Random: July 2004 Archives

Feminism has "lethal effects" according to the Catholic Church.

I have a Costco membership which I hardly ever use, because I'd have to get on the freeway and wade through traffic to get there, either after work (rush hour!) or on a weekend (when I'd rather be doing something else and Costco is mobbed.) However, a friend of mine was wearing a cool jacket that she got there, and I'd like to pick one up too.

So I wondered: could I get there on BART? The answer is apparently "Yes" — but this site considers it a bad thing. Oh well. Call me naive, but I'm glad this is going to save me a car trip! I can just pop down there after work! On BART! So there!

What's wrong with this picture? Or rather, what's right? This was taken in front of a rug store on College Avenue near my house. Blasted Microsoft Word spell-checker must have failed again!

Well. Turns out that "antisemitic attack" in France was a hoax by a troubled woman. It was amusing to be on vacation there while Sharon was telling French Jews that they should haul ass over to Israel ASAP. The French government and the Jewish community were Not Amused.

"He doesn't have the right to decide for us," said Théo Klein, honorary president of the Representative Council of the Jewish Institutions of France, an umbrella group of major French Jewish organizations, on France-2 television on Sunday.

My current theory is that Sharon was employing reverse psychology. Maybe he doesn't want French people in Israel, and figured that the surest way to keep them from coming over was to tick them off. Mission accomplished!

Not a story you want to read right before you go to France for vacation if you're Jewish... Swastikas Drawn on Woman in Paris Attack.

Not a story you want to read a few months before the November elections if you're looking forward to voting your president out of office... Feds Plan for Disruption of Elections.

There's less than six months left of 2004, but it promises to be a looooooong year.

On a more frivolous note, on my drive home from Palo Alto, I heard an ad on the radio for a program on VH1 called "I love the 90s". I don't think I'm ready to love the 90s yet. I mean, I was promised a booming economy, a Democratic administration (big-D and small-d), and years more Sex and the City episodes and albums by Kirsty Maccoll. Now I'm stuck with Dubya, a shitty economy, reality shows like "The Simple Life", and more albums from Britney Spears. I need some time to get over the feelings of betrayal and disillusionment.

Another piece I finished in my PMC jewelry class tonight. It's a strange abstract design... or actually, not so abstract, because it was based on a picture I took on a flight from Oakland to Phoenix, as we flew over Southern California.

Large parts of California look something like the photo below. It doesn't look like a nice place to visit or live, but from above, it does indeed look like an abstract painting, doesn't it?

It might be a little hard to see the similarity, but, um, it's art. Or something.

While riding BART a few weeks ago, I noticed a Taster's Choice ad which said "Introducing the great new look of Taster's Choice!" My reaction was "Well, what about the taste? It's not called Looker's Choice!" I guess I wasn't alone in my skepticism, because Good Experience noticed it too.

The clincher came below the product photo, a call to action that I could only admire for its chutzpah:

    Pssst...tell a friend.

Now, don't get me wrong: I'm no stranger to telling friends about products and customer experiences that I like. (I wrote a free guide to recommend products at www.unclemark.org - download the guide, if you're interested.) But telling your friends that a coffee brand changed its graphic design is absurd.

That absurdity is matched only, I think, by the marketer who spent untold thousands of dollars spreading this message all over New York City, perhaps the country. "Pssst...tell a friend that I wasted my ad budget!" would perhaps be more accurate - and get more people to participate.

Think about it from the customer's perspective. Heck, you've drunk coffee before - think about it from *your* perspective. What's the essence of the product - the customer experience - that would determine whether you say "pssst" and tell a friend? I'd guess that the list of criteria would look something like this:

1. Price
2. Taste

I doubt if "label" or "packaging" would be a top concern. After all, if a coffee brand was expensive and tasted bad but had a great logo, would you buy it? Would you recommend it to your friends?

Me, I'm sticking with Peet's. Tell a friend.

Of course it's spam, but when I saw the subject line

"diddle dipole ciceronian mettle..."

for a second I thought it was a very peculiar nursery rhyme...

But of course, like I said, it's just spam.