Monday, September 28, 2009

Mystery Meat

Angus beef is the new chipotle, but what is it exactly? Most people don't seem to know. I got to thinking about this when a friend of mine insisted that it was simply old meat on the verge of going bad. Another friend was equally convinced that Angus beef is beef from a bull as opposed to a cow.

So I asked a McDonald's employee what it meant (realizing of course that McDonald's employees are known to be bastions of knowledge and wisdom), and she told me it referred to their Third Pounder Angus Burger.

"But what does the word 'Angus' mean?" I asked. I was told it's a leaner cut of meat. "It has less fat you mean?" Yes, it has less fat, she assured me. Now I can sue them when their "low fat" burgers contribute to my morbid obesity. In truth, a typical McDonald's Angus Burger has about 40 grams of fat, compared to about 29 grams for a Big Mac. Angus Beef itself is named after the breed of cattle it comes from and is not significantly different from any other beef. "Angus Burger" does have more of a ring to it though than "Hereford Burger" or "Zebu Burger" I think. It does have that going for it.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Slap Chop





Look how small the Slap Chop is. You would need a larger Slap Chop to cut your food into pieces the regular Slap Chop can handle.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Soothing Shell

Is anyone really soothed by the tinny, digitized loops that emanate from ambient sound devices like the Soothing Shell? Or just driven mad by them? The Shell offers typical settings like birds and rain, but also one called "heartbeat" for when you need to be reminded of your own mortality, and "white noise" which I suspect is the same sound used for most of the other settings.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Magic Money Ring

The internet is lousy with trinkets that bring good luck and / or good fortune like this ring that attracts money (to the wearer--they obviously attract money to the charlatans that sell them). Aside from its alleged powers it's a rather boring object, but it did inspire an interesting thought puzzle: what do you suppose would happen if everyone wore a magic money ring?
The answer of course is that nothing would happen.