Usually, it adds extra cheer to your day when the person who made your coffee beverage adds a decorative flourish to the cup, whether it’s traditional latte foam art or a pretty caramel drizzle. One Starbucks customer in Louisiana says that a barista served up two beverages adorned with a pentagram and the number 666 in caramel syrup. [More]
Food & Personal Care
8 Things Companies Have Said That Sounded Like April Fool’s Jokes But Sadly Weren’t
By 4.1.14
For the calendar-challenged, we’ll point out that today is April 1, meaning the Internet is full of phony products, fake stories, doctored photos… so, you know, it’s like most days on the Internet. Rather than serve up a “United Charges Upgrade Fee For Merely Being Jealous Of First-Class Passengers” headline, or a post about Comcast CEO Brian Roberts giving up his job to play Gretl Von Trapp in a regional theater production of The Sound of Music, we’re looking back at some stories that would have been appropriate for April Fool’s. [More]
Starbucks Listens To Customers, Brings Back Some Less-Fancy Baked Goods
By 4.1.14
Have the pastry offerings at your local Starbucks gotten too fancy-pantsy for you in recent years? Do you miss having a slice of lemon cake with your coffee? Apparently you’re not alone, as the coffee colossus has heeded the call of complaining customers and decided to bring back foods that had been deemed not sexy enough by the chain. [More]
Don’t Put Your Bread In The Fridge & Other Important Food Storage Tips
By 3.29.14 — Updated: 10.26.16
We’ve all got a somewhat innate sense of where to store the foods we eat in our modern cultures — you’re not going to stick your ice cream in the pantry and expect it to stay frozen, or freeze your fresh apples. But what about butter — countertop or refrigerator? Should I really use that “eggs” slot on the inside of my fridge door? Answer us, oh kitchen gods! [More]
Who Are We To Argue With Chemists Advocating Meat Marinated In Beer?
By 3.28.14 — Updated: 5.23.17
Listen, when science tells you to do something, I’m not going to argue. And so if chemists says marinating meat in beer before you cook it to help kill potentially scary carcinogens, well, we’re listening. Because let’s face it, there’s a high possibility that you’ll have beer hanging around that summer barbecue (if summer ever shows its sunny face, sigh). [More]
Court Shoots Down Big Meat’s Challenge To USDA’s Country-Of-Origin Labeling Rules
By 3.28.14
Last year, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture enacted new rules requiring meat producers to provide more specific details on the country or countries of origin for their products. Saying the new mandate placed too onerous a burden on them, suppliers sued to block the rule change, but that challenge has been shut down by a federal appeals court. [More]
Papa John’s Thinks Double Pepperoni Pizza Needs More Cured Meat
By 3.27.14
Papa John’s has found a way to make their double pepperoni pizza even more fabulous, or maybe just “less healthy.” They’re taking the double pepperoni pizza that they already sell and adding a layer of hickory-smoked bacon on top of the layers of regular pizza pepperoni and oversized deli pepperoni. [More]
Weight-Loss Drug Alli Recalled Over Tampering Concerns
By 3.27.14
Big pharma biggie GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has issued a recall all on all of its alli weight loss products in the U.S., including Puerto Rico, over concerns that packages may have been tampered with, resulting in some bottles containing something other than actual alli capsules. [More]
Taco Bell Breakfast Arrives Today With Endorsements From “Ronald McDonald”
By 3.27.14
Did you have Taco Bell for breakfast this morning? Well you could’ve, if a waffle taco is your kind of thing (no judgment) — the chain officially launched its breakfast menu nationwide today, just like the signs foretold. Or the announcement a few weeks ago that today would be the day 5,500 chains started offering breakfast. Same thing. [More]
Drug Companies Say They Won’t Sell Antibiotics For Non-Medical Use In Animals, But Are They Telling The Truth?
By 3.26.14
The FDA had “Look at effect of medically unnecessary antibiotics in farm animals and maybe do something about it” on its to-do list for three decades, and then last December it finally issued a pretty-please to the pharmaceuticals industry, asking drug companies to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics for non-therapeutic use on farm animals. Almost all of them have since agreed in writing to follow the FDA’s guidance, but are those promises worth the paper they’re written on? [More]
Demanding Texters Want To Know: Why Isn’t There A Hot Dog Emoji?
By 3.26.14
Because humans cannot possibly restrict themselves to traditional languages to express all the glories of life, emjois have become a popular form of communication on social media and in text messages. Much like the ancient Egyptians, many of us prefer to speak in hieroglyphs. But if you want to discuss your overwhelming love of hot dogs, or unicorns or bacon — there are no emojis for that. Why not? [More]
The Average Burger King Outlet Earns Half As Much As A McDonald’s. Why?
By 3.26.14
Competitors McDonald’s and Burger King sell similar food to similar customers, and both use a franchise business model. Yet, on average, a McDonald’s restaurant takes in about twice as much as the average Burger King restaurant. Why is that? Well, for starters, that creepy king mascot of theirs was driving women and children away. [More]
“Burger King Baby” Found In The Bathroom Reunites With Her Birth Mother 27 Years Later
By 3.26.14
Just a few weeks after the now 28-year-old woman known as the “Burger King Baby” put out a plea for help in finding the birth mother who left her in the restaurant’s bathroom 27 years ago, the two have been reunited. And for the former BKB, that meant finally learning the answers to the questions she’s had all her life. [More]
Parker Farms And Store Brand Cheese Snacks, Salsa, And Peanut Butter Recalled For Possible Listeria
By 3.25.14
Whenever we forget how massively inter-connected our food supply is, a huge national recall of prepared foods comes along and reminds us. This time, the reminder comes from Minnesota-based manufacturer Parkers Farm Acquisition, LLC, which packages salsa, cold pack cheeses, peanut butter, and pepper spreads under its own name and also store brands. Some of their products were contaminated with the very nasty foodborne pathogen, Listeria monocytogenes.
Taco Bell Wraps Chili Cheese Fries Up In A Tortilla, Calls It Delicious in Canada
By 3.24.14
Have you ever craved fries with chili and melted cheese, but been in such a hurry that you had no choice but to eat them while walking or driving? Yeah, us either. But Taco Bell’s Canadian outposts are prepared for exactly that situation with their Chili Cheese Fries Griller. [More]
Pizza With 90 Slices Of Jalapeno Pepperoni Has Advertisers Sweating Over Its Naughty Name
By 3.24.14
What’s in a name? you might be asking, if you were conveniently setting me up to answer that question with the following post. A whole lot, especially if you name your pizza something that translates to something very naughty in another language. [More]
Taco Bell Sends 1,000 People Burner Phones With Secret Breakfast Missions
By 3.21.14
Do you harbor a secret desire to live inside a spy movie, but with nothing important at stake? Do you also like waffles? If so, it’s too bad that you weren’t one of the 1,000 fast-food influencers on the list to receive Taco Bell’s “breakfast phone.” It rings with secret, breakfast-related missions for the bearers to fulfill. The phone is not shaped like a waffle taco. [More]
Bar That Does Laundry, Feeds You Grilled Cheese Knows You Better Than You Know Yourself
By 3.21.14
As any city dweller knows, if you don’t have laundry in your apartment (ha, who do you think you are, Donald Trump?) or even in the building, the laundromat is the sole, annoying option. It’s a hassle to drag your clothes down the street and then sit there blocking out Wheel of Fortune while waiting for your duds to sud. But it could be so, so much better. [More]
