Saturday, September 27, 2008

What in the world is this thing?

I missed it, but my daughter saw it going into half-time of the Arsenal - Hull City game today.

Oh yeah, and Hull came back to beat Arsenal 2-1. Meanwhile, after the game, Arsenal skipper Arsene Wenger was so upset that he referred to Hull as "West Brom".

Hull City's Daniel Cousin celebrates his go-ahead goal

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

An open letter to the Quaker Oats Company


Quaker Oats Company
P.O. Box 049003
Chicago, IL 60604-9003

Dear Quaker Oats Company:

My family and I have long been fans of your products, especially your cereal Cap’n Crunch’s Peanut Butter Crunch. Recently when I was in the grocery store, I realized that we had not purchased Peanut Butter Crunch lately, and I bought a box to bring home to my family as a treat. My daughter was especially excited to see the familiar orange box with the blue-uniformed Captain on the front.

However, when we sat down at the dining room table to eat a bowl of Peanut Butter Crunch, my daughter and I both noticed that the cereal seemed somehow different both in terms of texture and taste. After several servings each and several conversations, here are the major changes we noticed:
1. The individual pieces of cereal no longer are round. Instead, they have a cylindrical shape.
2. Previously each piece had a crispy outside with a relatively hollow interior. Now it seems that the texture is uniform throughout – in many ways it reminded us of Styrofoam, unfortunately.
3. The cereal seems less sweet and less peanut buttery. This was especially noticeable when we had eaten all the cereal and went to drink the milk (sometimes I think this is the best part…). The milk tasted only faintly of Peanut Butter Crunch, instead of strongly as in the past.

All of this information leads me to an inevitable question: are the changes we noticed the result of some sort of mistake in the manufacturing process, or are they the result of a deliberate change in ingredients or recipe? To be quite honest, if this box of cereal was the result of an accident, I am certainly willing to eat it again. However, if this experience was the result of a change away from the old recipe to a “new and improved” one, I would be very, very disappointed.

I have been a life-long fan of Peanut Butter Crunch, all the other Cap’n Crunch cereals, and Quaker Oats products in general. Perhaps I fell briefly out of touch and missed a publicity campaign about changing Peanut Butter Crunch. All I can say, however, is this– if this glorious cereal has been changed, for God’s sake change it back!

I look forward to hearing from you soon with a reply about this subject.

Sincerely,

Andrew Russell

P.S. I have enclosed the package top so that you will have the information about which box I ate and which facility it came from.

(This letter was mailed 9-23-08: We'll keep you posted if we hear anything back!)

Monday, September 22, 2008

Watford 2 - Reading 2


From last weekend's Football League Championship action. Reading was in the Premiership last year - first they were relegated, and now this. The Football League has ruled that there can not be a replay, despite the obvious mistake.

Update September 23, 2008: Ape Canyon News Service apologizes if the above video does not work. YouTube keeps taking it down, and, as fast as we can, we post it back up. Check back again later!

What I have been reading lately #7


I decided to read this book because a) I liked the title, b) I liked the cover photo, and c) I wanted to read another football fan memoir along the lines of Fever Pitch, My Favourite Year, or Believe in the Sign. The book turned out to be one-third cricket, one-third football, and one-third stories about growing up as a Jewish kid in Manchester in the fifties and sixties. I found the cricket sections to be pretty much incomprehensible (I am an American); the football parts were rather dull; the autobiographical sections were by far the best (and funniest) parts. I'd recommend this book, but if you have a better understanding of cricket than I do, you'll probably get more out of it. (As it was, I spent alot of time consulting my copy of Webster's Sports Dictionary - 1976 edition.)

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Elk sausages

Earlier this week, we grilled the elk sausages that my co-worker Don gave me last spring. They had jalapenos and cheese in them, and there were alot of them, probably too many for my family to safely eat. Here's a short video of them cooking:


We have a loss dog.

This email went out to the entire staff today:

Information is in the office if you find a tan & white boxer pit mix dog name is "Shady" the dog is friendly, we owners information in the office. Please report if seen and hold if possible. Hes a good boy and strong but sweet so speak gangly with him may jump up on you but just wants to kiss.
Update - later in the day:
The dog returned home on his own. So no more loss dog.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

COCKNEY MAFIA OUT!




