If today’s Ronald McDonald looked more like his original incarnation, the McDonald’s CEO might have a tougher time defending against those asking for the burger clown’s resignation. Have you seen the first Ronald? Played by Willard Scott, he’s a clown with a soda cup for a nose and a tray of food as a hat. He also has a food tray attached to his belt which will magically produce three hamburgers in a row on demand. You can see why this Ronald was streamlined into the version we know today. Because he looks like a serial killer. [More]
videos
Eugene Mirman Reads His Letter To Time Warner Cable
By 6.1.11
This is a video of comedian Eugene Mirman doing a dramatic reading of his complaint letter to Time Warner Cable that he paid for to have published as a full-page ad in a couple of local papers in Brooklyn. In the preamble, he helps to explain why, as several of you pointed out, the letter came off as rambling and discursive, as opposed to the more straight-shooting approach we usually advocate here. “I could write them an angry letter and someone would get it and think I was crazy,” he tells the audience. “I didn’t want that. I wanted them to know I was crazy.” [More]
Buncha Lead Found In Ceramic Cultural Crockery
By 5.27.11
While traveling you might be tempted to pick a neat piece of handmade tableware, like a bright red spoon in a Chinatown shop or a wonderfully molded Mexican jug. But besides memories, you might be bringing back home an unexpected stowaway: lead. [More]
Gizmo Eliminates Supermarket Checkout Lines, Lets Shoppers Scan Their Own Stuff
By 5.27.11
In the future, there might be no checkout clerks at the supermarket. WSJ reports on how a device at Stop & Shops and Giant supermarkets in the northeast is eliminating checkout lanes and increasing store sales. It’s a “ScanIt!” and it’s a handheld device that shoppers use to scan their own groceries as they put them in their shopping cart. When they want to pay, they just plug it into self checkout station at the end and settle the bill. [More]
Telemarketing Firm Busted For Pretending To Sound Disabled
By 5.26.11
A telemarketing firm that sold products put together by disabled persons has been busted. Police say they were making the people who worked the phone pretend to sound handicapped in order to get more money. “The telemarketers were acting pretty significantly disabled and using particular voice patterns and such that would make them sound disabled,” Riverside Police Det. Brian Money told KABC. The suspects were arrested for theft by false pretenses and false advertising. [More]
How To Politely Ride An Elevator
By 5.25.11
Does someone in your building or office consistently fail to follow proper elevator procedures? Do they not make the effort to hold the door even after they see you coming and make eye contact? Do they stink up the Zen space of the elevator with their cellphone chatter? [More]
Tips On Haggling From The Particular People At The Brooklyn Flea Market
By 5.24.11
The Brooklyn Flea Market at Fort Greene is full of curios and hidden treasures curated by a heterogeneous band of impassioned vendors. You can, and should, get money off the asking price but you’ll have to muster up the courage and convince the person working the table you’re worthy of a bargain. Ying Ying Li made a beautiful video interviewing both the sellers and buyers in this bazaar to glean some tips: [More]
For Variety, Eater Of 25,000 Big Macs "Sometimes Eats Them Upside Down"
By 5.18.11
Yesterday Don Gorske set a new world record by eating his 25,000th Big Mac in his lifetime. The news reports are full of charming anecdotes surrounding this man and his accomplishment. My favorite is the one where his brother recounts how he once asked Don, doesn’t he ever get tired of eating the same thing over and over again? Don reportedly replied, “Sometimes I eat them upside down.” Turning the burger over 180 degrees is enough to rearrange the order in which the flavors enter his mouth. Here are some other fun facts about this story: [More]
SNL Spoofs Smarmy Corn Syrup Ads
By 5.16.11
SNL this week parodied those ridiculous and condescending “truth about corn syrup” ads the industry put out last year. You know, the ones where a person tells another person, “oh, that’s corn syrup, you know what that’s about” and then is unable to back up the claim with any data. They then promptly crumble under the other person’s withering logic and stream of facts about how corn syrup is awesome. [More]
Drive-Thru Line For First In-N-Out In Texas Stretches Down Highway
By 5.13.11
