Canadian concoction comprised of french fries, gravy, and cheese curds.
Wow. That looks horribly fattening and VERY good. Did I mention that Cheese curds are the best food ever?
Even I have to admit this is pretty funny:
Bush’s unpopularity with many Canadians was underscored as thousands marched through the streets of the Canadian capital to protest the visit.
But the two leaders made light of the demonstrations, with Martin remarking jokingly that Bush seemed to draw larger crowds than he does.
“I don’t know if that’s good or bad,” Bush said. “It all depends on who shows up I guess.”
In another quip, Bush expressed appreciation for Canadians who greeted him on the route from the airport waving “with all five fingers.”
That’s far more clever than the guy we saw the past few months.
There is a really fascinating story coming in from the London papers this morning… the tale of a baby dragon preserved in a jar of formaldehyde for over a hundred years.
Found by an Oxfordshire man in his garage, the prevailing theory is that it is a clever fake, devised by German scientists in the late 19th century to out do rival English scientists. Speculation is that it is made of rubber or wax but it has reportedly not been opened, x-rayed, or examined yet so I suppose there is also the possibility that it is real.
Photos like this one show a very detailed, miniature dragon in a tall glass jar. Witnesses have described the intricate detail of claws, teeth, and even the umbilical cord.
Likely its a clever fake and we’ll never hear of it again, but I’ve always been one who believed that many of these types of legends have some basis in fact. Perhaps there is a lost fantastic reptile that gives the dragon its name.
While the world continues to fight unsolicited email, I find myself just as inundated with junk mail of the paper variety. Each week, our family receives dozens of pieces of unsolicited mail from advertising circulars to special mortgage offers.
However the worst offender has to be credit card offers. I literally get 2-4 of these every day — often in duplicate as we will receive the offer twice, addressed to both my wife and I. The most frequent name I see is CapitalOne. Not a week goes by that I do not receive at least one offer for the coveted CapitalOne Visa.
I have never had a CapitalOne account, never responded to one of their offers and yet they continue to arrive with religious regularity.
I have not found a way to remove myself from their lists, but I have been able to exact a small amount of revenge: the business reply envelope. For those unaware, the business reply envelope is a pre-addressed postage-paid envelope that allows you to reply to their offer on their dime. Every credit card offer comes with an application and business reply envelope.
The cost of these credit card offers has to be fairly high to the soliciting company. CapitalOne, for instance, regularly ships glossy stickers and other such expensive printed materials; some even ship plastic dummy credit cards! So what I try to do is make sure that when they send one to me it costs even more. The business reply mail postage is not paid by the soliciting company until you use it so be sure that you do. That likely doubles their cost right off the bat, but I’m sure it is a small price to pay for them if it contains my credit application.
But it doesn’t. My envelope contains junk mail. See I keep all of the junk mail I get and all of the business reply envelopes and then I match them together; CapitalOne gets some American Express offers, Sears Siding gets a coupon book for Lil’ Caesar’s Pizza, etc. And I use every bit of it including weekly newspapers, magazines, and the Wednesday grocery store advertisements. I fold, cram and stuff as much as physically possible into each envelope adding many times the weight (and cost) to each envelope and then drop them in the mail. Most of them cost upwards of $2.00 each in postage. Subtract that from your marketing budget, CapitalOne!
I know this probably doesn’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things but it is extremely rewarding knowing that I could be a tiny thorn in the side of a large corporation filling my mailbox with crap. And if thousands or millions of people would take the time to do this, you might see a change. The cost of the original mailing, the excessive postage on return, and perhaps even the time spent by some poor worker opening my letters and searching through the mess for my application has to add up. Maybe we could force them to find another way. Even if nothing changes maybe someone will get fed up and at least remove me from a few mailing lists.
That would be satisfaction enough.