Newcastle owner Mike Ashley announced today that he is putting the club up for sale. After a disastrous start to the season, including yesterday's loss at home to Hull City, Ashley bowed to fan demands that he give up the club. There has been no word about what will happen to recently fired manager Kevin Keegan. Ashley's decision to sell the team was unrelated to the recent well-publicized beer he drank during Newcastle's match against Arsenal.

Silvio and Adriano intro and comic #1

2 weeks ago, when I was watching Milan lose to Bologna, I was stricken by Silvio Berlusconi (Milan's owner) and Adriano Galliani's (his right hand man and club vice president) interesting facial expressions. This gave me the idea to make a short comic strip after each Milan game, featuring this two men. I will call it Silvio and Adriano.

These first comics are from Milan v. Bologna two weeks ago:




Tuesday, September 9, 2008

A training after work

Today at the John Stanford Center for Education Excellence, headquarters of the Seattle Public Schools, we learned about the following topics: high-leverage practices, summative and formative assessments, and the importance of pressing for justification. We also got to meet a man who was introduced as the mastermind behind assessment.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Baseball Playoff Update

It looks as if the New York Yankees, playing their last season in the once-remodelled, "old" Yankee Stadium, will not make the American League playoffs this year. They are 7.5 games behind the Red Sox in the wild card race, in third place behind the Minnesota Twins. The last time Major League Baseball held their playoffs without the Yankees taking part was in 1993. To put it another way, the last time Major League Baseball held their playoffs without the Yankees taking part actor Bill Bixby (of My Favorite Martian, The Incredible Hulk, and The Courtship of Eddie's Father) was still alive.

And, in case you are interested, here's the theme song to The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Jerry Reed RIP

Word has just reached Ape Canyon News Service about the passing of legendary American musician/actor Jerry Reed. While much of the coverage of his life has focused on his fine singing, guitar playing, and acting in the Smokey and the Bandit movies, we would just like to take the time to point out some of his other outstanding work, specifically the great job he did in the movie Survivors with Walter Matthau (and Robin Williams). We would also like to highlight his excellent cover of Bob Dylan's greatest song, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," and, for those cartoon fans, his work on Scooby Doo. RIP, Jerry.

Silvio Berlusconi; stopped the war in Georgia?



AC Milan's Georgian defender, Kahka Kaladze, has publically thanked his team's owner/Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Kaladze was thankful because of Berlusconi's efforts to end the recent fighting in Georgia. Kaladze says that Berlusconi, a good friend of Vladimir Putin, called the Russian leader on the phone and personally negotiated for hours to help end the hostilities. I'd like to imagine that Berlusconi took this extra-ordinary step so that his player wouldn't worry, but I doubt it...


To read the full article... go here.

Happy Birthday Pato!!!



This is what it said on the AC Milan website:

ALEXANDRE PATO: CONGRATULATIONS!
9/2/2008MILAN - Today Alexandre Pato turns 19. The Brazilian international, who scored 9 times for the Rossoneri last season, also known as Patinho, is already in the hearts of all Milan fans. Many best wishes for a Happy Birthday!

Bumbershoot 2008

















This year my family and I went to all three days of Bumbershoot, Seattle's music and arts festival. Here were some of the highlights of this year's event:



Best band I'd never heard of before: Blitzen Trapper

Best band I only knew a tiny, little bit about: the Shackletons

Coldest performance: Beck on Friday night at Memorial Stadium. We were freezing even with coats and a horse blanket.

Loudest band I actually enjoyed: Sons and Daughters

Loudest band I didn't really like: Battles

Band that seemed most excited to be there: the Shackletons

Best band I saw only because I'd come to see the band coming up next on the same stage: the Whigs

Worst comedian: Jessi Klein - both vulgar and unfunny.

Weirdest performance: Dan Deacon

Band I'd most like to live with in a large house with a yard and a dog: Blitzen Trapper

Best light show: Beck. It looked like Lite-Brite.

Musical group so unremarkable I forgot I had seen them by the next morning: Band of Horses

Food vendor I most missed: The place that sold calzones that hasn't been at Bumbershoot for several years.

Total amount paid for parking over the three days: $12

Most surprisingly enjoyable street performer: Dizzy Hips, the hula-hoop guy.


"Hockey ought to be sternly forbidden, as it is not only annoying but dangerous." Halifax Morning Sun, quoted in Michael McKinley's Hockey - A People's History