YouTube user kylecorley captured on video the extremely long line at lunchtime for the drive-thru at the first In-N-Out burger in Texas on opening day this week. It goes way way way down the highway leading up to the joint. We’re sure that just like when Krispy Kreme places first opened out west, those lines are here to stay. [More]
Walmart Caught Shortchanging Customers With Gift Receipts
By 5.13.11
Next time you return an item to Walmart using a gift receipt, make sure to check your change. You could be getting less than you deserve and not even know it, reports CBS Sacramento. The problem is if the item goes on sale after it was bought. Poorly trained cashiers will refund the sale price instead of the original price. And because gift receipts are generally set up so that they don’t list the price the item was bought for, the person making the return isn’t even aware that they should be getting more back. [More]
Inside A "Big Food" Product Development Meeting
By 5.12.11
Where do they come up with all those great ideas to make 500 different snack foods out of the same four crappy ingredients and then try to trick us into thinking they’re healthy? This amusing xtranormal video takes you inside a hypothetical product development meeting at a “Big Food” company. It starts off slow but then delivers hit after hit as they skewer each of the different labeling and ingredient tactics food manufacturers use, like adding Vitamin D to Cheetos and saying they “support healthy bones.” [More]
The Hidden Fee That's Adding Thousands To Price Of Your New Car
By 5.12.11
You’re not supposed to know about it. It’s a secret fee that dealerships across the country are charging customers, that can add thousands to the cost of their car. KHOU got their hands on insider documents provided to them by a former dealership worker that shows how it works. [More]
Lady Weeps With Joy As First Texas In-N-Out Burger Opens
By 5.12.11
Yesterday the first In-N-Out Burger join in Texas opened its doors. The chain is unlike others in terms of the fervent loyalty it engenders in its fans, and they came by the thousands yesterday to Frisco, Texas to partake in its offerings. Some of them wore paper hats. Some of them ran out of gas. And then there’s this woman, a Cali transplant, who openly cried on camera as she bit into the burger and memories of her childhood flooded back. That grilled patty was her madeleine. [More]
BofA Loses Check That Would Have Saved House From Foreclosure
By 5.11.11
CBS 13 has the story of a man who fell behind on his mortgage payments who was told by Bank of America that unless he sent them $4,175 he would lose his house that he had spent years putting work into. So he managed to put together the money and sent it in as a cashier’s check. Then the bank lost his check. [More]
Man Lives In Awesome 258 Sq Ft Transforming Apartment
By 5.11.11
There’s those who bought too much house, and then there’s this guy, who lives in a fabulous 258 square foot apartment. Even in this tiny space he manages to cram in a full kitchen, refrigerator, bed, dining room table, balcony, and more. It’s all about hidden compartments and things that fold in when you need them, get stashed away when they don’t, and furniture that converts into multiple purposes. The primary inspiration was boat design, which manage to pack a lot of amenities into small space. And, of course, the Japanese! [More]
Watching Bubble Gum Get Made Is Kinda Gross And Kinda Cool
By 5.6.11
I love watching videos of the large-scale manufacturing of food products. They often make me never want to eat it again. This is one for bubble gum. It shows how they take a rubber and plastic base, add flavoring and color and puddles of glucose, and then mix it together into a giant pink doughy substance. That gets extruded into continuous bubble gum strands, cooled down, and then chopped and wrapped, all by machines. It’s entrancing to watch. Seriously, just put that part where they appear to be churning together the love child of Pepto-Bismol and the Stay-Puft guy on a loop and I would achieve moksha. [More]
Tire Shop Spits On Investigative TV Crew
By 5.5.11
When CBS Sacramento’s Call Kurtis went to investigate consumer complaints that a tire shop was advertising super low prices and then jacking up the price with the final bill, the store didn’t do a very good job of living down their reputation. Especially when they spit on the camera crew twice and gave them the middle finger. I also enjoyed the part where Kurtis asks who owns the store and the guy behind the counter says, “your mom.” [More]
