Re-dic-u-lous!

So, an article in the New York Times this morning explained a new phenomenon in car paint jobs: preserving them by having your car wrapped with advertisements.

Sure, $500 to $800 a month sounds great, but I can't believe anyone would want to be a moving advertisement for any company.

You don't just have your car wrapped with the advertisement--you also have to abide by a code of conduct, limit where you shop and answer questions from people who see you in your advertisement-mobile.

The article also mentioned that advertisers see car-wrapping as a way to get within the confines of a target audience's social circle--to gain acceptance from the group you want to buy your product because so-and-so has it plastered all over his or her car.

I think such a blatant show of "buyer-loyalty" (if you can call it that in this society of money-grubbers) would turn me off to wanting to talk to that person. But, again, maybe that's just because I hate commercial advertising campaigns, advertisers who use normal people to do the work for them, and people who are big enough to suckers to do the work for those advertisers.

It stinks to me of an answer to the problems advertisers are encountering with social media. Rather than enter the network online and allow millions of MySpace and Facebook users access to the company's soft underbelly--**gasp! potentially leaving nasty criticism or sarcasm on the site/profile/comments area**--just make it so they can't help but gawk at the Tide detergent advertisement-encrusted Hummer or PT Cruiser driving down the street.

Maybe I'm just very anti-advertising in general, and that I have learned to ignore all visual and aural forms of advertisement, but this sounds like one of the most idiotic things I've heard of Americans doing yet. Can they top it? I'm sure they can. I just can't believe it's come to this level of advertising idiocy/desperation already.

Foot Notes

Shoes are a wonderful thing for many women.

I love shoes. I own 60 pairs, approximately 2/3 of which possess a daringly high heel (I tend to be more apt to fall or trip in flat shoes, ironically). Everytime I go into a store that sells nice, leather shoes, I am doomed to forfeit a paycheck.

I just can't help myself.

My boyfriend is always going on about how 2/3 of my shoes are bad for me and he doesn't want me wearing "hurty" shoes.

As I said, I just can't help myself.

And I just keep giving him more reasons to shake his head each time I buy a new pair of shoes!

Wednesday, first week of classes at UA. I'm teaching a class at 11 a.m. So I get to school around 10 a.m. to find a good, close parking spot. I'm wearing new shoes, after all.

I drive, and drive, and drive...and drive. No spots. Nada, nichts.

I end up in a parking lot on the North side of Speedway, very far away from my classroom. And the nearest purple CatTran pickup.

Curses.

So, I hoof it over there, 15 minutes before class time.

I'm feeling good, these shoes don't hurt so bad.

By the time I get to the classroom, I'm schwitzing like crazy. Damn Arizona sun (+ dry heat + humidity), I hate you!

I go to the bathroom to blot the sweat from my face (gross, I know, but we have to do that here if we want to look presentable). Ouch. I realize my feet sort of hurt. Grrrr.

I get through class, just fine, and have to walk to the CatTran stop to get to work. That doesn't feel so good.

From work, back to the university for harp master class. Feet feeling worse.

And from there, I have to walk back to that crappy parking lot. And my feet are ready to fall off.

OK, so I can deal with blisters. I get them all the time. I got a blood blister the size of Godzilla over the summer from wandering around campus in platform sandals.

Oh, no. Can't escape this one alive. We're talking lacerations on the sides of my feet like I was whipped by a mouse.

For what?

I JUST WANTED TO LOOK NICE!

Why do shoes have to be so unbearable the first 15 times you wear them? I mean, it's great when you get to that point when you can't remember why you ever hesitated in wearing them. But having to build your feet up to that point? It takes a ton of sacrifice--sacrifice in getting exercise by walking to and from classes or work, sacrifice in not being able to wear other nice shoes for a week if you get blisters/lacerations/some other form of foot-bound torture.

I know what you're thinking, and it's not true. I'm not wearing shoes that are too small or too large. I take great pains to find the correct shoes for my foot size and arch. Maybe it's the leather, I don't know. I'm just cursed.

This is why they say "beauty is pain."

Eggcellent, my dear!

It seems every month brings some new development in how many Americans view the food they consume. I don't think Americans are going to realize en masse any time soon that corn syrup, preservatives, added salt and added sugar are making them the world's fattest people, but at least they can begin to look less like the faster-food-at-any-cost lazybones the rest of the world sees them as.

