Communication 101

The fight against obesity is alive and well. They're taking it to youngsters in school so that it can be controlled or prevented before it takes a firm grip on people. From an article in Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail:

Schools and chain restaurants should be required to post caloric information beside menu items to arm consumers with the knowledge needed to make healthier choices as part of the growing battle against obesity, the Ontario Medical Association proposed yesterday.

The doctors' group wants school pupils to be able to see the number of calories in a slice of pizza, a basket of French fries or a ham-and-cheese sandwich listed beside the price of the item.

It's critical to educate young people about their bodies' energy requirements and the nutritional content of food, particularly as childhood obesity reaches epidemic proportions in Canada and many other developed nations, the OMA said.

I'm afraid I don't think that would work. I just don't see kids paying much attention to a seemingly meaningless number on a food item. I have a better idea. Why not indicate the relative calories in products using visual aids? I suggest something like the following scheme posted on packaging, menus or walls (click to enlarge):




Now, that's language students can easily understand and appreciate!

You may be already be a winner!

Okay, there's nothing to win here, but read on and you might save a few hundred bucks...

I switched to a new car insurance company a few years ago after my then current company raised my rate to a level that seemed to me unreasonable. I switched to CAA since I was a member (I believe it is the same as AAA in the U.S.), and got an unbelievably lower rate. If memory serves, it was in the order of $450 per year less.

It's up for renewal next month and although the new rate isn't unreasonable, I was thinking of maybe checking out Grey Power whose ads (in this area) can be seen everywhere. It is for safe drivers over 50 and promises savings of $300 or more. I mentioned this to my daughter as we were driving one day and she told me about (How about that--a "Grey Power" commercial has just come on TV at this very moment.) a website that will do the insurance comparison shopping for you.

As soon as I got home, I went to the Kanetix website, entered my information in about two minutes and immediately got quotes from about seven insurance companies. There was only one quote that was lower than the one from CAA, and get this--they provided one from CAA, also, and it was right on to the dollar as the one on my renewal form. The sole lower quote was only about $13 less--not enough for me to go to the trouble of changing. Just so you know, the Grey Power quote was exactly $299 more than what my insurance company is asking.

There are two sister websites--one for Canada and one for the United States. You just enter your Zip/Postal code and off you go.

Click here if you are a resident of Canada.

Click here if you are a resident of the U.S.

I hope it saves you some money. Let us know how it goes.

Corner Gas

The Canadian comedy series, "Corner Gas", is airing it's final episode next Monday, April 13th after a very successful six-year run. How successful has it been? The producers managed to get Kiefer Sutherland, son of Canadian acting icon Donald Sutherland, and star of the drama series "24", to do a cameo on the show...



But the show had even bigger fish to fry. The current Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, took the opportunity to soften his "starchy" image...



We Canadians take our comedy very seriously. Yesterday, the Premier of Saskatchewan, where the show is filmed, proclaimed April 13th "Corner Gas Day". The show, set in the fictional town of Dog River, was shot in Regina and the village of Rouleau, 70 kilometres southwest of the city.

The producers had a "Pump out a poster" contest for a chance to win some neat stuff, including a signed script from the show, by designing a commemorative poster. I submitted an entry, but unfortunately, I guess they didn't like the subject matter. Here's my submission (click to enlarge):




And here's a few "show-related" items you may be interested in purchasing (to help my cause):

Item 1

Item 2

Item 3

Q & A's from around the web

If someone has their period on hotel sheets or there are other nasty things that may have been on those sheets, do they throw them out or do they bleach them like crazy?

They use industrial strength washers along with plenty of bleach and or detergent and wash in water as close to boiling as you can get followed by drying at super high temps. If there's something on them that still ain't dead by then, they shoot it.

Death week

Time was that when a person was shot during the commission of a crime, it was seen as a tragedy and a reflection of a failure of society that anyone would feel the need to stoop so low no matter what the reason. These days, shootings are so commonplace, that more often than not, we pay less attention to them than the other parts of the news. In effect, they have all but stopped being interesting to us.

Furthermore, we're seeing a huge increase in the number of shootings that stem not from the commission of a crime, but for the sole reason of emotional upset, be it rage, depression, mental illness or any number of other maladies that seem to be much more pervasive in society today than decades ago. And much of the time, they are mass killings.

THE WEEK OF SHOOTINGS

Sat 4 April: Gunman kills three policemen in Pittsburgh before being wounded and captured.

Fri 3 April: Gunman kills 13 people at an immigration centre in Binghamton, New York state, then apparently shoots himself.

Sun 29 March: Gunman kills seven elderly residents and a nurse at a nursing home in Carthage, North Carolina, then is shot and wounded himself.

Sun 29 March: Man kills five relatives and himself in Santa Clara, California.

Just this past week in the U.S., 30 people from four mass shootings are dead. What do you think? As a society, are we not doing enough to help people who may be susceptible to dangerous, emotional outbursts? The latest incident supposedly happened because the perpetrator had recently lost his job. Should we be expecting more such incidents as increasing numbers of people face tremendous financial hardships from the current economic downturn? Is this trend (mass shootings) a manifestation of the breakdown of the traditional family? Are too many people feeling isolated and like they have no one to go to for understanding and support? I would really like to hear from people. It gets tiring doing all the talking around here. I know you're out there--let me know what you think.