The Fire Ant Gazette - A Midland, Texas Blog

Random Thursday
Category: Random Thursday...
Posted Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 06:36 AM [GMT-6]

Wow, it's been a while since we've done one of these. Bear with me while I get my bearings.

Today is Trash Day. We've never had Trash Day before, so this is a big deal. Our new neighborhood doesn't have dumpsters, so we have to wheel our city-provided trash cans into the alley to await pick up. It makes me feel like a dutiful suburbanite. But, it's an egalitarian system. No one can monopolize the trash receptacle, as is the case with a dumpster. You can generate all the trash you want, but it won't get hauled off unless you can fit it in your personal container. Well, except for the neighbor across the alley, whom I've never met and who, noticing that we've got two containers (a temporary situation until we're completely unpacked), felt comfortable putting some of his overflow trash in one of them. I guess that's what neighbors are for.

My nomination for two of the worst commercials on TV nowadays goes to FreeCreditReport.com, whose ads feature a band whose lead singer is bemoaning his poor status in life, attributing it to the fact that he failed to check his credit score. That oversight led him to (a) have to work as a waiter in a seafood restaurant, and (b) drive a beat-up sub-compact which is so, like, not really him. I can imagine how that might make a real waiter feel, knowing that his or her livelihood is being held up as an example of failure. And if you're a waiter driving a sub-compact? Well, you're a loser with a capital L, according to those commercials.

On the flip side, one of the better ads belongs to Nutrisystem's weight-loss pitch to men featuring Dan Marino and Larry the Cable Guy. This is a stroke of marketing genius, getting a still-chunky rednek to proclaim how he lost the equivalent of four bowling balls of gut on the diet plan. I'm not convinced that anything will sell the average American man on a weight loss program, but this approach probably has the best chance of success.

By the way, sauce and gravy are very tough to deal with. Speaking of food, how would you like to make a living as a food photographer? It's not all peaches and cream (well, unless it is peaches and cream); as the lead-in quote implies, there are challenges. Fortunately, we have Michael Ray's Food Photography Blog to help us overcome them.

We've discovered that Abbye doesn't like reverse osmosis water. She's been drinking tap water for the past dozen years, but the new house came with an RO system so my wife started filling Abbye's kitchen bowl with that purified stuff. We noticed that she rarely drank in the kitchen, waiting until she went back to the bathroom where another bowl was filled with good old Midland tap water. There's a saying about teaching an old dog new tricks, but who knew it extended to hydration?

In closing, let me extend my sympathies in advance to Texas Rangers fans, for whom this summer appears likely to be long and brutal. After last night's embarrassing 19-6 loss to Detroit, the Rangers are one game away from wresting the worst record in MLB from Washington, and they've already got the worst home record in baseball. With the Mavs heading for a quick exit from the playoffs and the Cowboys reportedly signing another thug, these aren't good times for Metroplex sports fans.

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Comments

Don't forget that, according to a third commercial, the 'loser' also has to live in a basement apartment under his parents because his sweetheart had bad credit when they got married. I think they probably got negative feedback off that commercial, because I've only see it once or twice. :)

Posted by: Stephen at April 24, 2008 08:05 AM

Yeah, I remember that one. But, it's better than the others because it allows you to blame someone else for your problems, and that's OK. ;-)

Posted by: Eric at April 24, 2008 08:12 AM

I actually like those commercials... until they come out with one where the guy's a postal worker. That would just be wrong.

Posted by: Jim at April 24, 2008 08:48 AM

The dumpster is a "pet peeve" of mine. It seems everytime I go throw my usual 2 bags of trash every week I find mine full, almost to the top .... not with trash bags but, boxes, not broken down, wood pallets thrown in catty cornered as to take up most of the dumpster and somebody must be running a agri-business in their backyard cause the dumpster is always full of various limbs, grass, leaves etc. We have requested another dumpster multiple times since we now have more houses on the block but that has fallen on deaf ears. RANT OVER

I think that credit report commercial are MUCH better than the ones they replaced .... I'd rather have a catchy tune than some spokesman asking do I know what my number is .... over and over and over ....

Nutrisystem - Wii Fit, I can't wait!

Speaking of commercials - Churches "I know what good is"? ... wouldn't you want to shoot for better than just "good"?

One last thing - I'm looking forward to the Blogathon, my understanding that it is in July and I want to do it. I wonder if Jimmy is going to go up on his perch this year?

Posted by: Bleu at April 24, 2008 11:45 AM

Oh, is that your dumpster? Sorry. ;-)

According to the Blogathon website, it may not happen this year, due to the primary organizer not being able to commit the time. Unless someone else steps up, Jimmy will have to be grounded in '08.

Posted by: Eric at April 24, 2008 12:17 PM

Oh, and Jim, I think postal workers are too universally respected to ever get that sort of dismissive treatment. Don't you?

Posted by: Eric at April 24, 2008 01:26 PM

I'm with Jim - I like the commercials, too...until they come out with one for an oilfield worker...

Posted by: Janie at April 24, 2008 07:01 PM

Give me the thug and the Super Bowl trophy every single time.

We Metroplexians, ex- in my case, have learned the hard way to never expect diddly from the Rangers and they have always delivered in full. 7 losses in a row, and still counting.

What are the Mavericks? Oh, yeah -- Cuban's OCD toy.

I'll point out that you forgot to mention the 1999 Stanley Cup-winning Dallas Stars did indeed advance to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in many years. You can catch their games regularly on Versus. Try it, you'll like it. Hockey is awesome and thrilling and I've never ever been on ice skates.

Posted by: Scott at April 24, 2008 07:40 PM

I think Trash day is over rated but then I think I missed the trash man so it could be that I'm annoyed about that lol.

Posted by: Rachel at April 25, 2008 03:52 PM

19 - 6 embarrassing?

The Rangers scored 19 runs (combined) in the 6th and 8th innings in one game last year.

30 - 3 - That's embarrassing!

Posted by: soccer dad at April 28, 2008 12:24 PM

Soccer Dad, I respectfully disagree. 19-6 is embarrassing; 30-3 is abjectly humiliating!

I remember that game. I'm glad to see it didn't stick with you. ;-)

Posted by: Eric at April 28, 2008 01:12 PM

I guess I have a gift for understatement. :-(

It gets to a point where the score is 20 - 3 at the end of 8 and you figure. OK, the game is over.

You turn the game off for awhile and turn it back on again expecting to hear a recap. But there is none.

I suppose it can happen to anyone. Even Earl Weaver once sent out Larry Harlow and Elrod Hendricks to pitch in a game.

Posted by: soccer dad at April 28, 2008 02:48 PM

Which is worse, though...losing one game 30-3, or losing 30 games by an average score of 1-0? The Rangers routinely fall into that second category (only their pitching isn't really that good).

Posted by: Eric at April 28, 2008 03:18 PM

If you lose 1 - 0 thirty times you're at least doing something right!

Posted by: soccer dad at April 29, 2008 11:23 AM

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