Month: October 2017

Tootsie Pops and Candy Corn are the Inland Northwest’s favorite candy? Gross.

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When it comes to candy, I tend to stay away from chocolate. I’m more of a fruity-flavored guy. Skittles, Starburst, and my favorite, Mike and Ike.

Side note: I recently had a friend who went to Canada and came back with genuine Jolly Joes. NOT grape Mike and Ikes, but JOLLY JOES! What happened, Mike and Ike? Bring back Jolly Joes to the U.S.A.

But if I want to fit in, I’m gonna have to move to North Dakota, Indiana or Florida because that’s where those are the most popular according to one website.

Halloween candy is a big industry. REALLY big. Billions of dollars will be spent this year on candy for trick-or-treating, but not all of it will be spent wisely, apparently.

For instance, according to candystore.com, Idaho’s favorite candy is candy corn. Gross! Although their second choice is Starburst, so a little redemption there.

If you’re from Idaho and you’re reading this saying, “Hey! Don’t look at me. I don’t even like candy corn.” You might be telling the truth, but the folks at candystore.com have been selling bulk candy for a decade and they say Idaho loves candy corn.

Don’t worry, Idaho. Montana isn’t much better. Their favorite candy is Dubble Bubble gum. You know, the stuff that loses its flavor after your first few chews? Fruit Stripe gum even lasts longer (just by a few seconds though).

And Washington? Well, we apparently upgraded a bit this year. In previous years we were fans of salt water taffy (Not on board with that, either), but this year we graduated to Tootsie Pops.

How did the website come to their conclusions? I’ll let them explain:

“We took 10 years of sales data (2007-2016), looking in particular at the months leading up to Halloween. We sell to all 50 states – plus Canada – so we broke down our sales by state. We also have relationships with major candy manufacturers and distributors – all of whom contributed and helped us verify that our data is on point.”

So you see? Totally accurate.

Oregon enjoys Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Good for them!

Check out what the rest of the country enjoys in this interactive map:

Source: CandyStore.com.

Feel free to tell me my taste is candy is horrible HERE.

“Fatberg! Right Ahead!” – A PSA that could save your sewer’s life.

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Here’s a little public service announcement this morning for residents and leaders of any city… in the world (remove sunglasses and insert dramatic music here)!

Today I was educated on something I never knew was an actual problem, but it’s something we can all work together on to solve and prevent.

What’s below our city?

Sewers. Exactly.

Now I used to think the only thing in our sewers was waste and adolescent turtles that know karate and only come out at night to fight bad guys and eat pizza, but I was apparently wrong.

Sewers run under out cities like arteries and veins, and much like arteries and veins, they can apparently get clogged up. Not clogged up like I clog up my toilet after nacho night, but clogged up like your heart gets clogged up and causes a fatal heart attack.

Such was the case in Baltimore, Maryland recently.

What are you looking at there? Welcome to Baltimore’s sewer. You’ll see… no ninja turtles… no singing Christmas poo.. just a giant congealed glob of fat.

This is known as a *Fatberg* and crews say it took about 50 to 60 years for this blockage of fat, grease and oil to form. As you can imagine, it’s not just fat, grease and oil. Mixed in with that you have decades of flushable wipes, diapers, cotton swabs, bandages, a bunch of plastic bags, rubber gloves, pens, batteries, pennies, coins, anything that you flush down your drain.

As our sewer systems age these fatbergs are becoming more and more common. They just had to remove one on London.

So just like your heart, if you have a blocked artery, you have to go in and perform a bypass. That’s what you see in the video above. It’s a robotic camera with a 2,000 pound per square inch pressure washer and an industrial vacuum goes in and clears the fatberg.

Now again, these fatbergs need to be caught sooner than later. I actually found (doctored) footage of them spotting the one in Baltimore.

Getting regular check ups can save your city’s life. The fatberg in Baltimore took $60,000 and a week to remove. Cheaper than an actual heart surgery, I imagine.

There are preventative measures you can take so your city’s arteries don’t get clogged up.

  1. don’t treat your toilet like a trash can. Whatever you flush down your drain can contribute to these clogs.
  2. Don’t feed your sewer line red meat.
  3. Make sure your sewer line is getting at least 30 minutes of cardio a day.

Together, we can save our city’s life.

Japan Gets It. Japan Gets Commercials. Japan Gets Me.

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I think it’s safe to say that 90% of the commercials on TV are horrible. That’s pretty much in line with 90% of what’s on TV (especially Coffee With Cory).

But when I’m watching commercials, I usually think, “Who in the world thought that was a good idea?”

We’re in an era of TV when commercials have to be entertaining to keep the viewer from ignoring, fast forwarding, or turning their attention to their phone.

Very few accomplish this. But when it’s good… it’s good.

I’ve always thought I could be that guy to come up with great commercials (I already have the informercials down), but I guarantee most companies would reject the crazy premises.

Then I began to notice commercials from across the ocean. The Pacific Ocean. Japan.

THERE’S a country that will most DEFINITELY get my ideas.

If you need any proof of that, I present to you the greatest commercial I’ve ever seen. Nissan Milk Seafood.

It’s the perfect milk seafood cup to enjoy when you’re sitting in a remote snow-blanketed forest, tripping on hallucinogenic mushrooms being methodically hunted by man-seasons aiming for your warm cup of milk seafood.

It’s… it’s brilliant.

UPDATE: After watching additional Nissan commercials, one of the creepy “Man-seasons” is actually a “Cheese Alien.”

 

I like your style, Japan. Call me if you need me.