Thursday, July 24, 2008

A Pirate's Life For Me

After 6 days of vacation, I have decided I need to live at the ocean. This probably means I need to change my vocation. Here are some careers that would help me in my dream to live at the sea.

1. Professional surfer:
Pros - counter culture lifestyle, new way of speaking, bettys.

Cons - don't know how to surf, danger of looking too old to be a surfer, lack of agility, shark attack.

2. Fisherman:
Pros - Free seafood, cool boat, plenty of opportunity to quote Jaws "we're going to need a bigger boat"

Cons - I don't like seafood, I get severely seasick, I could do without the smell.

3. Pirate:
Pros - Cool parrot, cool lingo (AAarrrgghh), cool boat, fun nicknames, progressive disability policies (peglegs and hooks, a plus)

Cons - seasickness again, I'm a lover, not a fighter, fear of scurvy.

So, based on this list, I don't Think I have found my dream oceanside career. Any suggestions?

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

An Outrage You Should Be Aware of....

Dunkin Donuts has been a signature staple of the New England Area for as long as I can remember. It's auspicious beginnings started in the Providence/Boston area in the 1940s. (Check out the Wikipedia entry for a detailed history)

As a staple of New England, they have always allied themselves with New England teams, and is what I thought, a proud supporter of the Red Sox Nation. Right now if you walk into any Dunk's in the MA area, a cutout (albeit a little creepy) of Jonathan Papelbon will greet you, taunting you to buy donuts with a frightening leer. Cool! Here is a brand synonimus with Boston/New England supporting our teams. (And yes, D&D is synonimous with Boston, as I challenge you to walk more than 3 blocks in dowtown Boston and NOT find a D&D francise. No other major metropolitan area has the saturation of Dunks than Boston). So I have always applauded the corporation for sponsoring our home teams even when they were not the World Champions they are today.

So, you can imagine my surprise, while visiting upstate New York last weekend, I stop in to the local Dunkin Donuts, to get a small taste of home, and I am affronted by the listless, dull stare of a Joba Chamberlain cutout! Basically, if you go into any Dunks in the New York area, they have the same marketing, just sub Papelbon with Joba. They are even in the same creepy pose, although Joba looks like he is kind of confused, or an errant butterfly caught his attention during the photo shoot. But I digress...

Now I am not naive enough to think that Dunks should bring the marketing of a rival team to the New York area. However, I didn't expect such a cavalier approach to catering to the whims of non-New Englanders! Where is the loyalty? To replace a Red Sox hero with a New York souless chump just to sell some donuts!

So I am feeling cheated. I am continually let down by my coffee and donut establishments. Just check out this archived post on Bess Eaton to know the depths of my pain! So I am calling out to you, dear readers, comment and let me know what you think. Is my outrage warranted? Or am I way off base?