This time the topic is eggs. I'm not going to go on a rant a la PETA about the cruel conditions many commercial chickens are forced to endure. Those who really care will find out on their own.

A New York Times article this morning discussed more and more big food companies switching from using eggs produced in chicken farms that use cages, to those from "cageless" chicken farms. Now, that definitely does not mean they are using eggs from chickens who frolic about outside. These are probably still chickens who will never see the light of day except when someone opens the door to enter or leave the egg-laying area. What is so important about this move, is the acknowledgment by larger chains that many Americans want to be healthy, thus wanting healthier food.

OK, an egg is an egg is an egg. But was the chicken who popped that egg out particularly healthy? It may or may not matter. The article said chefs like Wolfgang Puck have decided cageless eggs are higher quality, although there isn't any concrete proof they taste better.

Many farm activists think cageless farms are just as bad, if not worse than, as farms that use cages, or batteries. According to farm owners cited in the article, "...keeping thousands of hens in tight quarters on the floor of a building can lead to hunger, disease and cannibalism. They also say that converting requires time, money and faith that the spike in demand is not just a fad." Well, it's up to the American public to demand more and let the farmers know it's not just a fad, isn't it? And isn't it up to the farmers to ensure the quarters aren't cramped, the chickens are being fed and they're healthy?

I can see how there would definitely be a downside to letting a thousand chickens mill around in a barn together. The photo on the first page of the article showed a pretty cramped situation.

If you ask me, it looks far better than rows upon rows of chickens shoved into laptop-sized cages. At least outside of the cages they can move around, socialize and flap their wings a bit, and not have to sit in their own waste.

I'm all for free range eggs, and many of my friends also are. I think it's interesting that, according to the article, many universities have jumped on board in choosing eggs from cageless suppliers. College students, much like a growing population of today's high school students, want to eat more nutritious, better foods. Many of them also want food from humanely-treated animals. If this is what our younger generations of consumers are asking for, then perhaps it's time for a change in the way the food industry is run.

True, it may be expensive to make the switch from battery cages to cageless, or to have someone oversee the chickens to make sure they're not pecking each other to death. But if the conditions are good and the birds are well-fed, then they shouldn't be killing each other anyway. And if there are more farms producing these eggs, that should drive the price down from its current height at about $0.60 more than cage-farm produced eggs, and cageless eggs will just become the norm.

It's a slight ripple of change in a big industry--something to be aware of, in the very least. Who knows what food-producers will turn to next.

That's-a pizza pie!

Getting free stuff is always nice. Imagine my pleasure when I got a letter in the mail one day shortly after moving into my new apartment and discovered it included a gift certificate for a free large pizza at Rocco's Little Chicago, a pizza joint here in Tucson.



After a few weeks of sitting on the free booty, we called a quorum of friends and went to try it out.

The service wasn't particularly fantastic. The waiter seemed flustered and forgot to return with a lemonade refill for someone at our table. One of the regulars at our table said you have to get "the blonde" waitress, who is apparently very attentive and helpful.

We ordered a couple of appetizers, some beers and sodas, and two large, deepdish cheese pizzas.

The beer list changes every week, but we tried a Bitburger, Summer Solstice and Heileman's Old Style. I always enjoy a Bitburger, and this one wasn't bad. The person who got the Summer Solstice was trying to learn how to appreciate beer, and she ended up switching with the more experienced beer drinker who got the Old Style. I thought they both tasted like water, but everyone's beer taste buds differ.

The appetizers weren't bad. I tried the mozarella sticks, which were delicious and hit the spot after an evening of hunger. They weren't sensational, although I can't say I'd had mozarella sticks for a long time before trying them. From what I heard around the table, the medium hot wings were very tasty but a bit too spicy and the ranch dressing was delicious, and the BBQ sticks were fantastic.

The pizzas were monstrous: two-and-a-half inches of Chicago-style (sauce on top of the cheese) bliss. Very yummy, and worth the long-ish wait. They were quite filling, and at a table of five guys and three girls, we still ended up having two big pieces left over.

We didn't have time to sample from the dessert menu, which included cheesecake and giant cookies. Next time.

As for price: the free-pizza coupon helped a lot. Our original bill came to $72 (that's without the 15% gratuity mandatory for parties of six or more), and after the free pizza came off, it was $50 even (including tax and tip). A bit pricey for some college students, but manageable in a large group.

All in all, the meal was delicious and worth trying again.